** Disclamer: I did received this book via NetGalley. This had in no way, shape or form affected my opinion on it. **
Heey! So I have another review for you guys ~
This time being for an advanced reader copy of “The heart between us” who will be published on March 13rd, 2018 by Thomas Nelson fiction.
For your information, this is the first english book that i’ve finished so far! 👏🏼 all the others being wrote in french or translated in french.
Synopsis:
Megan’s childhood was confined in an hospital, while her sister Crystal could do everything she ever wanted. Even after receiving a heart transplant years ago, Megan’s life stayed still. She keep dreaming of what she could do once she’s well enough, while her twin sister is having the dream life; being a successful architect and having a handsome husband .. well that’s what she thought. After her donor’s parents gave her their teenage daughter’s journal, which included a bucket list, Megan felt connected so much with whom she meet between thoses pages that it pushes her to finally take the leap of faith to accomplished each of the items; now that the last one has been done. Helped in that push by Caleb, her old hospital friend. Her twin sister surprisingly asked to tag along – as of which the company & opportunity to reform the bond with her sister was welcomed ! However, she will need to take a tough decision between adventure and her safety in order to embrace her new heart and give it to whom she loves the most.
My review:
4 / 5 stars – Really loved it and will recommend it ; maybe read it again and will probably get myself a copy !
✘ I was really excited to have a book including organ donation in it!! Because as you may know, i’m actually a recipient’s daughter; my very own mother received a kidney almost 3 years ago, now. However, this made me a bit more sensible and cry easily.. ahah 🙊
✘ I’m not too much of a fan of 3rd person writting, to be honest .. but it was okay as we got to see both Megan and Crystal’s POV – which I like.
✘ Characters feels human to me; sure, at first Crystal seems stoïc and cold. But as the story goes, you get to see what’s really inside her head, her trying so much to stay numb to not be hurt by the huge mistake she made – the one who tore her & her twin apart; and then they finally overwhelms her. She need to accept and heals to make her life better; with her twin, and even with her husband. You feel how different thoses two are in personality – Megan is so hopeful.. yet always prefer security over living her life, which is the total opposite of her sister.
✘ Being a blogger myself, I quite like how Megan’s not only travelling to achieve her donor’s bucketlist; but also to write her own travelling blog posts! Which ended up opening her up on an great opportunity, helped by her friend Caleb & her donor’s parents. Fills me with joy for her and hope that you know, if you invest yourself really really hard – things like this opportunity does happen!
✘ Crystal perspective is quite accurate & realist. Sometimes, we are so busy hurting that we forget illnesses like this one does affects the whole family. I certainly did feel the same as Crystal with mom’s kidney desease ..
✘ I am over the moon and happily crying after reaching the romance of this novel .. this isn’t the toxic/abusive relationships the medias seems to want to portray us – nono, this is pure sweetness, caring of the other person and giving them your everything – because that’s what they are. Genuine, loving cares between the two persons. THIS everyone, is what I aim to find on this earth.
At first I wasn’t quite sure what I felt towards the book – as it started kinda slow for me. I needed a bit of adaptation to the english words that were flowing my brain rather than my usual french ones. I kept reading past that, and soon enough in their travel, I got filled with freedom – and the urge to go visit all thoses wonderful areas of the world we live in. But also.. emotionnal as to how close the sisters are growing their bond between them, emotionnal as of the root of the story – being a message in my mind of some sort for the organ donation that I can totally relate to in Crystal’s perspective with my mom. Upon reading Megan’s specific accomplishment of the bucket list item of going skinny dipping despise her transplant scar, id really really love to pass this book to mom for her to read it. As we had many conversations of how unhappy she feels towards her chest and belly being filled of scars caused by dialysis & transplant – thoses very much needed for her to stay alive. Unfortunately, she’s not as bilingual as I am – and I swear that if this book get translated to french someday, I need to buy it and gift it to her to read.
As I finished reading it, crying at 2;45am – I read the last 24% of it in one setting. I absolutely fell in love with theses characters, specially Caleb – whom I now count as my new book husband, as he’s everything im longing for a partner to be. Along my way i’ve loved, felt free and cried alot .. but I loved it. and yes, everything came out perfect in the end; passed a few inspirationnal quotes on me on the way aswell.
IMPORTANT: Amanda, the 17years old who donated Megan’s heart, has been sexually abused by her uncle. She wrote mentions of it inside her journal, without mention in detail how it happened ; but you wanna keep that in mind if it’s a trigger of yours.
« But why settle for black & white? (…) or even pink or milky white, when you can have golden? »
I remember how excited you were for this book and am glad you enjoyed it. There aren’t many books with organ donation story lines so that’s the first reason this one is appealing to me. And of course, the characters who initially put up a strong front but gradually break in front of the readers, are amazing because they feel more genuine and real. Lovely review, Kristina <3
Thank you <3 yes ! thoses are what appealed to me also, heheh
Yay for reading a book in English! And I am glad you could really love it when you read it as well. I really like the sound of one of the characters blogging – if they share a hobby with me I always love that kind of thing! I don’t think I’ve read a book about organ donors as before as well.
My recent post: http://oliviascatastrophe.com/2018/02/my-true-love-nails-extravaganza/
I only saw another one .. but it was a thriller where the girl wanna find how what happened cuz apparently its not a suicide but a murder .. and yeah that was interresting to read!! She blog about travel though, but still.
I was not suspecting that to be working xD but its true that it is different to read an english book thats mandatory or one that you really wanna read. So that makes sense.
Lovely review. I’ll have to check this book out. Looks really good.