How To Save A Life by Eva Carter

A heartfelt love story, where three friends find out what it really means to save someone.

Although this was an interesting book, it did not have much excitement in it. It could be classified as a life journal For 3 friends and the drama they went through together. Very emotional.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s’ copy for review.

I received this book "How to Save a Life" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. This was an interesting storyline, about decisions and what happens when you make them. But what would happen if you made a different decision?? Overall an okay read. I found some parts a bit boring and wanted more from the characters.

**Thank you Netgalley, Eva Carter, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for an advanced reader copy of this book.**

Kerry Smith and Joel Greenaway meet under unusual circumstances. Kerry performs CPR on Joel to save his life when he goes into cardiac arrest at the age of 17. Instead of getting the credit, Tim, Kerry's best friend, lets everyone think he was the main hero in the story. After this, the three of their lives are intertwined over the next 18 years.

My feelings on this book - I read the entire thing and honestly I am a bit overwhelmed. I feel like this story could certainly be real life, but many of the circumstances were a bit outlandish. I liked Kerry's character at the beginning but by the end of the book I hated her. She is extremely arrogant and self-righteous. Tim's character wasn't much better for a like-ability factor. Joel's character was probably my favorite out of the three and even then, I still feel like he wasn't great.

The ending of this book was super disappointing to me as well. I went through the entire book thinking "Jesus Kerry either go for Joel or don't, but stop changing your mind and at least TRY to work out issues before telling him to eff off." And I felt the same way about Joel when Kerry gave him news he didn't like. Real relationships aren't like this at all from my experience. You don't just constantly meet up, talk, then say you hate each other and never want to see one another again. It's weird.

While I enjoyed the story, I can't give more than three stars because I felt like after reading about Kerry and Joel pining for each other for 18 years, I should have gotten. more than a freaking hand touch at the end.

I attempted to get through this book several times but unfortunately it was not for me. The plot sounded interesting and I am sure others will enjoy this book, but I just couldn't connect with the characters and their thoughts/emotions in a way that made me interested in how the story would shape up. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exhange for my honest review.

This felt like a YA book even though it just started when the main characters were 17. Kerry provides CPR on Joel, a soccer star, while her best friend Tim looks on. Tim and Kerry had both been planning to become doctors, but the fact that he did not do anything has undermined his confidence. Kerry had been studying hard and fails her A levels so has no opportunity to go medical school.

The novel follows Kerry, Tim and Joel in the years that follow and how the CPR event and their reactions to it affect the next years of their lives.

Kerry and Joel are brought together initially when she saves his life. Through the years, they return and part again from each other. The book covers the years in between and how their lives progressed apart and back. I really wanted to love this book, but it just fell flat for me. I found it frustrating to see Kerry and Joel's paths intertwine and just keep missing out on the inevitable. There was just too much that did not need to be in the book that went nowhere. That being said, I do believe that this author has talent at developing characters and making them relatable. Thanks for the ARC, Netgalley.

#mybookthoughts

❤️ How to Save a Life
Eva Carter
Pub date: May.17.2021

In this heartfelt love story, three friends find out what it means to save somebody! It moves through their years and the way the tragic event has shaped them. There is more then one way to save a life - and find meaning and purpose in your own!

I really enjoyed this book! Life typically doesn’t go as initially expected! Some people struggle more then others...it’s how you get there and who is with you that matters! 💕

#howtosavealife #netgalley

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreader #mnreads #mnreader #evacarter

Heartfelt and heartbreaking - an excellent addition for collections where women's fiction is popular. Strong YA/HS crossover appeal as well.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
I generally have a hard time reading books with a different dialect because I'm unable to put myself "in" the story. I didn't have that problem with this one. I was so taken with the story from the get go that it just wasn't an issue. There were so many times that I wanted to punch nearly every single character in the throat lol - especially Tim - oh I couldn't stand that jerk - he was such a pain in the butt life sucker outter!! I loved the way it was told from each of the different perspectives. I'm excited to find a new author to stalk <3 I'd like to thank Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had what I would typically go for - a love triangle and a story told over a long period of time (18 years). Once I hit a certain point I didn’t want to put it down, but it took me a long time to get there, and I think at that point I just wanted to be done. This wasn’t a book I could read a lot of at once - things moved too slowly for that. I had a hard time connecting with the characters as well as they all seemed to be quite miserable for most of the story. A lot of drug use and questioning of their life choices. A relationship that never made sense, but lasted entirely too long. I wanted to love this story more, but it never quite gripped me.

This is a beautifully written story about friendship, loss, love, and second chances. EC’s clear prose and her engagement with the lives of her characters is amazing.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

While this was an interesting plot, it took a few turns into the unbelievable throughout the book. This could have been a great trilogy with each storyline its own book. I found it difficult to like Kerry, Joel, and Tim very early on in the book. Spoiler alert - but if Kerry was physically detested by Tim just being near her on that NYE night, and after he totally froze up and LIED about his participation in saving Joel, then why on EARTH would she decide to date him later on? Just because it wasn't going to work out with Joel so she just settled for the guy she couldn't stand and miraculously fell in love with him? I'm sad to say this one didn't work for me, but there is so much potential there.

Friends Kerry Smith and Tim Palmer are working towards medical school, when on the eve of the new millennium, their classmate Joel Greenway goes into cardiac arrest. This event changes the trajectory for all of these characters lives.

Joel's sports career is cut short, Kerry's career dreams don't pan out, and Tim struggles with insecurities. I didn't find myself connecting with any of these characters. I'm not sure if it's because the author didn't really make me feel what they were going through, or because the characters were somewhat unlikeable. The story spans years so there's a lot that happens and quite a bit of drama. I did like reading from each character's point of view, and I felt that that was well executed, but I just didn't find the story as gripping and emotional as I'd hoped.

I was given a copy of How to Save a Life by the publisher through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

How to Save a Life by Eva Carter is a brilliant book! Incase you haven't read the description, this book is about the huge impact of performing CPR on someone inspired by the author performing lifesaving CPR on her own husband. At the start of the book best friends Kerry and Tim are attending a New Year's Eve party. Just as the clock is about to strike midnight Kerry sees soccer hotshot and hottie Joel fall to the ground while playing pickup soccer with friends. She rushes to side and saves his life by performing CPR. This book follows the three over the next two decades.

I loved seeing long range time play out for these characters that Carter gave so much dimension. I would think the story would go one way and be surprised, but I love how it ended which was better than what I was imagining! Such a powerful and interesting story told in turn from each character's point of view.

This is an interesting medical story of about survival, challenge, loss, grief, friendship and love.
Kerry and her friend Tim are finally accepted into medical school and it is not an easy journey. They save the life of their friend at eighteen who has literally "dropped dead"on New Years Eve 2020!
However was this a good thing? Time will tell!
Joel was the "big man" in town and has a wonderful future.
I enjoyed the writing of this novel though I do feel that it was a bit scattered at times.
It definitely for the most part held my interest and as a medical person myself, I enjoyed being with Kerry, Tim and Joel.

"How to Save a Life" follows three main characters over the course of 18 years. They are plagued with happiness, grief, addiction, and everything in between.

The novel begins with a bang, shifting from multiple POVs as the main character of Joel suffers from a heart attack. At first I struggled with the multiple POVs, but it ended up seaming together nicely and I appreciated the different perspectives. The novel was a great character study the depicted how things do not always go as we intended or expected and life can deal you the toughest of cards. At times, it was frustrating, as I wanted to yell at the characters for seemingly bringing their own misfortune upon them, but I attribute those feelings to a great job done by the author for generating that emotion. I can't say the characters were always likeable, but they were always interesting.

The writing was well-done and I had to finish the book to see how it would end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE
BY EVA CARTER

This novel takes place in the U.K. and the driving message seems to be learning CPR and being prepared to administer it while you wait for an ambulance to arrive and take over. It can literary mean the difference between life and death.

At the year of 2000 Joel whom has a promising soccer career suddenly becomes unconscious and his heart stops. Tim completely freezes and can't move while Kerry gives him CPR breathing for him while delivering chest compression's for eighteen minute before the paramedics arrive. She saved his life.

All three of these character's lives will intersect over the next eighteen year's in surprising ways. Joel who lies in a hospital bed lashes out and is angry because he would rather have died than to survive and not be able to play soccer anymore. In the United States we associate his sport as football. At
least that is how I interpreted it.

Joel and Kerry get together for a few months and have a secret romance. Kerry falls in love with Joel and he hurts her. She was an A student whose grades suffer and her plans from going to train to be a doctor are put on hold. Tim who Kerry was closer to gets the grades to train as a doctor yet he isn't
prepared as and doesn't have the high aptitude that Kerry does.

Over the next eighteen year's these three lives will collide. I don't wan't to say more because the synopsis covers it pretty much and I don't want to give spoilers. If this sounds interesting to you then you must read the novel. There is a lot that happens that kept me invested in the story as these character's face life's challenges.

Publication Date: May 18, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Eva Carter and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#HowtoSaveaLife #EvaCarter #RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine #NetGalley

I have mixed emotions about this book. The characters are cranky and self-destructive, but I also think they’re probably fairly realistic. Joel is a soccer star who goes into cardiac arrest at age 18 and is technically dead for 18 minutes. Kerry and Tim are medical students who save his life (well, Kerry does while Tim takes all the credit). Joel’s life spirals after that, which sort of makes sense. What doesn’t make as much sense are the bad choices that Tim makes and Kerry’s need to stick by him at the cost of her own plans. The novel spans another 18 years, during which time they all criss-cross paths, coming together and moving apart until the end when they finally figure out what they want to do with their lives.

Reading this book really gives you a taste of, well, “how to save a life.” There’s a lot of talk about how to do CPR, what happens when you do or don’t perform CPR, and what happens next. Sometimes the outcome is good, sometimes bad, and in the case of Joel, both good and bad. Even more interesting than Joel’s path after his rescue was the effect saving his life had on Kerry and Tim. I hadn’t given much thought to what happens to the rescuers, but this book gives a nice (and not-so-nice) perspective on what happens to the other people involved. While I can't say I loved the characters or their choices, I was eager to see how it all turned out for them and stayed interested until the end.

I really really enjoyed this book. It was a solid 4-4.25 star read for me!! As a Registered Nurse myself, I think that the message and importance of CPR was delivered tactfully and perfectly with grace and I was 100% hooked within the first chapter. The book kept me wanting more from the very beginning. I think what was beautiful for me through the entire book and all 60 something chapters was the illustration displayed beautifully through Tim, Kerry, and Joel that choices made in life effect your whole life course. The character development, each character's story, how each was interwoven was just done so beautifully and you never were bored or left wanting more. I really enjoyed it, especially knowing it was a debut. I was very very happy and pleased and will definitely read more. Thank you so much from Net Galley, The Publisher, and Author for the pleasure of reading this ARC.

While this book was well-written, and it had an original story in the vein of One Day or Me Before You, it left me cold. I felt like it was way too depressing. Just when you thought the characters would get a break, something else terrible would happen.
Plus, it just felt like there was a lot of intensity and really heavy stuff packed into one book. Perhaps it’s the book best to read when you’re in the mood for something really heavy and sad, but if you’re in the market for a sweet romance, maybe try something else.