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My Teeth in Your Heart
2024, Cambridge, England Billy’s got problems. 1974, Famagusta, Cyprus Anna’s a good ex-pat girl, focused on her A Levels and definitely not looking for the love of her life. But then love does come, closely followed by war. Anna and Billy are two girls living decades apart. When a diary connects them, it reveals a legacy of war, with consequences that could devastate two generations.
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About the author
Joanna Nadin
135 books129 followersJoanna Nadin is an English author of juvenile fiction best known for the Rachel Riley series of teenage novels Based on Nadin's own childhood, the series follows the comedic narration of a 13-year-old girl.
Nadin has also written several books of juvenile fiction. These include two books for the Oxford University Press "Project X" series designed to encourage boys to read.
Nadin previously worked as a policy writer for the Labour Party (UK).In 2001, she became a special adviser to Tony Blair.
As a child I buried myself in books both at home in Essex and at my grandparents’ houses in Cornwall, where I spent a large part of my time, and where many of my stories are now set. Books and later films were an escape not just from where I was but who I was, which, as I saw it, was pretty much a geek. They gave me the freedom to become someone else, from George in the Famous Five to Velvet Brown winning the Grand National to Baby dancing the Chachacha with Johnny Castle.
Nadin has also written several books of juvenile fiction. These include two books for the Oxford University Press "Project X" series designed to encourage boys to read.
Nadin previously worked as a policy writer for the Labour Party (UK).In 2001, she became a special adviser to Tony Blair.
As a child I buried myself in books both at home in Essex and at my grandparents’ houses in Cornwall, where I spent a large part of my time, and where many of my stories are now set. Books and later films were an escape not just from where I was but who I was, which, as I saw it, was pretty much a geek. They gave me the freedom to become someone else, from George in the Famous Five to Velvet Brown winning the Grand National to Baby dancing the Chachacha with Johnny Castle.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 9, 2024
Love love loved! A love a dual perspective multigenerational story, and this gave me everything I wanted! Drama, heartbreak, messy families. Both voices were so authentic, and the backdrop of the Cypriot War was incredibly interesting to learn about.
I just found myself reading late into the night and reaching for it when I should be doing other things.
Would sell to the upper teen market though, not younger teens!
I just found myself reading late into the night and reaching for it when I should be doing other things.
Would sell to the upper teen market though, not younger teens!
May 28, 2026
Read to page 50 (because my stepmum said that’s a good point to gauge how a book’s going) and I very strongly disliked almost every moment - the characters were all unlikeable, the chapters felt too short to get truly engrossed into the time/location (tricky at each time jump), and some of the plot wasn’t making any sense?? And the writing style just didn’t click with me either to be honest.
Overall not a love for me, hence I didn’t read any further. Sorry not sorry🤷♀️
Edit: I should also like to note that I don’t often DNF books!! I really dislike doing it, and will almost always push through, however with this book I just found horrendously little to cling to for even hope that it might improve :/
Overall not a love for me, hence I didn’t read any further. Sorry not sorry🤷♀️
Edit: I should also like to note that I don’t often DNF books!! I really dislike doing it, and will almost always push through, however with this book I just found horrendously little to cling to for even hope that it might improve :/
June 24, 2024
I really loved everything about this - the history was intriguing, the romance was lovely and the settings were just dreamy.
February 18, 2026
MY TEETH IN YOUR HEART is a moving tale of love and loss in the midst of inter-ethnic tensions in Cyprus.
As is I think natural in a book of two distinct halves, I definitely did prefer one over the other, the historical timeline in Cyprus as the tensions between the Green Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities flare in the build up to the Turkish invasion. I am more interested in historical narratives generally and this captures such an important but often overlooked period, and is inspired by real people the author knows. It's a story about loss and war, yes, but also about love and choosing your own path in the midst of horrors. It's has a surprisingly powerful thread of hope for all the terror of the war.
Billy's chapters really give the closure on the story, answer all the questions that Anna can't. It has a lot of the healing in it, though still acknowledging the grief that the characters feel. Also, Billy has the messiest love life, which helps distinguish her relationships from Anna's - where Anna's challenges are external, Billy is the big stumbling block in the way of her own happiness.
The section where Billy went to Varosha, the ghost town where the border between the Greek-aligned and Turkish-aligned areas is, was really striking. I went to Cyprus when I was very small - too small to remember much - but I do remember a road ending in fences and wire with a deeply uneasy and unnatural air. The book evoked that wrongness, the unnaturalness of that division and the sense of loss in the ghost town.
As is I think natural in a book of two distinct halves, I definitely did prefer one over the other, the historical timeline in Cyprus as the tensions between the Green Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities flare in the build up to the Turkish invasion. I am more interested in historical narratives generally and this captures such an important but often overlooked period, and is inspired by real people the author knows. It's a story about loss and war, yes, but also about love and choosing your own path in the midst of horrors. It's has a surprisingly powerful thread of hope for all the terror of the war.
Billy's chapters really give the closure on the story, answer all the questions that Anna can't. It has a lot of the healing in it, though still acknowledging the grief that the characters feel. Also, Billy has the messiest love life, which helps distinguish her relationships from Anna's - where Anna's challenges are external, Billy is the big stumbling block in the way of her own happiness.
The section where Billy went to Varosha, the ghost town where the border between the Greek-aligned and Turkish-aligned areas is, was really striking. I went to Cyprus when I was very small - too small to remember much - but I do remember a road ending in fences and wire with a deeply uneasy and unnatural air. The book evoked that wrongness, the unnaturalness of that division and the sense of loss in the ghost town.
June 25, 2024
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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.
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.
August 7, 2024
Multi-generational narrative of a distorted family history involving bookshops, ex-pats and war.
Granddaughter Billy. Her grandmother has recently died, one she barely knew before the end. Her mother isn't much help while she studies for her A-Levels, wrapped up in her own life and addictions. And now Billy has wrapped herself into a situation with the less-than-likeable boy her best friend likes.
Taking her out of this insular world is her grandmother's diary from 50 years before. And the story of a young Anna, taken by her own cold-seeming parents to Cyprus and schooled there, with her own romantic entanglements and desire to break free and live her own life. While war threatens the local communities.
This was a conflict I'd never heard of before, and the several stories within it - of Anna and George, of Anna's friend Peter, of her parents, all worked nicely inside the bubbling stew of a skirmish that would have felt unreal and distant to Anna until it hit home.
The dual narrative was excellent, definitely drew me into both time periods, and watching the two lives unfold simultaneously flowed perfectly.
Some great characters and plots to follow, and very well told.
For ages 13 and above.
Granddaughter Billy. Her grandmother has recently died, one she barely knew before the end. Her mother isn't much help while she studies for her A-Levels, wrapped up in her own life and addictions. And now Billy has wrapped herself into a situation with the less-than-likeable boy her best friend likes.
Taking her out of this insular world is her grandmother's diary from 50 years before. And the story of a young Anna, taken by her own cold-seeming parents to Cyprus and schooled there, with her own romantic entanglements and desire to break free and live her own life. While war threatens the local communities.
This was a conflict I'd never heard of before, and the several stories within it - of Anna and George, of Anna's friend Peter, of her parents, all worked nicely inside the bubbling stew of a skirmish that would have felt unreal and distant to Anna until it hit home.
The dual narrative was excellent, definitely drew me into both time periods, and watching the two lives unfold simultaneously flowed perfectly.
Some great characters and plots to follow, and very well told.
For ages 13 and above.
June 27, 2024
I requested an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, as i enjoyed her previous book so much and this one didnt disappoint!
Written from two different perspectives and timelines, Anna’s story is set in Cyprus 1974 and Billy’s story is set in the U.K in 2024. Two lives separated by time but connected, which is revealed slowly through the novel. I was completely immersed in both of the stories and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! With themes around family, friendship and love this is a story about war and the lasting effects it can have on the generations to come. It will touch your heart and never let go, i can’t stop thinking about the characters but i feel that this story hasn’t been fully told, i would love a sequel/prequel which delves into Billy’s Mums story.
I loved this book the characters were so well written and i also loved learning a little about what it was like in Cyprus when the war broke out which resulted in the divide we still see today. I have actually been to Cyprus which made it all the more interesting to me and gave my experience there a little more context.
Written from two different perspectives and timelines, Anna’s story is set in Cyprus 1974 and Billy’s story is set in the U.K in 2024. Two lives separated by time but connected, which is revealed slowly through the novel. I was completely immersed in both of the stories and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! With themes around family, friendship and love this is a story about war and the lasting effects it can have on the generations to come. It will touch your heart and never let go, i can’t stop thinking about the characters but i feel that this story hasn’t been fully told, i would love a sequel/prequel which delves into Billy’s Mums story.
I loved this book the characters were so well written and i also loved learning a little about what it was like in Cyprus when the war broke out which resulted in the divide we still see today. I have actually been to Cyprus which made it all the more interesting to me and gave my experience there a little more context.
July 8, 2024
Simply extraordinary. The present catches up with the past in a heady story of lust, love, defiance and family dysfunction, set at the time of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This story sweeps you up and breaks your heart; the passion makes you hot under the collar, the behaviour (recognition?) of certain British types and attitudes makes you shiver. 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. This could honestly be one of the best books I've ever read.
September 29, 2024
Brilliant! It's a beautiful story that will sweep you up. Present day catches up with the past in this story of love, defiance and dysfunctional family, set within the time of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. It's a love story narrated by two young characters living two separate timelines, it's incredibly clever and well written. Love it!
August 3, 2024
Loved it! Captures the teenage heart so well.
August 3, 2024
Similar to « Only This Beautiful Moment » by Abdi Nazemian.
October 5, 2024
I’m not a fan of historical but I do love a dual perspective book!
December 6, 2024
Really beautiful, found it hard to get into but then i couldn't put it down!
December 26, 2024
This was a cute book🥹
September 27, 2025
Though this wasn’t the most profound read, it was very cosy, the writing flowed well and the characters were well written.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews