Every Borrowed Beat

By Author / Illustrator

Erin Stewart

Genre

Romance & Relationships

Age range(s)

14+

Publisher

Rock the Boat

ISBN

9780861549368

Format

Paperback / softback

Expected

13-03-2025

Synopsis

A second chance at life, a first chance at love. Sydney Wells should have died. She was supposed to die. But after years of waiting, she has been given a new heart. Her only job is not to break it.

Still, she can't help thinking about how her second chance means that someone else's life was cut short. After some detective work, Sydney concludes that her donor was a girl called Mia who died tragically in a nearby town. Desperate for closure, she attends her memorial service, where she meets Mia's best friend Clayton: a boy who makes her new heart race...

'A luminous, brilliant meditation on living that will burrow deep into your heart and stay there... An emotional and riveting must-read.' Kathleen Glasgow, bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

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Reviews

Ruth

I really enjoyed reading Every Borrowed Beat by Erin Stewart. You might rightly expect this book to be extremely sad but the author has crafted the main character, Sydney Wells, as a pragmatic young person coming to terms with terminal illness, only for an unexpected emergency heart transplant to offer her the chance of a future she had thought was no longer her reality.

Although this story deals with mature themes, the narrative is down to earth, extremely readable and page turning. Once Sydney receives her donor heart she becomes insatiably curious as to the identity of the person whose tragic death led to her being offered a life line. Unbeknownst to her family, and after doing some research, Sydney sets off to attend the memorial service of a local young person who has tragically died, and who she believes to be her donor. She secretes herself into the service but bumps into a gorgeous looking boy who turns out to be the dead girl’s best friend. Together they grow closer, but what secrets surround Clayton, will Sydney’s identity as the transplant recipient be revealed, and will they uncover what happened to Mia on that fateful night?

I would recommend this book for older secondary school students due to the mature themes in this inspirational story. Highly recommended.

352 pages / Reviewed by Ruth Cornish, school librarian