{Review} This Heart of Mine: A Novel by C.C. Hunter (@CCHunterBooks @StMartinsPress)

A new heart saved her life—but will it help her find out what really happened to its donor?

Seventeen-year-old Leah MacKenzie is heartless. An artificial heart in a backpack is keeping her alive. However, this route only offers her a few years. And with her rare blood type, a transplant isn’t likely.

Living like you are dying isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But when a heart becomes available, she’s given a second chance at life. Except Leah discovers who the donor was — a boy from her school — and they’re saying he killed himself. Plagued with dreams since the transplant, she realizes she may hold the clues to what really happened.

Matt refuses to believe his twin killed himself. When Leah seeks him out, he learns they are both having similar dreams and he’s certain it means something. While unraveling the secrets of his brother’s final moments, Leah and Matt find each other, and a love they are terrified to lose. But life and even new hearts don’t come with guarantees. Who knew living, took more courage than dying? 

This Heart of Mine is a haunting, poignant tale about living and dying, surviving grief, guilt, and heartache, while discovering love and hope in the midst of sadness.

​Leah MacKenzie is living on borrowed time and her second heart.  With a rare blood type, her chances at finding a suitable donor is close to impossible. She’s going to make the most of every moment she has left and that includes finally kissing her long-time crush, Matt. 
 
Her wishes come true on the same day that his are shattered. Now they share a foreboding dream and a desire to seek the truth behind the tragedy that links them forever.

He moves down the hall. I follow. I’m staring at his hair, the way it flips up. Again hoping he’s Matt. I’m so into his hair, I don’t notice him swing around.

 We run smack-dab into each other.

“Shit.” He grabs me by my shoulders and pulls me against him. “Are you okay?”

His hands are on my upper arms. My breasts are against his chest. Then bam! I feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. Excitement. My very own I’m-a-girl-and-you’re-a-boy excitement. Not the borrowed thrill I get from reading romances.

I can smell him. Like men’s soap, or deodorant; a little spicy, a lot masculine. The desire to lean in and bury my nose in his shoulder is so strong I have to fist my hands.

“I’m fine,” I say. Don’t pull away. Don’t pull away. Please don’t pull away. He doesn’t pull away. He gazes down at me. This close I can see he has gold and green flecks in his brown eyes. A voice inside of me says I should step back, but you couldn’t pay me to move. I’m dying. Is it wrong of me to want this?

“I … I forgot my books.” The words fall from his lips in an uncertain tone. The pads of his thumbs rubs the insides of my arm. Just the tiniest, softest friction that feels so damn good.

I run my tongue over my bottom lip. “Oh, I … I thought you were going to kiss me.” I hear my own words and wonder where I got the balls to say that.

 His eyes widen. Not in an oh-crap way, but in a surprised kind of way. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

I grin. “If you’re Matt, I’ve wanted you to kiss me since seventh grade.”
​
His gaze lowers to my mouth and lingers. “Is your heart strong enough?”

​Matt Kenner knows way more about loss than he should. His father was stolen away while serving his country and then his twin brother Eric was the victim of an apparent suicide. 
 
When he agrees to tutor Leah for extra Algebra credit, he could have never guessed that it was the beginning of a connection that even death couldn’t sever.  She carries his brother’s heart in her chest and she’s the only person who can help him prove that Eric didn’t die by his own hand. 
 
Discovering exactly what happened that fateful night could mean the end to the romance beating so strongly between them or it could mean the end of life itself. 

Is it wrong to want Leah to know she has the heart of a champion in her chest? Is it wrong that from the second he opened that door he hasn’t stopped thinking about their kiss and thinking about doing it again?

​This Heart of Mine is a powerful and yet sweet story filled with so much possibility.  There’s a real appreciation for the gifts of today and C.C. Hunter combines it with a cautious hope for the future. 
 
It makes for a reading experience that is poignant, harrowing and just a little euphoric.  And you’ll find yourself laughing through the tears until the very end…

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