I loved this book and warmed to the characters.
The story was well written and kept my interest throughout the book.
A great read

Having read a previous book by this author that I enjoyed very much, I was keen to read this her new one.

I felt a bit blind when I began to read it as the book blurb doesn't let on much as to what to expect from it.

I found it to be fairly enjoyable, was certainly interesting to learn about the Jewish culture, some of which certainly shocked me, not a culture I agree with at all, but each to their own.

There was a fair few characters to get to know and interact with, and I did enjoy getting to know most of them. I had mixed feelings about Aliza/Eliza as I felt at times that she wanted to have her cake and eat it, so yo say.

The story was very well written and kept me gripped/entertained throughout. My only cristism is that sometimes it wasn't straightaway clear if you were in the past or the present. There was no clear separation or heading to let you know.

So overall a fairly enjoyable read which I'm glad I read as I felt that I've learnt a fair bit from this story.

Eliza has been brought up as an Orthodox Jew and her entire life is governed by 'rules'. She has consented to marry Nathan but not long before this event she meets Alex, an 'outsider' who lives in the 'Real World'. On the day of her wedding to Nathan, with all her family fussing around her, Alex waits outside her house and Eliza makes the momentous decision to run off with him instead of marrying Nathan. To Eliza's father she has brought shame on the family and she is 'dead' to him.

Alex introduces Eliza to the 'Real World' and together they embark on a 're-education' journey seeing films, going on roller coasters and generally experiencing all the things that make up a usual western culture. But Eliza misses her family. She embarks on a secret double life where she visits her family during the mornings and spends the rest of her time in the Real World.

An interesting read in terms of learning about an Orthodox Jewish culture but didn't resolve satisfactorily for my taste.

I have to be completely honest ... I'm really not sure about this one!! I don't think I've ever been so unsure about how I feel about a book. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it. I found parts of it to be rather distasteful and I know for sure that many people will find it extremely offensive - I'd recommend that those people steer clear of it completely.
I'm Jewish, classified as Orthodox - certainly nowhere near the 'Orthodox' that Aliza and her family are in this book. I'm probably more what's called 'Modern Orthodox'. But I'm very much aware of the type of people described here. Is this book far-fetched? Not as much as you'd think. Could something like this happen? Yes absolutely? Does this happen? Yes, absolutely! Is it spoken about openly? No, absolutely not!
Children brought up in such sheltered environments either love it (mostly they do - they don't know any other way) or they rebel (fewer than you'd think) - sometimes they return and sometimes (I'll admit, rarely) they might even be lucky enough to strike the type of balance that's described in this book.
Aliza, who becomes Eliza, because her husband Alex pronounces her name incorrectly when he first meets her, and she asks him to keep it that way, doesn't jump into her new life with completely reckless abandon (as some reviewers will have you believe). At first she tiptoes away slowly, quietly and rather shyly. Yes, eventually she does take a huge, giant leap, but initially her steps are rather restrained.
Even once she has left the fold, and there's no mistaking the fact that she has most definitely made the boldest of statements by publicly leaving her family and her faith (and her fiance!), she still attempts to straddle the two lives she finds herself living - when it comes to the way she dresses and eats and even in her sleeping arrangements with her new flatmate and soon-to-be husband! And she certainly didn't turn her back on everything she knew, never to return. She missed her family and her best friend desperately. Leaving one thing for another doesn't mean that you simply forget what you left, I strongly feel that just because you left by choice, you are still entitled to feel pain about your actions and about who and what you've left behind.
Alex is not a monster - he did not actively seek to lure Aliza away from all that she knew and was comfortable with. Yes, he wanted to show her that there is a whole new world out there that was in direct conflict to all that she'd been taught, but simply because he wanted to share the freedom that he has enjoyed for his entire life, with the person that he now loved! Was it right or wrong? To answer that is an entire debate on whether the premise of the whole book is right or wrong - it's a bit much to go into all of that in a book review!
Is this book a love story? I'd say it is, but more than it being about Aliza and who she chooses to marry, I'd say it's about Aliza and Eliza and how she discovers who she really is and how she learns to love who she becomes.

Bookouture book so just clearing this down as a review for my profile so my feedback looks better - Kim Nash

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for a free eARC of The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom!

Aliza finally decides to agree to marry the seventh man her orthodox family introduces to her and is engaged within weeks. All seems set for her future but then she meets Alex and falls head over heels for him, blows of her engagement thus cutting all her familial ties and hoping for true love.

Eliza and Alex struggle to understand their teenage daughter who is suddenly interested in being a "real Jew". Over the years their relationship has overcome cultural differences, critical family members and quite a bit of omission of the truth. Now secrets that were buried in the past come to the surface and threaten the relationship they have had to fight for from the very beginning.

The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is told in two time lines and tries to tackle the challenges a couple with two very different upbringings, ideas of love and religion would have to face. At times Alex may seem controlling and Eliza dishonest but as I do not always have to agree with characters choices to find it interesting reading about them that did not bother me. Although the read was not quite what I had expected - I think you get more out of it, if you question your own reaction to Eliza and Alex's actions - I enjoyed the depiction of a Jewish heroine and the emancipation of various family members as the story progressed. At times I would have liked a slightly less predictable story line but Eliza and Alex love story is not a "perfect" one and more interesting for it!

As someone who is not at all familiar with the Jewish lifestyle and the only things I do know are from different TV shows (the latest being The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for which I have so much love for), this was quite an interesting read. It definitely made me want to research the subject a bit more as those things mentioned in the book seem SO insane! I'd definitely pull an Aliza and get the f*ck out if I had to live a life like that!

There was something that bothered me about the writing of this novel in the first quarter of it, but I still can't put my finger on what it was. But thankfully that feeling left me as abruptly as Eliza left Nathan and I quite enjoyed the rest of it. It was pretty shocking at times, yet lovely and heart-warming as well.

Reading it I did wonder if the author had watched the aforementioned Mrs. Maisel or are there certain names that are so common in the Jewish culture? Such as Joel, Nathan, Miriam... Those are all characters in the TV show. At first it bothered me, later it was a nice familiar feeling, though.

All in all, it's a nice and easy read which definitely taught me something new!

I enjoyed reading most of this book. It is about a young woman torn between two worlds. She is conflicted between honoring her family or being with a man she loves. I thought the storyline was good and I like the characters. I found the plot to be reasonably realistic. However 3/4 of the way through this book I started to become a bit bored. Way too much meaningless conversation going on. The sexual encounter she had out of wedlock just did not ring true to me. That being said it was an enjoyable book and I would like to thank you for my Advanced copy. I will continue to follow this author.

Hmmm, I really don't know how I feel about this book! On one hand, I liked Eliza; her relationship with her family was interesting and the bond between her and her grandfather was touching. On the other though, I didn't like her relationship with Alex. For someone who supposedly loved Eliza, he sure wanted her to change an awful lot and give up her heritage. Is that love? I found some parts of the book uncomfortable to read-it felt like Alex was inflicting emotional abuse on Eliza. I think the book is marketed incorrectly too, it's nothing like Eleanor Oliphant and I think fans of that book might be disappointed. Sorry.

This is the story about Eliza Bloom, an orthodox Jew who is set up marry a man named Nathan, but ends up falling for another man and pulling away from her religion. This was the story about love and a dysfunctional family, with a heartwarming storyline.

I am of two minds in terms of my thoughts about The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom. The overall story is about Aliza/Eliza Bloom, a very young Orthodox Jewish woman who is on the verge of an arranged marriage with Nathan when she meets Alex, a secular man who would be a step towards the "real world." Eliza is torn between these two worlds and makes a series of rash decisions that she is still coming to terms with many years later.

In terms of my feeling torn about this book.... Note that there are SPOILERS ahead.

On the one hand, I had some issues with the content. Alex creates a "re-education" guide that is designed to introduce Eliza to the "real world." First, I don't know that it's fair to represent Alex's secular world as the real world and thereby "other" the lives of the Orthodox Jewish people in Eliza's family. Also, Alex pushes Eliza to throw away all of her beliefs at a rapid pace that the is clearly not comfortable with. Although it is meant to be humorous, I felt uncomfortable with Eliza feeling forced to eat bacon, meat and dairy together, and coerced to indulge in various sexual behaviours based merely on Alex's desire to strip her of her old life.

On the other hand, this book was really easy to read and I just flew through it. For those who don't mind the issues mentioned earlier, I think that they will love this book. Also, it was interesting to be introduced to various cultural aspects related to the Orthodox Jewish way of life (e.g., sheitels, etc.). I don't know how true to life or fair that representation was, but it was interesting and I felt like I learned a few things.

Thanks to the author, Bookouture, and NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy.

I found this quite a confusing book to read, to be honest. From the descriptions of the book in the blurb, it seems I almost read a different book altogether.

Eliza is Jewish, from a strict Orthodox family, in fact. This dictates everything from the clothes she wears to what type of man she is allowed to marry. She makes a major decision and ends up with Alex, which throws her life, and that of her family, into turmoil. I enjoyed learning more about the Jewish Orthodox faith, I had no idea it was as restrictive as it is. I would imagine that going from that kind of life to life in the "real world" to be a bit of a shock to the system.

And that is where I have the major issue with the book. Alex sets out to change Eliza, in a way that even I would not be comfortable with, and I don't come from a strict religious background. They could not be two more opposite people and at times, this very much felt like an abusive relationship. Eliza declares several times that she loves Alex, but I just didn't feel it. Eliza needed to take some responsibility for her behaviour as well though, and the whole thing just felt wrong, to me. I didn't particularly like either Alex or Eliza although I loved Eliza's grandfather and her brother Dov. I read the whole book, hoping for something uplifting to happen, but I seem to have missed it somewhere along the way.

Shame, this could have been a really good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.

Eliza Bloom meets someone and against all the odds fall in love, but from the very start of this relationship everything seems stacked against them, and yet, the very differences between the couple is what makes their combined stories so fascinating. As we all know, relationships are so often fraught with insecurities, and as Eliza discover to her cost, that if a relationship is worth having, it’s worth fighting for.

I enjoyed how the story unfolded, particularly the back story which gives more of an insight in Eliza’s background. I won’t spoil the story by giving anything away, as this is one of those stories which is better read with no idea of where the story is leading, that way you can appreciate just how much thought and preparation has been done by the author in order to make everything feel so exactly right.

I enjoy stories which, although light hearted, have the ability to inform as well as entertain and, as I read through the story, I learned such a lot about Eliza’s religion that I didn’t know anything about. The reasons why she acts as she does is explained in such a lovely way that you can’t help but be sympathetic to the situation she finds herself in.

The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is a really lovely story which is written with all the warmth and intricate detail which is so characteristic of this author’s wonderful storytelling technique. The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom had me captivated from beginning to end, it made me laugh, made me smile and I even shed a little tear or two along the way. Lovely

EXCERPT: What happened next, Leah used to ask.

It's a good question.

It was adorable, how fascinated she was by our love story when she was little. She still is fascinated in a sense, if last night was anything to go by. Maybe horrified is a more accurate description. Anyway, I don't want to think about last night. I don't want to think about Leah's face as she stood in the doorway, the black eyeliner she favours making her seem even less childlike, looking at me with that cool, clear way she has. I prefer to think about Leah when she was little, and I could do no wrong as far as she was concerned. Not now, when she is fourteen, and angry, and has been missing for five hours.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Meet Eliza Bloom: She likes to live life by the rules: long, blue skirt on Thursdays, dinner with mother on Fridays and if someone tells you a Valentine should be anonymous, give your new husband a blank card. Nothing is out of place in her ordered life…

But last night her teenage daughter found something in a hidden shoebox that no-one was supposed to see and started asking questions. Questions that might just change everything in Eliza’s carefully constructed world.

Join Eliza as she shows you how to run away with the love of your life (quite fast actually, as your family are coming after you), how to make your grandfather happy (this might involve a little bit of lying), how to let someone you love go (actually, this never gets easier) and how (now, this is a bad idea) to keep secrets from your new husband.

The only way to truly live is to learn how to open your heart.

MY THOUGHTS: I. Loved. This. Book.

I didn't want it to end. Ever.

I wanted to stay with Eliza, the Scarlet Woman of Hackney E5, as she muddled her way through life. She made me smile. And laugh. And shed a few tears. And Alex? ('My name is Alex Symons and I'm an idiot. It's been a few weeks since I was last a complete idiot.') Lord, I love that man! I want a friend like Deborah. One who is not afraid to call it like she sees it, and who loves you no matter what. And Leah? The glue that holds the package together, the tsunami that tears it apart.

Six hours after I finished reading The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom, I am still not ready to say goodbye. I want to stay immersed in the world of this unconventional family. I am not ready, nor willing, to return to the 'real world'.

More please, Beth Miller!

THE AUTHOR: Beth Miller’s first novel, When We Were Sisters, was recently published by Ebury Press. Her second novel, The Good Neighbour, will be published in September 2015, also by Ebury. She is currently writing her third novel, The Privacy Room, and is also working on a book about the world’s greatest radio show, called For The Love of The Archers. She is a columnist for The Chap magazine, and the rest of the time she runs courses about writing, works with fellow writers as their book coach, and drinks tea while staring vacantly into space. She has been a sex educator, alcohol counsellor, and inept audio-typist. She has a PhD in psychology, which has yet to come in handy.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you, thank you, thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom by Beth Miller for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my webpage

I really enjoyed The Good Neighbour by Beth Miller so I was thrilled to be asked to read her latest book The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom.


Eliza Bloom is an Orthodox Jew and her family have been trying to arrange a suitable marriage for her but she keeps turning down the prospective partners for various reasons. Aware of the pressure heaping on her, when she meets Nathan she can see qualities in him that she thinks she could live with and so she gives her parents the thumbs up for the marriage. What she hasn't bargained on though is meeting Alex, who isn't Jewish, and after a few illicit meetings with him in a coffee shop she finds her thoughts and dreams returning to him night after night, which raises questions about her impending marriage to Nathan.


Fast forward 16 years and Eliza's daughter, Leah, has found a shoebox full of secrets which could potentially destroy everyone involved, but just what has Eliza been hiding?



Beth Miller has a real talent for bringing her characters to life but I must admit it took me a little while to warm to a few characters and I even changed my mind about a few of them along the way. Eliza was a complex character who one minute I felt immense sympathy for, but the next I would quite happily have given her a good shake!


I found the insight into the Jewish Orthodox way of life to be truly fascinating. I had no idea of the extent of rules, traditions and customs that are involved in this culture. It was a real eye opener for me and I could see how transitioning from one culture to another is far more intricate than it would appear on the surface and from the point of view of an outsider.


The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is a thought-provoking and somewhat cautionary tale of family, love and friendship and the consequences of trying to build a life outside of what's expected and familiar. I don't totally agree with the statement that this is a 'laugh-out-loud' book and I feel that some readers will find this misleading - but, that said, I thought that it was a highly enjoyable read that I would definitely recommend and I hope that I'm looking forward to reading more books from this talented author.

The blurb of this book doesn’t really give you a clue what to expect between the covers and gives very little hint of the main plot device of the novel, so it is going to be quite difficult to write a comprehensive, spoiler-free review. Still, I’m up for a challenge so let’s give it a go.

This is a ‘two worlds collide, fish out of water’ story about a couple falling in love from opposites sides of a divide that throws up a multitude of problems in their relationship. If you scout other reviews, you will probably find out what the differences are that divide them without reading the book, but I think that will be a shame for you and I would advise you going into the book naively and discover the secret for yourself as you read. For me, it was really eye-opening, as the world Eliza comes from is one that I know nothing about, and learning about the conventions and rules of the society in which she lives was fascinating and humbling; I’m embarrassed that I have never taken the time to learn more about it before.

However, aside from the particular issues Eliza’s background presents to the relationship, there is a lot in this story that rings true for anyone who has ever been in a relationship, especially one that has been entered into at a young age when, whilst we might feel we are adults, we are largely unformed and uninformed as people, and we are making life-changing decisions joining ourselves to other people when we don’t really know who we are ourselves. Through the book, the author explores all kinds of relationships that shape all of our lives, not just romantic ones. The bonds of family – spouses, parents, children, siblings, friends, extended family, wider community- their needs, expectations, ideologies, personalities, dynamics, all of these things affect each of us in different ways and impact our behaviour and decisions and part of life is learning where we fit, how to manage these things, when we should comply, when we should rebel, what is important and what isn’t. The arts of empathy, understanding and compromise are something we all need to learn, whoever we are and wherever we come from.

The author writes with sensitivity, warmth and approachability. Her characters felt so real to me, even though the world she is writing about is so alien in many ways, I was totally drawn in. The main character, Eliza, could be me, you, or any of us because, as humans, we have more similarities than we have differences, no matter who we are or where we come from, if we choose to see them and focus on them, rather than our differences. Given some of the current things going on in the world today, I think this message is an extremely relevant and important one to be getting out there, and this book does it beautifully.

This is a gorgeous story, the writing pulls you through with ease and pleasure. There was nothing but joy in the reading of it for me, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Pretty close to reading perfection.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

The Two Hearts Of Eliza Bloom is a beautifully told story which manages to put a fresh twist on the traditional love story.

The story is told is two timelines, one detailing how Eliza and Alex met, the other showing how life is now for Eliza. This is very effective as it creates a sense of anticipation as the reader quickly knows the end outcome in the early timeline so wonders what happens to get there and simultaneously hopes for a happier ending for Eliza in the later one.

I loved the main character Eliza! The fact that she’s a bit of a rebel made me instantly warm to her and I found her humour very funny. I was immediately on her side and felt for her with everything that happened after her elopement with Alex. It was very touching to go on such an emotional journey with her to discover the importance of family and I found I had tears in my eyes whilst reading.

The book describes a little bit about Orthodox Jewish beliefs and practices which was fascinating to learn more about. It sounds daft but I had no idea that they were quite so strict! It was especially interesting to see how the religion had changed over the years as the world became more modern.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I’m now eagerly awaiting her next book later this year. If you like emotional but uplifting books that make you laugh and cry then you’ll love this book!

Huge thanks to Kim Nash from Bookouture for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley which I received in exchange for an honest review.

The cover certainly didn’t present any clues, and neither did the book’s description – although you might well pick them up from the name “Eliza Bloom” and mention of the list of rules – but this book did present me with a bit of dilemma on what constitutes a spoiler. So I’ll (slightly reluctantly) gloss over the reason why Eliza’s always needed to wear a long blue skirt on Thursdays, and simply say that I did find the cultural context for this story a fascinating introduction to a lifestyle and upbringing I knew lamentably little about.

Eliza’s dramatic choice – leaving behind the familiar and entering “the Real World” – did initially seem to be exchanging one set of rules for another, and it raised a whole raft of issues for me around when love might become a tad confused with control. But I think I read the “re-education” situation entirely wrongly, and really did like the changed perception over the years of “the book” and its meaning and purpose. The whole process of trying the new, unfamiliar and previously forbidden – and sometimes the downright frightening and unacceptable – was really well handled, although I did sometimes wonder why the lion’s share of change and trying new things fell only to Eliza.

I will admit to failing to understand Eliza’s overpowering urge to return to her past – I could understand the pull of family and the familiar, but not why she felt the need to put her new life at such risk by doing so much more than simply “going home”. And while I’m admitting things, I’ll also confess that I didn’t entirely take to the younger Eliza – her choices made me a little uncomfortable, and rather than brave and daring I found her rather selfish and self-centred. But I did very much like the way the story unfolded – and I particular enjoyed the way the story was structured and moved between 1999/2000 and the characters’ lives in the present day.

The characters and their interactions were wonderful – the visits to Zaida at the nursing home filled with intrigue and deception, Eliza’s relationship with her sisters and friend Deborah, the steadfast support of brother Dov, and so much more. I also liked the portrayal of Eliza’s father – always the bully, anger growing with his daughter’s defection, then visibly crumbling with the erosion of his power and control. The emotional content is particularly strong too – and I found Alex’s unexpected fragility particularly touching and realistically handled. And there was a nice circle within the plot – while Eliza chose one path, her daughter Leah begins to choose the opposite, and I thought that was particularly well done.

Balancing the drama in the earlier storyline, there’s considerable drama in the present too. The relationship between Eliza and her daughter is in stark contrast to her own family relationships – and if I didn’t entirely take to the young Eliza I most certainly didn’t like her spiky and foul mouthed daughter, although I thought the way she swung between vulnerable small child and all-knowing adult was really well done, and she was unquestionably a very realistic teen.

But enough about the story and characters – I loved the themes too. There’s that whole area of making decisions and choices, with the expectation that the new and different will be somehow better – only to find that what you really want might just be something you already had. There are questions too around love, honesty and loyalty, and the meaning of family – and the fact that you sometimes need to find yourself before you can think about making such life-changing choices.

I always think it’s a really good indication that you’ve enjoyed a book when you have strong feelings about its characters – it’s an acknowledgement that you’ve entered the world they occupy, that they’re entirely real to you even when you might not always agree with their actions, decisions or behaviour. And this certainly is such a book – although to get the full impact, I would suggest that you try to avoid the reviews that mention the story’s context and experience it for yourself. Highly recommended.

The path of religion and love can find many bumps in the road and this book beautifully highlights the joys and losses one can face when following your heart. Beth Miller creates a heartwarming story that envelopes you into the world of Eliza Bloom and allows you to quietly observe her trials and tribulations to be with the one she loves.

Judaism is not just a religion but a way of life and with that comes many responsibilities which to the outside eye may seem strict and restricting. Eliza has to make the hardest decision of her life and this book portrays the importance of love, family and the bond that ties the two together. This is a moving piece that will open your eyes and your heart. I loved taking this journey with Eliza and feel enlightened and privileged for the experience.