This is a book that I would compare to Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, though I preferred this and thought it was more successful in achieving its aims. Heartsick appealed to the voyeuristic part of me, I enjoyed the insight into strangers' love lives. I do feel that the telling of the stories was the strongest part, and Stephens' reflections were a bit trite, so I would love to see her write fiction as I feel her writing would be up to it.

#337 Heartsick by Jessie Stephens
Three stories of great love and loss woven together into an intimate and beautiful portrait of what it feels like when your heart breaks. Five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Sometimes to hype around books can be daunting when you’re late to the party.

I didn’t get to Heartsick as soon as I hope and then I started seeing reviews for it pop up everywhere. There was so much love for this book, and after finally reading it I totally get the hype!

This was a fantastic read, so much so I ended up buy a physical copy to add to my shelf!

Thank you for kindly gifting me an e-arc of this one to read!

A compelling biography of three relationships and the resulting heartbreak when they end. Jessie Stephens is a brilliant author, with the capacity to bring to life real stories of everyday life, she has woven this non fiction into a wholly immersive narrative which reads like fiction and is entirely impossible to put down. Heartsick reminds us what it is to be vulnerable and shows us the universal emotions that affect anyone who has ever had their heart broken. I can’t wait to see what Jessie writes next!

A non-fiction book which is conveyed like a fiction with each chapters narrated in turn by Patrick, Anna, and Claire.
Patrick - first time in a relationship, he meets Caitlin while she is still in a relationship.
Anna - married woman with three kids who seems not sure she's happy with her married life.
Claire - she moves to London after a break-up and strike another relationship with Maggie.

While reading this book, you'll think a lot about love, heartbreak, and marriage/relationship; what are you looking for in a relationship? Happiness? Emotional security? Convenience? Loving and living with someone won't guarantee your happiness.

"... sometimes loving someone isn't enough. A relationship is when love meets circumstances, two variables as important as each other. "

In a nutshell:
Based on true stories, Jessie Stephens takes us on a nonfiction account of three relationships, and ultimately the heartbreak that follows. We have Patrick who discovers his first love at Uni, Claire who moves to London to find herself and instead finds Maggie, and Ana, who seemingly has it all with a loving husband and three kids but realises she’s married to the wrong man. While nonfiction, it reads like fiction. The stories are compelling, the writing is raw and intimate. As Jessie reminds us, heartbreak is something that lives within all of us, yet it does not seem to be a brand of grief we respect. This book allows you to sit with that grief and connect to these stories, to realise you’re not alone, that heartbreak is universal.

Why I loved this book:
I’m a big fan of Jessie’s writing from Mamamia so when I heard she had launched her first book I was excited to read her work. And over one weekend, I simply devoured it. I loved the concept behind this book, how she sought out real people – because don’t we all have a heartbreak story within us – and how through conducting interviews and phone calls, looking at emails, texts and photos, she sculptured their narratives. The result is a beautiful novel that you can so easily connect with. It was hard to put down. The emotion is genuine and raw and it’s difficult to not relive your own heartbreak as you read no matter how long ago it was. And while that probably doesn’t sound appealing, it’s a reminder that we’re all human, we’re all vulnerable, and one can find strength through storytelling.

Thank you Pan Macmillan Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Heart Sick is a raw look at the rollercoaster of emotions felt by so many of us when a relationship begins and then when it breaks down. It is based on real stories from Patrick, Ana and Claire. Claire starts a relationship with Maggie in London, but when she returns to her home in Australia, things start to go sour. Patrick finds the love of his life Caitlin at University, but will his first real relationship survive? Ana is married with three children, but is her husband who she really wants to be with?
While Heart Sick is a non-fiction book, it very much reads like a fiction story – except that the stories of the three people are not interlinked. The common threads amongst the three stories are love and heartbreak. I have so many questions after this book including how are they now?
As Stephens explains, heartbreak is something we don’t really talk about or ‘celebrate’ or ‘respect’. How do you grieve for the loss of someone who is still around? How do you fill the gap in your life that was once filled by someone so important to you? I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced the loss someone who they loved.
I enjoyed the three stories and it triggered memories of love that I have experienced and lost. Thank you for the memories Jessie Stephens and well done on your first book – what a great achievement.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/214811

A truly enlightening book that everyone should read. Following three people who have loved and lost, this non-fiction book reads like fiction. I was quickly turning pages and staying up too late in order to see what was going to happen. I felt committed to each person at different times and couldn't figure out who I was most interested in. They all have compelling tales! While I've never experienced heartbreak like any of them, I could easily empathize with their situations. And the epilogue is worth the price of admission. How eloquently the author examines our need for a ritual around romantic rejection. She makes such a great point that I was shocked I'd never thought of that before. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, whether they've ever been heartsick or not.

My choice of reading is fiction. Not normally non-fiction and definitely not what I see as self-help, yet, I spent the weekend reading this after being encouraged to read this by a colleague. I will totally admit it is not at all what I was expecting. I even had a few emotional moments as memories of my own painful, mostly forgotten (or purposely shut out) experiences that were so well described by Jessie with her characters' stories.

This is not your typical self-help book about how to get over a broken heart or how to get revenge or even worse "here are some platitudes that mean nothing at all so now buck up and get on with life". What Jessie has done is create a totally absorbing story of three people who are all different ages and in varying stages and situations in life and their very real experiences of heartbreak.

Most of the book is about Ana, Claire and Patrick and their stories but it is written so much like a fiction novel that I actually forgot I was supposedly reading a non-fiction/relationship book. It is only towards the end that Jessie pops in with her own voice and comments on love, being 'heartsick' and relationships.

There is nothing 'preachy' about this book. It doesn't give you a quick cure for that broken heart or how to find 'the one' etc etc etc. This is a book for all people of any age that helps the reader feel less alone in their experiences. It is a book about grief, loneliness, expectations, rejection and love, but mostly about being human

I absolutely inhaled this book within 2 days. A raw, honest and compelling biography about 3 different people entering into the perfect relationship, living through it, and then experiencing the devastating heartbreak when it ends. There are elements of all 3 people which we all identify with. I loved the diversity of the 3 relationships and think it was wonderful to have a male perspective and to have representation from the LGBTIQ community included. Very much for fans of Three Women... but even better as the emotions pack a punch.