Brilliant! The present catches up with the past in a story of love, lust, defiance and dysfunctional family, set at the time of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. It's a love story, rippling with heat and stifled by the unease of conflict, and it's about discovery, home and away. Narrated by two young characters living two separate timelines, it has the sweep of a great saga, but the intimacy of hometown drama. It's so incredibly clever and meticulously plotted. Love it!

My Teeth in Your Heart is a captivating multi-generational novel that explores family secrets, love, and war through dual narratives.

In the present day, teenager Billy is reeling from her grandmother’s recent death and her mother’s struggles with addiction. Her escape comes through her grandmother's diary, which reveals the life of Anna, a young woman who was taken to Cyprus by her emotionally distant parents. As Anna faces her romantic dilemmas and the encroaching threat of war, her story intertwines with Billy’s.

The novel deftly alternates between Billy’s contemporary life and Anna’s historical experiences, creating a rich, dual-layered narrative that highlights the impact of personal and political turmoil across generations.

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Although this isn’t the type of book I usually read I got really drawn in to all the characters as well as the storyline. Mainly set in Cyprus it’s about a young girl who finds a diary belonging to her grandma and the two stories are interwoven,
An interesting contemporary read.

My Teeth in Your Heart is a compelling YA romance set against the backdrop of the 1974 invasion of Cyprus and its aftermath. We alternate between two stories: 17-year-old Anna in 1974 who lives in Famagusta with her British expat family, and 17-year-old Billy (female) in 2024 who lives in Cambridge. Both have complicated relationships with their parents and are seeking new experiences: Anna plans to study at Cambridge but ends up falling in love when she starts working in a bookshop in Varosha; Billy, meanwhile, has fallen out with her closest friend Cass by sleeping with Cass’s crush, Harry. After the death of her grandmother and the discovery of a secret diary, Billy joins her family on a trip to Cyprus to scatter her ashes and finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.

Anna’s chapters are written in third person, with a strong sense of place; Billy’s are written in first-person, and her voice is smart, sassy, sardonic and ultra-contemporary, filled with references to Heartstopper, vegan Magnums and CAMHS waiting lists. This contrast works well, allowing us to connect with Billy and feel just slightly more detached from Anna, reflecting the decades separating us from her. Initially, the novel reads rather like a rom-com, with a Mamma Mia-style ‘who’s daddy?’ mystery at its heart (as her previous novel, A Calamity of Mannerings, demonstrated, Joanna Nadin is a skilled comic writer). However, darker themes soon start to intrude, including rape and the growing threat of a war whose legacy still remains today.

Unlike Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees which is set during the same conflict (and also alternates between past and present), Nadin mainly covers this war from the Greek rather than Turkish Cypriot perspective, and spends much more time on the build-up to the war than the war itself. This reflects her aim in writing the book, as explained in the afterword: ‘I have attempted not to take sides; there is fault in all camps. Instead, I have tried to write a sort of love letter: to what was once a vibrant suburb and is (at the time of writing) a beautiful, if derelict, shell’. I believe she has succeeded in this aim, taking an even-handed rather than partisan approach to this conflict and focusing more on its devastating effects.

This is definitely a book for mature KS4 readers upwards – as well as a lot of swearing, there is a fair amount of sexual content, along with references to alcohol and drugs. The more distressing scenes are handled sensitively, and older teenagers will find this an enjoyable, moving and illuminating read, exploring a major 20th-century conflict of which many may have been previously unaware.

Another Netgalley ARC from UCLan Publishing, and another surprising, smart YA romance with compelling characters and plenty of emotional depth. I was hooked from the first page, and the story only became more gripping as the author built up the stories of Billy and Anna, two women in the same family, finding first love fifty years apart.

But there’s so much more to the story. The book opens in 1975 with Anna, 17 and accidentally pregnant. She had been aiming for good A-level results and a place at Cambridge, but instead she’s dealing with her mother’s disapproval – and there’s no way she can go to university now.

In 2024, Anna’s granddaughter Billy is studying for her A-levels, but spending time when she should be in class hooking up with a boy she can’t tell anyone about, because he has a girlfriend, and because her best friend has a crush on him.

Their stories are told in parallel, with alternating chapters. We learn that, until the summer of 1974, Anna had lived in Cyprus – a good, academic girl in the ex-pat community. She spent her time studying, swimming with her fashionable friend Nancy, and at her secret job in a bookshop. Her parents wouldn’t approve of her working – and certainly not alongside the Cypriot boy she’s falling in love with. With the threat of invasion growing, Anna is torn between her safe ex-pat life, and the lives of the local families who have nowhere to escape to. We follow Anna through the summer of 1974 as she discovers her independence and makes choices that will transform her life, and the lives of the people around her.

Meanwhile, Billy’s discovery of her grandmother’s diary gives her an insight into her grandparents’ lives, and a family history she hadn’t suspected. Anna had lost contact with her Cypriot friends after the Turkish invasion, and a 2024 trip to Cyprus gives Billy and her mother the chance to piece together the events of 1974, and to discover their own shared history.

This is a truly wonderful story. The characters are beautifully drawn and absolutely real as they live through terrifying events and face impossible choices in 1974, and follow in those footsteps in 2024. The dual narration is brilliantly handled, and provides a framework for the author to reveal the full story slowly, with maximum impact for the characters and the reader.

I adored this book. Emotional, relatable, intriguing and unpredictable – absolutely a five-star read.

A phenomenal example of a dual timeline/split point of views story set at the start of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This is emotive, powerful and enthralling and just shows why UCLAN Publishing should be getting so much more love than they do.

The best example of a dual narrative / split timeline novel I’ve ever read. This is superb! I found the historical love story very moving, and the backdrop of war raised the stakes and taught me about a period of history I knew little about. Flicking between the voices was so expertly done, dripfeeding clues and heightening the tension beautifully. Highly recommended!

Set as the Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins, this dual narrative story, is a wonderful, fully immersive YA novel.
Filled with heart, defiance and family struggles.

I thought this book was stunning. I loved both storyline and seeing how they tied up. I loved the settings and loved the characters. Just fab UKYA.

Wow this book was amazing.
I wrote my review on Instagram so I will leave it short here .
I really loved this book.
The back and fourth timelines was cool .

I was annoyed at the mc mum. She was horrible.

I would definitely recommend this book.

A fab YA read spanning three generations of women across Cambridge in the UK and Varosha in Cyprus between 1974 and 2024. It took me a while to acclimatise to the different narrative voices, but once I did I was drawn into the two worlds, particularly in the vibrantly described Varosha. Would recommend for young adults and older adults alike!