CROSS MY HEART was twisty and full of red-herrings. It really begs the question of "How far would you go for love?" and by showing the "crazy" that often earns the credit for hurting. I enjoyed Rosie's character and had fun hunting down the truth of Daphne's life, and, ultimately her death. The ending was not something I expected, which made it all the more fun to read.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me review this amazing ARC!

This book was exactly how a psychological thriller should be - keep you guessing with twists that will leave you wanting more!

We follow Rosie throughout, who received a lifesaving heart transplant. She wants to connect with the Donor's husband, to learn more about the donor through DonorConnect, which is an anonymous service.

While learning more about his wife (the donor), she starts to discover disturbing information about the donor's husband. She starts questioning and digging into her past and ends up discovering more than she wished for.

I thought I knew where this book was going, but I had absolutely no idea, but really enjoyed the thrill of the ride! I highly recommend this book, if you enjoy psychological thrillers, with a dash of romance and a lot of stalking!

Rosie Lachlan, a year post-heart transplant, works at her family’s bridal shop. Through an anonymous chat group called DonorConnect, she discovers the identity of her donor’s husband, Morgan Thorne, a rising author whose wife tragically passed away in a home accident. Unresolved from a past breakup, Rosie’s life remains unfulfilled.

Despite the group’s strict privacy guidelines, Morgan gradually builds trust in Rosie. However, her feelings for him transcend mere trust. She yearns for a deeper connection, a complete union.

Rosie remains oblivious to Morgan’s thoughts and desires, while her growing obsession intensifies. Meanwhile, Morgan meticulously plots his next novel, and Rosie embodies the character he seeks to portray perfectly.

As I delved deeper into this captivating narrative, I couldn’t help but recall the Aretha Franklin song, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” This song encapsulates the essence of the story. It’s a far cry from the characters’ lives, yet it keeps readers guessing with unexpected twists. Megan Collins weaves a well-crafted and thought-provoking narrative that may leave readers spellbound and unable to put this book down.

Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

What does crazy mean?

This is an essential question in the first outstanding thriller that I have read for 2025. Five stars for this incredible read by one of my favorite authors!

Rosie Lachlan is looking for something we all search for: love. Her journey has been difficult to say the least. She works in the bridal shop her parents started, and she helps future brides find their perfect dress. She also has health issues. She needed a heart transplant, and now she spends her days managing her condition. Rosie receives some information that leads her to the husband of her donor. This sets off a chain of events that changes her life in ways she was not expecting.

Rosie is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever come across in a thriller. On the surface, it would be so easy to categorize her as an unreliable narrator, but that would be reductive. She has so many of the same feelings, hopes, and fears that we all do. Rosie is definitely not the same woman at the end of this story as she was at the beginning. There are so many twists and turns in this one.

Megan Collins crafts a sharp and twisted story here. She really makes you root for Rosie and points out what is wrong with so much of what women go through when trying to find “the one.” I was always one step behind in this story. I was unnerved, anxious, and confused throughout this read - and I mean that as a compliment. The supporting characters’ actions kept me just as off balance as Rosie did.

The last chapter of this one is incredible! There are so many plot points and twists that I want to discuss here, but I refuse to give anything away - go into this one blind. This is a great selection for a book club. What a discussion that would be!

This is - in my opinion - Megan Collins’s best book yet! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this terrific book! It releases on January 14th - preorder it now!

Thank you to Atria and Megan Collins for the advanced copy!

One of my most anticipated reads of the year and it more than surpassed my expectations. This story was told in a mixed media format, with email exchanges and some poetry sprinkled throughout - it was so unique and fresh! Our FMC’s seeming obsession over her heart transplant’s husband pulled me in and the pacing kept me locked in and reading quickly! Speaking of a heart transplant, I found that material fascinating and thought the author did a very respectful job at portraying what life after a transplant is like. No spoilers but the twist that was halfway through made me gasp - so cleverly executed and it worked perfectly! There is nothing I enjoy in a thriller than a twist I didn’t see coming, and boy did Collins deliver!

Megan Collins is one of those authors who never misses - somehow every book is better than the one before it!

“Cross My Heart” releases January 14, 2024. This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

This was a good mystery that I did enjoy. A little predictable, the author did try to throw the reader of the the killer's scent but I got it. Opened my eyes a little to the greats of poetry that I had no knowledge about.

A heart transplant patient becomes enamored with her donor's husband. While navigating and planning her soon to be future with him, i.e stalking him, he winds up dead with the evidence pointing to her as the killer. As she tries to clear her name and also uncover how his wife really died, she comes to terms of how her behavior from her past may be contributing to putting herself in impossible situations. Let's see if she learns from this experience.

Solid 3.5 stars!!!

Thanks to Atria ans NetGalley for this ARC, Beyond grateful and humbled

CROSS MY HEART OUT JAN 14TH 2025!

You donate your wife's organs. amazing thing to do. Right? What if the person receiving one of those organs now thinks they belong in your life. As your wife...

This book was so unique and twisty!! I loved the heart transplant aspect and thought it added so much to the story. I also loved how complex Rosie was. I could NOT figure her out - I really liked her... but she was also a stalker and probably kind of crazy (and not in that cute, fun way)?! It was so fun trying to figure everything out and my theories were WILD which made it that much better!

It was so hard to know what to believe with this book and I didn't trust anyone. There were moments where I questioned everything...so much so that I flashed back to Verity and wondered if I had been reading a manuscript! It was a wild ride and super fun.

The characters were all so unique and I loved that I had to not only make sure I didn't miss a single word but also had to read between the lines to try to figure everything out.

If you're looking for a totally twisty and wild thriller, I highly recommend!!!

Cross My Heart by Megan Collins

Thank you to Atria Books & NetGalley for the e-arc!

Rosie needed a heart transplant, but beyond the physical necessity of the organ, she feels a connection to the donor- and specifically the late donor's husband. Rosie goes to unusual lengths- some might call crazy- to get to know the husband. The more she learns, the more she needs from him.

This book honestly had me at the dedication (swipe to see -love the Taylor Swift reference, can relate to the crazy part) and then the author's note just after about no harm coming to the dog and cat in the story. Then the story started out strong and I feel like I barely came up for air. Rosie is portrayed in an incredible way - she was likable and I felt sympathetic, but girl is a LOT. Megan Collins did SUCH a good job showing us little ways that Rosie probably went too far- like mimicking a dead woman's smile so her husband would like her more.

After reading, I felt similar feelings as I did after reading TELL ME LIES- I just feel that f**k the patriarchy kind of mood. So many women are made out to be crazy - simply for feeling their feelings.

It's been a while since I actually wanted to markup and highlight quotes in a book - but this book made me note so many!

"There's a long tradition of men calling women "crazy"... and it's a lazy label."

"There's the truth, which is literally what happened. And then there's the Truth- what emotionally happened."

"...it's easier, sometimes, to be miserable in love than it is to be alone."

"And maybe sometimes what looks like crazy is just an attempt at taking back control."

"But it's like he sensed my moment of peace- or just noticed I'd swapped out his photo- because it was only hours later that he sent that text..."

✨𝐑 𝐄 𝐕 𝐈 𝐄 𝐖✨

𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐬

Happy new year, bookstagram! 🥳 My last book of 2024 was a wild one & this is officially my first review of 2025! 📚 Thanks so much to @atriabooks for the gifted copy out 1/14!

What a wild ride this story was!! I was truly hooked from the start.

👍🏼: When Rosie receives a heart transplant, she becomes curious about the life of the women’s heart she received. I enjoyed the multiple POV’s and formats this story was told through emails and text messages. It made the story that much more shocking and confusing as it unraveled 😂 I truly didn’t know who to trust and the unreliable narrator worked in this story (it doesn’t always for me!!). If you love a twisty mystery/ thriller, and wild plot with many surprises along the way, you’ll love this story! 👏🏼

👎🏼: When explaining this plot to people, I asked myself several times “what am I reading?!” 😂 There were many unbelievable circumstances throughout the whole story that may loose some people, but I found it to be fun to see where the story went as wild as it was!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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#crossmyheart #atriapartner #megancollins #januarybookreleases #2025reads #psychologicalthriller

Going into this book I was not expecting to be pulled in so fast. This book grabbed my attention from the start and did not let it go until the very last page. I wouldn't say it is a thriller but the suspense of it all def kept me entertained. Wouldn't mind reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley & Atria Books for the chance to read this ARC.

My My MY! This was a really wild ride! Got to say this is the first book in a LONG while where I actually REALLY liked the female main character, usually they get obnoxious after a while but I really Loved Rosie! Really loved everything developing between her and Morgan at first, the back-and-forth banter in the emails was really intriguing, kept you wanting more, then the twist!! WOW! Pretty much every part of this book was exciting, Loved the wife's poetry also, the mystery set between her work and his made for a really fast paced, chilling read. I could not put this book down, I also went back and read a few parts over, not because it was complicated read or anything just because I wanted to read it over again!

Loved the writing style of this book also:
"all that beautiful hardwood- if even now, his blood is cemented in the seams between boards, keeping the secret of whoever sent it there."

"So her mind wasn't broken; it was battling for control. Control of her own narrative. Control of the emotional chaos he'd caused."

I have apparently read some from this author before, but I don't remember "The family plot" that well, I will be reading that over again asap and I will ABSOLUTELY be reading all of her work after this! So thank you for another great author to follow!!

A Thriller that keeps you on your toes. From one moment to the next I was never quite sure about who’s done what. Megan Collins writes a delightfully funny and suspenseful psychological thriller about Rosie, a girl who’s desperate for love. But how far is she willing to go to find it again? You as the reader are never quite sure. Every character has doubt shadowed across their actions, who can Rosie trust? This was such a fun book to read, this story was captivating and twisty. Rosie has to learn to trust herself and her heart. Also, if you love Taylor Swift this story has some fun Taylor references!

This was my first read of 2025 and what a way to start - the dual point of view of this book drew me in right from the start.

Rosie just received a lifesaving heart transplant and as it turns it came from a local woman, the wife of author Morgan Thorne. She reaches out to him via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, I mean who wouldn't want to know more about the woman who gave her a new life. The more she learns about Morgan the more connection she feels but that also comes with the knowledge that Daphne, his wife, died under somewhat suspicious circumstances. How does she balance a growing love of Morgan with a growing suspicion of him?

I found myself flipping the pages faster and faster and just when I thought I may have figured things out, plot twist I didn't see coming.

Thank you Atria Books, NetGalley and Megan Collins for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. Publication date is January 14, 2025.

4 ⭐️

(I received an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher and the author for this opportunity!)

*Some minor spoilers ahead*

This is one of the most well constructed/paced thrillers I have read in a long time. Our main character is one who is unfolding before us throughout the book and understanding who she is and isn’t is a story all of its own - add to it a murder that turns the story in a whole new direction and this book is one you just can’t put down! I really enjoyed my time with this and think Freida McFadden fans will find a lot to love in this.

4.5⭐️- Does obsession equal true love or deadly love?

It's been a year since Rosie had her heart broken and then replaced, literally. Shortly after a relationship with Brad ended, she found out she needed a heart transplant and was lucky enough to receive one. Through an anonymous email service, DonorConnect, Rosie has been able to contact Morgan, the spouse of her donor. While he knows she has his wife's heart, he doesn't know who Rosie is. But she knows who he is, where he lives, and has a bit of a crush on him. Could she find love with her donors' widow?

But when his wife's death starts to sound suspicious, is Morgan really who Rosie thinks he is?

This book was great. Kept me guessing with plenty of drama and twists! I felt pretty sure where the story was going to go, and at about halfway in, it flipped upside down from what I thought! This was my first book by Megan Collins, but I will be looking into her other works and watching her future ones!

Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the ARC for review.

Finished out 2024 with this baby! Such a fantastic fast paced suspense novel but definitely not a thriller. It kept me guessing the whole time!

I really enjoyed this one. I learned a lot about heart transplants. I also loved the Taylor Swift references throughout. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read early.

This was my first Megan Collins book and overall, I did enjoy it. It was quite the page turner! I did find a certain part <spoiler>Edith being Other Rosie</spoiler> to be a bit far-fetched but was amused nonetheless. And also another part had me going wtf?! <spoiler>Blair accidentally killing Daphne and Morgan not checking out the sound of the struggle/Daphne falling.</spoiler> Ok maybe I should reevaluate my rating because there was a lot of ridiculous lol. But I was highly entertained!

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!