Hannah Bonam-YoungRezensionen

Super sweet with exceptionally likable main characters.

Win was born to a single mother who was so desperate to find a man that she sublimated her life and her needs to those of the many men who floated through their lives. Win was also born with a small and minimally functional hand. She functions just fine with her limb difference, but it has caused pain in her life, mostly due to others' reactions to it. Her mother's issues with men have actually left more scars. After Win ends a long and terrible relationship where she allowed a man to play her she decides she prefers to be on her own. She sinks into an easy if unfulfilling professional life and finds her respite in her relationship with her wonderful best friends who are married to one another, and were high school sweethearts. She also has lots of interests and her life is mostly good enough. When those best friends throw a Halloween party she meets a very alluring man (I won't provide details, it is a fun meetcute) who also has limb difference. His is from a recent leg amputation following a cancer diagnosis. Things happen which throw them together and we ride alongside.

Both main characters are nerdy, smart and kind, so it is fun to hang with them and root for them. There is some steam here, but despite it being detailed (especially with respect to cunnilingus) I did not find it terribly hot but YMMV. Like the characters' actions in the rest of the book, their sex scenes seemed polite, thoughtful, and pleasant. I mean, they are Canadian, maybe that is a thing? (JK! That is joke for my Canadian friends.)

This one is recommended for anyone looking for the warm fuzzies, like a Hallmark movie but with lots of oral.

2.5

You know the fact that this only had one POV should have stopped me.

There’s something about reading a story (romance story in this case) and getting to see how the 2 characters view the world and more importantly see each other. So when it’s not dual POV and i think it’s first person, nope.

Also idk the way the characters “fall in love” is so meh. I love the forced proximity trope, but this wasn’t well executed. I wasn’t sold on these 2 together

Cute, short, sweet

Fake dating
Best friends to lovers
Queer

Nice story about found families with a romance tucked into it. A bit zero to sixty for the latter but still good.

Misses by a long shot

Struggled to finish this but couldn’t. DNFed at 81%. Second half better than first but the FMC was just impossible to like. In the beginning, the MCs’ behaviours are inconsistent- never know if the weak or strong version will show up and, sometimes, the switch is so quick, it gives you whiplash. However, once they enter their conflict (her decade-old hangup) midway through the book, it’s easier to be more invested in the story. Ultimately though, the FMC is basically selfish and the MMC is rather…bland. Try as the author might to make us imagine Jason Momoa, it just doesn’t track. Everything feels token and superficial, which, when trying to be “diverse”, just becomes insulting. Did not enjoy.

A single POV romance about unexpected parenthood. Chloe is embarking on life after university when she gets a phone call to say that her birth mother has had a premature baby, and Chloe is a candidate to become a next-of-kin carer.

Chloe has a decent-sized apartment but her burgeoning freelance career as a graphic designer isn’t enough to convince the authorities she’s sufficiently financially secure. She is encouraged to join forces with another would-be carer, Warren, who has a steady job but hasn’t been able to find a suitable housing close to his teenage brother’s school for the Deaf.

There’s an inevitable romance and while I liked seeing the two of them support each other, I was much more interested in the experiences of becoming a carer for a younger sibling -- and of having a baby staying in the neonatal intensive care unit. My youngest sibling was born early and spent months in NICU. Unlike Chloe, I was a child myself at that time but old enough that I remember vividly (some of) what that was like for my family. It’s an experience I haven’t seen portrayed in fiction before.

The combination of the title and the cover caught my eye. Win has a less-developed right hand and Bo is an amputee. Their story begins with a one-night stand resulting in pregnancy, which is not the sort of romance I tend to go for.

But it was clearly an important story to tell about these characters, because of the way their limb difference has shaped Win and Bo’s respective fears about parenthood and about whether they each should, or even could, conceive a child.

But this… this is what bittersweet means.
All ten fingers and toes.
Every sense of relief is sharply followed by shame. Every wave of shame is met with confusion. Confusion gives way to guilt. I immediately want to reassure myself that I wouldn’t have loved the baby less if they’d had my hand. That I don’t love myself any less than I would have if I had two fully formed hands. Even if I already know those things to be true, I still feel the need to repeat it, over and over. But my initial reaction was relief.
[...] “Well…” Bo sighs out, his tone deceptively serious, in juxtaposition with the twitch of his lips. “We’ll still love them, of course. Even if they’re, you know”—he grimaces—“four-limbed.”
I huff out a long breath, grateful for his deflection. “Disappointed?” I ask, slowly lowering my shirt and sitting up on the bed.
Bo’s lips shift into a wistful smile as he picks up my right hand from the mattress and squeezes it once. “No… but I’m not relieved either.”

Out on a Limb was one of my highly anticipated reads for July of 2023. I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. Both the main characters have disabilities. Win has a hand that was extra small from birth and Bo has had a leg amputated due to cancer. I felt the depiction of their disabilities was realistic and I appreciated that the author was writing Win's character from her own experience of having an underdeveloped hand. Bo was my definition of a swoony love interest. He was almost too perfect. I found the use of they/them when referring to the unborn child to be a little confusing. It made me want to think they were having twins rather than a single baby. I enjoyed the writing style and how the story unfolded and will definitely check out what this author does next.

Next to You by Hannah Bonam-Young

Matt and Lane are friends - just friends - at least that's what they tell themselves for quite some time. Then they become more. Matt is all in, but Lane has some reservations. While this was very cute in spots and Matt was pretty swoony most of the time I have to say that I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as I did the previous book Next of Kin. I thought that one was more original and I liked the couple more. Other than re-doing the bus, this one was a lot like other friends to lovers romances I've read. 3 stars

A surprisingly deep and authentic look at what makes a family, the bond between siblings and the friendships one can make when they open themselves up to the possibilities.

Next of Kin is about Chloe Walden, a twenty four year old recent graduate who discovers her biological mother has just given birth to a little girl - and that she'll be going straight into foster care unless Chloe would be willing to apply for guardianship. When she passes everything but the income assessment, she's recommended for a new Child Protective Services initiative, TeamUp; where she'll be matched with another family who have passed the income assessment but failed to find suitable housing. Twenty five year old mechanic, Warren Davies and his deaf fifteen year old brother, Luke are that family.

I really liked Chloe. She was an anxious mess and she absolutely resonated with me. I felt for her as she struggled to not only look after her little sister at a time where she was just coming into her own self, but also as she did it with a limited support system in place. And her worries about being too much and/or not enough for people were very relatable.

Warren was a harder nut to crack. I didn't much like him to start with but he thawed as the book progressed and the more I got to witness his personality shining through, the more I liked him. It was interesting seeing Warren struggle through a lot of the same issues as Chloe but with slightly different outcomes.

Although I won't deny that Chloe and Warren are both written rather young and immature at times, more like teenagers than adults, it didn't particularly bother me - although I imagine it might be a deal breaker for some.

This was actually a lot more serious than I expected though. I thought it was going to be a sweet fluffy romance with a contemporary storyline and it had parts of that but it was also so much more. The romance was adorable and swoonworthy but it wasn't the bulk or even the most important part of the story. The friendship between Warren and Chloe, the struggles they faced trying to meet the requirements for keeping custody of their siblings, the trauma they'd experienced and witnessed and were trying to break the cycle of, the found family between the four of them and also the new and old friendships developing between Em, Lane, Matt, Ram and Belle - it was heartbreaking and real but hopeful.

I liked Luke and the inclusion of both Chloe and Warren knowing ASL, but I would've liked to learn more about him and the struggles he faces being deaf. But it wasn't really about that. Or about Em and Lane - who I also would've liked to know more about. Especially in regards to Em being transgender? It was kind of just mentioned and then ignored. I really liked the way Em and Lane stepped up to be Chloe's support system and it was nice to see Chloe realise that she had good friends who accepted her as is.

But although my review is mostly positive - and the fact is I did really like it and enjoy reading it - I do have a few issues. The breadth of issues. I feel like this book took on so many topics and issues that it failed to cover all of them sufficiently. The storylines about Em and Lane. Luke and his deafness. ASL. Warren's anger management. Drug abuse. Chloe's adoptive parents and her insecurities about being herself. All of those got lost in between the other myriad of issues. That said, the topics the book does cover are covered well. The shared trauma, the struggles of Child Protective Services assessments, trusting one another, becoming found family, all of those were done well and made the book all the stronger for it.

Overall a worthwhile read for contemporary romance readers who like a bit of angst in their characters backgrounds. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. It's probably more of a 4 star read, but it gets an extra half star for pure enjoyment.

This wasn't bad. A bit cheesy in some parts. Not quite 4 star, but close. A cute story of these unlikely roommates becoming a family.