Lurlene McDaniel

This was the first of Lurlene's recent books that I have read. It was a lot more romancy and had a more complex plot than her older books.
This one took me two weeks to read, and I am not quite sure why. Every time I picked it up, I read until I had to stop but then had no interest in picking it back up later.
I loved the plot twist! I knew there was one coming, but I did not expect it to be what it was.

Tropes: secret identity

Age: NA since characters are college-aged but with a ya writing style

Content: kissing, mentions of sending nudes and suicide and depression and sibling loss

4 Stars… (mere)

I read this in a day. I would have liked for there to have been more to the story, but I still liked it.

This story is told from two points of view - Kassey's and Arabeth's. Kassey is devastated when her best friend, Elowyn, dies at 16 in a car accident. Since Elowyn has checked "organ donor" on her driver's license, Arabeth, a 14 year old in need of a heart transplant, gets Elowyn's heart. There is mention of cellular memory, and Arabeth starts to display some of Elowyn's characteristics. Weird, but I thought it was handled well. Right after the surgery, Arabeth initially wants to thank the donor's family, but doesn't get to. However, she is surprised a year after the transplant to learn that they want to meet her. She meets Elowyn's parents and then Elowyn's best friend, Kassey, and Elowyn's boyfriend, Wyatt. Since Arabeth has been so sick for so long, she really hasn't had any friends, so she seems eager to meet Kassey and Wyatt - but will they see her for who she is, or will she only ever remind them of Elowyn? I thought that the way all these characters interacted after meeting each other rang true. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll stop at that. It's a really sad, yet sweet story - and a quick read. If you enjoy true-to-life stories, you may enjoy this one!… (mere)