The main character was likeable and witty. I enjoyed the conversations she had with Seb. The writer doesn't explain the depth of the mother's love and her life dedication to her daughter. A lot of the writing was fluff and didn't hold my interest well

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae has a highly unusual premise, which makes this book stand out from most others. It is also features a strong protagonist and a heartwarming story. Alisa Rae was born with a heart having only three ventricles and as a result, she is in and out of surgery on a regular basis. The book begins with her dying and she is waiting for a transplant that finally comes through for her. Ailsa yearns for an ordinary everyday life like most people have.

The book centers around her life as a organ donor recipient, something I actually knew nothing about so it opened up a whole world for me. We meet Ailsa both before and after her heart transplant and see what such surgery does to a person’s life.

Ailsa has an amazing relationship with her mother Hayley, who happens to be a pharmacist, and is her rock of emotional support. With Hayley, the reader gets a second perspective of the organ donor experience and what a mother goes through with a child having a defective heart. There is actually a third major character — Ailsa has named her new heart Apple and we are regularly updated on how Apple reacts to situations. Ailsa has always lived with Hayley but she feels now, after the successful surgery, that it is time for her to begin her life and be on her own. In that sense, The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is like a coming-of-age story and a story of transformation.

There can be no doubt that Ailsa is a very brave person that has learned to cope with the hand she was dealt. After the transplant, she has to learn how to live though she has always had to lead a very guarded life but now she still has to be because she has to be on immunosuppressant medication for life and cannot afford to get sick. Her life has a new perspective since it now has a future.

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is a well-written feel-good story that will open your eyes to the world of organ donation. We get to know Ailsa Rae in depth and she makes it a stand-out story. The book makes use of blog posts and polls she conducts among her blog readers, which I found realistic as well as entertaining. I highly recommend this book and think it could very well lead to more people checking off the box on their driver’s license to donate their organs.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffen and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ailsa Rae has just had a heart transplant. That in itself is an extraordinary event. The problem is, after over 2 decades of worrying whether she will make it until tomorrow, this extraordinary event has just allowed for Ailsa to live an...ordinary life. And ordinary lives have ordinary problems: Her relationship with her mother is strained, she has never even met her father, and she needs a job. What's a girl to do when the world is suddenly wide open to her?

Ailsa carries this book. She is a compelling character, and through blog posts, emails, and regular story-telling, the reader really gets inside her head (and heart). There are some moments in particular, where Ailsa is considering the power of her body's abilities to heal itself and live after such a monumental surgery, that brought tears to my eyes.

However, the book feels so LONG. I am not sure what ought to be taken out, but I think a solid 50-100 fewer pages would make this easier to digest. I had to put the book down multiple times for a break. Maybe it's all the flashbacks...the whole story line with Lennox wasn't essential for me.

Still impressed with the characterization of Ailsa and it felt like the author really did her research and presented an accurate representation of a transplant recipient.

A different take on a young woman who blogs her journey while waiting for a heart transplant. Ailsa is waiting for a heart, and is dependent on her mom, even at 28. We’ll written with likable characters, you will be cheering for Ailsa.

An interesting story that pulls at your emotions, about a young heart transplant recipient trying to enter into adulthood after years of chronic illness. An overall good read.

A good read overall, although it took me a little while to get into. I liked Ailsa. She seemed younger than 28, but considering she's been ill all her life, and in and out of hospital, that's understandable. Whilst I liked the blog entries and emails, perhaps there were too many, and I found them disjointing especially given the story went backwards and forwards in time too. I liked Seb, and I felt Hayley's character was well-written too. I enjoyed reading how Ailsa was embracing life post transplant, and felt everything to do with transplants was sensitively written.

This is a story about a girl that needs a heart transplant. She talks about how she coped with the before and after of the new heart. Lots of emotions tangled up with the people and doctors in her life. It’s a touching story that really pulls on your own heart.

This book wasn't what I expected nowadays from this genre, but it was actually pretty refreshing, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ailsa is a 28-year-old woman who desperately needs a heart transplant due to a genetic defect with her own heart that was discovered when she was a baby. After the heart transplant, we see her figure out how to catch up on her adulthood, figure out her relationship with her mother, figure out career and friendships.

From a more personal view, as the parent of a child who may need a major organ transplant some day, I did struggle with some parts of this book, and might have related a bit more to Ailsa's mother than Ailsa, but it was also interesting to read it from the character's point of view.

I also really liked the relationship between Ailsa and Seb and how she handled everything that happened, without giving too much away.. You usually don't get female characters who aren't damsels in distress, waiting for a man to save them, in this genre, and it was a nice change to have a strong woman in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for my review. It has not influenced my opinion.

I was given a free e-book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overall. I enjoyed this book. It didn’t seem like I would at the start. Ailsa is almost 30 living with a heart defect and on the transplant list. Near death, she finally gets a new heart and gets to discover who she actually is and what living is actually like. She was a character you really like, rooted for the whole way through. It also really inspires you to live your life to the fullest, even if you didn’t just get a lifesaving organ transplant.

I liked her relationship with Seb. I was a little skeptical at the beginning as to why he would have been so drawn to her and wanted to get to know her more, but their banter was cute and overall, it felt like a realistic progression.

This probably would have been a 3 1/2, but I bumped it down for the language. Far too many f-words for my taste. I think it comes from the fact that it’s a moderate swear over in the UK, whereas it’s about as bad as you can get here in the US, so the author probably didn’t think much of it, but it put me off the book when they’d crop up.

I really enjoyed this book. It was told in a warm, thought provoking, and continually engaging way by the author (of whom I have not read a novel before but will certainly do so again in the future on the basis of this novel!). Great characters and format. I really felt I took a lot and learnt a lot from this book. Thank you!

Well written book. A plot that will really make the reader think. I have never really thought about what a recipient of an organ transplant really feels. Recommend this book. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

I realised that I had already read and reviewed this book. Here is my review below.

Brilliant. I laughed and I cried and I want to read it all over again. Ailsa gets the new heart that saves her life and tries to learn to start living. She meets Seb and starts to do new things. Her blog is really brave and honest. The whole story is beautifully written and obviously well researched. Ailsa has a lot of living to catch up on and this book tells her story wonderfully.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Captivating, hard to put down, great characters and not a view you usually get in a book. While the book is told mostly through emails and blogs, it really feels like a movie. Edinburgh would make a great set. Also the transplant story sound a little like a Lifetime or Hallmark or Nicholas Sparks movie. Also Tango! Shakespeare! All it is really missing is an animal. Thank you, Netgalley, for the prepub edition. I definitely recommend.

3 1/2 stars


This is a strange book.It has a coming of age/YA feel to it but Ailsa is almost 30.It has a light hearted chick lit/rom com feel but it is heart felt.it is mainly a Epistolary novel told through transcripts, blog posts,and emails.

I didn't connect with the characters but I was rooting for Ailsa.However Epistolary novel aren't my favorite writing style so this could have something to do with it.

This was nice read in the moment.

I did not get very far into this book and could not finish. The characters were not very well rounded, nor was the plot or dialogue. I tried several times, but I could not get interested in it.

Wow !

A heart transplant at the age of 28 told before and after the transplant!

This book is so well researched, I laughed and cried my way through Ailsa’s story. Told in her words and her anonymous blog, this was a great read!

A nice YA type read about the first year after a heart transplant. In addition to a few flashbacks, we watch as Ailsa tries to find her way after a life limited by her poor health. The letters with Seb are the best part.

This was an interesting book. A young girl need a heart transplant. The book is written through her blog and emails. II am sure it will be interesting for a younger audience. The first half was mostly the set up and the second half more interaction with people.
I enjoyed the second part. The writing style is different and well written.

I have to say that I struggled with reading the first half/third of this book. I think it was written with an much younger audience in mind, than me, of my 60 years. That part of the book is written in the form of emails between people or showing the posts of a blog Ailse of the main character writes. I did not like this format and it was very difficult for me to get into the plot of the book or care about the characters.

Ailsa was born with a serious heart condition and has never been able to live her life fully. She lives for the moment, since having a future was never an option. Her biological father left the scene when she was born. Her mother stood by her and did almost everything in her power to protect Ailsa. (I say almost, since there is an obvious habit the mother has that she should have quit, but did not.) The book revolves around Ailsa's heart condition and her need for a heart transplant, and then her life after receiving a heart.

Much of the book seemed to me to be a public service announcement about organ transplants. That is not a bad thing, I just would have liked to have known that prior to reading the book.

So that being said, the second part of the book, which was more face to face interaction and dialogue, I enjoyed very much. Once Ailsa took control of her life, made decisions on her own and tried to make a future for herself, the story was easy for me to read.

I am giving the book 4 stars due to my overall feelings of the book. I think the author did an amazing job to tell the story, just not in my taste for part of the book. I hope the dialog of organ donation is discussed more openly as a result of this book.

The Curious Heart Of Aisla Rae will steal many hearts. I dare say one cannot hate this book!

A joyous and super uplifting read! Twenty-eight year old Aisla grew up with a debilitating heart condition, living (but only getting closer to death) with the hope of a new heart. Spoiler Alert: She gets the new heart but finds herself questioning her worth, her new not-so-ill, not-so-special identity. No longer a grow-up child always looked after, it's time for her to spread her wings.

Fans of Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything will adore this gem! I'm rather surprised I've not heard more about this book. A lovely and contemporary coming-of-age novel, written with clever wit and immense heart and wisdom. Aisla Rae, through blog posts, emails, evenings spent dancing, discovers the life she wishes to live and the Aisla that had been restrained for far too long.

'I’d leave you my heart, you know, if I could.’


She's found love before, might she find it again? Is it so important? Is it the right moment? Aisla has the same insecurities and curiosities as anyone her age, and so she is a character so easily understood. Perhaps too cautious, and too resigned to hover on the sidelines, it is finally her moment to shine.

I received this book through NetGalley for review consideration, all opinions are my own and completely honest.