Author: Chandler Baker Publication: June 9, 2015
By: Disney-Hyperion
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4 Stars
Stella Cross's heart is poisoned.
After years on the transplant waiting list, she's running out of hope that she'll ever see her eighteenth birthday. Then, miraculously, Stella receives the transplant she needs to survive.
Determined to embrace everything she came so close to losing, Stella throws herself into her new life. But her recovery is marred by strange side effects: Nightmares. Hallucinations. A recurring pain that flares every day at the exact same moment. Then Stella meets Levi Zin, the new boy on everyone's radar at her Seattle prep school. Stella has never felt more drawn to anyone in her life, and soon she and Levi are inseparable.
Stella is convinced that Levi is her soul mate. Why else would she literally ache for him when they are apart?
After all, the heart never lies...does it?
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
This, my friends, is not a contemporary--well, I mean, it is, but I was totally expecting to read an endearing story about Stella's second-chance-at-life that would make me laugh, cry and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But no.
That is not what I got.
I got a book that scared the sprinkles off my cupcake and gave me nightmares. LEGIT NIGHTMARES. I bolted upright at 4a.m. and frantically checked to make sure my heart was still inside my body, scaring both the Husband and myself half to death. So thanks for thank, publicist person.
I DID get a well-written and eerily entertaining story with relateable characters. Stella has a good family and several close friends to help her adjust to life post heart transplant. Brynn adds a dose of reality and Henry provides the swoon, but Levi...well, let's just say he provides something altogether "different".
I would classify this story as horror, a la Stephen King, which I don't willingly read. Usually. But I did enjoy Chandler Baker's story-telling and I look forward to what she comes up with next. Unless it requires me reading under a blanket or with my eyes covered. Maybe.
~ About the Author ~
Chandler Baker got her start ghostwriting novels for teens and tweens, including installments in a book series that has sold more than 1 million copies. She grew up in Florida, went to college at the University of Pennsylvania and studied law at the University of Texas. She now lives in Austin with her husband. Although she loves spinning tales with a touch of horror, she is a much bigger scaredy-cat than her stories would lead you to believe.
You can find Chandler as the books contributor on the YouTube channel Weird Girls.
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