After really enjoying the first in this series, I was really excited to read this. The characters are really likable, especially Aidan. I felt like we missed the initial connection complexities and were thrown into the story part of the way through.

I received this book as an ARC - so thank you to the publisher!

While this book was cute it fell short. I didn’t really love any of the characters. I think from 0-75% it was good, after 50% it got slower and then the end felt disconnected and disappointing. I will say I’m not a huge second chance romance person to begin with.

The cover tho! I think it’s adorable! I’d still totally recommend this book - it wasn’t wrong just more not for me.

While I loved 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬, I don’t know if I needed 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. Overall I thought it was just okay. It’s a short read with an HEA.

There’s a big willful miscommunication trope that runs throughout the book. I cannot stand when two adults cannot just sit down and talk. It stems from both of the characters not being emotionally mature enough to have the tough conversations, which is realistic(ish) for real life but annoying nonetheless. Thankfully both characters do have a bit of character growth as the book progresses and FINALLY start to talk.

I really did like the characters, but I didn’t really see the initial passion and chemistry between them because the book picks up 2 years after they meet. You do get to see how well they work together as the book progresses. The overall plot was cute if very predictable.

The author does a great job of being inclusive in her writing. Cielo being a cancer survivor gave her independent and kind of standoffish attitude an undertone of truth. However, IMO she’s kinda annoying and we’re inundated with the fact that she’s “strong/independent/hard working/etc” but she came off as emotionally stunted to me. She also expects all of these things from Aiden but doesn’t reciprocate at all. It always seemed like she thought Aiden should be the one putting in all of the work..

I really enjoyed this! 4/5 stars. Normally, musician romances are not my thing, but I didn't hate this.

This is the second book in the Love in Galway series. I definitely recommend reading Morbidly Yours first. This is a fun second-chance romance with lots of yearning and some enjoyable spice. Aidan is a songwriter who writes all his songs for her (swoon!).

At times, the story feels a bit disjointed, and her mom is a particularly frustrating character. But overall, I really enjoyed it!

This was such a charming sophomore work by Ms. Fairbanks. Morbidly Yours was my favorite read of 2023, so I was so thrilled when I received this arc. Ms. Fairbanks is such a master storyteller. She writes fantastic scenes of romances that are multidimensional. She has such a natural gift that really gets the reader emotionally tied to the characters. A fantastic story, that was emotional, funny, passionate, and heartfelt.

*2.75
After loving Fairbanks' debut, I was let down by this installment. You can tell that this second novel wasn't necessarily conceptualized when the first was released because we had no prior knowledge of this relationship. The characters were difficult for me to connect with and I unfortunately just saw lust between them. I wanted more groveling, more tension, less tell and more show. I also felt like the plot was being pulled in so many directions that it took away from the romance.

Still excited to see what Fairbanks does next, this one just wasn't for me!

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC!

Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I loved this book! Cielo is amazing and I really like her personality. Aidan is basically the perfect man lol i mean, he's an accomplished musician writing songs about the love of his life *swoon* and he's also a very decent person in general. The book is spicy but also deals with real issues in a way that makes the story amazing (Abby Jimenez vibes for sure!)
If you like romance novels that make you laugh out loud but are also a little on the spicy side this one is for you! Read Morbidly Yours first though! It's also pretty great!

the beginning of this book started a bit slow but once it got going it was there! anything ivy writes will be amazing! i stand by that statement forever and so forth!

I just really enjoyed this story and I just didn’t want it to end. I just lost myself in and I just couldn’t get enough of these interesting characters. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

Heart Strings is a second chance romance between a man who got famous as a singer-songwriter and a woman in medical school set in Ireland. I love basically all books with a musician because I love anything that talks about the art of creating a song and I've really come around to loving second chance romances. In this case, the second chance is coming about because Aiden is back in town for the wedding of his best friend who is marrying Lo's cousin (the couple from book one, Morbidly Yours). The reason the two had split up originally is because Aiden needed to move to London and also go on a tour for his career and Lo was not willing to risk a long distance relationship because of her past.

One of the things I found really interesting about this book is that the second chance requires both Aiden and Lo to try and figure out how/if they want to give their relationship another shot given that they're both still in the same position. Aiden is still pursuing his music career and Lo is still in medical school. But neither of them has been able to let go of one another and so even though the situation hasn't really changed, both of them have come to recognize the importance of the other. But even with that being said, especially for Lo, there's so much internal emotional work that needs to be done, for both of them.

In addition, I did enjoy a lot of the plot surrounding the wedding and I think these two wound up in some interesting situations. I think they have excellent chemistry and I found myself really anxious about how they were going to make it all work, but so hopeful for them to get it together. Ultimately though, I do think the situation was something that was hard for me to truly wind up believing these two will be together forever, but I really did like it!

I want to make a note that Lo survived cancer in her childhood and she has a scan during this book and without spoiling anything about the plot of that, I just want it noted so that if cancer is a trigger for you, you can go in prepared. DM me if you need a spoiler about how the scan resolves itself.

I was really excited to see this one, after enjoying MORBIDLY YOURS! I loved the 2nd chance premise, but struggled to find any likability in the FMC… which isn’t necessarily terrible, I like unlikeable leads, but the wedding setting and the deeply heavy family/health trauma made the entire thing fall a bit short? I still really love this particular universe and characters, and I can’t wait to read Saoirse’s story!

A promising second-chance romance that didn’t fully hit the right notes. Heart Strings had all the ingredients for a swoony, emotional second-chance romance: a strong heroine, a tattooed Irish lawyer-turned-musician, and plenty of unresolved tension. While I appreciated Ivy Fairbanks’ premise and the emotional weight behind Lo’s backstory as a cancer survivor, the execution left me feeling more detached than invested.

The chemistry between Lo and Aidan was undeniable, but the story leaned a little too heavily on physical attraction rather than building an emotional reconnection. I wanted deeper character growth, especially for Lo—her past trauma and strained family dynamics deserved more thoughtful resolution. The wedding setup was a fun way to force proximity, but the romance itself felt rushed despite the couple’s history.

Fans of angsty, steamy second-chance love stories might enjoy this one more than I did. While it didn’t quite deliver the emotional payoff I was hoping for, I’m still curious to see what Ivy Fairbanks writes next.

*Thank you to NETGALLEY and the publishers for an ARC copy*


This book was so good. There are only a few second chance romances that I like and this is one of them!!!

A SUBMISSIVE MAN AND DOMMY MOMMY ABSOLUTELY 🤩

No third act break up…oh that’s another thing checked off ✅

The only thing I wanted was for the main female character to tell her mom how she feels as opposed to us getting told that she is working on her relationship with her mother.

GIYS THIS BOOK IS SOOOO GOOD 😊

i'm sad to say I didn't enjoy this book like I did with morbidly yours. i wish their love story was presented better and introducted in the first book. I frankly did not connect much with either character and the constant lust factor really took me out of it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam and Ivy Fairbanks for this ARC copy! Much love always.

While I enjoyed this, I feel as though maybe this wasn't for ME in particular. I'm already iffy about second chance tropes, but since I loved Morbidly Yours, I wanted to give it a shot!
In fact, the second chance aspect isn't what bothered me at all. It was the miscommunication, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. It just felt like a tool to make the book longer when the characters were already together. The second thing, the aspect that really took a star off for ME, was that bondage and light dominance were more than half of the spice in this book. While I don't mind those themes sometimes, not being prepared for them beforehand just threw me off.
That being said, I liked the characters, however I wish there was more overlap between books. I felt like I was walking into the middle of a story I knew very little about. I would have liked to hear more about Callum and Lark as well, but they were just kind of floating around in the background.
I love Ivy Fairbanks' writing, it's like a hug in a book and I think her strength is taking on difficult topics while making them palatable for a wide audience. I think this book will be a favorite of a lot of people, even if some of the themes weren't my particular favorite.
Very, very excited to what is in store next and I will be eagerly waiting to return to Galway! <3

I loved the first book in this series and had really high hopes for the second. It definitely lived up to those high hopes! I feel like the author does a beautiful job of letting us see the full parts of her characters rather than just their really big positive traits and their major flaws. I love seeing the story evolve and feel like the pacing is perfection. I absolutely love the stories and will continue to try and read this series!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a pretty good romance book! I adored Morbidly Yours by this author, so my expectations for this book were pretty high. While Morbidly Yours is still my favourite from Ivy Fairbanks, I thought this book was also well done and interesting. Cielo and Aidan were great together, and they definitely had a lot of chemistry together. I found the side plots interesting as well, apart from the romance, and I also loved the side characters, particularly Aidan's family! I also really enjoyed the backdrop of Callum and Lark's wedding in this one. Overall, I would recommend both of Ivy Fairbanks' books! :)

Makes me wanna Galway so bad and experience my own romance with a red head musician lol I love second chance it will just do it for me everytime

I was so excited for this book after absolutely loving Morbidly Yours but, it definitely fell short for me.

I found the first half very focused on the other couple from the first book. Don’t get me wrong I loved them but it felt like they were stealing the spotlight a little bit. I’m usually not one for second chance romances because I find the reason they weren’t together in the first place to be a bit silly and that was the case with this one! It just seemed like they could have had a conversation years ago and it would have been resolved. So it was hard to get excited for them.

I did enjoy the banter between the characters! They were quite funny! Definitely all new to me spicy scenes! Very creative and unique 🤭 Ivy Fairbanks does a great job at immersing you in the setting that makes you feel like you are there with the characters. So props to her! 👏🏻

Overall, I was just not invested in the characters enough to care sadly.

Thank you to Ivy Fairbanks, Penguin Group Putnam, and NetGalley for the eARC and the opportunity to review honestly!