Next to You

Next to You (2022) Hannah Bonam-Young (Next #2)

Lane doesn’t really know what to do with herself. She’s not unhappy, but she’s not happy either. So after her birthday she decides to purchase and renovate a bus–a far cry from her twin who got respectably engaged to a respectable guy.

A guy who seems to be an asshole.

She also made sure to tell me multiple times I had to RSVP sooner rather than later if I’d like to bring a date. She made sure to specify that the date should be a man because Phillip’s parents are “quite conservative.” So, that was fun.

But Lane has issues she doesn’t want to dump on other people, so she convinces herself she’s happy with having good friends.

And really, she doesn’t have issues issues.

“Just ask, Matt.”

“How did your dad die?” he asks bluntly, as if he needed to force it out.

“Yeah…uh, a car accident.”

His hands tense around the wheel.

“I wondered,” he says. “When you mentioned texting and driving and being a nervous passenger.”

My anxiety spiked and stayed high for two whole days after getting home. I stayed in bed for nearly eighteen hours before I felt brave enough to venture out to my bathroom.

Strangely, I didn’t have issues with the anxiety in this story. Possibly because Lane knew and admitted she had anxiety, and was trying as best she could to deal with it, and it never felt like it was spiraling out of control, but was just a part of her life she had to deal with.

Affirmations, medication, daily walks, and basic hygiene. Nothing that should be work, but for me, it is.

We get the characters from the previous book, but nothing that would make you feel as if you were missing something, but rather glimpses of how those characters are doing–and how they support Lane.

“There’s this quote that I like about grief…about how it’s really just all the love you want to give to the person you lost, building up until it hurts.”

I like Lane, and I like Matt–and I especially like Matt’s outlook on the world.

“Maybe if I slot myself into a lifestyle or a way of life, then it’ll just become what I’m supposed to do.”

“Why do you think there is something you’re supposed to do?”

“Isn’t there?” I laugh pathetically. “Sometimes it feels like everyone else has a script, and I’m doing improv.”

“My parents always taught us that life is what you do between what you have to do.”

As with the previous book there is all kinds of rep in this story, which I absolutely love. I have other books by Hannah Bonam-Young, I just need to read them, but I feel like this is an author who might end up being an auto-buy for me.

Characters: Lane/Elaine Rothsford, Mattheus Tilo-Jones, Chloe, Emily, Warren Davies, Willow Walden, Liz/Elizabeth Rothsford, Ram, Amos, Luke Davies, Tabitha Tilo-Jones, Mrs. Fetu Tilo-Jones, Mr. Simon Jones, Aaron Tilo-Jones, Ruth Tilo-Jones, Ian Tilo-Jones, Emma Tilo-Jones, Joanna Tilo-Jones, Ms. Katherine Rothsford, Phillip, Oliver, Jean-Paul, Dr. Cope

Cover by Leni Kauffman

Publisher: Dell

Rating: 8.5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Shadow Rites, Audio Book » »
• « « Cheddar Luck Next Time