Review: Beside Your Heart – Mary Whitney

“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?

Series:
Release Date: June 17, 2013
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Source: Literari Literature Lovers
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

I was emotionally invested in this book almost from the very beginning.  The whole premise of somehow reconnecting with your high school sweetheart is one that I always enjoy.  But this one took a twist.  Instead of spending the majority of the book focusing forward, we went back to where it all began when Nicki Johnson meets the very British Adam Kinkaid.

Even though these character were seventeen/eighteen, there was something very mature about them.  Nicki had been dealt a serious blow with the death of her sister in a car accident.  But that accident also left her body and spirit broken.  She became a girl who hide in the bathroom to avoid the stares and kept to herself.  But with Adam, it was like to she found a balm to her soul.  He made her laugh, he comforted her and he helped her start living again.

Adam was drawn to Nicki almost the moment her saw her.  She pulled out emotions in Adam that he didn’t display with anyone else.  She got his British humor, loved his political cartoons and made the alpha male in him come out and want to protect his mate.

Neither of these characters were perfect.  They pushed each other away with stupid actions or words, but none of that could keep them away from each other.

What kept this book from being a five cocktail review was the ending.  Nicki and Adam entered into this relationship knowing their was an expiration date.  Adam was returning to England at the end of the school year and Nicki was positive she would never leave Texas.  The entire time I’m reading I’m wondering how they are going to overcome this huge obstacle and get together.  But just as I finish the last chapter and hit the epilogue I realize I’m not going to get the resolution I crave with Nicki and Adam.  The story wasn’t about an adult woman and man finding their way back to each other (although there is the epilogue) but about a broken girl finding love and learning that even if you love for a little bit, it’s ok.  While that’s fine and dandy, I needed a resolution to their story (and the epilogue soooo wasn’t it).

Take that away, this is a wonderful story.  The characters are funny as well as heartbreaking.  It’s beautifully written and a book that captivated me.