Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Harper Collins on April 21st 2015
Genres: Death & Dying, Emotions & Feelings, Love & Romance, Social Issues, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
In this unforgettable teen romance that fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti will devour, Quinn Sullivan falls for the recipient of her boyfriend's donated heart, forming an unexpected connection that will leave readers utterly breathless.After Quinn's boyfriend, Trent, dies in an accident their junior year, she reaches out to the recipients of his donated organs in hopes of picking up the fragments of her now-unrecognizable life. But whoever received Trent's heart has mysteriously remained silent. The essence of a person, Quinn has always believed, is in the heart. If she finds Trent's, then in a way she still has a piece of him.Risking everything to find peace once and for all, Quinn goes outside the system to track down nineteen-year-old Colton Thomas—a guy whose life has been forever changed by this priceless gift. But what starts as an accidental run-in quickly develops into more, sparking an undeniable attraction. She doesn't want to give in to it—especially since he has no idea how they're connected—but their time together has made Quinn feel alive again. No matter how hard she's falling for Colton, each beat of his heart reminds her of all she's lost . . . and all that remains at stake.
I loved this one!
Things We Know by Heart is my first Jessi Kirby book and it has successfully convinced me I need to read more of her stories.
Quinn’s boyfriend died their junior year and she has been frozen since the night it happened. As part of her mourning process, and a way to reconnect with him, Quinn reaches out to all of the donor recipients. When the person who received his heart, Colton Thomas, never responds, Quinn goes online to hunt him down. As she digs deeper into who he is, Quinn decides to find him and an accidental run in turns into more than she thought it would be.
I liked Quinn. From the first chapter I could feel the pain she was going through and although I don’t agree with her methods, I completely understand why she did what she did. Kirby yanked me into Quinn’s life and made me feel everything she was going through. The pain of loss, the frustration of not getting a response from Colton, and the fear that she would never get past it all…it was all right there and made me unable to put this book down.
Colton has had a rough time and ever since he got his new heart, he has just wanted to forget all about the bad things that have happened. Unfortunately for him, that isn’t very realistic. Not only does he have to be careful about what he does, but he also has daily meds to take and he will never be able to just a normal kid. With that in mind, when he meets Quinn, it is clear he sees this as an opportunity to be more than just the kid with the bad heart.
I loved seeing the friendship/relationship develop between Quinn and Colton. They both have things they need to overcome and neither of them was being very forthcoming about who they were and what they were going through. It was completely understandable that when things came to a head for these two that they had to pause and figure out who they wanted to be. With that said, there were definitely some swoony parts that I loved and made me love Colton that much more.
The secondary characters that Kirby created in this story were another great piece of the story. I loved Quinn’s grandmother and her sister, Ryan, was wonderful too. Ryan was the one person who called Quinn out on the things she was doing and tried to get her to understand that it was ok for her to move forward with her life. As Quinn faces the reality of her actions, Ryan is the one who helps her figure out what she needs to do, even though Ryan is working through some things of her own.
Definitely check this one out if you are looking for a wonderful story and well-developed characters. Kirby made me love everything about this book and I will definitely be reading her other stories as soon as I can.
Thank you to Harper for the review copy!
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