Things We Know by Heart

Things We Know by Heart: Jessi Kirby 
Publication Date: April 21st 

When Quinn Sullivan meets the recipient of her boyfriend’s donated heart, the two form an unexpected connection.

After Quinn loses her boyfriend, Trent, in an accident their junior year, she reaches out to the recipients of his donated organs in hopes of picking up the pieces of her now-unrecognizable life. She hears back from some of them, but the person who received Trent’s heart has remained silent. The essence of a person, she has always believed, is in the heart. If she finds Trent’s, then maybe she can have peace once and for all.

Risking everything in order to finally lay her memories to rest, 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 was really excited to read this book because I've heard such great things about it! I was definitely a little disappointed, maybe I set my expectations too high. While I do understand the appeal for some people and there were points that I definitely liked, I had problems with the main character as well as the plot.  

 “Finding the guy who got Trent’s heart isn’t gonna bring him back. Neither is acting like you died.” 

Quinn was grieving, counting the days since Trent died. When she goes and tracks down the recipient of his heart, Colton, she finds out he's hot! So Quinn lies to Colton, and doesn't tell him who she is. It didn't bother me at first, I got it because how can you explain something like that when you just met somebody? It started bothering me because Colton was doing risky things when he was with her that could possibly hurt him, and she knew it! She still didn't say anything! I didn't expect lying to take up as much of the story as it did and it really disappointed me that Quinn would risk someone else's health for a secret and someone else would risk their health to have fun. 

Overall, I really liked Colton and I feel like most people who read this book will like him as well. It was told from Quinn's point of view so you don't really get to know what he is thinking. However, I still think you can tell what he's feeling, which is definitely more important! Like I said before, he does risky things when he's with Quinn and that's a major part of what I don't like. 

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

The plot timeline seemed way off for me. The ending happened so fast with the rest of the book being drawn out far too long that it seemed unnecessary. Mind you the book is very short, it's barely 300 pages so nothing should feel like it's being drawn out.  There are quotes before every chapter, and often times I felt the quotes just didn't line up with what was happening in that chapter of the book. I think they would have more of an affect if they related in some way to the content in the chapter. There were definitely emotional parts to this book that made me choke up. That definitely helped the book a lot, but couldn't rectify all the things I didn't like. While I didn't like it, I think that a lot of people will like this book. If it sounds like something you would like - you should try it!