A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE by NICOLA HAKEN

“I love you differently to the way I’ve loved anyone else. It’s a different love, and it’s a special love. It’s a love I don’t want to live without.”

William and Laurence’s story was a forbidden yet beautifully sweet and emotional telling about love and self-discovery. As Bec, Laurie, and Will dealt with the fallout from this heart rendering tale, we were afforded a front seat to all the emotion, along with the angst, heartbreak, and longing, gosh we felt it! Now, let’s get this out of the way first. Is there cheating in this book? Yes, there is, and we know that’s a dealbreaker for some readers, but please give this one a try.

“God, I love her. I do. I’ve never questioned that. Never will. When she’s happy, I’m happy. When she hurts, I hurt. What is that if it isn’t love.”

Nicola Haken took a difficult subject – a happily married man discovering his sexual awareness after so many years of marriage, and made us feel so much for Laurence and William but also put ourselves in Rebecca’s shoes which caused us pain. It’s hard not to relate to her feelings whilst at the same time feeling so much sadness for William. Bec was amazing!

“You could spend the next twenty years away from me and it wouldn’t stop me loving you. You’re still that same best friend I fell in love with at fourteen.”

Thirty-seven-year-old William Walker is easy going bloke who’s been married to his childhood sweetheart and best friend Rebecca for 20 years. They have two wonderful children Ben and Lucy, and for William, life just is. He’s content with his lot. That is, until he loses his job and is given the opportunity to hone his Electrician skills on a movie set. It means being away from Bec and the kids, but money is tight, so he accepts the job. Little did he know this was the beginning of a journey of self-discovery that would affect so many people.

‘What words do I use to break my wife’s heart?’

Laurence Cole is a famous movie star. He’s a rugged Scotsman and is idolised around the world. He’s been unlucky in love and has shied away from relationships since a bad breakup left him scarred. On meeting William something shifts in Laurence, but William is a happily married straight man. Whilst Laurence hasn’t officially outed himself, he has never hidden his sexuality. He’s like a breath of fresh air for William, who has always questioned his own sexuality since he was a teenager.

‘I don’t think it’s possible to move past him. When I mentally flick through the pages of my life, his name is written on all of them.’

There were many layers to this story and Nicola Haken deals with each aspect in a sensitive and emotional way, assisting us to understand the feelings of each character. Those little touches, those glances, those passionate exchanges – they made our hearts soar with love and our stomachs churn with the forbidden nature of it all. We really did enjoy this story, however, because of a few similarities with a ‘real life’ story, we did lose our way at times. We couldn’t help but be reminded of that recent news story and found ourselves thinking about that instead of Laurence and William’s love story. Saying that we soon found our way back, hoping for happiness all around.

“The movie star and the electrician. Hardly a bestseller, is it?”