Could you love someone that had your dead sibling's heart in them? I don't think I could, so when I read the blurb for The Heartbeat Hypothesis, I HAD to read it. This book drew me in from the first chapter and despite the way they met, I expected this to be a lighthearted romance. I was right.... kind of. At the beginning this was a mostly lighthearted book, and I enjoyed it best during the 1st half.

Right before the 50% mark, this book broke my heart. I was teary eyed and frustrated. Why did that have to happen?! I wanted this book to be all rainbows and butterflies with a few perfect photos thrown in. A heartbreaking mystery was thrown in the mix, and the mystery never actually got solved. That bummed me out even more. I like resolution, and while you get it in some ways.... you don't get it in others. I know, I know. Clear as mud, but if I say anything more then it is a definite spoiler.

Negativity aside, I actually enjoyed this book, and considering it is a debut novel I will definitely be checking out more of her work in the future.

Jake and Audra have never met, until today, but they're connected at the heart. I know, that doesn't seem to make any sense, but it does. Two years ago, a seventeen-year-old named Emily saved the life of a sixteen-year-old. Unfortunately, she had to die to do it. Audra can never express how truly grateful she is for the sacrifice necessary to ensure she lived, but she wants to try. Emily had a collection of photographs that chronicled things she'd done, just random pictures, and the majority were taken by her older brother, Jake. Jake is a college junior studying photography. Audra, a freshman, wants to share this experience with Jake and have him capture her moments, moments she would've never had if it wasn't for his sister.

As Jake and Audra spend time together, a connection begins building between them. But it's easy to see Jake keeps barriers around himself, his emotions, and he has secrets. Heartbreaking ones. When Audra witnesses a fight between Jake and a guy from his hometown, Jake, believing it's for the best, pushes Audra away. He doesn't think he's  worthy of being anyone's friend, especially Audra, the one he wants more with. Audra, falling for Jake one heartbeat at a time, disagrees, but she can't force Jake to see himself as she sees does.

As Audra continues on, the absence of Jake is apparent even after such a short time. She's decided to take the advice of her long time best friend, Kat, and go for what she wants. However, before she can confront Jake, she gets devastating news. The only silver lining is that it brings Jake back into her life and he begins sharing with her, opening up to the possibility of having that more with each other they both crave.

"If you let me, I could love you. I think maybe, even if you didn’t let me, I could still love you. I think maybe I already do." - Audra

Will Audra ever stop questioning whether Jake only sees a reminder of Emily's death when he looks at her? How do you cope when you cheat death, but someone else can't escape it? What really happened to Emily? Will seeking the truth only cause more hurt? Will Jake forgive Audra for keeping things from him, even though it was with the best of intentions? Will Audra ever feel worthy of Emily's heart? Will Jake find the courage to move forward and let himself feel again? Will he and Audra work through everything and come out stronger? Is there a HEA for these two?

One-click now and follow along as two people meet due to a tragic connection and discover a beautiful one along the way. Please keep in mind there will be tears. Also, though the HEA is implied, I wish it would've been a definite, so I'm just going to believe it was. LOL I do wish we could've gotten Jake's point of view though. This is a beautifully heartbreaking story filled with second chances, loss, grief, friendship, forgiveness, and love. Read it.

**I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.**

The Heartbeat Hypothesis is a beautiful, heartfelt story of not just love, but friendship, healing, grief and moving on after loss. Audra is the lucky recipient of a heart, and with this new heart she has decided to live her new life. She's grateful for her new heart, and wants to honor the donor of her new heart. This is where Jake comes in. Gorgeous, damaged Jake, who is not only a photographer who will help Audra honor Emily, (her heart donor), but who is also Emily's brother. Jake agrees to help Audra chronicle her version of Emily's done it list, with photos taken by Jake.

As Jake and Audra's relationship evolves, their feelings evolve, and they open themselves up to friendship, and love, and all the emotions that come with friendship and love. Secrets will be revealed, and hearts will be broken, but the whole journey is something that definitely has to be read. Is The Heartbeat Hypothesis angsty and emotional? Yes, but it's also beautiful, and so real. It will tug at your heart strings a little, OK, a lot, and you'll need some tissues, but it's well worth all the emotional upheaval.

Audra is a lovable young lady. She's sweet, and kind and compassionate and determined to finally live her life. She's open but guarded at the same time. Jake is an angry guy, but he has a beautiful heart, just like Audra, and just like Emily. He's hot and cold with Audra, but considering what kind of life he's lead, and the fact that his baby sister's heart beats within this amazing woman who's now in his life, it's completely understandable why he is that way. I ached for both of them, but especially for Jake, he had so many demons, and was grieving so badly. I just love reading their journey. The Heartbeat Hypothesis is an amazing debut novel, I can't wait for more of this talented author.

I really liked Jake, like a lot, "he raised his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? I use complete words, proper punctuation, and correct grammar.” And it was kind of a dream come true. “In what way are my skills lacking?” This book was beautifully written, it takes us on an emtotional journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and learning to trust. I loved this book.

Omg I love this book was my first of the author and won't be my last .... I fell instantly in love with Audra and Jake ...I love they had a connection but at first they both denied it ....love how you felt all the emotions that the characters was feeling and how they got past thru all their challenge....I hope we get to read more of these characters....hurry buy this book you won't regret
Volunteer read a advance copy

“So life is about the in-between. Between the beginning and the end, between the past and the future. It’s about the now.”

What a stunning, emotional, and beautiful novel!!!! It’s literally the best debut novel I have ever read! I was quite intrigued when I read the synopsis, but nothing could have prepared me for what I read!

Audra wasn’t supposed to be enjoying her first year of college until she received a miracle…a new heart. Yet, someone else lost their life for her to live hers, and she is more than grateful for that. She wants to honor the young girl, Emily, who gave her a second chance at life. She enlists the help of Emily’s brother, Jake, to help her do that. From the moment she meets Jake, I know as well as she does that her life will forever be changed.

I can’t say how very much I loved Jake and Audra! Both are extremely complex characters. I knew Audra as the story is told from her POV, but I felt like I was discovering Jake and his secrets just like she was. Both are filled with pain and guilt over Emily but for very different reasons. She feels guilty because she has Emily’s heart, and Emily is gone. Of course, Jake misses his sister, but there are also secrets concerning her death that continue to hold him captive. Audra wants so much to take his pain away and to make her life mean something because of Emily’s gift. Jake trusts no one, but I could tell he very much wanted to trust Audra. There was no doubt in my mind that Jake wanted to take that leap with Audra, and I kept praying he would just let go and do it! In my opinion Emily was just as much a character as Audra and Jake. I, like Audra, was able to learn who Emily was. It amazed me how Fydman was able to bring healing through Emily. Audra’s friend, Kat, was an important character as well. She greatly impacted Audra’s life as well. I thought it was a genius move on the writer’s part to use secondary characters in such a powerful way.

As much as I loved the characters, I loved Lindsey Frydman’s actual words….her writing…the symbolism and the deeper meaning of the book. I was in awe with how she took a story filled with pain and turned into something beautiful. Lindsey Frydman gave us one of those rare books that not only grabs your emotions but your very soul! It makes the reader take a moment and look at their lives, and it very may well change the way you look at life. I know it made me take a breath and ponder how I look at my life. It’s one of the best books I have ever read!!!!

“My heart increased its manic cadence, and I was so never grateful to feel it. I placed my hand on Jake’s chest and felt his pulse beat in time with mine, thinking maybe the point of life wasn’t to live—maybe the point was to love.”

****Reviewed on behalf of Devilishly Delicious Book Reviews****

This was one of those book that bring on all the feelings. I knew from reading the synopsis that I was going to really enjoy it, and by the time I got deep into it I was already hating myself for picking a book I KNEW would make me cry. Which it did.



This is a book about healing.

A book about seeing the potential for your future and going for it.

About living for the day and finding the meaning in the little things.

It was a story about overcoming your past even if you don't get the answers you are looking for. You only have to long to live, so live.

also, it was a book about moving past grief. That was the hardest part of reading it. In this book you as a reader grieve for the characters loss and it creates that much more of an impact in reading.

I loved it.

I feel in love as they did and in the end I got the ending I was hoping for. Fantastic.

This book should’ve been called The Heartbreak Hypothesis.Because man this book broke my heart! Over and over and over again. Just when I thought it would be smooth sailing from then on… Nope. It was, whack! Right in the heart all over again. I’m not even mad though because the book was such a good read.



And that twist, talk about unexpected! I pride myself on being able to spot a twist/figure out most twists/figure out what’s going to happen a mile off (most of the time) but even I didn’t see that one coming - and it was HUGE. A game-changer.

Up until that point The Heartbeat Hypothesis had been a somewhat cutesy, everything-will-work-out, feel-good read but after that twist? All bets were off, all my preconceptions, and ideas of were the storyline might go, how the book will end, went out the window with that twist. I had no idea what to expect anymore.




And it got worse… Oh, my heart! I thought the first twist hit you in the feels but this? This hits you in the feels, takes them, throws them down on the floor and stomps on them. Needless to say, I was in full on, jaw-hanging-on-the-floor shock.




I’m not going to pretend that I ‘got’ why Audra (and even Jake) did some of the things she did because frankly? I didn’t. But it was still (mostly) fun to read those scenes - if a little confusing/frustrating.




I thought I knew what I was getting into with The Heartbeat Hypothesis, I couldn’t have been more wrong, but that’s what made it as good as it was/turned out to be.

I started out really enjoying Audra and the overall voice of the story, though I was a bit disappointed at not getting Jake's perspective on things (with a story that is intended to be about two people who are falling in love with something like one having the other's dead sister's heart, I think that getting both sides just makes sense!). I expected this to be a story with angst over the question of whether Jake could be okay with Audra having his sister's heart, and confusion for both whether their connection was because of the HEART itself (sort of along the lines of the movie "Return to Me").

Neither of those are really much of an issue here though. Instead, it's actually pretty heavy, where Jake is basically a recluse with no friends who loves black & white photography, and Audra would almost be a recluse, except for her very bubbly best friend, Kat. Audra hunts Jake down and asks him to recreate photographs he took for his sister of what his sister called "done-its." They laugh at how silly that term is, but never come up with a better one!

Which really, I think, sums up the overall problem I had with this book: There are so many things brought up that just sort of get brushed aside and eventually forgotten. Things like their project itself, the troubled past that Jake has, suspisions that apparently everyone who was close to Emily (Jake's sister) have about her death... I would get interested in the conclusion to some of these and then realize that they weren't finished. Honestly, it was a bit like the show LOST, where you have a million questions of things that seem really interesting... and are left with more questions at the end with very few answers!

I do also feel that, while the writing was great overall, the characters were also underdeveloped and even a bit shallow. There are illusions to Jake having some dark thoughts that aren't ever explored further. Audra apparently dated after her heart transplant, but that's barely touched on (If she had only one friend from her childhood, how did she date? What happened to the boyfriend she had before??). Audra has no clue what she wants to do with her life, which also means that we don't get to know much more about her than that she loved her parents and her best friend, and she was born with a heart defect that resulted in a transplant at 16. I really wanted the character arcs to be both Jake and Audra going from people not allowing themselves to live, to people who had helped each other to discover themselves more and learn, especially through the "done-its," that life is too short to wallow in the past.

Mostly, I guess I just feel like this was left unfinished. I liked the setups, what I did know about the characters, the setting, the overall plot and the "done-its" aspect - I just finished this wanting more.

If you are looking for a book that is different from what you normally read this is the book you are looking for! Lindsey Frydman grabs your attention with a book filled with a new chance on life, overcoming your fears, love, and heartache.

Audra has a new chance on life. After receiving a new heart she decides to take up her donor's, Emily, "bucket list". To help document her adventure she enlists the help of Emily's brother to take photos of her just like he did for his sister.

Jake is still upset over losing his sister and when Audra contacts him to help her out, his first instinct is to blow her off. He decides to take a chance on her and hears out her idea to recreate Emily's "bucket list".

As Audra and Jake spend more time together, they start to grow closer and secrets begin to test them. Will they be able to hold onto each other while they navigate through issues that both of them might not be ready for? Or will they decide that it's better off to leave things alone and not fight for the truth or each other?

Oh boy - get the tissues out ready when you read this book! It is an emotive, tear jerker and a great read.

Two years ago eighteen year old Audra Madison was the recipient of the heart of seventeen year old Emily Cavanaugh, saving her own life as Emily lost hers. She’s wanted to find out more about the girl who died and enabled her to live so has used the internet to find out more about her. She’s discovered Emily’s tumblr photos, her ‘Done-It’ list, and wants to recreate them. She contacts Jake, the photographer and Emily’s grieving brother, asking him to help her do this. He agrees but the two are obviously wary and Jake is moody, inconsistent in his interactions, brooding and also very talented at both photography and playing the piano. He keeps warning Audra not to get close to him as he’s sure to hurt her . . .

The story is told from Audra’s point of view as she explores her own feelings of survivor’s guilt and her new chance at life. As she strives to discover more about Emily whilst settling into life as a freshman at University with her best friend, Kat, she accidentally also uncovers unexpected information and even more questions. There are other tragic events in the story; it is an emotional roller coaster, an angsty, heart wrenching story with so many twists and turns! I initially thought it was going to be a relatively straight-forward, run-of-the-mill new adult romance but it certainly isn’t. There are light hearted moments but it is the emotional turmoil that makes this story stand out from the rest. When I discovered this is a debut novel, I was amazed - this author is definitely one to watch out for in future!

Thanks to the publisher for enabling me to read a copy of this via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

4 angel stars!!

Since stars had a limited amount of hydrogen – and they needed that stuff to exist – they in turnhad a finite lifetimeof radiance. The way hearts had a finite number of heartbeats.
Never in my book worm life had I ever imagined that I would get to read a book such as this. Its autheticity and uniqueness caught me completely off guard since the first moment I started it. And may be the blurb gave me an idea what I was in for, nothing could prepare me for the greateness that was waiting for me just around the pages.

The Heartbeat Hypothesis is a story about a girl who has made her goal to reenact some memories of the girl whose heart is beating under her chest. But she has to ask the help of the photographer behind the photographic imprinting of those memories. So, Audra and Jake start travelling together his sister’s memory lane which makes them get closer with each other.

If someone would come up to me and said that thia story was based on real facts, I would probably believe him. It is simply so real and raw that I couldn’t help feel that these two characters are actually existing on this planet and this book was a part of their story. Both Audra and Jake are proven to be from the beginning characters with some very complex, but intriguing nonetheless, personalities and ways of thinking and dealing with problems. But as they spend more and more time in each other’s company, which leads to confessing personal truths, the change both are forced under is inevitable.

“Without the middle, being first or last means nothing.” The middle gace the rest its meaning.
What draw me into and made me love even more this amazing story, except the autheticity of it, was that, even thow it seems like a love story, its basic truth and foundation is build on the process each one of us has to go through, the sacrifices we have to make and the loses we have to endure so we can find our true self on the other side of the tunnel. And in the end, what matters the most and what makes our time on this planet worthwhile and special are the things we allow ourselves to feel; things like love, forgiveness, passion, friendship and even some pain which all together are what makes each being different. And Audra and Jake learn how to appreciate them while discovering their inner world and what trully matters.

“All you need is the combination of bright sunlight, suspended droplets of water, and the proper viewing angle, and you get to witness one of nature’s most famous masterpieces.”
My words are completely failing me when it comes to describe the story and my feelings about it. My mind, heart and thoughts are so emotionally charged by the journey of these two characters that it would need quite some time to write everything down and with the correct words. I ususally tend to say that no matter what I or any other reader say about a book, if you don’t experience it yourself you will never be able to grasp its majesty. And this book couldn’t fall more than bull’s eye on that opinion. This multi-layered story and couple put your emotional producer into the test, creating more of acommotion as you go deeper into it and get to witness what really they are made of.

Frydman surprised the hell out of me with this story. Her writing gave it all it got so it could bloom itno this lovely gem of literature. And if you are looking for unique love stories with characters who are raw and real, this is a book you don’t want to pass by. Trust me.

Audra Madison simply wanted to walk in the shoes of Emily Cavanaugh, a free-spirited teenager who died too young. After all, Audra wasn’t supposed to be here.

Thanks to Emily, Audra has a second chance at life. She’s doing all the things that seemed impossible just two years ago: Go to college. Date. Stargaze in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe get a tattoo. You know, live.

Jake Cavanaugh, a photographer with mysterious, brooding gray eyes, agrees to help chronicle her newfound experiences. She makes him laugh, one of the only people who can these days. As they delve into each other’s pasts – and secrets – the closer they become.

But she’s guarded and feels like she can’t trust anyone, including herself.
And he’s struggling with the fact that his beloved sister’s heart beats inside her.

This book was so heart-wrenching for me that I found myself looking back on my life and seeing so many things that I wish I had done differently. It's one of those books that you read and you really think to yourself "How can I be a better person and live my life to the fullest?" I don't want to be an introvert anymore who sits on the sidelines and doesn't interact with people. People see me and they think I'm outgoing but the truth is...I have intense Social Anxiety Disorder and this book for me made me really approach my "illness" head-on because life is short. Time waits for no man. I loved the characters in this book and when a book makes you stop and look at your own life...it's a good book.

Jake is an awesome hero because he's damaged and broken because he lost his sister. Audra has Jake's sister's, heart. This book reminded me of the movie Return to Me with Minnie Driver and OMG, I loved that movie (PICK IT UP!!) Seriously, this book had me crying and while first-person books are really hard for me to read, I'm starting to love them. You will absolutely adore this book from Lindsey! She is on my List of Authors to look out for.

Audra received a heart transplant from a young girl and when she's given the option to know who the donor is, she sends a letter with a request. She would like to complete her "Done it list" on Instagram. She finds out that Jake is on campus with her and chooses to approach him to ask him to complete the list with her. Will he help her? You’ll definitely need some tissues with this book, if not the whole box! In my opinion, she knocked it out of the park with this book.

What you’ll take away from this book is to live every moment like it’s your last because it might be. Live it to the fullest. Love the ones you’re with and tell them that you love them. Don’t let fear be your guide. Make your own list and live it out. I couldn’t recommend this book more!!

I was given a copy of this ARC from the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review. All of the above comments are my express opinions and no one else's.

When I first picked this book up, I thought it would a fluffy, possibly steamy read. That didn't turn out to be the case at all. Don't get me wrong, it starts out more on the light and feel-good side, but quickly I realized that there was more to the story than the premise implies. Audra, our heroine, received a life saving heart transplant two years before and suddenly the world is open to limitless possibilities. She no longer has to live one day at a time, just clinging to hope and a promise of a real future. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of her heart donor Emily's life and the guilt that comes along with that isn't easy to let go of. So she reaches out to Emily's brother Jake with a plan to enlist his help and come to peace with her gift.

Audra and Jake meet and make a plan to re-create his sister's photographs in order for Audra to "walk in her shoes" through her experiences. At first, I was seeing this solely as a healing process for the two of them while they developed feelings for one another. Simple, cut and dry. Well, I discovered that this was heading down a little bit of a darker path. Jake was moody, broody, and not very communicative. There were brief flashes from him, he'd give her a little bit of himself and then retreat all over again. He offers to give her piano lessons, and then eventually stands her up when their feelings start to blur past friendship. There is clearly something in his past that he's hiding, something that he's unwilling to share that's making him feel incapable of offering Audra love.

Audra is crushing hard on him, but their relationship is filled with secrets and complications. I enjoyed her at first, I thought she was a little bit awkward and sweet and her idea to honor Emily was commendable. But later, she started behaving...I don't know what else to call it but immature. First with her peeking at his very private journal and then hiding that fact. On one hand, I understand that he's not exactly being open with why he's keeping his distance, but that was such an invasion. What she discovered was more than a little disturbing, and she just somehow told herself to brush it under the rug as well.

But worse, when he finally does open up to her, she goes behind his back once again and uses the confidence he gave her to start snooping in the mystery surrounding his family.This is where things started to go a little OTT for my taste. I'm not going to go into what occurs after this, but what happens with his family was really out of left field. And I didn't feel as if anything was explained or resolved conclusively. I think the premise was a promising one, and I liked that it led me in a different direction than I anticipated. It was unpredictable. The writing was engaging and the characters dealt with serious life and death issues, some were addressed with delicacy. For example, the unexpected tragic twist with Audra around the middle of the book I really appreciated. Her emotions and reactions felt genuine and were emotionally complex. But when it came to Jake's history, and how that story arc unfolded, that's where it lost me.

I admire this author's writing and I'd definitely give a different book of hers a chance, but I think that all the pieces of this one didn't quite fit right for me. It's hard, because there really was a lot I liked here, just not consistently. If you're looking for a New Adult book with mystery, and a tortured, brooding hero then this could very well be the book for you. There were lighthearted moments, as well as introspective and emotional. I'll be keeping my eye on this author in the future.

The Heartbeat Hypothesis by Lindsey Frydman
4.5 stars!!!

“Our hearts have been friends for a very long time.”

The Heartbeat Hypothesis is the debut book of Lindsey Frydman and what a debut. As soon as I started reading this book I clicked with the story and the voice of the author, I then had to go back and check that this was in fact a debut and that is the biggest compliment. This story just flowed with ease, I was immediately transported into this NA gem and the author held me emotionally captive until the very end. Reading this book was effortless, emotional, captivating and I loved every single second.

“Everything is finite, isn’t it?
“Nothing lasts forever.”

When I have read “transplant” books in the past, more often than not the focus is always on the recipient and you never really hear much about the donor or the donor’ family. More often, never the twain shall meet, but sometimes they do keep in touch and The Heartbeat Hypothesis is not only a celebration of the life of the recipient but also that of the life of the donor. This side of the story was emotional for me, a life captured through pictures and yet I felt like I knew her and that is testament to the author.

“Sometimes grief is the price you pay for love.”

Audra was the lucky recipient of a heart at the expense of a young woman called Emily. Audra had reached out to Emily’s family and they had responded. Because of this she found out that Emily’s brother was at the same University as her and his name was Jake. Audra had also looked for any information regarding Emily, she wanted to know more about the heart that was beating inside her and because of her delving she came across Emily’s Instagram page. Emily’s Instagram was covered in whacky photo’s or random exploits that really brought her bubbly personality to life or were they just a front…a mask? These photos were taken by #MyFavoritePhotographerJake and were named her done-it list.

“Nothing in life is permanent. All of it will eventually disappear…Maybe we’re supposed to know that…accept it, and live our lives differently because of it. Rearrange our priorities based on the finite number of heartbeats we have left.”

Audra decided that she wanted to recreate Emily’s done-it’s as a kind of homage to the woman that had a given her life and it is here that Jake and Audra meet.

“And on bad days, when his aura of sadness blazed like an alarm he couldn’t turn off, I felt like I was doing everything wrong.”

Jake was a conundrum, one minute he was friendly, next he was detached, then he was curious, then he distanced himself. It was like someone was switching a light on and off constantly and you never knew what “Jake” was going to turn up. I was torn between his grief and him being uncomfortable knowing that his sisters heart was beating in the woman in front of him to him just being confused, insecure and hiding something. It was this raw honesty in Jake as a character that made him all the more intriguing. I was desperate to know the man underneath and I loved the way that Lindsey Frydman slowly lets us in.

“I thought I knew what loneliness was…But you can’t know lonely until you’ve lived the opposite.”

This is a story that will tug at every single heart string, from budding friendship to best friends, to grief, to guilt, to learning to move on from the past and embrace a future you never imagined you deserved. A book that has honest, real and relatable characters even if their lives are anything but. Lindsey Frydman delivered an exceptional read as a debut, a little towards the end I felt some plot lines were a little rushed hence the 0.5 deduction, but apart from that, this was a perfect read for me. I loved everything about it.

www.theromancecover.com

Book given in exchange of an honest review on Netgalley.

This was not the book I was expecting, and I don't mean it in a bad way. I was expecting a cute love story, where a girl fell for this sexy photographer (with an amazing back...yes the cover got me), but I got a much deeper story.
Audra's life hasn't been easy,and she now has a second chance, but she still has some heartbreaks in her future.

A girl with a borrowed heart that tries to find meaning in life and unexpectedly she finds it with Jake.

He is broken too and together they find a little place where happiness is possible. But life is not that easy and they have to overcome their problems in order to move forward.

Jake was a peculiar character, full of mystery and unpredictable reactions. Even when we get to know everything about him, he was still unknown in some ways.
It's hard to explain, but I felt like he had so much more to tell, like we had a lot more to explore about his personality.

Overall, a beautiful yet sad story about loss, love, life and death and how everyone is connected. About embracing every moment like it was your last because you never know when it will be.

The heartbeat Hypothesis is such a romantic theory, she saw it as an explanation of why she was given a second chance and a incentive to live her borrowed heartbeats to the max.
I though about it in a different way. I imagined making a choice of living a calm life and not spending your heartbeats too fast and live longer; or experiencing everything you ever wanted and maybe having a shorter but more fulfilled and happy life.

It's a tough choice, most of us live hanging between the balance but there are some who live on either side.

I found this to be a really sweet and honest read. Often I felt like there was something missing from the story, something more I wanted either from the plot or the characters I'm not sure. I had some issues with Audra in the beginning as I felt her voice was a little too immature but it grew as her character did throughout the story. I liked how the plot was handled, it was very well written. I enjoyed the situation with Kate and how it wasn't just a pseudo-serious thing to shake up the plot, she wasn't in the accident and all better. Her death really impacted Audra and her journey throughout the remainder of the story.

Overall an enjoyable read I would recommend.

* Reviewed by CM McCoy for North of Normal Book Reviews

Everything I want in an aching romance!

THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESIS is a page-turning New Adult sweet romance by debut author Lindsey Frydman. I've known this book since it was a manuscript, and I instantly fell in love with it!

Jake may or may not help Audra honor the organ donor who gave her a new lease on life. It's a tough call, since he's still grieving his beloved little sister's untimely death...and since his dead sister's heart is now beating inside Audra's chest.

This is an angsty, beautifully painful, push-and-pull love story told in first-person, past tense with an ugly-cry happily(?) ever after. Heart transplant recipient and university freshman Audra takes nothing for granted and is determined to live every heartbeat to its fullest. For starters, she'll tackle her heart donor's Done-It list, a photographic journal chronicling a life lived to the fullest. Enter Jake--a photographer. THE photographer. Also, he's her donor's reclusive, reluctant, bad-boy brother...

There's so much I love about this book! The 3-day lump in my throat was a little painful, but I did enjoy wondering if I was living every one of my heartbeats to the fullest. Also, I updated my bucket list, and instead of simply checking things off, I started a done-it list (it's here--scroll down to the Done-It List). All because of this book.

Audra is a super-likeable, charmingly nerdy university freshman who grows wonderfully through her journey past her expiration date. Jake is the perfectly distant, damaged goods. Frydman writes with a sure hand and an authentic millennial voice. Veteran romance novelists better look out! This debut author puts some big names in romance to shame with this stunning debut.

The romance in this book is sweet. The heartache is real. The cry is ugly.

Fans of Colleen Hoover and Nora Roberts will devour this fresh and emotional romance. This book is appropriate for ages 15 and up.

THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESIS earns 5 North of Normal stars!

I couldn't finish the book.....I TRIED GOD I TRIED SO HARD but the actually story didn't live up to the description. I thought the idea was really amazing, and if it was carried out better it could've gotten 5 stars from me

A tragic and heartwarming story!
The Heartbeat Hypothesis by Lindsay Frydman, a standalone NA romance
I chose to read The Heartbeat Hypothesis because the excerpt sounded amazing. I’ll be honest, the cover didn’t hurt anything either!
Audra was born with a hole in her heart. When she turned 16, she was lucky enough to find a matching donor and she was given a heart transplant. Two years later, she is in college and living a fairly normal life. But Audra wants to know Emily, the girl who once owned her heart. She begins stalking her Instagram page and sees that Emily had created a list of things she had done. She had each “done-it” photographed and she posted the beautiful pictures. Audra wanted to recreate her list as a tribute to Emily and gets in touch with the photographer, Emily’s brother Jake. Tragedy brings Audra and Jake closer together but it may also tear them apart.
This story was beautifully written. The characters were complex and realistic. Many of Audra’s reactions to the events in her life were similar to what my own would be. The story goes in a direction I did not anticipate and it was refreshing that it was not predictable. Although some tissues were required, I never had a moment when I wanted to stop reading.
Although there are some adult themes, this story could be read by a younger audience. This will become a favorite of those who enjoy Colleen Hoover and Mia Sheridan.
I give this book 4.5 stars. I will be looking to get this on paperback as soon as I can.
I reviewed this book for the Just North Of Normal blog. www.cmmcoy.com/blog