There is not much to say about this book except that it is the sweetest, most interesting book I have read in a long time. It is a delightful story with serious overtones and deep, rich characters. You should go and read it right now. The beginning is absolutely stunning. It really grabbed me, because I had no idea what to expect. I was charmed by Alisa from the start. She has been waiting for a heart for a long time. Her world has gotten smaller and smaller and more restricted and limited. She depends on her mother for nearly everything. When she gets a new heart, she has to learn to live instead of preparing to die. Wanting to be independent and wanting to meet the father that abandoned her and her mother the minute the going got tough puts a strain on her relationship with her mother. Is it worth it to take these risks? Alisa has a blog and for a long time has deferred her big life decisions to her follower’s votes. Should she continue to do that or is it time to take charge of her own life and rely on her new, strong heart?

This book was just a simple joy to read. It soars and falls and made me cry and made me laugh. Her budding romance is tentative and bold at the same time. It was a pleasure to take the journey with Alisa and her friends and family as she learns to navigate life with a new, very curious heart.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley for providing a copy of The Curious Heart of Alisa Rae. All opinions are my own. I loved this book and recommend it without hesitation.

Ailsa Rae had a heart transplant just in the nick of time, so now she can act like every other twenty-eight-year-old. She has a complicated relationship with her mother, wants to find her missing father, and isn't sure what will happen with her lost love Lennox. She's a changed woman, and there is going to be a lot more of it going forward.

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is a novel that deals with potentially fatal medical issues, as well as the relationships surrounding a situation like this. As a result, the novel is a journey of self-discovery, building new relationships, and weathering the changes that come when lives are turned upside down. This is dealt with in a sensitive manner and realistically addresses the conflicting emotions that all of these changes in self-perception and the future bring. Ailsa's blog posts and polls are included, though she often relied on them to make all sorts of decisions in her life rather than take a chance and decide things for herself.

Grief of so many kinds is addressed here, and my heart really went out to Ailsa and her mother Hayley. Little things remind them of the past that had never been dealt with, and it's not used as a way to demonize either one. Ailsa had been her mother's entire world, so it hurts them both for Ailsa to assert her independence and start to build a life that doesn't include "sick girl" as a core piece of her identity. This is a touching story, and I appreciate the way that the subject matter was handled.

Scotland and London are fun backdrops for the story, as well as the other characters in the story. Yes, Seb is a celebrity, but he's not used that to get his way. His own transplant story is here, and he also has to reevaluate his life. He and Ailsa connect in a genuine way, and the inevitable gossip articles (also included like her blog posts) add to their story. The moments of heartbreak between them are the moments we experience too, and it's a hard-won victory when Ailsa is able to say "What the world thinks of me is irrelevant."

“It’s as though she has been given permission to look out of a window that has always been forbidden to her before: she cannot believe how far away the horizon is, how beautiful the view.”

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is the fifth novel by British author, Stephanie Butland. Ailsa Rae knows that reaching the age of twenty-eight with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is remarkable. Of the fact that she will soon die without a transplant, she’s hyper-aware. But yes, someone else’s misfortune saves her life, and eventually, sporting a new heart, and loaded up with anti-rejection medication, she is discharged from hospital to start properly living. The joy of this is bittersweet: her best friend/ex-boyfriend, Lennox died waiting for a liver some months earlier.

With HLHS, Ailsa’s life was an equation: “I had two questions – first: Can I manage it?; and second: Can I be bothered to recover from it? There are quite a lot of equations in illness, I think, and this is one of the straightforward ones. Does effort plus impact equal value?” Now of course, she can do so much, and she keenly feels the obligation both to look after her new heart and to spend her unexpectedly gained time in a worthwhile manner.

Naturally, life is very different when Ailsa no longer has death looming over her. It takes her quite some time to adjust, to understand that she now has a future to plan for: a home, a job, a career, maybe even a love life. Nor is Ailsa the only one affected: her mother, Hayley has spent twenty-eight years protecting her frail daughter from all possible danger, and it isn’t painless to let go: “Ailsa had been an injured bird, and her mother was the cupped hands that protected her. It might not be as easy as she thinks to fly.”

Butland uses several different formats to deliver the story: the straight narrative runs from October 2017 onwards, with occasional revisits to twelve months previous; this is supplemented by Ailsa’s (award-winning) blog (myblueblueheart), emails, transcripts of radio and blog interviews, web articles, and, ultimately, a letter to her donor. The dialogue she gives her characters s often witty and entertaining.

Many times, Ailsa’s blog has a poll for her followers to vote (with the result shown) on various issues, or decisions she needs to make: simple things (outfits to wear to an interview?); and those more complicated (track down the father who abandoned her at birth?). She explains it thus: “’I feel a bit adrift, sometimes. I like the wisdom of strangers.’ ‘But no one knows you as well as you, surely?’ ‘Honestly? Not this me. I knew ill me pretty well.’”

Ailsa is clever and honest and insightful: she can be quite self-aware and self-deprecating. Butland uses her protagonist to raise topics and issues that might not occur to those unfamiliar with transplant recipients: the massive change in priorities from when one is dying to when one has a future; the expectation to always be feeling happy/lucky; and how to express their (obviously deep and heartfelt) gratitude. “We say ‘thank you’ a hundred times a week, for coffee or change or to someone who puts us through to a helpdesk. Using the same words for this feels invalid.” Funny, moving and thought-provoking, a wonderful read!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and St Martins Press

It took me a bit to finally get into reading this, not quite sure what to expect. A very moving emotional journey of a person living, expected to die, being treated differently all her life. With the much anticipated, do or die, transplant at age 28, everything changes and her discovery of being "normal" isn't quite what she thought. She is however participating, not just watching, life in all its glory, including the many ups and downs. I laughed, cried, held my breath, or got angry right along with all the characters.
I, myself, would have felt better, as I read to find the HEAs that real life certainly doesn't guarantee for anyone, if this would've had a more uplifting end. I'm kind of adrift right now, tho it's not a cliffhanger, I didn't get that happy sigh of relief moving forward, planning a lifetime! I'll stop right there, that's what I'm missing from the last pages.
Happy to be a registered organ donor for several years now, I do believe, "The Curious Heart Of Ailsa Rae" brings forth the true need, very eloquently and emotionally, no matter it's fiction, this could well be someone's real story. But I'll forever wonder what became of Ailsa and Seb's blossoming love or was it the circumstance?
I received an ARC thru Netgalley and am providing my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the e-ARC of this book!

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae blends a light-hearted rom-com with the realities of long-term illness and the struggles that sometimes come with a mother-daughter relationship. On top of all that, Shakespeare, tango lessons, and a hot celebrity also appear in the mix!

Overall, I enjoyed Ailsa’s story, and I found it to be very unique and refreshing compared to other contemporaries/romantic comedies. However, I would have liked to have seen a bit more development and depth when it comes to Ailsa’s relationship with Seb.

Ailsa finds herself in the unique position of having a chance to completely overhaul her life after spending most of her years in the hospital. We see how Ailsa adjusts to “being normal” and it’s clear that the author did a lot of research into how a former chronically ill person would feel/act in such a situation. In fact, I felt that the strongest parts of this book were the ones that dealt with flashbacks to Ailsa’s time in hospital, as well as her reflections on things that “normal” people take for granted in daily life.

I also enjoyed seeing how the dynamic between Ailsa and her mom evolved as Ailsa became independent and no longer reliant on her mother for daily living. I think the author did a great job of depicting the letting-go that had to happen as Ailsa and Hayley learned to relate to each other in a new way.

While I did enjoy the relationship between Ailsa and Seb, I needed a bit more from these scenes, as I didn’t feel extremely invested in their relationship. Some key scenes between them happen “off-stage” and we hear about them later through email or Ailsa’s inner monologue. I would have loved more conversations and emotion between these two characters.

Despite this, I did enjoy reading this book and think lovers of contemporaries or romance would enjoy it too!

I love this author's writing. her stories are filled with love and hope. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for honest review.

4 1/2 ⭐️‘s
💙 touching. Ailsa has had a heart condition all her life. A condition that at 28 left her blue hearted and on the transplant list. Either she gets a heart or she dies. What happens when you get a new heart? How do you learn to live a new life? A life you have never had the privilege of living before. Immerse yourself in Ailsa’s story interspersed with her blog posts, emails, interviews, and news articles as she learns to trust her new heart and to live the life she was meant to have.

This was a very unique & well-written story. I felt like I was living Ailsa's journey right from the beginning. I liked how it had the blog posts then went to the story. The back & forth in time was seamless & easy to follow. The topic of transplants is a tough one, & I feel like Stephanie Butland put a lot of time & effort into getting it as right as she can. I highly recommend reading this book!

Ailsa was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome which means that her heart's left chamber is underdeveloped, and she wasn't expected to live past infancy. Now, at 28 years old, she's defied the odds and after finally securing a heart transplant, she has a chance to live a "normal" life. She's all ready to "do what I feel like doing. I won't worry about whether I can." But, is that really what happens? Will she be able to adjust to such a huge lifestyle change? And, what about her mother, Hayley, who has been caring for her all these years? Will she also be able to adjust?

This story was very much about adapting to a new normal after stressful times, and I had high hopes for it since I absolutely loved this author's previous novel, The Lost for Words Bookshop (4 solid stars). Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. I know this story should have tugged at my heartstrings, but for whatever reason (perhaps I am heartless), I just never felt a pulled in. I did, however, enjoy the numerous heart and eye puns/sayings, and the ending was strong. Lastly, I appreciate that this book will bring much-needed attention to organ donation.

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Ailsa Rae has had heart problems for her entire life, leading her to be put on the heart transplant list in her 20s. Now that her heart has come in, she is unsure how to live her life. She runs a blog about her health, and she decides to let her readers make the decisions for her life. Part of Ailsa feels guilty about receiving a transplant and living, when her ex-boyfriend died while waiting for a transplant of his own. She has always lived with her mother, and now that Ailsa can be independent, her mother is having a hard time letting go. Ailsa is also curious about her father and wants to find him. Can she listen to her new heart and learn to live?

This was a cute book, humorous and uplifting. I loved the way Ailsa used her blog for advice. I liked that Seb's story told of an organ donation that often gets overlooked and how the book was a nice push for everyone carrying a donor card. I look forward to more books from this author!

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is an intriguing concept...how a (heart) transplant patient, after 28 years of being sick and in hospital (Ailsa has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome), is given a new lease on life, but can she live her new life to the fullest especially after watching first love and best friend, Lennox, pass away before he could receive a liver transplant?

The beginning of the book tugged at my heart strings, but the rest of the book was just ok for me. I wanted to feel more of a connection with Ailsa. With that being said, I absolutely loved The Lost for Words Bookshop (highly recommend if you haven't read it), and will certainly check out future novels by this author...unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy; all opinions are my own.

This is such a wonderful novel! I was getting nervous about it in the beginning though because I found it a slow heart. We are introduced to Ailsa as she facing the rest of her life. As a woman born with a very serious heart defect time was never on her side so she never lived a normal life or considered a future. Now that she is recovering from a heart transplant she needs to figure out how to live and how to actually stand on her own. That means putting some distance between her mother who has been there for her through everything and who lives with her. The book is set in Scotland and I love the way the author writes out the mother’s dialogue so that you can hear the rolling R’s and wonderful Scottish brogue. It’s not clear why she is the only character to get that treatment but it’s a fun addition. This is where I found the novel slow as Ailsa needs to figure out where her life is going but once she gets out there and starts living the novel quickly picks up.

Ailsa started a blog during her treatment which she continues and we read that along with emails and news stories which are a fun change of pace, especially the witty back and forth emails. I was not a fan of the flashbacks interspersed into the novel of the year before. These included her very sick and her very close friend also very sick. I felt they really slowed down the pacing of the novel and would have been better put in a section at the beginning of the novel. The parts of this novel have names so those would have worked as some sort of before section.

I didn’t realize this book is written by an author I had read before until I looked her up to read more by her because I liked this book so much. I had read The Lost for Words Bookshop and I have to say in a very positive way the author has really come along way in her writing. I cannot wait to read her next book and see what she does next. This book is a great read and very fun despite some serious content. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book to read in exchange for a fair review. The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland is a women’s fiction novel about a young woman who receives a heart transplant. Ailsa Rae was born with a 3 chambered heart and she writes a blog called Blue Heart about her experiences waiting for a heart transplant. When your entire life is focused on staying alive suddenly having a heart that works changes everything. Ailsa needs to find out who she is when she is not the sick girl anymore, when she gets to be the one making the decisions and learns to be a grown up and independent from her mother who has devoted her life to keeping Ailsa alive. Things that she could never do before such as riding a bus and taking a dance class, getting a job open up new adventures and responsibilities. I enjoyed reading this book very much and highly recommend it. Publishing Date October 29, 2019
#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #StMartinsGriffin #WomensFiction #TheCuriousHeartOfAilsaRae
#StephanieButland #bookstagram

Thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin’s Griffin for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
This is the first book I’ve read by the author and can’t compare it to her previous work, although I’ve noticed reviewers show plenty of love for The Lost for Words Bookshop, and I’m keen to check it out.
The plot of this book is easy to summarise, and the description is quite detailed. Ailsa was born with a congenital heart condition (Hypoplastic left heart syndrome) and has been ill (to a greater or lesser degree) all her life. Now, when there isn’t much time left, she gets a new heart. The novel follows her journey to learn how to live her new life, which in her case is also akin to a coming of age story. Although she is 28, due to her circumstances she has lived a very sheltered life, always protected by her mother, her aunt, and her friends, and now she has to face lots of challenges.
The author chooses an interesting way of telling the story. The bulk of the story is narrated in the third-person, although exclusively from Ailsa’s point of view, and alternates between the “now” of the story, and what was going on in Ailsa’s life a year ago. Some readers complained about the jumps in timeline. I did not find them too confusing (the timeframe was clearly stated, and it was easy to tell from the content as well), and those chapters did add some perspective on Ailsa’s situation. Because we meet her just before her operation, this device works as a way of letting us know what her life was like before, and also helps us understand some of the difficulties she faces now. I wasn’t sure all of the chapters set in the past added new information or were particularly significant, but they didn’t slow down the pace of the story either.
Apart from the third person narrative, we can also “hear” Ailsa’s narrative in the first-person thanks to her blog. She has a blog where she had been writing about her illness and the difficulties of being on a transplant waiting list, and we get access to some of her posts. The book also includes her e-mails and text exchanges with some of the other characters. These provide us with a different perspective on the events, even with the caveat that blogposts are written to be published and are not spontaneous pouring of one’s heart (well, most of the time), and we get to hear from other characters as well. This is the third book I’ve read recently featuring a blogger as one of the main characters, so there seems to be a trend. The most curious part of it, in this case, is that Ailsa seems to be otherwise pretty disconnected from some aspects of everyday life (she does not know Seb, the young actor she meets, although he is well-known, and seems oblivious to much of what is shown on UK television, for example). One of the particular characteristics of her blog, though, is that she asks her readers to participate in polls that inform her decisions and the way she lives her life. Although in some cases the decisions are pretty neutral (choosing a name for her new heart, for example), others are more fundamental, and there’s much discussion about that throughout the book.
As for the characters… I liked Ailsa, although I agree with some comments that say she seems much younger than she is. I have mentioned above that the book, at least for me, reads like a coming-of-age-story, and although she’s gone to university and had a boyfriend (and there’s a story of loss and grief there as well), there’s much of normal life that she has not experienced and that explains why there is much growing up she still needs to do. She is childlike at time, stubborn, selfish, she lacks self-confidence, and struggles between her wish to grow up (she insists on sticking to the plan of living independently) and her reluctance to take responsibility for her own life (she is so used to living day to day and not making long-term plans that she uses her blog and the polls as a way to avoid ultimate responsibility). I loved her mother, Hailey, who can be overbearing and overprotective, but she is strong and determined, cares deeply for her daughter and has sacrificed much for her (even if she finds it difficult to let go now), and I felt their relationship was the strongest point of the novel. I was not so convinced by Seb, her love interest, and their on-off relationship, although it adds another dimension to Ailsa’s experience, seemed too unrealistic. Don’t get me wrong, he is handsome, a successful TV actor, and he is interested in her from the beginning, and yes… it reads like a very young and idealised romantic fantasy, so it might work in that sense, but as a character… What I liked about his part of the story was the acting background and the references to the Edinburgh Fringe. We only know Lennox through Ailsa’s memories and some of the chapters set in the past, and he is the other side of the coin, the one for whom luck run out too soon. This highlights the randomness of events and it makes more poignant the plight of so many people waiting for transplants. The efforts to keep his memory alive and make it count ring true.
The book is set in Edinburgh and I enjoyed the setting (although I’m only a casual visitor) and the references to the weather and the location. There are some local words and expressions used through the novel; although I cannot judge how accurate they are (the author is not Scottish although has done her research). I particularly enjoyed the Tango lessons and the setting of those above a pub.
The writing flows well and although in some ways the book is a light and gentle read (the romance is behind closed doors, and despite the talk of illness and hospitals, the descriptions of symptoms and procedures are not explicit or gore), it deals in serious subjects, like chronic illness, transplants (and it debates the matter of how to increase organ donations by changing it to an opt-out policy and removing the right of relatives to overrule the desires of a loved one), parental abandonment, grief, mother-daughter relationships, side effects of medication, popularity and media coverage of famous people, fat shaming… Although some of these topics are treated in more depth than others, I felt the novel dealt very well with the illness side of things, and it opened up an important debate on organ donations. As I said, I also enjoyed the mother-daughter relationship, and the fact that Ailsa becomes her own woman and grows up. I do love the ending as well.
This is a novel with a likeable main character who has had to live with the knowledge that she might not grow to be an adult, waiting for a miracle (unfortunately the miracle requires somebody else’s death, which deals sensitively in some very important topics, and is set in wonderful Edinburgh. I loved Ailsa’s mother and although some aspects of the novel work better than others, in my opinion, the quality of the writing and the strength of the story makes it well-worth reading. And yes, it is a heart-warming story (forgive the pun)! I’ll definitely be checking out more of the author’s books.

"The Curious Heart of Alisa Rae" takes readers on a journey of what it's like to wait for a healthy heart when your own isn't functioning fully. Butland shares the ups and downs of Alisa from her time waiting to receive her heart to the post op recovery and how her new heart and she learn to get along -- and even fall in love. A story worth reading.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book.
All opinions are my own.


I thought this book was cute and the premise of it was nice. It was a little slow at times but overall enjoyable and I like Stephanie as an author and have reads books of her before. I liked that the story centered around something not seen much in literature - organ transplants and the grief of waiting and hoping for healing. The characters were likeable and I would recommend it to friends

.Fascinating story for organ recipients or donors. Unfortunately, a bit too long and wordy. Take 25% out of this book and, I would have given it a 4-5 star review..
Unfortunately, it was too wordy with too much day to day info that, for me,, took away from the concept and storyline of the book.

The immensely likable characters in this book, Ailsa, her mother and her boyfriend(s) make reading this book a completely enjoyable way to spend a lazy day. Butland has apparently done a thorough job of her medical research, and her descriptions of London and Edinburgh are wonderfully detailed. I happily cheered on Ailsa and her pre-op and post-op growth and development.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book. The book dealt with a serious topic- organ transplants but overall it felt lighthearted and fun. I liked the format of the book with blog posts, emails, narrative and flashbacks to the past. This was a quick read but I was sad when the book ended. I wish I could be Ailsa’s friend because she has a such a witty personality and is full of wisdom. This is a book to pass to all of your friends and family members! I am looking forward to reading another book by Stephanie Butland!

Thank you to Stephanie Butland, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a lovely and sweet book and it filled me with pure happiness. Exactly what I needed right now. I fell in love with Ailsa and her mother...and I honestly think that was the true love story. Seb sounded dashing and handsome...but I really loved Ailsa and Hayley

The back and forth timeline isn't as confusing as others have mentioned, but it does mean you need to pay a little attention to the dates.

I really like the way the book dealt with a serious topic (illness, organ donation) in a way that wasn't too heavy.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.