When you are sat there with tears pooling in your eyes from the pure raw emotion in a book it's got to be given the full 5*!

A tough topic that was so highly emotionally charged throughout. At times I was left reeling, tearful, breathless and even angry, a real emotional rollercoaster from the very first chapter.

The characters are fully developed and so full of life you can literally feel there pain and anguish as you're reading. They are not only completely authentic and believable but most importantly relatable. Any parent could pick up this book and feel like they are living the life of Paige or Nick.

Its definitely a book that makes you sit and ponder the 'what if's' of the situation the characters find themselves in and it's really sat with me since finishing.

The ending was wrapped up brilliantly with no questions left unanswered which is always a good thing!

A really hard book to put down and will be a really hard book to forget.

A huge thank you to netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

The perfect couple have everything they want and a baby will put the icing on the cake. Unfortunately things do not go as planned and an emotional rollercoaster follows. The families are very involved in this story and a a parent and a sibling my heart broke for every one of them.

Without giving the storyline away be prepared for a lump in your throat and a ton of soggy kleenex to go with your red eyes and nose. I need a big glass of wine to recover.

Paige and her paediatric surgeon husband Nick are ready to start a family but they discover she has a heart condition that makes pregnancy very dangerous for her. So now they are faced with a heart-wrenching decision: is Paige prepared to risk her life for their child?
With an emotionally charged topic which makes you ponder what you’d do in the same circumstances, this is a beautifully written story that captivates you to the end.

No parent should ever lose a child, no husband should ever have to lose a wife. No one should have to choose.

After acquiring a rare heart condition during her first pregnancy, Paige loses her first child and almost her life as well. She must learn to adjust to her new life with her sick heart as she is on the mend, Paige unexpectedly falls pregnant again, but With her heart still weak both her and her unborn child’s life are at risk.

How does anyone make this decision. To carry the child could risk both of their lives, but to terminate means giving up on being a mother and losing the child she already loves so much. As a person with medical issues this book hits home, as pregnancy is risky for myself. I felt for Paige and Nick as they forged their way through early pregnancy weighing pros and cons and making the hardest decision they could ever make.

I felt the love and connection between Paige and Nick. I felt the love between Paiges family and the couple. Very heartfelt and heartwarming. It was hard to put down.

I had put off reading this for a while because I was a bit scared and nervous if I’m honest. I could tell straight away that this was going to be an emotional read and I knew I had to be in the right mood to read it.

It definitely was an emotional story but it did also have a few heartwarming moments. Throughout the whole story you just wish for happiness for Paige and Nick but this seems less and less likely as the book progresses. The obstacles that are thrown in their way are massive and just as you think things are going so well another bombshell is dropped.

I loved the epilogue at the end of this book and I thought that it bought the story to such a lovely end, all wrapped up with no unanswered questions.

This was such an emotional story. Paige and Nick went through something that no parents should ever have to go through. Events took a turn and all the way through you just willed Paige on and for everything to turn out right. Fantastic book.

This book was beautifully written. As a parent, it was difficult to read about the dilemma which would be devastating if I was in that position. The ending was a bit scrappy but still ok

Hard to put this book down, a gripping story. Decisions to be made but who would they hurt the most.

It’s difficult to describe how much I loved this book.

I loved the characters, Paige and Nick have such a great relationship, and strong support from theit family and friends. The story is told from both of their points of view, which I really liked. It gave me great insight into each of them.

They’re in such an impossible situation. Having grieved, and pulled together, over the tragedy of losing their baby, now they need to make such a huge decision.

The characters are so authentic that it feels as if you know them, and your heart will break for them.

This is a book that’s both hard to put down, and hard to forget. It’s moving and beautiful.

So emotive, and so poignant and compelling, it will stay with me for a long time. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

Many people have black and white ideas about how they would react to any situation. I have always maintained that you dont know what you'll do until it's real, and this novel from Vanessa Carnevale really brings that thought to light. She tugs at your heartstrings easily, with truly complex characters, not only the central couple but their friends and families as well. I appreciated her ability to introduce all different possibilities and solutions. I think My Life For Yours will make a superb book discussion selection. I found myself needing to talk it over both during and after reading.
3.5
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Your life or your unborn child’s – how do you choose?

Paige and Nick are excited about the upcoming birth of their first child. But tragedy strikes when they learn that Paige suffers from a rare and life-threatening heart condition and they lose their longed-for child. Further heartbreak comes when they learn Paige may never fully recover and it may never be safe for her to carry a child.

Just as they are coming to terms with their loss, Paige learns she is unexpectedly pregnant and they find themselves faced with an impossible and heartbreaking choice: Paige's life or her unborn child's?

This book went right to my soul. Moving, devastating, heartwarming and tender, this made me feel all the feelings.

The author examines an array of complex personal and emotional issues in this story: a woman's right to choose what happens with her own body, the pressure from family and friends to do what they think is right instead of giving the woman the support in her choice, the fear of a husband and family at the thought of losing someone precious and irreplaceable, and the medical and moral dilemma of weather a mother's life is more important than that of her unborn child's. She portrays all the fear, emotion and intricacies that accompany these issues and shows how it can divide a family at a time they need to come together the most. She also looks at how our past affects those feelings and decisions and the difficult journey of accepting when life doesn't turn out how we planned and learning to acquiesce to the path we're given.

The characters were all well written and I quickly took to both Paige and Nick. They are two people caught up in a devastating situation that tests the limits of their love and their own strength. I empathised with them both as they agonised over the decision but found I could relate to Paige in particular as I've had my own struggles with pregnancy, infertility, and health problems affecting the decisions you need to make when planning a family, and I understood her overwhelming desire to keep her child no matter the cost to herself.

The story is beautifully written, the poignant prose immersing you in this gut-wrenchingly raw and thought-provoking novel. I didn't want to put this book down, needing to know how things ended for Paige and Nick, while also being terrified of what might happen.

I would highly recommend this book. Just make sure you have tissues on hand and are ready to ugly cry.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

Reading the description of the book didn’t quite prepare me for the emotional roller-coaster this book was.

Told from the perspective of Paige and Nick, the book takes us from their beautiful relationship into unknown territory, when Paige develops a heart problem during her first, long-awaited pregnancy. This results in her losing her baby and turning their world upside down.

When Paige gets pregnant again, an unplanned pregnancy and one that is potentially dangerous for both her and the baby, all hell breaks loose. Paige is determined to keep the baby, while Nick, her family and friends don’t want her to put her life at risk.

There are so many issues that have been dealt with so beautifully by the author – the right of a woman to decide about her body, how families often don’t give the individual members the freedom to choose, a husband’s fear of losing the love of his life, the whole medical ethical question of whose life is more important – a mother’s or the baby’s…. Then there’s the question of how our experiences of the past influence our present. Nick’s unresolved guilt of the past, won’t allow him to have another person die on his watch. This leads him to act in ways that almost causes a break up with Paige. But through it all – there’s love and kindness and letting go written about with poignant prose.

The two main characters are wonderful people caught up in something so difficult that tests the limits of their love and personality. You empathize with both of them and you shed tears as you read both their perspectives on this heartbreaking choice. All of the other characters too are so well etched by the author.

I just had to read this book right through, waiting to see how it ends, and yet not wanting it to end at all! That for me is what a beautiful book makes the reader feel!

You can just tell from the blurb of this book that it’s going to be a highly emotive read, that pulls on all of your heart strings, is likely going to make you cry and be difficult emotionally to read!

… I couldn’t have been more right! This has to be one of the most EMOTIONAL and heart-wrenching books that I have EVER read, but written in such a beautiful and sensitive and considerate way!

This is one where I can’t talk about the story line any more than what the blurb tells you without giving things away so I’m going to focus on a couple of the main points in the story that you can see on the blurb!

Firstly.. the loss of a child! Now if I had read this 5 years ago, before I was a mother myself, I don’t think it would have hit me quite as hard as it has now! This was so heart breaking to read, it literally had me in tears! The pain the grief the loss, how many people it effects! I just couldn’t imagine the pain and suffering people go through with the loss of a child and it was truely devastating to read!

Then to go on and fall pregnant again but to be told they have to choose Paiges life or the baby… how do you even make such a truely agonising and impossible decision? So many couples must go through this every year and I just cannot begin to imagine how they make that final decision!

What’s amazing about this book is how we switch between the couples POV so we switch between Paige and Nick! It shows the different views as to which is the right choice to make for them and the reasons! It’s so raw and feels incredibly honest and I found this whole book completely thought provoking… like how would I feel.. what would I do if I were in this position… and even right now I still couldn’t give you an answer! It shows how strong a mother’s love is and how deep it goes even for your unborn child! The connections you have with that baby that you carry is just purely instinctual! You would do whatever you could to protect them! This really hit so many hard emotions for me!

Now, Nick and Paige as a couple are just amazing, yes they have their tough times but their relationship through all of this is so incredible! Nick is so so sensitive and Paige just has so much faith through all those terribly hard times!

I really feel this author has written this book PERFECTLY, she’s been honest, and raw and yet so sensitive about such a hard hitting subject! There aren’t just heart breaking moments but heart warming ones to, and that’s just what makes this book such a beautiful read!

I’m so so happy to give this book 5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ for such amazing writing, for such a thought provoking read and one that really hit all my emotions through such an emotional week for me!

I would really love to experience more from this author! So so beautiful, thank you for this whole emotional rollercoaster of a book!

Oh what an emotional read this is. It is a great story needing tissues but the end wasn't what I was expecting. Highly recommended

Thank you Net Galley for the chance to read this book & give an honest review.
This was such an emotional & heartbreaking story. You can’t help but feel the pain & the love a mother has for her child. I definitely went through the tissues. It was hard to put down & I read it pretty quickly. It’s a great book & I highly recommend this book.

First, I want to thank Vanessa Carnevale, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

You will need a box of tissues handy for this must read book! I couldn’t stop tearing up while reading Vanessa Canevale’s latest book My Life For Yours! My heart ached so bad for Paige and Nick!

I knew by the cover that this would be a book to pull on my heart strings. A pair of baby shoes and the title My Life For Yours. So simple yet so powerful!

Vanessa brings awareness to peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) a very serious and emotional topic for women in this book. Sadly, Paige lost one of her babies this way and it was very heartbreaking. Vanessa did an incredible job bringing out all the emotions surrounding the loss, how other family members felt, and educated her readers on this disease. Not only that gave the statistics of what would happen if she tried to have another baby.

Due to the situation there was a lot of family drama intertwined in this story.

This is one ending that I thought was going to end one way but WOW totally shocked me!! I was so happy it didn’t end the way I thought it was going to!

My hope is this book can help someone going through this or that knows someone that went through this. It sounded very scary.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
What an inter concept. Would you be able to bring a much wanted child into the world knowing that it was likely that you would die in the process?
Paige and Nick are a beautiful couple who survive the disaster of a stillborn baby boy Max. Paige has a heart condition that means if she gets pregnant it is likely there will be a decision to be made. Her or the baby....
Can her marriage to Nick survive and what happens when the unthinkable happens.
Fabulous read and very relatable book.

My Life For Yours by Vanessa Carnevale is a book that stays with you long after you have turned the final page. It is a heart wrenching, soul searching story. One which no one every wishes to experience in their lifetime, but, sadly, it happens to some.
Paige and Nick are a couple who have everything they need and the final piece of happiness is their baby boy they are expecting.Then, they discover Paige has a rare heart condition which could kill her and their baby, Max is born asleep. They are told to wait until Paige has her condition under control then try for a baby but as life is, nothing goes to plan and she discovers she is pregnant again.
This is a heartbreaking story of an impossible choice that not one of us should need to make. They have already had a loss they can hardly take then are faced with this.
A story any mother will be able to empathise with, I could,and found it was a sucker punch when faced with a decision that either leaves Nick as a single father, without his beloved wife or as a widow because Paige could easily die also. Then there is the other option of losing another child. A horrific decision to make.
A highly emotional story and one which the author has treated exquisitely. She has found the right balance of emotion with hope for the book. Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC to write this blog post today.

Oh my gosh! What an emotional roller coaster ride! Paige and Nick’s first pregnancy, their longed-for baby boy was soon to be with them. But a few weeks before the due date, Paige discovered she had a rare heart condition that could come on toward the end of pregnancy. Although Paige’s life was saved, their baby boy didn’t make it. Devastated, Nick and Paige grieved, both wondering if they would never be blessed with children. Paige’s heart needed to repair before she could risk pregnancy again…

When Paige unexpectedly fell pregnant for the second time, emotions were in turmoil. What would they do? Paige’s heart was still weak – her life as well as her baby’s was at risk. The decision had to be made, but Nick and Paige couldn’t agree. With time running out, tempers flared, emotions overflowed – either way life would be different for Nick. How could anyone make the decision to choose either the life of his wife, or the life of his child?

<i>My Life For Yours</i> by Aussie author Vanessa Carnevale is an amazing, emotional, heartfelt and absolutely brilliant book. This is my third by Ms Carnevale and I’ve loved each one. But this one, I have to say, is her best yet! <i>My Life For Yours</i> brought me to tears a number of times; I can’t imagine what the characters of the book were going through! I can’t recommend this one highly enough - I still have goosebumps!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

A difficult book to review where I had to scrutinize my inner emotions along with realities of life, but the story was all heart. Author Vanessa Carnevale knew how to put the characters in a life-defining dilemma and watch them take their decisions.

It was both heart breaking and heart warming. I tapped the screen of my kindle almost fervently, and only the last page of the book told me the absolute truth.

Paige was expecting, and her husband Nick was over the moon. In the last trimester, she became dizzy and breathless, and the baby stopped moving. A catastrophe had occurred. Paige was diagnosed to have heart failure, and future pregnancy was contraindicated until her heart strengthened. But she became pregnant. Most of her family including husband wanted her to terminate as it was a risk to her life. Would she?

There was no right or wrong decisions, just those that were taken by the heart. Nick wanted Paige to survive and not be a single dad. Paige just wanted her baby to live.

Skirmishes abounded, there were no right answers. Love was present between the two main characters in their every action, even when they were on opposite sides in their decisions.

The prose came with huge dollops of talent and love as each situation between them came alive. The story was identifiable as I can’t have kids due to my underlying cardiac condition. I kept putting myself in the situation that Paige was in. What would I have chosen?

This was a book which was fiction but a reality for me. Life presented so many twists, and many of them were invariable. The story was compelling to the point of addiction. I couldn’t rest until I knew what would happen. It almost tempted me to read the last chapter first.

Empathy for the characters and truths of life emboldened the story. Tears mingled with smiles, desperation with acceptance. It was everything I hoped for but nothing I was prepared to deal with. An emotional read.