This was one of those books that took me a while to get into, but once I did, I absolutely flew through it.

What if there were still a part of someone you lost still beating? What would you do to hold on to that person just a bit longer?

A dark, heart-wrenching novel that was rich with raw emotions and vivid descriptions. Nordic noir is truly a unique genre. Books within it may range from mysteries to thrillers to dramas, but there is a stylistic and atmospheric feeling to them that is uniquely that genre. I’d classify Alex Dahl’s The Heart Keeper as a suspenseful domestic drama but with that signature Nordic noir vibe.

About the Book

It was an accident, but in that moment Alison’s whole world changed. After her daughter Amalie drowns, Alison is plunged int a state of despair she can’t escape from. She drinks too much, her husband and her barely touch each other, she takes leave from work, but nothing makes it better. As winter falls in Norway, Alison doesn’t know that she can keep holding on without Amalie.

Iselin’s world changed that day too. A single mother with no support from her parents, Iselin is barely able to make ends meet. She’s spent most of her adult life caring for her sick daughter, Kaia. But then a miracle happens—Kaia receives a new heart. As Kaia recovers, she becomes the girl she was always meant to be. And she has developed some new quirks as well.

Cellular memory is the notion that sometimes recipients of a transplanted organ retain some memories of the donor. Memories that live in every cell of their body. When Alison learns of cellular memory, she becomes obsessed with the idea. Maybe something of Amalie is still there, living on in the girl who received her heart. And so Alison finds a way in. But her grief turns her good intentions into a dangerous obsession. Nothing and no one, certainly not Iselin, will stop her from regaining the daughter she lost.

Reflection

Alex Dahl is such a talented writer. The way she explores the emotions of these two mothers was quite captivating. I felt their pain, their joy, how touching these moments with Kaia could be. I’m not a mother myself, but I found I was able to connect with both women so acutely.

The idea of cellular memory was one that remained open-ended in this book. At times Kaia did seem to have retained some of Amalie. At other times there were rational explanations for it. But ultimately, though a part of Amalie beat in Kaia’s chest, Amalie herself wasn’t there anymore. I found that to be the most heart-wrenching part of the story, watching as Alison sought to find threads of the daughter she lost.

The suspense was truly something, because it snuck up on me. I found the ending sequence brilliant and well-written. The final epilogue has stuck with me long since I finished the book. There’s something a bit haunting about it, but of course I won’t spoil what that is!

A fantastic Nordic noir drama for fans of emotional, raw, well-written books with a suspenseful twist.

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.

I’ll first start by saying that I loved Alex Dahl’s debut, The Boy at the Door. Therefore, it was an absolute no-brainer when I was asked to join the blog tour for her sophomore novel, The Heart Keeper. It would have been an immediate yes regardless of what she’d written. When I found out that this book was centered around a greiving mother who had chosen to donate her daughter’s organs after her tragic death, I was beyond intrigued. I was in tears after reading only the synopsis and acknowledgments. It promised to be an original and emotional story and it didn’t disappoint.

The characters are all well-developed. I had no difficulty feeling empathy for both Alison and Iselin. Alex Dahl did an amazing job of balancing their positive and negative attributes which served to make them very believable. She also did an excellent job of illustrating the fragility of a marriage after the loss of a child. Oliver, Alison’s stepson, was my favorite character. He was just so loving, and good. My heart broke for him but he’d the kind of kid I know will be okay.

I don’t want to rehash the synopsis or lead you in any direction in terms of plot. Based on the synopsis, and where I thought the characters were headed, I thought things were going to shake out somewhat differently. I was happy to have been led astray. I’ll just say that this is more of a domestic suspense with a fair amount of twists which suited me just fine. The deep emotionality revolving around motherhood and grief makes The Heart Keeper a perfect fit for readers of traditional women’s fiction who are looking to up their suspense reading game.

The nurse and science junky in me loved learning about cellular memory as it relates to organ transplant patients. Here is just one of many articles describing this fascinating phenomenon. I could write several pages about my feelings on organ transplantation alone but let’s just say I’m PRO and, when and if the time comes to make that decision, my family knows I want to be scattered far and wide. Indulge me a moment to be preachy here: PLEASE make sure your family knows your wishes. It is NOT enough to have it written on your driver’s license.

Congratulations to Alex Dahl on another winner! I’m already looking forward to her next book.

Many thanks to Berkley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alison Miller-Juul’s life totally fell apart after the death of her six year old daughter, who drowned. Alison, her husband and her stepson are trying to move forward with their lives but it’s not easy to do.

Basically, Alison wants her daughter back. Her daughter had been an organ donor. When Alison learns about the young girl who received her heart, she does everything in her power to get close to the girl. Alison’s mind is all over the place but she knows what she wants - her daughter.

This is a well written, intense novel. I could feel all the pain these characters were going through. It’s an emotional roller coaster for all the characters involved. There were a few slow spots, but overall, I couldn’t stop turning the pages. I couldn’t imagine how this could have a satisfying ending, but the author outdid herself with this one.

As writers, we are told to write what scares us. As parents, nothing scares us more than something happening to our child. Author Elizabeth Stone is credited with the famous quote that parenthood “is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” She is, of course, referring to the child’s body. But what happens when your child’s heart is walking around in the body of a stranger?

In The Heart Keeper, the latest book by Norwegian author Alex Dahl, (see my review of her earlier book, The Boy at the Door, here) forty-something mother Alison has everything – a beautiful home, a devoted husband, a loyal stepson and devoted daughter – until her six-year-old daughter Amalie drowns. After donating her daughter’s heart, Alison and her husband spiral separately down into grief.

Click on the link below to read the complete review.

Alison is grieving the loss of her only child, Amalie, who drowned a few months ago at the age of five. She is riddled with guilt about Amalie's tragic passing, and her marriage to Sindre is falling apart. Alison and Sindre donated Amalie's organs and, as the story progresses, Alison learns the identity of the little girl who received Amalie's heart, with whom Alison becomes increasingly obsessed and detached from reality.

Author Alex Dahl unsparingly and bravely explores the anguish Alison experiences after the loss of Amalie, the precious girl she refers to as "little bear." Alison is consumed with grief. Via her first-person narrative, Alison describes the visceral physical and psychological pain she is experiencing, as well as her futile attempts to numb that pain through medications, alcohol, and therapy. Even though she recognizes that none of those measures will provide any relief from the reality that her daughter is gone forever, Alison succumbs to self-destructive behavior.

Sindre is mourning Amalie, along with Alison. A former soldier, his grief manifests in very different ways. He continues working, but is emotionally distant and removed. It becomes clear that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his military experiences and, like Alison, is unraveling psychologically. At his breaking point, Alison tries to care for him. But neither of them are so emotionally fragile that neither is capable of supporting and helping the other.

Sindre's teenage son from a prior marriage, Oliver, spends half of his time with his father and the other half with his mother. He loved his little half-sister and is also grieving. He tries to be strong, but he is also a victim of circumstances. Sindre and Alison are aware of their own inability to provide Oliver the strength and support he needs.

In alternating chapters, Dahl also conveys Iselin's story. Through an empathetic first-person narrative, Dahl portrays strain that Kaia's illness has placed on Iselin, especially as a single mother lacking an effective support system. Estranged from their own parents, she is close to her younger sister, a successful disk jockey living in Paris. Iselin has been unable to work at all because of the demands of caring for Kaia, relegated to surviving on the meager income she receives from the Norwegian government. Iselin has prepared herself to say good-bye to Kaia many times, and the joy of learning that her daughter now has a chance to lead a long, healthy life is tempered by the knowledge that her joy was only made possible by another family's tragedy.

The story's tension escalates as Oliver announces that his class learned about transplants and the phenomenon known as cellular memory. Since every cell in the human body holds an individual's complete genetic material, is it possible that transplanted organ's hold the donor's memories? Or that the donor's personal characteristics manifest in the recipient? Alison, a journalist, researches the topic, and becomes obsessed with finding the donor who received Amalie's heart. Circumstances conspire to reveal Kaia's identity to Oliver, who shares the information with Alison. From there, her obsession with finding out whether any aspect of her daughter lives on in Kaia grows stronger, and Alison engages in increasingly deranged, reckless behavior that includes befriending Iselin and Kaia. Dahl increases the story's pace incrementally as Alison learns that since the transplant Kaia has, in fact, engaged in some behaviors that are eerily like things Amalie did. As Alison becomes increasingly unhinged, it is apparent that the result can be nothing short of catastrophic -- and her actions lead to a frightening climax.

Dahl believably takes readers to the psychologically dark places her characters inhabit, making The Heart Keeper engrossing, raw and sometimes difficult reading. It is a beautifully crafted, believable exploration of the power of loss, and the myriad ways in which grief over the loss of a child can psychologically cripple parents and destroy marriages, especially if one parent feels responsible for the child's death. It is also a compassionate look at the toll being the caregiver for an ill child can take on a parent, and how the strain is enhanced if that parent is doing so on his or her own. Those two stories are compellingly interwoven into a fast-paced thriller that supplies a satisfying, rational conclusion.

I read The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl in one day! Captivated by the plot, I was definitely curious how everything was going to unfold. As I have mentioned many times before, I get tired of seeing the same recycled ideas in books and when I find a new storyline, I get very excited!

Here’s what the book is about:


When Alison’s beloved daughter Amalie drowns, her world turns impenetrably dark. Alison tries to hold it together throughout the bleak Fall, but in the darkest days of the Norwegian winter she completely falls apart.

In another family, Amalie’s passing is a new beginning. After years of severe health problems, young Kaia receives a new heart on the morning after Amalie drowns. Her mother Iselin has struggled to raise Kaia on her own and now things are finally looking up. She’s even made an affluent new friend who’s taken a special interest in her and her daughter.

Alison knows she shouldn’t interfere, but really, she’s just trying to help Iselin and Kaia. She can give them the life they never had, and by staying close to them, she can still be with her daughter. Kaia is just like her, and surely, something of Amalie must live on in her. As her grief transforms into a terrifying obsession, Alison won’t let anything stop her from getting back what she has lost.



The book is more of an emotional ride than a thriller as Alison grapples with the aftermath of her daughter’s death. I had hoped it would be more of scary suspense and its not. But its a really good book and one you should read if you are looking for an excellent novel that will pull you in and won’t let go. I liked the character of Iselin, the young mother trying to make ends meet while caring for her daughter.

This book is hot off the press! Get it here.

After reading The Boy at the Door and loving it I knew I had to read this novel. So I was thrilled when Aria invited me to be a part of the blog tour.

Addictive, heart breaking and thrilling . This book was amazing. I had so many feels reading this book and I loved that! A fabulous story of one family dealing with the loss of their daughter and watching their lives unravel before their very eyes and another family whose daughter received an organ transplant. Without giving too much away about the book this is a must read.

This book touches on organ transplants, organ donors, tragedy and loss of a loved one. Be sure to sit down and hold on tight, you are in for an emotional roller coaster ride as you read through this book.