Unbreak Your Heart by Katie Marsh
| Unbreak Your Heart by Katie Marsh | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A heart-warming, uplifting story. We loved it! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 432 | Date: May 2021 |
| Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1473685741 | |
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When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bike. He wasn't hurt but Jake has history. He has HLHS - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not au fait with your medical acronyms. When he was born, the left side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old. So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
Beth has just moved to the Lake District after a messy divorce in New York and she's got a job that will pay the rent on the cottage she's found. It's way below her old job but something happened there that Beth's not willing to risk happening again. She doesn't trust herself, not after what happened in New York. Still, all she can do is make the most of where she is now and try to make friends with Simon and Jake. Jake's easy: he's seven years old (nearly eight, I hasten to add) and wise far beyond his years. You see, Jake knows that he could die at any moment: the works 'palliative care' might not be used in front of him, but he picks up on very small signals.
What really worries Jakes is that Afterwards his Dad will be left on his own. His mother, Tamsin, left when he was a year old: she couldn't cope with the constant medical emergencies. A&E is like a second home to Simon and Jake. Simon used to be a physiotherapist but gave it up because he couldn't commit to being available for his shifts. Jake had to come first. Right now he's just been sacked from the call centre selling garden furniture and he's had to turn to his father for a job on the family farm. Jake knows that his father needs someone to love and he's out to find Simon a girlfriend and he doesn't go about it in a half-hearted (sorry - pun intended) way. He approaches any likely woman he sees and asks, including the school crossing attendant whose ambition is to own a boa constrictor, a checkout operator in Sainsbury's and a random woman in a lift who was probably with her boyfriend. What neither Simon nor Jake thinks about is the woman who lives next door.
It's a lovely story and what I really liked is that it's realistic: there's no miracle cure for Jake. Simon will do his best to keep Jake alive and well and to give him the best life possible but he's unlikely to make old bones. It's simply a fact and Katie Marsh does a wonderful job of highlighting the issue without introducing doom and gloom. Jake's a glorious character: always positive despite everything that he's missing. He so wants to play football, to be like everyone else but he's never grumpy. Simon can be but in the circumstances, who can blame him? I really enjoyed the book and got to the end all too quickly.
I'd like to thank the publishers for making a review copy available to the Bookbag.
We think you might also enjoy Keep You Safe by Melissa Hill.
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