Divided

Divided is a unique and very interesting story about a young woman, Mishca, who struggles with finding who she is after a heart transplant. The story hooks you from the first sentence and never really lets you go.

The author writes so well and makes Mishca’s feelings pop off the page, and it lets the reader feel her struggles with accepting that her life meant someone else had to die. It all seems so real and every page you want to reach into the book and give Mishca a comforting hug. The characters and the settings also feel real, and it’s all shown with just the right amount of descriptions.

As the story moves on it turn into a very interesting love story, which end up getting extremely exciting as Mishca starts discovering she has extraordinary powers. As if Mishca didn’t already have enough to struggle with, but together with Mishca’s determination to discover the truth about her background, this makes for such an exciting read.

And just when you think that you have it all figured out, you get a pleasant slap in the face for being wrong. The way the story twists and turns is remarkable, and in the end I simply found myself gawking at the last page with my mouth wide open. But that’s very much a good thing.

It feels mainly like a romance novel, but with some very interesting elements of Sci-Fi, which also happened to be the part I loved the most. It can be a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning, but the writing feels so real that it didn’t affect me that much. The book also spans over a pretty long period, and time can pass a lot between chapters, which sometimes made me a little confused. However, these things do not take away from the story in any way, and it’s just a minor thing for me.

Overall, I’m blown away with the way Sharon M. Johnston made this story come alive, and how she managed to make it fun and romantic while at the same time dealing with deep and heavy subjects.

I’ve given this book a very strong 4,5 stars (and why not round it up to 5), and this is a book I can highly recommend to anyone.

Read it!

*** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review! ***

There were so many things I loved about this book!

Mischa feels disconnected from her peers. Not only does her skin color not match that of her adopted parents, she's also been saddled with a hole in her heart that keeps her from getting to do anything remotely fun.

After she undergoes a heart transplant, she thinks her troubles are over. If her body doesn't reject the new heart, she has a chance at an actual life. Except there are the nightly dreams that consume her, and fill her with fear and guilt. Then there's that feeling of strength and endurance she's never felt before--and it seems to be more than just a better heart.

Enter Ryder, a guy from her adoption support group, Nerissa, the former high school it girl/now college bff, and Ryder's interesting group of friends (my favorite is Sophitia, but I'm not going to spoil the surprises she has in store. You'll have to discover her delights on your own). All of a sudden, Mischa's life might actually be headed to normal.

If she could only stop breaking things she shouldn't be strong enough to break, and running distances she shouldn't be able to run.

The novel is set in Australia, which is automatically a cool setting. I loved peeking all the way to the other side of the world and seeing things like Christmas in the middle of summer.

Mischa is an awesome main character. Along with physically strong, she's a pretty tough chick emotionally. Sometimes, she gives into her urges over her brain, but that's what growing up is like. It's a constant stream of mistakes to learn from.

The pace didn't falter. I kept turning the pages, wanting to know what was coming next. And I'll eagerly snatch up the next book in the series. When I wasn't reading this story, I was thinking about it.

The book is full of surprises and things that keep you guessing. It's also full of (no pun intended, I swear) heart. Mischa's story and her determination to find her birth parents almost broke mine.

If you want a cool coming-of-age book with some nifty Sci-fi thrown in for good measure, this book is definitely for you!