In A Heartbeat Review

AUTHOR: Loretta Ellsworth
PUBLISHER: Walker
PAGES: 212
SERIES/STANDALONE: Stand Alone

OUTLINE: Explores the ties of family and the weight of regret when a mistake costs Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition. Left in the afterlife, reflecting on what she could have done differently, Eagan's still-beating heart is given to Amelia who has been waiting patiently for a transplant. When their thought, feelings, and dreams begin to mysteriously overlap, Amelia knows she must search for Eagan's family and find a way to give them all the closure they need move on.

STARTED: 11-29-10
FINISHED: 12-10-10 (I had to read last sacrifice in bewteen)


MY THOUGHTS:
I picked up this book because the the back of it just sounded intriguing to me. Having gone through somewhat of a heart surgery myself when I was 6 I thought maybe I could relate to it. I mean in this story Amelia, the heart transplant patient, actually goes through a transplant because she has congestive heart failure. ( it was an aeorta valve in my heart that needed fixing is all) Still I felt like I could understand her somewhat. The book is told in two POV's, Amelia (a heart transplant patient)and Eagan (an ice skater, donor), Apparently I have a thing for books being told in different POVs lately. Hum. This was actually quite an easy read and you could follow along real well.

The begining of the book starts off for Amelia where the get a call. Once she gets the transplant she starts to notice that things she does aren't exactly the old her. She takes on the characteristics of her donor like eating grape lollipops (which she hated before), talking back to her parents,and a what seemed like a love for athletics. She met another heart transplant patient and his older brother. (which she became friends with. The older brother.) After having those things happen to her Ari and her set out to find her donors family. what happens when she does. You'll have to read it and see.

Eagan is the other POV in the story she is the ice skater, who lived her life very pessimisticly (word?). She bought tons of bottle water, granola bars, and batteries with her birthday money thinking that the world might end. Little did she know it would only end for her. During a skating routine she twisted the wrong way and ended up hitting her head on the side. When she came to she was in a gray mist. The in-betwen. This is where she stayed  pretty much throughout the whole book, and only was in half way through the book did she finally have someone to talk to who she called Miki, a little girl. The begining of her chapters are of her telling about the mist and stuff, and then she immediately goes into one of her memories that relates to what she talks about. (Kind of confusing)

I think is definitely worth a read, or you want something a little different n the paranormal. :)


QUOTES:
-Half an inch. It's enough too cause dreams to fall apart..enough to make the difference between life and death. (Eagan)
-It's ironic that when I was alive all I thought about was death, and now all I can think about is my life (Eagan)
-Don't put it on to thick (E's Grandpa)
I'm not an old man. I'm doing it just right. (Eagan)
Our first project, maybe our last young lady. (E's Grandpa)
-They're praying for you. Here, on Earth. Do you feel it? (Miki)
Is that was this feeling is? I thought it was gas. (Eagan)
-Life. It's being able to use all your wood, not just the good,straight pieces. (Eagan's Grandpa)
-Ameliastein. Part me and part gross experiment. (Amelia)
So do you have any other borrowed body parts besides the heart? (Ari)
Nope not yet. (Amelia)
Then your not Ameliastien. (Ari)
-

Have any of you read the book. If so tell me what you thought.