A review by crispycritter
Next to You by Hannah Bonam-Young

2.0

I was initially going to rate this book much higher, but after marinating on this and reading some other reviews, I’m going to have to rate this much lower. 

The good:

• Started off a bit slow, picked up quite a bit and I really got invested in Matt and Lane’s relationship. 
• Writing was overall enjoyable

The bad:

• Introducing infertility in the epilogue with no warning. Why? You’re just going to claw back some of your characters’ happiness for no reason? 
• Matt eventually becomes a soulless vessel for Lane’s wish fulfillment. I don’t understand the appeal of reading MMCs who are doormats. 
• Lane’s mental health rep was . . . Inconsistent. Weird. Unsatisfying. Some other reviewers brought up her agoraphobia disappearing halfway through and I literally forgot it was even a thing. So yeah. 
• Other reviewers brought this up, it’s something I side eyed a bit but didn’t think too critically about at first - Matt’s mom the mystical Samoan woman. She tells Lane about her alternative view on grief. Lane has a mental breakthrough. She talks to her dad who is speaking via a storm? Bam. Unaddressed grief solved. 
• Lane’s hesitancy for not wanting to be in a romantic relationship- big side eye. The devaluing of other relationships. The hypocrisy. 
• Dating your grief counselor: no. It wasn’t cool in HIMYM either.