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A review by andreasromancebooks
Next to You by Hannah Bonam-Young
5.0
Thank you so much to Hannah Bonam-Young and her team for the ARC. The book comes out Nov 29th, 2022!
5⭐️ My manamea. My best friend.
I’ve cried so much reading this book the last couple of days. It happened with Next of Kin, and I knew it would probably happen with Next to You, as well. Reading this story was worth every single tear - and, trust me, there were many. There are certain books, especially those that deal with mental illness from the FMC, that really get to me. They speak to me in ways other books can’t. They feel almost therapeutic - they rip your heart open, only to help seal the wound you didn’t know was already there. This book felt like that to me.
Lane is a successful adult on the outside, who’s barely holding it together on the inside. She’s agoraphobic, and has severe anxiety and PTSD after her father’s tragic passing when she was seventeen. She decides, rather impulsively, to buy an old school bus for her twenty-seventh birthday and use her savings to remodel it, turning it into her new home. This project only pulls her closer to Matt, one of her best friends, who’s gentle nature and physique attracts her more than it would be appropriate for just a friend. But she knows better than to think anything more than friendship could ever work between them. She knows better than to let herself trust like that… Or at least that’s what she tells herself.
Hannah Bonam-Young doesn’t miss. Both her books are heartfelt, painful and inspiring in equal measures. I have to say, though, I enjoyed Next to You even more than I did Next of Kin, and that’s saying something. I believe this book deals with grief perfectly: it’s beautifully dull pain in the best days, agonizingly unfair on the worst, and there’s every emotion in between. Everyone always says that there’s no right way to grieve, and yet it always feels like you’re doing it wrong; like it’s too much and not enough, and there’s too many whys and hows with no answer in sight. I loved reading about Lane’s journey with it, as painful as it was.
Matt is the perfect MMC. There’s no other way to describe him. And yes, I am aware that a statement like that is extremely subjective, but it’s my review and I am telling you, if I ever were to meet a man like him irl, I’d be getting hitched right there and then. This man loves books, carves wooden figurines to help you combat fears and is willing to wait and weather the uncertain storm that is life with a mental illness with you. Oh, and he’s also a giant sweet, cuddly bear who owns his own company and is completely self-sufficient. His family is from Samoan descent, and their love for each other feels like a warm hug in the coldest of days. So, like I said, perfect. I’d never heard of the term manamea before, and now I’m positive I'm going to have dreams about it.
Like always, my favourite books need to have some spice and some diversity in them, and apart from tackling hard-hitting topics, this book has a bisexual FMC and a non-white MMC. The spice, although mild compared to other books, is really the perfect amount for this story. Honestly, win-win!
So basically, I really can't not love this book. This goes straight into my top 10 books of 2022!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
5⭐️ My manamea. My best friend.
I’ve cried so much reading this book the last couple of days. It happened with Next of Kin, and I knew it would probably happen with Next to You, as well. Reading this story was worth every single tear - and, trust me, there were many. There are certain books, especially those that deal with mental illness from the FMC, that really get to me. They speak to me in ways other books can’t. They feel almost therapeutic - they rip your heart open, only to help seal the wound you didn’t know was already there. This book felt like that to me.
Lane is a successful adult on the outside, who’s barely holding it together on the inside. She’s agoraphobic, and has severe anxiety and PTSD after her father’s tragic passing when she was seventeen. She decides, rather impulsively, to buy an old school bus for her twenty-seventh birthday and use her savings to remodel it, turning it into her new home. This project only pulls her closer to Matt, one of her best friends, who’s gentle nature and physique attracts her more than it would be appropriate for just a friend. But she knows better than to think anything more than friendship could ever work between them. She knows better than to let herself trust like that… Or at least that’s what she tells herself.
Hannah Bonam-Young doesn’t miss. Both her books are heartfelt, painful and inspiring in equal measures. I have to say, though, I enjoyed Next to You even more than I did Next of Kin, and that’s saying something. I believe this book deals with grief perfectly: it’s beautifully dull pain in the best days, agonizingly unfair on the worst, and there’s every emotion in between. Everyone always says that there’s no right way to grieve, and yet it always feels like you’re doing it wrong; like it’s too much and not enough, and there’s too many whys and hows with no answer in sight. I loved reading about Lane’s journey with it, as painful as it was.
Matt is the perfect MMC. There’s no other way to describe him. And yes, I am aware that a statement like that is extremely subjective, but it’s my review and I am telling you, if I ever were to meet a man like him irl, I’d be getting hitched right there and then. This man loves books, carves wooden figurines to help you combat fears and is willing to wait and weather the uncertain storm that is life with a mental illness with you. Oh, and he’s also a giant sweet, cuddly bear who owns his own company and is completely self-sufficient. His family is from Samoan descent, and their love for each other feels like a warm hug in the coldest of days. So, like I said, perfect. I’d never heard of the term manamea before, and now I’m positive I'm going to have dreams about it.
Like always, my favourite books need to have some spice and some diversity in them, and apart from tackling hard-hitting topics, this book has a bisexual FMC and a non-white MMC. The spice, although mild compared to other books, is really the perfect amount for this story. Honestly, win-win!
So basically, I really can't not love this book. This goes straight into my top 10 books of 2022!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5