This psychological thriller explores the fine line between desire and obsession and kept me guessing to the very end. I liked the way the book follows Rosie, who contacts the husband of the woman whose heart she received on a donor connect app only to quickly become infatuated with him. Full of gaslighting, mental manipulation, complicated friendships, jealousy, loads of red herrings and great on audio narrated by Gail Shalan and Chris Andrew Ciulla I did find this a touch long but it is sure to appeal to fans of books like Verity (minus any sexual content). Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

After really enjoying The Family Plot by this author a few years back, I wanted to dive into of her reads and this one sounded super interesting and up my alley. I really enjoyed this one. The heart transplant detail was super original and the story unraveling through messages via Donor Connect was intriguing. I liked the mixed media in this (texts and messages). While I didn’t LOVE the ending, it’s a very solid thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat, turning pages. I think this will be a buzzed thriller in 2025.

Definitely recommend for thriller lovers looking for an original and fresh take on the genre.

Cross My Heart by Megan Collins is a thriller that absolutely blew me away! The writing, the story, and the characters are all exceptional. From start to finish, I was completely captivated. This book is a must-read, and I give it all the stars.
This book had me literally sitting on the edge of my seat while reading. Please add this to your 2025 reading list!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a way to start a new year by reading this amazing thriller! The character development is impeccable and the plot keeps you on your toes!
Rosie had a heart transplant. She begins an email relationship with the husband of the deceased wife, she has the wife's heart.

Rosie works at a bridal shop and loves "love." She has had a tough year. Her engagement is broken off, she has the heart transplant and now she is chatting with this guy online. She is deeply flawed but also very likeable. I cheered for her throughout the book!

"Your sense of worth. Even once the dust settles, you're left with disorienting fog. Internal chaos. And what's a person to do with that? Maybe they pretend to be someone else. Or call the same number over and over, because the unanswered ring is better than silence. And maybe sometimes what looks like crazy is just an attempt at taking back control."

Shocking Twist, Female Obsession, and Passionate Love! 4.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book will be released 1/14/25

3.5⭐️
- quick read / 🍿 thriller
- loved the Taylor swift mentions 🫶🏻
- was surprised by the twist mid way through
- truly went back and forth on who I thought the killer was
- fun text features!! Emails, texts, “book inside a book” style poetry, interviews
- loved the emphasis on society’s use of the word “crazy” when talking about women (specifically in regard to how they act when dating)

- thought some of the jokes were a bit over done? Like the “Rosie colored glasses” was used a looooot
- At the end I felt like there was 1 too many red herrings used to misguide the reader
- the main character is not the most likable. I know you aren’t supposed to love every character, but she made some wild decisions

BOOK REVIEW: CROSS MY HEART❤️‍🩹

After getting dumped in her wedding dress and suffering from a broken heart, Rosie receives a heart transplant that saves her life. She gets in contact with her donor’s husband with the hope of learning more about his wife, whose heart now keeps Rosie alive. As she gets to know him, she starts to wonder if rumors she’s heard about him killing his wife could be true…

This book was sooo TWISTED and had me hooked from the beginning! Rosie was such an interesting unreliable narrator and I loved trying to put the puzzle pieces of this story together as I flew through this one! Of course I absolutely loved the Taylor Swift references throughout and would def recommend this one to all thriller lovers!

I loved the premise for this book. Rosie receives a heart transplant from the wife of a well known author. When she connects with him and feels a connection she starts fantasizing he’s the one. Rosie though is someone who goes “all in” and her friends and parents become worried when Rosie becomes a possible suspect in a crime.

Things I loved about this book include the premise as mentioned earlier, the unreliable characters throughout the book which definitely made the book more enjoyable, and it was very well written. I would have given a higher rating through if I didn’t find parts of it predictable but that didn’t ruin the book for me like it usually does. Overall though a good, enjoyable, fast paced read I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy in exchange for my opinion.

I was completely hooked from the beginning and I felt every0ne could have been a suspect. I loved the Taylor Swift references and I how every chapter made me want to keep reading to see where it goes. The emails between chapters were very interesting and I thought they added a lot to the story!

DonorConnect should NOT be an online dating service!

Tell that to Rosie Lachlan, she has recently had a life-saving heart transplant and a breakup where she was dumped in her wedding dress! 😮 Her new life, new me attitude has been side tracked and she struggles to take off her rose colored glasses.

Rosie feels a connection to her heart donor and wants to know more about the woman who lost her life, but saved hers. She starts researching on the DonorConnect site and goes down a rabbit hole that leads her to more than she bargained for. The 🩷wants what the 🩷wants!!

Although I guessed a major twist (ugh), I still enjoyed the story. One shocking twist had me changing course and wanting to give Rosie a call! I don't want to say anymore because of spoiler territory!

Interesting premise-a heart donor recipient connects with her late donor’s husband and starts to become infatuated with him while he harbors some secrets of his own. The medical aspect was interesting, and paralleled pieces of Jennifer Hartmann’s The Wrong Heart, one of my favorite romances. The twists completely threw me off. The writing was also fast paced and pretty closely mirrored a story that can happen in real life.

Read if you like:
-Bingey thrillers
-Medical components
-Wedding dress stores
-Boston suburbs setting

Megan Collin’s latest thriller, Cross My Heart, dives right into the life of Rosie Lachlan as she works on physically and emotionally healing her heart from a recent transplant and a broken engagement.

As Rosie begins to communicate with the husband (Morgan) of her heart donor (Daphne) via DonorConnect (a website that connects donor recipients with families of donors) she begins to think that fate has brought them together.

However, as any good thriller reader knows—there is always something to uncover. The twists and turns in this one kept me captivated from start to finish and it is yet another 5 ⭐️ read from me!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader copy for my review!

It’s a book that questions how much we are willing to reshape reality for the sake of what we desire, and whether we can truly trust our hearts, literal or metaphorical. It’s an unsettling but fascinating read that’ll have you thinking long after the final page.

This was an ok thriller. I liked the concept but the MC was so hard to like and most of the twists were very obvious. The pacing was weird for me - early on, I was on the edge of my seat but it kind of lost steam for me for a good chunk of the middle. The writing was otherwise good and the story was just unhinged enough to not completely lose me.


A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️./5

This one is for the girls who have ever felt like they’re “too much.”

I LOVEDDDD this thriller! It had everything in it, that I could have hoped for and more. Rosie wants to meet Morgan - the husband of her heart donor and reaches out to him on DonorConnect. They begin to have conversations and get to know one another, but eventually things unravel and Rosie is in for more than she may have initially planned for. I read this book in under 24 hours y’all, I couldn’t put it down. It has many references to Gilmore Girls, Friends and Taylor Swift to top it all off!! I can’t describe too much of this story as there are so many twists, I’d give away plot. Trust me when I say you need to read this one + will not be bored. I kept thinking I knew what was happening but then something else would happen. It was a wild ride 🥲

5/5 stars

Thank you Atria Books for the advanced reading copy!

My first by Megan Collins -- but certainly not my last! I absolutely devoured this book from the moment I picked it up. This book starts off strong with a clever and unique premise; I don't read a lot of books with transplant survivors, and the heart transplant* being such a center point of this story added a lot. Then we get into the thriller of it all, and what an absolutely wild ride start to finish. I kept finding myself like 😧😧😧 multiple times. I really had no idea where this was going at any given time, even when I thought I did, and I've never loved being wrong so much!! This book touched on the complexities of love and femininity and being "crazy" so well. What a story! From a purely entertainment standpoint, this book was excellent. Add in all of the nuance, creep factor and Taylor Swift references and you have an easy 5 star read to round out the year!

*NOTE for those of you who, like me, have a lot of medical anxiety -- I did not feel that the transplant scenes of this boo were very gory, gross or stressful. I did not feel anxious about that while reading this and thought Megan Collins did a great job including it without making it feel like too much. That being said, there are descriptions of her symptoms leading up to the transplant, some of which had a very sudden onset, and some of the medications/after affects. If this may freak you out, proceed with caution. Again, I have tons of anxiety in this area and did not find this distract from the story or be overwhelming.

Cross My Heart is a very addictive mystery-thriller that I read in a day. I thought this was a well written and immersive story. This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, but it won’t be the last. I had a lot of fun reading this book.

The premise is wild. A woman has no luck in love. She has cardiomyopathy, so she gets a heart transplant. She ends up communicating and falling for her heart donor’s husband. She soon learns some rumors about the guy and she starts to think he might be responsible for his wife’s death.

I loved the mystery and suspense. There were some twists that I did not see coming. The ending was okay, but not my favorite. Overall, this was a twisty thriller that I really enjoyed.

If you enjoy mystery thrillers, definitely read this one! I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an eARC via NetGalley for review.

With some books , I sometimes struggle 😳 trying to find the words when writing reviews but with this book NOT THE CASE! This book was unforgettable—it stayed with me long after I finished! Cross My Heart was a fast-paced, deep psychological thriller with incredible twists that kept me hooked. I flew through it, eager to see what was coming next. The characters were so well-developed, and the atmosphere was perfectly crafted, which is something I always look for in a great read.

This was my first Megan Collins novel, and it definitely won’t be my last. Plus, the cover is stunning! A solid ending made it even better. Big Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for supplying the review eARC! I enjoyed reading this book and I definitely recommend it!

This was an okay read for me though I was expecting more. It didn't blow me out of the water like I'd hoped. The twists and writing style were both good so maybe it was just me and my mood that didn't take to it. There are lots of great reviews for this book so please give it a go if you fancy.

Cross My Heart by Megan Collins is a gripping psychological thriller that weaves romance, obsession, and mystery into a tense and emotional narrative. Rosie Lachlan, a heart transplant recipient, suspects her donor was Daphne Thorne, the late wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne. Driven by a mix of curiosity and an unsettling belief that she and Morgan are destined to be together, Rosie connects with him anonymously, only to uncover disturbing secrets about his past and his late wife’s death.

Collins masterfully builds tension, blending Rosie’s longing for love with the dark complexities of her investigation. The premise is unique and compelling, and the story keeps readers hooked as Rosie navigates her growing obsession and the mounting danger. While the twist at the end may not resonate with everyone, the journey there is packed with suspense and emotional depth.

With its mix of romance and dark intrigue, Cross My Heart is a haunting exploration of love, identity, and the secrets that bind us. A must-read for fans of psychological thrillers.

In Cross My Heart, Rosie Lachlan, a heart transplant recipient, becomes romantically drawn to Morgan Thorne, the widowed husband of her heart donor. As their relationship deepens, Rosie learns disturbing rumors about Morgan's involvement in his wife's death. Torn between love and fear, she must unravel the truth while grappling with the unsettling ties that connect them. This psychological thriller explores obsession, secrets, and the dark complexities of human relationships.

I went into Cross My Heart knowing nothing, and wow—I couldn’t put it down! Rosie had me so stressed in the first half with how delusional she was acting, but then everything started clicking, and the twists just didn’t stop. Every time I thought I had it figured out, another shock came out of nowhere.

This was such a fun, wild ride. If you’re into thrillers with messy characters and tons of twists, definitely check it out!