Two Doors Down - Mary Hargreaves - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Mary Hargreaves

GENRE: Contemporary Drama.

PUBLICATION DATE: August 28, 2024

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: Don’t believe the blurb at all. This is NOT a romcom but a contemporary drama with realistic flawed characters. Works pretty well as a drama, but if you are looking for a light romance storyline (or any kind of romance plot), this isn’t for you.

Plot Preview:

Eve is a career-oriented thirty-three-year old who doesn’t allow anyone and anything to come in the way of her professional success. She does have some wonderful friends, but they are not high on her priority list. Her dating life is restricted to the matches sent to her by an online dating app, and she has no complaints as her physical needs are being met. Or so she thinks.

Adam is an overly laidback tutor having a close-knit bond with his brother (who has cerebral palsy) and his four friends. He is also in a loving long-term relationship. Or so he thinks.

When a mysterious cat starts making an appearance in Eve’s and Adam’s houses, each thinks that the cat belongs to the other, thanks to the houses being two doors away.

The plot focusses on the professional and personal turmoil of the two characters’ lives, and the strange cat who is the common factor between them.

The story comes to us in the first-person perspectives of Eve and Adam.

Whoever wrote the blurb for this novel did it a huge disservice. I wonder if they even read the book, or if they just wrote it based on what would sell the book. Here’s the thing: if a reader goes into a book expecting one kind of story and the book turns out to be something else altogether, they leave bad ratings/reviews! It is always better to stick to the right label, even if it isn’t the hottest-selling tag in the market.

Let’s evaluate the claims in the blurb, which declares this book to be an “opposites-attract, forced proximity, heartwarming rom-com of finding love when you least expect it.”

📌 ‘Opposites-attract’: Eve and Adam are opposites, agreed. However, they don’t even meet for half the book, and when they do, there’s no instant or delayed attraction.

📌 ‘Forced Proximity’: Only one scene in the final quarter. Single bed trope but not tackled the typical way.

📌 ‘Heartwarming’: There are some sweet scenes. But almost all of these are connected to Adam’s scenes with his autistic student, his interactions with his brother and his friends, a couple of Eve’s chats with her friends, and of course, the scenes with the cat.

📌 ‘Rom-com’: This is neither a rom nor a com. A major chunk of the book has no romance. Almost all of the book has no comedy, unless you count the fun quotient in the heartwarming scenes.

📌 The worst of it is that the blurb reveals almost 80% of the cat-connected plot, and drops everything not related to the cat. However, a major part of the book isn’t even about the cat, but about Adam’s and Eve’s individual journeys of self-awareness.

📌 The title also tells us that Adam and Eve are two doors away from each other, much before this revelation even comes up in the book.

Basically, zero marks to the blurb.

Luckily for the book, I enjoy contemporary drama far better than romances or romcoms. (I had grabbed this more for the cat than for the potential romance.) I also enjoy unlikeable characters when written realistically. So my reading experience wasn’t a complete disaster.

The main characters aren’t particularly likeable, but they are definitely true to life. Adam is a pushover kind of guy who is happy to take a backseat and let the woman in his life take all the decisions. His character needs a spine, which he grows by the end of the book. Eve is the kind of woman who doesn’t think twice about anything except when it concerns her own success. I don’t think I have ever read a “romcom” FMC being so self-centred, unethical. judgemental, and insensitive. (I guess she’s more like a thriller FMC!) Her character needs a moral compass and a heart, which she gets by the end of the book. The novel thus works better as a contemporary drama with several learning opportunities for its main leads.

Using ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ as the names for the main pair could go either way. While it is somewhat cheesy, it is also funny. I liked the combination. It also led to one interesting scene in the book, so no complaints. However, I do have a minor complaint about there being a Kirsty and a Katie in important roles. Please, dear authors! Use distinct-sounding names!

The secondary characters fare better, even though they have relatively limited appearances. Be it Adam’s brother, his friends, Eve’s friends and colleagues, or the strange cat, each has a role to play in the story, and they fulfil their obligation well, even though some of them can be annoying at times. Hardly any of the secondary cast feels frivolous. The only exception to this is “Chloe”, who is there only in name for most of the book. After all the suspense surrounding her, the actual reveal falls quite flat.

The first half has minor arcs connected to Adam’s brother (very interesting, sweet and sensitive), the office politics at Eve’s workplace (mostly realistic barring a couple of OTT scenes), and the personal issues in Adam’s love life (decent, not enthralling.) Though the blurb makes the cat out to be a prominent part of the plot, it makes only sporadic appearances until about the 30% mark. The actual “Let’s look for the cat’s owner’ segment doesn’t begin until much into the second half.

Surprisingly, *almost* all the women in the book are toxic and *almost* all the men are good-natured and helpful. This is a first for me! I've usually seen it happen the other way around. (I was half-convinced that the book was written by an aggrieved man coming out of a messy breakup! I finally understand how men might feel while reading domestic thrillers.) I don’t mind women being portrayed in negative roles (We aren’t all angels!), but if we consider this genre, it is more women than men who read dramatic or romantic plots. So it would be better to have a more balanced portrayal regardless of gender.

More importantly, if the book is targeted towards romance readers, the main couple should make us wish for them to come together. It is very tough to root for Eve considering her appalling behaviour for a major chunk of the plot. There is zilch chemistry between Adam and Eve, and the sudden turnaround of their feelings is more weird than wow. There’s also too much reliance on the miscommunication trope in the final quarter. One scene in particular annoyed me as it just didn’t make sense for a competitive go-getter such as Eve to stay silent after such a major incident. The story thus doesn’t offer anything to romance lovers.

Most of the plot kept my rating firmly at 3.75 stars. Though the final quarter, with the OTT office scenes, the abrupt romantic turnaround, and the miscommunication mishaps, reduced my satisfaction a little, I was still fairly happy with the ending.

All in all, I did enjoy this book a lot, but that is mainly because I like reading contemporary drama. The dramatic moments in the book come fairly regularly, and this, combined with the complex characters and the multiple subplots that were woven together without feeling cluttered, ensured that I was invested enough till the end. The fast pace also helped.

Recommended to readers of contemporary drama who don’t mind unlikeable characters and enjoy a complex story of self-growth and of course, a cat. This is absolutely not a romance or romcom, so if that’s what you assumed from the pastel cover and the blurb, pick something else.

My thanks to Joffe Books for a complimentary copy of “Two Doors Down”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.