Falling In Fall: Beside Your Heart Tour + Giveaway

Monday, June 17, 2013

Beside Your Heart Tour + Giveaway

Beside Your Heart

Author: Mary Whitney

Genre: New Adult Romance

Publish Date: June 17, 2013

Event organized by: Literati Literature Lovers

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?

I rated Beside Your Heart three and a half leaves. It was a classic New Adult romance book, and I loved it. I’ve been finding myself drifting away from high school romance lately, but this book had the emotional maturity that made up for the high school setting. Nicki’s past broke my heart. She was in a terrible car accident with her younger sister, Lauren, and their mom when they were hit by a drunk driver. Nicki walked away but with enough emotional and physical scars to last a lifetime. Her mother barely survived, but the real damage occurred when Nicki heard her sister die while they were trapped in the car. Having two younger brothers myself, I could not even begin to imagine what I would after experiencing their loss. And for that reason alone, Nicki proves to be a strong heroine.

As she goes back to school and tries to fall into a seemingly normal pattern of life, Nicki has to deal with her reluctant crush on Adam. Adam made me swoon. First of all, he’s British, which is hot in itself. Especially the lingo he uses; I mean, wow. Second, he gets Nicki like no one else does; he inadvertently causes her to talk about Lauren and has her almost acting normal. Their relationship is complicated. Enter Adam’s cheerleader girlfriend and a cousin who takes an immediate liking to Nicki on a quick visit. There are other things that put them on a rocky road to finally being together and staying together; one being Nicki’s obvious emotional issues and some others that I can’t spoil.

I genuinely liked this book. It was hard to put down. I was expecting an easy read, but the book hit me hard emotionally. Nicki is mature for her age, so despite all her baggage, I didn’t get as frustrated with her as I normally do with female protagonists that try to play off their attraction to a guy. Adam is also mature for his age, except for how he doesn’t break up with his girlfriend fast enough. Then again, he is a guy… The love scenes are sweet and also intense, because they are New Adult sex scenes. The only part that confused me was the ending. The author could leave it as it is, slightly cliffhanger-y with many loose ends, or she could write a sequel explaining that last scene and how it connects to the prologue of the book. Either way, this book is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It is a story of first love, true love, and unrequited love.

Even before she graduated from law school, Mary 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.