Loved the idea behind Cross My Heart and was instantly invested in the story. I love a book with an unreliable narrator and the health aspect of the FMC was another interesting aspect. There were a lot of twists with this one and I was definitely surprised with the ending. Would for sure recommend 3/3.5 stars from me. I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm always very happy about an ARC and being able to give it a review! <3

Interesting blurb that tempted me to read this book.

You read a few email histories right at the beginning... I really like it when they include emails, chats or message histories in a book. It makes the whole thing more "realistic"

Exciting from the first page... it was a bit confusing for me at times but then it all gradually falls into place. From the middle onwards it gets extremely exciting and you wonder what's happening!!

Unfortunately the resolution or twist(?!)completely took the air out of it for me. I didn't think it was well implemented for the course of the story...

Cross My Heart
by Megan Collins
Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

She has his wife’s heart; the one she wants is his. The author of The Family Plot brings her signature “taut, emotionally charged, and propulsive” (Jeneva Rose, New York Times bestselling author) prose to a twisty novel about a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband.
The plot kicks in when Rosie spies the local famous author Morgan Thornber in her coffeeshop. She has wanted to reach out to him because it was his late wife's heart that saved her life. She takes the step via the donor portal to remain anonymous and begins dreaming of the relationship they might have if they meet in person.

The story comes to ahead when Morgan is murdered and Rosie is a suspect. It's complicated and ingenious and you will have to read it to find the twists. Get swept away in the latest domestic thriller sure to steal your heart!

Cross My Heart begins with a fascinating premise and interesting characters but overall Megan Collins crafts an ok story that seems to pull ideas from other places more than fresh or inventive twists on ideas or tropes.

Just over one year ago, wedding-obsessed Rosie Lachlan had a heart transplant. After a bit of sleuthing, she figures out who her heart came from. She begins messaging the donor’s wife, Morgan, via an anonymous service called DonorConnect. And soon she becomes convinced that now she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.

With a wildly unpredictable plot and a protagonist you can really get behind, this book had my head spinning. I absolutely loved Rosie, with all of her flaws. A broken but strong woman, a survivor who just wants to be loved, something we can all understand. Highly entertaining, this one is a win!

Heart-transplant recipient Rosie corresponds with her donor’s husband Morgan, a popular thriller writer. They live in the same town and he frequents her favorite coffee shop. Through his emails and social media, she discovers tons about Morgan including a theory that he murdered his wife.

Rosie, who has been devastated by previous romantic relationships, becomes to believe that a relationship with Morgan is meant to be. The story unfolds beautifully, revealing truths about Rosie, Morgan, his dead wife Daphne, and several secondary characters including her best friend who wants Rosie’s heart to heal before she risks breaking it yet again. The book does an excellent job of showing relationships through different characters’ perspectives.

Rosie makes a sympathetic protagonist even when she does some cringeworthy things. Despite her potentially short life expectancy post-transplant, she is super kind and always willing to believe in love.

The exquisite twists and turns of the plot make the book hard to put down. Details, such as how Sickle the cat got his name, make the story shine. I found the ending to be tremendously satisfying.

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

Thanks to Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Collins is the master of twists and turns. She perfectly plots these moments that you can feel coming but could never guess. I could not put it down.

“I worry that everything beautiful, even love, eventually ends in bloodshed.”

Pink-haired, wedding-obsessed Rosie Lachlan, a heart transplant recipient, finds a new obsession when she learns that her donor was married to celebrity author Morgan Thorne. Now, all Rosie can think about is Morgan. She’s creeping on his Instagram, walking her dog past his house, and hanging out at his favorite café, desperately hoping they’ll have a meet-cute of their own.

But emails from Morgan to his best friend, about his recent encounters with a beautiful pink-haired stranger, sound suspiciously like his next murder mystery will be more fact than fiction…

“Some days, love makes you look in the mirror and admire your own reflection; others, it makes you a monster in the glass.”

This was absolutely wild—my favorite Megan Collins book so far! It’s packed with intrigue, deception, stalking, manipulation, multiple murders, and so many twists & red herrings that my head was absolutely spinning in the best way. I read the whole thing in a day (couldn’t put it down!) and wanted more when it was over.

I loved how the author used emails & messages to add layers to the story through different characters’ voices and POVs. I had no idea who to trust or what to believe, and I really enjoyed trying to make predictions about what was actually going on. Fans of You will love this!

“Of all the ways I’ve envisioned I would die… I never saw it ending like this.”

——

A huge thank you to Megan Collins, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rosie’s not supposed to know who donated the heart that saved her life. But thanks to a scoop from her nurse BFF, Rosie suspects that the donor was the wife of a famous author. And when she speaks with the donor’s husband via the anonymous DonorConnect platform, her suspicions are confirmed. Always prone to obsession, Rosie becomes fixated on the author, who she’s decided would be the perfect partner for her. Her friends warn her not to get in too deep, but she’ll stop at nothing to make him fall in love with her.

There is so much more to the plot than that, but I don’t want to give anything away! Let me just say that the twists in this one are fantastic. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, something would happen that would make my jaw drop. Rosie is deeply flawed but also sympathetic and likeable, which makes her a fun character to follow.

I highly recommend this one to thriller fans!

Cross My Heart had me immediately pulled into Rosie’s world! She was a so well written and a great character to ride along with. I always love an unreliable narrator so everything about her character worked for me. The book itself was twisted, and had my mind going in many different directions trying to figure out what would ultimately happen. I felt the pacing of this book was perfect! I was on the edge of my seat and thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. I definitely recommend this book to other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC.

A little over a year ago, Rosie Lachlan was the recipient of a heart transplant that saved her life. She does some sleuthing and figures out that her heart likely came from Daphne Thorne, the wife of a famous thriller author named Morgan Thorne. Rosie and Morgan soon start chatting (supposedly anonymously) through a service that connects donor families to the recipients of their loved ones’ organs. But the more Rosie chats with Morgan, the more obsessed she becomes with him and digging into his past, including rumors that he was responsible for Daphne’s death.

I could not get enough of this twisty tale of obsession! I love a good unreliable narrator, and Rosie is definitely unreliable! At the same time, you can’t help but root for her, I mean sure she’s a little obsessive (okay, a little more than a little!), but she’s also sweet and just wants to find “the one” and becomes convinced that Morgan might be it. At the same time, I’m thinking no girl, run AWAY, not toward this man! Then there’s a huge twist and everything I thought I knew about the characters was turned upside down in the very best way! My jaw was on the FLOOR and I had to stay up until the middle of the night because I could not put this book down! So twisty, turny, and totally unhinged!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Rosie recently received a heart transplant and is corresponding anonymously with the husband of her donor through a place called DonorConnect. It turns out that the man she is writing to is a local author whose wife died in an accident in their home. Rosie is a young woman with some mental health issues that manifest at her being very clingy in relationships and she recently had an order of protection filed against her when she bought a wedding dress and became obsessive over a man who only wanted a casual relationship. Of course Rosie then becomes obsessed with Morgan who happens to live in her neighborhood where she walks her parent's dog.

This book had a YA theme in that the characters were obsessed with Taylor Swift, pink hair and raspberry danish. Morgan's emails to Rosie and to his friend Blair seemed over the top and not something an adult male would write. As Rosie becomes obsessed with Morgan, there is a murder and it turns out there are two woman with pink hair named Rosie. I thought the story became convoluted in the middle and I thought the mystery would have worked better to be more straightforward. Rosie was a difficult character to like as she seemed stuck in an immature mode with living in her parent's garage, working at her mother's bridal store and falling madly in love at the drop of a hat. I think the organ donor theme was interesting and original but I wanted a storyline that made more sense. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

Cross My Heart is extreme - extremely captivating, extremely baffling as to who-done-it, extremely twisty! The heroine appears to be flighty and unreliable or is she? Her friends seem to be deceptive and disingenuous or are they? Lots of discrepancies that add up to lots of questions and intrigue! An entertaining read…

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

💔Book Review💔
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Summary- Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.

A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.

As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie’s keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break—or is she next?
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Rating- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts- Man this was such a wild and unique thriller. Rosie was a super unhinged character and I just loved every minute of this ride. This one will take you on twists and turns, I could not wait to find out what happened in this one. Thank you so much @megancollins @netgalley and @atriabooks for this beaut, it drops at the beginning of next year. Highly recommend checking this one out!
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QOTD- What is the premise of your current read ? Mine is about a group of college kids who are documenting roads side memories but their trip just gets progressively more wild.
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#crossmyheart #megancollins

Formal review to come. I enjoyed this book. The first half of the book went by so quickly and the middle twist had my jaw on the floor! More formal review to come on social media.

I was super excited to get an early copy of this book.

The concept for the story was really cool, it was likened to YOU by a few people but I didn’t really get that vibe it was a little more convoluted than YOU.

Unfortunately, for me this one fell flat. At first I enjoyed it but with the style of writing I had to reread different parts to get myself sorted. It just felt like the flow was off or something.

I didn’t like any of the characters. Sometimes it’s fun when you don’t like the characters but I wanted someone to root for.

I felt like this one had so many cool ideas but it was just doing too much.

For everyone saying how unrealistic this is, that’s why it’s fiction!

I thought this was an excellent “popcorn” thriller! I didn’t guess the twists, and the story sucked me I bright away. My only complaint, that’s really just a personal preference, is the loooooong a** chapters. It made it hard for me to make time to read it as I don’t like stopping in the middle of a chapter.

What a wild ride! This book was twisty, crazy, unhinged in all the best ways.

Rosie is just a girl looking for love. She’s recently received a heart transplant from a famous author’s wife’s sudden death. As she and the author (who my brain immediately cast as Jake Lacy for some reason) connect via an anonymous donor portal, she starts to envision her future with him as meant to be.

As an avid reader of thrillers, I feel like I can usually see the twists coming from a mile away but I definitely didn’t expect these and I’m delighted that they worked. You have to kind of take a leap from reality, but they worked.

I read this one super quickly because I just couldn’t put it down. It’s super entertaining and despite our Rosie-colored glasses-wear protagonist being a bit unhinged, I found her extremely likable.

My only criticism was the “scooby doo” confession which is a pet peeve of mine in any book. I prefer showing to telling when it comes to a motive and conclusion but it didn’t take away too much from my love of this book.

I’ll definitely be recommending this one to all my reader pals.

I loved the concept of the book, having previously watched a show with a similar plot on Netflix. A heart transplant recipient meeting the heart donor’s husband and falling for him. I didn’t figure out the twists ahead of time but the book felt slow and long. It wasn’t a story that had me on the edge of my seat not wanting to put it down. It wasn’t bad, it just moved a bit slower than what I prefer and took me a long time to read. I’m also not one for overly repetitive words or phrases so the “Rosie-colored glasses” was overused IMO. It wasn’t a bad book, it’s just not one I would necessarily recommend to my friends. 3.5 rounded up to 4 ⭐️.

Wow. Just wow. This is a book with an exceptionally unique theme. We start out by getting to know Rosie, who just got a second chance at life with a heart transplant. When she starts anonymously communicating with her heart donors husband because she figured out his identify, it comes off as our MC might be a little crazy. But in the second part, it starts to get a little dicey because she is a suspect in a murder.

I was hooked from start to finish. I literally didn’t want to put this down. I think that there were parts that confused me, but in a way I liked, like I honestly had no idea what was happening after Megan Collins dropped some new facts and it was a “Silent Patient” moment for me. There were some far-fetched concepts but honestly the style of writing and the execution of Megan Collins writing was so riveting that I had to find out what happened next. I will absolutely be finding more from Megan Collins and devouring them,

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Megan Collins for the eARC of Cross My Heart in exchange for an honest review. Rated up for 4.5 Stars, Cross My Heart is set for publication 14 January 2025. Do yourself a favor…grab it!