Gone Too Soon by Dani Atkins. An amazing book. Written from both the lady excepting the heart and the husband of the lady who died giving the heart. Read the book.

This was a good read. Interesting how everything g came together in the end and how all the characters connected and intertwined.

To be honest, this is not a genre that I read a lot. I read to escape, and emotional stories are not escapism to me – usually. Something about this one spoke to me though, and I’m so glad that I picked it up. It packs a heckuva emotional punch and I loved every minute of it. I thought that the author perfectly captured the balance between joy and grief and did an exceptionally good job of illustrating the two sides of a tragic event. There were also some good messages for the reader to take away, including that it is easy to get caught up in what one hopes might happen and be blinded to what is really happening. I was carried along by Alex and Molly (and the others). I could feel their world. I couldn’t put this book down and would highly recommend it. For a detailed review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of the book.

This story starts by introducing us to Alex, Lisa and their six year old son Connor. Connor was a sweet, shy boy who I immediately fell in love with. When Lisa dies in a tragic accident, Alex honours her wishes and donates her organs. They are used in transplants for four people (heart, kidney, lungs, corneas). The story takes place over the next year as Alex and Connor try and deal with their grief and Molly, Barbara, Jamie and Mac begin their new lives integrating into each others as well as Alex's and his family.

The story is told from Molly's and Alex's point of views in alternating chapters. Molly was suffering from heart failure and Lisa's heart saved her life. This was a heartbreaking story. Dealing with grief, especially in a young child is hard. I connected to Connor's feelings having lost my father when I was only eight. Alex was looking for Lisa in the organ recipients in different ways. I had read about organ recipients taking on characteristics of the donor and suddenly liking things they had hated before, but the donor loved, but I am not sure how true that all is. I have a very dear friend who is a heart transplant survivor, so again, there was another connection there as well. I enjoyed seeing how this group became like a chosen family. I was worried about Alex for awhile there, but with Connor to take care of, I am glad he came around. I will not share what else happens in this story, but there were some moments where I was holding my breath, some where I had tears in my eyes and some where I was smiling widely. There is some romance, but that is not the main point of this story. This is a well written and pace story with relatable and developed characters. I recommend this on to those who like good family stories, stories dealing with grief and those who survive it, as well as stories of human nature. I am a true believer in being an organ donor and think a story like this one will help people understand the importance of that. This is my first book by Dani Atkins, but I know it won't be my last.

Gone Too Soon by Dani Atkins is an emotional rollercoaster read centering on a tragic accident that brings a broken family together with four strangers who all share something special. When Alex loses his wife, Lisa to a tragic accident, he does not know how he will ever move on nor how Connor, their six year old soon, will ever be able to cope with losing his mother. But, can four strangers help both Alex and Connor to heal from their loss?

Dani Atkins has written a heartbreaking story centered around a devastating accident that took the life of a loving wife and mother. The story is raw and emotional, but also filled with hope, forgiveness and new beginnings especially for the four lives that Lisa touched after her death. I do admit to being a little nervous with the direction the story seemed to have been taking, but I am glad it did not venture into that particular territory as I think I would have been on the fence about it. I know this sounds a little vague, but you will understand once you read the story.

Dani Atkins really brings to the forefront one of the most selfless acts a person can do upon death and that is organ donation. How many lives are saved each year because of the kindness of others? I don’t think organ donation is something most people think about because it means thinking about your own mortality. I never really thought about organ donation until I went to renew my driver’s license and they asked if I wanted to be a donor. It really made me think of the lives that could be saved after I am gone. This story really hits home and makes you stop and think of the good that you can do for others.

I highly recommend reading Dani Atkin’s newest release, Gone Too Soon. You will be completely drawn in and taken with this tragic yet beautifully written story.

I received an ARC from Bookouture through NetGalley and this is my honest review. Alex lost his wife and Connor lost his mother in an accident. Alex learned that his wife Lisa had chosen to be an organ donor. He learned that she helped four people, Molly, Mac, Jamie, and Barbara. They started by writing letters and then they met.
The story will take us from Alex and Connor learning to live without Lisa, and it will also show us how a donor-recipient feels after receiving the organ that could save their lives or let them see. There are times you feel like Lisa is there in some form, in some ways each one has feelings and intuition that were different, for them, and they couldn't quite figure it out. They built a friendship that helped each other through all that they were dealing with.

Alex & Lisa were the almost perfect couple. They had a son Connor who was attached to his mom and loved astronomy as she did. Lisa was an expert speaker on astronomy and was on the train to go give a speech. The train had a wreck and Lisa was injured.
Alex had to make choices no family person would want to make in regards to their loved ones life. There are other complex decisions that Alex was faced with that would have repercussions not only for him, but his son and his own immediate family,but the ones that will be affected directly as well.

The book was written so expressive and handled with kindness and genuine emotions. The characters are strong and believable. The storyline flows and grows from start to finish!

I loved the book and would recommend this to my friends.

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

A beautifully told emotional tale. Dani Atkins definitely tugged on my heartstrings with this evocative story. The story begins with Alex saying goodbye to his beautiful wife for what turns out to be the last time. Lisa a devoted wife and mother with a passion for astronomy who was gone too soon. As Alex begins the process of grief he is informed that Lisa signed up to be an organ donor. Knowing his wife would always want to help out those in need Alex agrees to this. Lisa‘s organs save/improve the lives of four random people. And Alex is left picking up the pieces not knowing how he’s going to manage this, much less his six-year-old son Connor. Driven by his grief and need to understand Alex connects with the four people who benefited from Lisa’s organ donation. What follows is a lovely story filled with hope, encouragement, strength, grief, and second chances.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Alex and Molly. Molly is a 32-year-old elementary teacher who received leases heart. I really liked Molly she had such a kind spirit about her. Alex was a good guy who was so shattered, my heart broke for both him and his young son. What I loved most about this book was the found family that these organ beneficiaries found with one another as well as Alex. It’s kind of funny that there was so much feel goodness in this book about grief.

Now on a personal note I need to address something about the book that did not sit well with me. I myself suffer from a degenerative I disease like one of the characters in the story who received a cornea transplant. First of all I want to point out that you cannot get an eye transplant or a retina transplant, so most people who are blind would not benefit at this point in time from any kind of transplant. And as much as I liked this particular character in the story, I really wish he was not included. The thing is getting a cornea transplant is not life-saving it is life enhancing. Being blind is not a death sentence it is a disability that many people live with daily. It was unfortunate and truthfully a little hurtful every time it was mentioned that this man’s life was pretty much over with because of his disease that caused his blindness. I don’t believe that this was the intent of the book or the author and I debated whether or not to mention it in my review. I decided that I needed to be true to myself and I needed to say something. And I need to mention one more thing, I really don’t mean to nitpick, but... blind people are more tactile than sighted people, however they don’t actually invade peoples personal space and touch them “as seen on TV“. Now this is not an indictment of this book that I will reiterate was very good it is just a little reminder for all of us to be a little more mindful.

This book in emojis 🌕 🫀 🪐 🫁 💫

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Thank you, Bookouture, for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for this book which was a very emotional read for me!

Find my full review here:

https://www.healthybodymindandsoul.net/healthy-mind-blog/gone-too-soon-bookouture-blog-tour

This is the third book I have read by this author and definitely will not be the last! This was such a moving and beautiful story, with wonderful and amazing characters. I absolutely can see this as a movie, one that would make you grab for your tissues and have a good cry over, one that pulls you in and holds you captive from beginning to end. The premise of the story and the characters were what made this book so strong and so profound. Be prepared for a very emotional read, one that will stay with you for a long long time... Absolutely beautiful.

It is devastating to families and friends when they lose someone they love before we think it's their time to go. But I'm sure you've heard the saying that everything happens for a reason. (SPOILER ALERT) One thing that will carry on a person's memory is organ donation. There are many, many people in need of organs and usually the only way to get them is with someone's death. There are very few live organ transplants available at this time. Organ donation will not bring your loved one back but it will carry their memory on for years and save another persons life.

This book has done an excellent job of relaying the sadness and difficulties those left behind have to deal with but if organs are donated to others it leaves a silver lining.

I received an ebook ARC from Netgalley and this is my voluntary, honest review.

This was so good and full of a lot of emotions.
Lisa and Alex are married with a young son named Connor. One morning they get up and get ready for the day as they always do. Lisa leaves for work. Then there is a train crash and Alex is crushed because he can't get Lisa to answer her phone and he knew she was on the train. Getting the phone call to come to the hospital was a nightmare.
Lisa was an organ donor. Because of that it changed the lives of 4 people. When Alex contacts them a relationship forms between all of them. Even Connor comes to enjoy them.
So the question is if your spouse/partner was a donor, would you want to know who received the organs? Or if you received organs would you want to say thank you to the family?
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGlley for the ARC to review.

I finished this book last night, and my heart was broken, it was healed, it grieved, it celebrated. Gone Too Soon is about love: finding love, losing love, love of friends, love of family. The characters in this book felt like my family and friends, and each moment that I was reading I longed for them to find peace and hope. We read about true heroes in this book—organ donors who save countless lives, restore sight—giving people a chance to love and live again. I haven’t read other books by this author, but I hope to go back and read her other books. I fell in love with her writing and the heart she poured into this story and its characters.

First, I want to thank Dani Atkins, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Dani Atkins Gone Too Soon is such a beautifully written emotionally charged story that will have you reaching for your tissues. On many occasions I shed a tear for a character or situation. This is one story you will be wanting to put on your must read pile.

I know the saying don’t judge a book by its cover. However if it grabs your attention you will want to see what the synopsis is about. For me I was hooked line and sinker with the beautiful cover of the mother and son. It pulled on my heart strings seeing the picture and then the title. The colors they chose for the graphic cover were so pretty. Oh and then you have the title that indicated this would be a good tearjerker of a book-one of my favorite kinds. This was the perfect cover for this Gone Too Soon.

In Gone Too Soon Dani Atkins brings awareness to Organ Donation and Cellular Memory. The Cellular Memory I found very interesting as I didn't know much about this topic. With everything going on in the world today Organ Donation is a topic that needs to be addressed. Nobody wants to lose a loved one but this is a way to preserve their memory and give someone a second chance at life.

The beginning of this book was written like something ripped from the headlines. Incredibly intense scenes that had me on pins and needles to find out what happened. My heart ached for all of those involved.

You could just feel the passion Dani had for each of her characters she had written. Each of them had their own incredible story that linked them all together that needed to be told.

One of my favorite characters was sweet Connor! Oh he pulled on my heartstrings hard and many times I teared up during his scenes. He was too young to understand all that was happening. I wanted to give him a big hug.

There was a surprise love connection that I didn't really see coming. Infact, I was actually rooting for someone else to steal her heart.

one too Soon is an emotional journey through grief for a small tight knit family. Lisa is married to Alex and they have a six year old son named Connor. Alex feels that Lisa saved him by seeing the person he was under his rough exterior and they had a happy and fulfilling marriage. Connor and his mom have a very close relationship and they deeply connect over astronomy - she is an astronomer and is teaching him about the stars. One normal morning, she has to take the train to present a paper the Astronomy Fair. She promises Connor that the two of them will go to the museum very soon. Then she kisses her husband and son and leaves the catch the train. But the train never gets to its destination because there is an accident and Lisa is critically injured. When Alex finally finds the hospital that she's been taken to, the doctors inform him that Lisa is brain dead and will not recover. The doctors also tell him that she wanted to be an organ donor and wanted to help other people regain their lives. He agrees and her heart, eyes, lungs and kidney are donated to four people. In his grief, he feels that he has to meet the four people because part of Lisa lived on in them. As he and Connor struggle with their grief, he eventually meets the four people who were able to have their lives back thanks to Lisa's gift. This story is also told from Molly's point of view. She is the woman who received Lisa's heart. As she struggles to come to terms with her new life, she begins to feel very strongly for Alex and Connor. Will continuing to be friends with the four organ recipients prolong Alex's grief or will he begin to heal? Can he and Connor become close again and become a family of two?

This is an emotional book about a very sensitive topic. The author lets us feel the family's grief and the characters are so well written that you understand their struggles. I can guarantee some tears as you read this book. This is my first book by this author and I plan to read some of her earlier books now. She tells a beautiful story that is full of grief but ends on a note of hopefulness for the future.

Even just from the description, you can tell that this book is such an emotional role coaster. Obviously, it’s a book that deals with a young mother’s death and her husband and son recovering from that, but it’s also SO MUCH more than that, and that’s what makes this book so good. I (obviously) teared up a lot throughout the book, but I left it with an overall really positive feeling. It’s overall tone is one of hope.

The characters - Alex, and family, and Molly and the recipients of Lisa’s organs - are so well-drawn that I became very invested in their stories and I was really rooting for them. Their stories were all really well developed and I felt like I was there with them as they each worked to overcome their own struggles and adjust to their new lives. The author did a great job of interweaving all of the characters and stories to create a tapestry of characters and a very deep, moving story.

The ending was also right where it should have been, in my opinion, I think at first, the instinct is for it to go in another direction, but reading to the end, the author really nailed it. I don’t want to give anything away, but everyone really ended up exactly where they should have been.

Overall, this book was the perfect read for a cozy weekend. It will make you cry, smile, feel joy, sadness, hopeful, etc. all at the same time. If you’re a fan of Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult and the like, this is definitely a book you would enjoy - pick it up!

Gone Too Soon by Dani Atkins is an excellent, emotional novel about a widowed husband becoming friends with the organ donor recipients from his late wife.

Gone Too Soon starts out with Lisa dying in a train accident. She donates her organs to four people. Molly, a teacher in her thirties, receives Lisa’s heart. Mac, an architect that had to give up his job and lost the life he knew when going blind, received Lisa’s corneas. Jamie, a young man that fabricates stories, receives Lisa’s lungs. Barbara, a lonely woman that loves her cats, receives Lisa’s kidney. Alex, Lisa’s husband, keeps in contact with all of the organ recipients. Alex is also trying to figure out how to raise his son, Connor.

I really enjoyed Gone Too Soon. I was instantly invested in all of the characters. This made it very emotional when Lisa passes away. Gone Too Soon is an interesting and unique story. I thought I wanted something to happen in the book, but Atkins had other plans that I liked much better. Alex develops a friendship with the organ recipients. This is unusual and difficult for everyone at times. Alex is looking for characteristics from his wife but has to figure out how to seem the recipients as their own people. All of the characters are very unique, so I really enjoyed reading about their interactions and how they fit into each other’s lives. The book takes place over the year after Lisa’s death. All of the characters had a difficult year and have to figure out how to move on with their changed life. The book is told from Alex and Molly’s perspectives which makes this great story even more interesting. Molly receives Lisa’s heart and Alex feels the biggest connection to Molly.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for Gone Too Soon.

Lisa, a wife and mother, is killed on a train while on her way to a conference. She has a wish to donate her organs and her husband, Alex, honors that wish. In an effort to help himself heal and stay connected to Lisa he contacts the people who were saved by Lisa’s organs. What follows is a heart tugging story.

I loved this book and has trouble putting it down. It’s a story of healing after suddenly losing the most important person in your life. I highly recommend this book!

Alex's life takes a major turn when his wife suddenly dies in a large train accident, but when he discovers that she made a decision about her body after she died, he realizes that this could change his life. Told through Alex and one of the people who's life is impacted by Lisa's death, Molly, this story takes twists and turns as Alex deals with grief and tries to figure out a new path in life.

There is no spoiling the fact that Alex's wife Lisa dies in the first or second chapter and that is the early catalyst that sets this story in motion. For me, it was interesting reading those early chapters and seeing the affects of a large scale accident on a family member trying to get answers. You see those events take place and you see the catastrophe on tv and I often think of the first responders and the investigation, but have never thought about the family members who want answers and how difficult that can be, even with the technology that we currently have.

The other thing that intrigued me was the potential hurdles if/when a donor patient interacts with a donor family. The way the author handled the interactions from my point of view felt honest full of a real mix of emotions. From covering a scar to the awkward questions about the deceased, I would love to know the accuracy of this piece of fiction, but also hope that it is pretty close to real life!

This was a great book that tackles a topic - organ donation - that I don't know that I have ever read about. I love reading books about human topics that I don't have experience with and feel could be taboo and this one was well done.

I made it about half way through this one and completely lost interest. I struggled for another chapter or two before closing it out. I'll puck it up at a later date and see how it goes then. Different books for different moods and all that.