2.5 stars

Ever feel like you have read a completely different book than everyone else? That's how I felt with Cross My Heart.

I grabbed this book because the story revolved around someone who had a recent heart transplant. Organ transplants is something I am somewhat familiar with, so I was intrigued to see how this would play out.

<sigh> The long and short is that I wasn't a huge fan, so I'll just make a list.

Pros
-It started off good
-Authentic portrayal of an organ transplant recipient. It showcases life with anti-rejection drugs, feeling unwell and the adjustment to the body especially during that first year. There is more in the cons.
-A couple of twists that I didn't see coming
-I was genuinely curious about the ending.

Cons
-Length of chapters. They were just too long and discouraged me from reading at times.
-Plot a little farfetched
-Too many cringeworthy scenes
-The Danish pastries! How many Danishes should a heart recipient eat? None or close to, especially as a meal.
-While I enjoy listening to Taylor Swift, apparently the author is a super fan.
-Couldn't get into the male leads email writing style, unrealistic.
-Unresolved issues

All said and done I was genuinely interested in what happened, so that’s kept me reading. For that I rounded up to 3 stars.

Thank you to Atria Books for a digital arc in exchange for honest review.

As if I needed another reason to love Megan Collins. 'Cross My Heart' is Collins' at her very best. I absolutely DEVOURED this book.

The characters? SO GOOD. I latched onto their 'crazy' immediately.

The dialogue? Phenomenal.

The DonorConnect emails? What a fun, mysterious layer to the entire puzzle.

The twists? Yes, twists... PLURAL. As an avid thriller reader, I am suspicious of everyone and everything when reading. I did not see either of these twists coming at all. That's just GOOD WRITING.

Seriously: pick this up for yourself, your bookshelf, your friends, your family members, anyone who has been called 'crazy,' and the Swifties in your life.

I adore books with unique themes. Cross My Heart stood out as particularly original. It captivated me from the very first page.

In the book's first part, we meet protagonist Rosie, who gets a second chance at life with a heart transplant. She believed she was merely nursing a broken heart, but it turned out to be literally broken. Rosie discovers the identity of her heart donor and becomes fixated on the donor's widowed husband. They start corresponding through an anonymous portal named DonorConnect. In the second part, the narrative takes a dramatic twist when Rosie becomes a murder suspect.

The book gripped my attention from start to finish. I devoured it in less than a day. The character development, the red herrings, and the pace had me racing through to discover the outcome.

Although some of the storyline was far fetched, it is what helped made the novel intriguing. I appreciated the author's writing style and the ability to keep me hooked. The ending made me shake my head. Oh Rosie...lol

It's a five-star read for me! Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital advanced reader copy to read and review.

I love this Author and think I might have found my most fave of hers. I stayed up WAY too late binging this one as fast as I could.

Rosie Lachlan has a broken heart—literally. When she learns the identity of her heart donor is the wife of local bestselling author Morgan Thorne, she begins corresponding with him on an anonymous site for organ recipients and the families of organ donors. Rosie quickly becomes overly interested in Morgan, cyberstalking him and keeping tabs on his likes and dislikes. But her “research” also brings to light some serious questions surrounding Morgan’s wife’s death, just as Rosie and Morgan are growing closer.
Megan Collins has written a truly compelling main character in Rosie, who’s best friend often claims she looks at the world through “Rosie colored glasses” to her own peril. As if the premise wasn’t interesting enough—falling in love with the husband of your heart donor—Collins amps up the stakes by blessing Rosie with a series of failed relationships, a deep desire to find the kind of love her parents have, and a job working in the bridal shop her parents own, surrounded by stories of true love. And while Rosie can be her own worst enemy, it quickly becomes clear that she can’t trust anyone. This book is loaded with compelling characters with suspicious motivations. And the twists keep coming right up until the shocking ending.
Collins has written yet another tightly plotted, character-driven domestic thriller and, as usual, accomplished this with some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read all year. I highly recommend CROSS MY HEART; cross my heart!
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an opportunity to read an advance review copy of this book.

I may have heard this premise before: “Heart donor recipient becomes obsessed with the family/husband/wife of their donor” and even the opposite premise “Wife/husband/children get obsessed with the recipient of their loved one’s heart.” But I have never read one of these until now. In Megan Collins’s “Cross My Heart,” the heart recipient, Rose, gets too enamored of Morgan, husband of the woman whose heart she now possesses.

At the beginning of their correspondence, they both admit that they are in a “creepy/awkward” world, and I agree that their letters through an anonymous service, DonorConnect, should tamp down any stalker tendencies. But Rosie got a heads up from a friend that her heart might belong to Daphne, wife of thriller author Morgan Thorne. And Daphne died “under suspicious circumstances”. Aside from heart disease, Rosie is genuinely broken-hearted, having been jilted by the guy she thought would be her husband, and historically, she gets a bit “too enthusiastic” about any boyfriends. When Morgan’s letters are kind, witty, and sympathetic, she gets a bit obsessed; and even as her friend Nina counsels her to not do it, Rosie starts becoming “too much” (and it’s awkward), even uploading pictures of his house from Zillow.

There’s an overwhelming sense of dread, a creepiness of anticipating that this will end badly, as the story continues. And as Morgan’s supposedly anonymous letters start to rattle her conception of him, Rosie’s stalkerish tendencies and interactions with him become more and more detective-like, as she wonders more and more about Daphne. Yet, the author has the skill to make me wonder if Rosie is also an unreliable narrator and maybe Morgan, through other correspondence with his friend Blair, is telling the real story. Then the midway twist occurs. Oh, my. The plot kept me glued and terrified to the end. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Only Morgan’s pool-blue eyes and Jackson’s cinnamon stick brown ones.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Not much about flowers, even at a bridal salon.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Oooh YES!! I love when a thriller catches me off guard and surprises me and this one did multiple times! I was torn on rooting for Rosie and being scared of her. So many twists and reveals and an ending that made me wonder if our protagonist learned anything at all the entire book. Definitely add this one to your TBR for January!

As a Swiftie, I was immediately drawn in from the first page. You know it’s gotta be a good one when it starts with a reference to a Taylor Swift song. This one was a wild ride and I truly did not figure it until right before the reveal. Highly recommend this twisty read when it hits shelves in 2025. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This book is full of many twists and turns. When I thought I had it somewhat figured out halfway into the book, everything changed. For the last 50% of the book I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know who was responsible. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a thriller.

An intriguing and unpredictable mystery about love and loss, Cross My Heart is filled with enough thrills, chills and kills to entertain and bewilder in equal measure. Megan Collins has crafted a wonderfully twisty thriller that explores infatuation, broken hearts, hopelessness and resilience.

Rosie Lachlan, recovering from a heart transplant and longing for love while working in her family’s bridal shop, believes her new heart once belonged to Daphne Thorne, the wife of famous author Morgan Thorne. She reaches out to him anonymously, hoping for a connection. As their conversations deepen, Rosie becomes captivated bordering on obsessed with Morgan and convinces herself that they’re meant to be together. When unsettling rumors about Daphne’s death surface, Rosie wonders if she’s falling for a man with a dark past—and if her heart might be in more danger than she thought.

Cross My Heart does a fantastic job leaving you in suspense throughout, keeping open multiple possibilities on various plot points including what really happened to Daphne Thorne and who might have been involved, what’s Rosie mental state and what is she capable of, and which enigmatic characters have hidden agendas and to what means. This results in a twisting and turning thriller that makes it difficult to pin down exactly who is involved in each event until the big reveal occurs. It also makes you suspicious of every character, questioning their actions and motives, making for a devious read where everyone is a suspect. It’s deliciously dramatic.

"𝑴𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒔: 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅, 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔."

Special thanks to @atriabooks @atriathrillers Megan Collins and @netgalley for the #gifted eARC.

➡️ swipe to synopsis 👉🏼

𝙈𝙔 𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙄𝙀𝙒:
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unfortunately this one didn't quite do it for me 😪😫. I really enjoyed her previous book and the premis of this one really drew me in. But it was too much of a slow burn and even though I enjoyed the ending, it felt very monotonous. I think the premise is what kept me reading because I was waiting for the other shoe to drop....it just took a while.

𝙎𝙔𝙉𝙊𝙋𝙎𝙄𝙎
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?

ℚ𝕆𝕋𝔻 ❓️⁉️❓️ Have you ever used a dating service? Know anyone who has? How did it work out?

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#mysteryandthrills #thrillersandsuspense #thrillerfriendsunite #thrillerlover #thrilleraddict #thrillerjunkie #thrillergirlie #bookbuzz #upcomingthriller #crossmyheart #megancollins #atriathriller #atriapartner #atriabooks
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Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows Rose Lachlan a hopeless romantic with a bad heart. Her future is now limited after her heart transplant so she seeks comfort in the donors husband. This book was twisty and fun. A good stalker book with a lot of Taylor Swift references. My biggest complaint is the long chapters, which made this book drag on and feel a lot longer than it should’ve felt.

If you love stories with unhinged characters who make questionable choices, this book is for you!

Rosie starts communicating with her heart donor's husband on an anonymous service called DonorConnect but becomes obsessed when she discovers he's a local celebrity author. But as she digs deeper into his marriage, she realizes the heart she received may have been a result of murder at his hands.

Cross Your Heart has an interesting premise and I enjoyed the mixed media of emails and texts. The plot was twisty and entertaining enough but didn't have jaw-dropping reveals for me. One major downfall: LONG chapters. I find it so unnecessary and it really deters my urge to continue reading. The plot is very convoluted with ****KIND OF A SPOILER**** double identity, which again, I felt was unnecessary to the plot. Lastly, if I didn't know the author was a fan of Taylor Swift, I know now!!! I'm no Swiftie hater but my goodness she is EXCESSIVELY mentioned throughout.

All in all, this wasn't terrible but it wasn't my favorite of her books either. I felt like it took me longer to read than usual. But, with a 4.17 star rating here, don't take my word for it. I just feel like seasoned thriller readers won't be all too thrilled.

3.25 ⭐️

I loved this book. Not a single character was trustworthy, but for the most part, their rationale made sense! I enjoyed the letters from Morgan to Rosie through DonorConnect, and the emails from Morgan to Blair were both interesting and immensely revealing into his mindset. As for Rosie--I cannot imagine working in a bridal shop and dreaming of marriage/navigating a break up. Makes sense given her circumstances with Brad and dealing with the aftermath of cardiomyopathy. I would recommend this book to fans of Freida McFadden, Liv Constantine, and Jamie Day.

I loved this new thriller from Megan Collins! The story was different and kept me hooked! I enjoyed all the thrills and plot twists! The whole feel each character brought to the story kept getting more intense as the story developed. I loved the whole premise wrapped around this thriller! I excited to read more from this author!

Even before I hit that halfway point, I could tell this was going a very different direction than I thought it was when I first began this - and I couldn't have been more thrilled about it.

This book felt like a feminist take on the 'crazy obsessive woman' trope and it was so refreshing. That was where I thought the book would be going in the first place and I was ready to enjoy the ride but also have some critiques on that take. That's not where it ended up going. This book made these women sympathetic instead of the villains - for the most part. It turned a light onto the men who paint them this way in the first place. Rosie, our main character, and her journey to finally seeing herself as someone who is wonderful and whole and a survivor had me wiping away tears at the end. I could actually go on and on more about that, and the end in general, but to keep this spoiler free, I won't.

And the writing in this book? It had some lines that made me have to pause and sigh. Gorgeous, beautiful, stunning.

I did guess the final two 'reveals' at the end, but that's not a critique, just a flex, because I was really proud of myself. It didn't feel that obvious, it just made sense, and it came together in such a satisfying way. (I didn't entirely guess the motive though, but looking back, I was gasping.)

Also - Megan Collins, I really think we could be besties. The book dedication, the Swiftie-ness of it all? I ate it up. This was my first novel by this author and it will NOT be my last.

So the main character gets a heart transplant, and she believes that her heart came from towns best selling authors, wife. She starts to get to know this author and believes that they are meant to be together. The author is actually really creepy though and maybe even had something to do with his wife’s death. Kind of a weird premise, but it worked. It was creepy and I loved it!

Always find Collin’s to be a sure bet. Really enjoyed this and felt like the book was a good read. It kept me turning pages and I enjoyed the plot. I would recommend.

Rosie just got a new heart, but she wants more than anything to give it away. If only she could be certain that the man in her sights isn't a murderer ...

This is a deliciously twisty book that will surprise even the most avid thriller fan. Maybe you want to be suspicious of Rosie and her soft new heart, and maybe you should be ... but it turns out it's not for the reasons you think. She's trying to walk this line and ignore the fact that she's playing a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse (and maybe confusing which one of them happens to be the cat) while ignoring the danger signs every step of the way. No man can be worth as much effort as Rosie puts into trying to uncover the reality of Morgan Thorne.

This book surprised me with its similarities to one of my absolute favorites, but I can't reveal which one or else that gives a lot away. Let's just say Rosie's contemplations of mortality and identity play into far more than wondering if her new heart can't help but love her husband's donor. The absolutely twists and turns (yes, plural) this book takes kept me riveted right up until the end. Megan Collins crafts complex characters who have their own reasons not to reveal everything all at once, and the way she tells their story just adds to the suspense. Cross My Heart is a must-read.

First and foremost, I'm not the intended audience for this book. I'm aware of that, and I know it heavily colors my review. If the issues I mention later on are not problems for you, lovely, I hope you love this book. But for people who are not the intended audience let me help you decide if this is the read for you. :)

First off, this book was addicting. I finished most of it in one day and didn't continue reading because I have responsibilities that couldn't be ignored. It was just incredibly fun and had interesting twists. This whole thing felt like a fever dream in a good way.

But, as mentioned, I do have some personal issues with this book. It's painfully straight, but specifically because three of the women characters in this book, including the main character, Rosie, orient their whole lives around getting a man. This also tends to mean characters act like teenagers at the ripe age of at-least-30. The drama of it is sometimes very fun and sometimes quite frustrating.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to access this book early in exchange for an honest review.