Title: Beside You Heart
Author: Mary Whitney
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"It's an emotional story that will take the reader back to those feelings that made the late teen years such a powerful time."
Late one night Nicki Johnson plays with emotional fire and Googles her high school love, only to find his name splashed across the British gossip columns. Back in his native England, Adam Kincaid is successful and dating a woman from an aristocratic family like his own. With a career in politics, Nicki’s no slouch, but she knows Adam is living a world away from her life.
Yet there was a time he was no farther than the next locker. Nicki will never forget their year together in high school—the year of her sister’s death, the year her mother checked out. Adam helped Nicki through suffocating grief, and she led him through a coming of age. Was it just high school, or was it something more?
MY REVIEW
This book starts out in present day, a conversation with a friend leads Nikki to Google an ex boyfriend. He is literally on the other side of the globe, but for her he's the one that got away. This all sends her on a journey through her memories to that time they spent together way back when they were only 17. I would say that 98% of the book is spent in 1992, which happens to be the year I graduated from high school. This is another big reason that I enjoyed the book! It was very relate able for me, not necessarily in content, but just the time and the feelings of being in love the first time and all that.
Nikki and Adam face problems from the beginning, the least of which is the fact that he's not exactly single. He's British and his family is in the country because of his fathers work. His assignment is only for a year and then they will move back home. So, the whole time there is this huge thing hanging over them and it causes problems throughout the entire relationship. It's clear how they feel about each other though.
Adam helps her in ways that no one else seems to be able to. Nikki has been through a lot in the past year and she has lost someone very close to her and she feels like she is somehow damaged, like she isn't whole. Adam is the one who helps her feel whole again. There were many times reading this story that I had to fight the urge to cry. There are some very touching moments for sure as they find their way to each other.
It's clear from the beginning when she is Googling Adam that they aren't together in the present. The whole story is told from Nikki's point of view until we get to the Epilogue and then we get a little snippet in Adam's point of view and then we are left with a cliffhanger ending....hence the rush to buy the next book! So, be prepared to go buy the next one immediately.
I put this in the New Adult category because of the age of the main characters. The next book will clearly be an Adult Romance, but they are teenagers for the bulk of this book. There are sexual situations in this book and because they are somewhat detailed (not explicitly done for the most part) I think that puts it in the NA category. There is a lot of build up and sexual tension in the book, but the scenes are tastefully done and I think stay true to the fact they they are being told from a teenagers point of view. There is a fair amount of cursing in the book as well.
Overall, I loved the book and as soon as NaNoWriMo is over I will be reading the next one!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Even before she graduated from law school, Mary Whitney knew she wasn’t cut out to be a real lawyer. Drawn to politics, she’s spent her career as an organizer, lobbyist, and nonprofit executive. Nothing piques her interest more than a good political scandal or romance, and when she stumbled upon writing, she put the two together. A born Midwesterner, naturalized Texan, and transient resident of Washington, D.C., Mary now lives in Northern California with her two daughters and real lawyer husband.
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EXCERPT
“No British literature. Isn’t this supposed to be an English class?” Adam asked.
“Uh.” My ancestors would’ve been proud of the jolt of American patriotism that hit me. “There was a revolution two hundred years ago. We write our own books now.”
He leaned back in his seat with a smile. “I think I heard about that.”
“We still share the same language.”
“Sometimes I’m not too sure.”
“I bet not.” I could imagine what he thought of a Texas accent.
He picked up the list of books again. “What about Catcher in the Rye?”
“I read it a long time ago when I was, like, eleven.” I laughed a little as I remembered how I’d first come to read it.
“Is there something funny about that?”
“Yeah. My father had suggested I read it then. The book is the classic coming-of-age story. Clearly, he wasn’t really thinking about whether or not it was appropriate for an eleven-year-old.”
“Really? Why?”
“Well, for one thing, the main character is a guy who swears a lot.”
“I suppose I swear a lot.” He cracked a sly smile. “At least compared to you Yankees.”
“Yankees? You’re in the South.” I laughed.
“What else is inappropriate about the book? Now I’m interested. It can’t only be a few swear words.”
“No, it’s not just that. It’s…” I hesitated for a moment as I realized I was about to bring up the topic of sex with Adam Kincaid. What the hell, I thought. I should be matter-of-fact about it. He had a girlfriend and would never want anything with me. I could hide I thought he was hot, so I shrugged. “Holden, the main character…he’s a little sexually frustrated.”
His eyes twinkled, and it felt as if my words hung in the air. I wanted to squirm in my seat. ‘Sexually frustrated’—like me checking out Adam Kincaid.
His proper upbringing showed again as he sidestepped the issue, yet he smirked. “That sounds like an adventurous book to be on an American high school syllabus.”
“Like I said—it’s considered an American classic.” I laughed. “I guess some things are sacred.”
“But of course.” The gleam appeared in his eye again, and he turned toward me in his seat. “Teenage sexual frustration is sort of a rite of passage, if you will.”
There went the good-English-boy manners out the window. His tone, the look in his eye, his body language—was he flirting with or taunting me? I decided the former was impossible, and if the latter, I wasn’t going to back down. With two parents who were lawyers, debate was a family routine.
“A rite of passage? More like a biological fact, isn’t it?” I asked, casually clicking my pen. I raised a brow. “Especially for guys.”
“You’re right about that,” he said with a grin.
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