Rosie connects with the husband of her heart transplant donor, and the bond they begin to form over email is undeniable. Rosie, a sucker for love (she works in a bridal shop for goodness sake) and recently broken up with her fiance, finds herself dreaming about meeting him in real life. It doesn't hurt to discover he's the famous author who lives nearby. This thriller examines the fine line between being crazy and being in love. It has the reader feeling gaslighted and unsure who to believe. But the ending gets a bit too far-fetched for my tastes. With a few tweaks, this would have been a brilliant thriller, but it lacked that shimmer. Apparently there are plenty of Taylor Swift references, so if you're a Swiftie, maybe this will be your thing!

Oh. My. God. RIP to all the responsibilities I had this week because they were all abandoned for this book. Cross My Heart is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while!! At about 50% there was a massive twist that I never expected, which is a testament to how good the writing is. I was so sure I knew what was going to happen but I was so so wrong

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
4/5 stars

From start to finish, Cross My Heart, is a wild ride that kept me on the edge of my seat. At no point could I predict where exactly this book was going to take me, leaving me engaged up till from the very end. While the ultimate twist is a little on the nose, it doesn’t undermine the rest of the plot hooks. Truly a story of encouraging both women’s rights and wrongs. A super enjoyable read for fans of the thriller genre and lovers of Taylor Swift.

Collin’s is a master at the thriller genre. This book was a wild ride from start to finish. It keeps you engaged till the end with plenty of twists and turns .
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

Cross My Heart is my first novel by Megan Collins and I’m happy to say it was a hit! A psychological thriller that I did not want to put down. The twists and turns the book took had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I honestly thought that I had it figured out. Was so proud of myself…boy was I wrong! I did not see that ending coming. Such a great book, I definitely recommend it.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Megan Collins for this advanced copy

Meet my new favorite Megan Collins book! Cross My Heart is an addictive psychological thriller that's so unique. I was completely entranced by this multilayered suspenseful tale of obsession. The theme song is "Don't Blame Me" by Taylor Swift. 😉 There could be a whole Taylor playlist put to this book but that's the main one I'd choose.

The main character Rosie loves Taylor and so does Megan Collins hence the song mention. (Don't worry, you don't have to be a Swiftie to enjoy this book. You also shouldn't avoid it if you don't like Taylor. She's only mentioned a few times. Don't let hate make you miss out on a good thing!)

Rosie Lachlan is unlucky in love. With every relationship that doesn't work out she becomes increasingly desperate to find The One. It doesn't help that she works in her parent's bridal shop and has to be confronted with everything she can't have every day. Her latest breakup takes a toll on her and leads to a heart condition she always had being discovered.

She luckily gets a transplant in time and the heart belonged to the wife of a famous local author. Rosie is still living on borrowed time and the desperation to not live whatever time she has left alone gets stronger. So she uses something called DonorConnect that lets her chat anonymously with the husband Morgan.

They have an instant connection. Their relationship plays out through their chats but also through emails Morgan sends to his best friend. It all seems like the start of a perfect albeit unorthodox relationship. But Rosie learns more about how Morgan's wife died and how he's suspected of killing her. She can't help but learn more about her and their marriage.

I don't want to spoil anything so that's all I'll say. Megan Collins is so good at creating slow burning suspense with a character driven plot and beautiful writing. Cross My Heart is no exception. There's a shocking moment that takes you into part two that leads to a huge WTF?! twist and you will not be able to stop reading!

In case you couldn't tell, I really loved this book, haha. I highly recommend everyone reads Cross My Heart.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Megan Collins. Her books always scratch that dark thriller itch I crave. I don’t think the twist is super shocking, I think any casual thriller reader can see it coming but it’s still a very entertaining book.

When heart transplant recipient Rosie begins corresponding with her donor's widower, famous author Morgan Thorne, Rosie begins to wonder if Morgan may have had something to do with her donor's death.

This is the first book in quite some time that had me floored at an unexpected twist halfway through the book. The first half of the book was really fast-paced and entertaining and I liked the multiple perspectives of it. While I admit after the twist, the second half was a little less exciting, but I was super intrigued to keep writing and find out what was going on. I had no idea what to expect and did not figure out the ending whatsoever. There were so many different possibilities and red herrings which I absolutely loved. Rosie was such a wild card and while she wasn't terribly likeable, I was still rooting for her. Overall I would definitely recommend this one.

Wow, this was a fun, unique read. It got to be a bit over the top at the end, and some of the twists I found hard to swallow, but I really enjoyed reading this novel.

CROSS MY HEART
Megan Collins

I was staying in Morro Bay when I read this book, in the midst of summer, in the middle of a heat wave. I received three books in the span of ten seconds. All from Atria with the subject line “ Your weekend is booked.”

This was the one I was the most excited about, the one I couldn’t wait to read. I picked it up and finished it that afternoon. I loved it and I think you will too. It comes out in the middle of January, and you should add it to your Goodreads WANT TO READ shelf, because you don’t want to be late on this one. Someone will assuredly spoil it for you.

Her parents have been married for a lifetime. Love and fidelity are all she knows. She spends her days selling wedding gowns and half-baked dreams to young soon-to-be brides. And spends her nights pondering her future.

She was engaged at one point. In a life that feels like it was lived by someone else. He left her at the altar and literally broke her heart. Days after the break-up she would find her heart did not work the same way, the way it should. To heal she would need a new heart. She would need someone to die.

The man she messages at night is a writer. His emails are golden. With her new heart, she falls in love. What she doesn’t know is what parts of her have fallen, and what he doesn’t know is her little secret, for now.

This was good. This was really good. The concept is a winner and brought to fruition successfully. The twists had me at every turn. I enjoyed Collin’s prior thriller, THE FAMILY PLOT, but I liked this one more.

Desperation was a running theme that propelled every character and informed their choices. It was palpable and you could feel it in every move they made. Each character introduced was more desperate than the last. And you really couldn’t tell how far they would go to get what they wanted. And I had no clue how it would end until the last final pages.

So good, so fun. One of best coming next year and there are a lot of contenders.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy and for booking my weekend!

CROSS MY HEART...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cross my Heart is another amazing thriller by Megan Collins! Thank you NetGalley for another amazing read, I can’t wait to read more novels by Megan Collin’s!

This book was sooooo fun!!!! I love a twisty thriller!

Rosie, receives the heart of the wife of a famous author in her town, and begins corresponding with him via a website called "DonorConnect." Rosie begins fixating on him and thinks they'd be perfect together. Rosie has typically been unlucky in love, and often fixates on men. What could go wrong?

I loved this book! Rosie, as an unreliable narrator (yet in my opinion, likable even though you wanted to shake her sometimes!), the emails and donor connect messages to keep the story moving, the unexpected twists -- I had a great time reading this.

I thought I had it figured out a few times and totally did not. I will definitely explore more of Megan Collins' books now!

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the ARC - all opinions are my own.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for this arc. I received this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are entirely my own.

In this book we meet Rosie who had a heart transplant and decides to contact the husband of her donor who happens to be a thriller writer from her hometown. Rosie works at her parents wedding dress store. Rosie starts to fantasize about the husband named Morgan whose wife Daphne died after hitting her head. Morgan blames himself for her death. Rosie starts to wonder if he did it and befriends people that either knew him or his wife. Morgan begins to write a thriller about a woman who had a heart transplant and when Rosie goes to his house to talk to him she finds him with a knife in him. Rosie is instantly a suspect after they find pink hair on the body. The hair comes back as not Rosie’s and she finds out that a women with a similar experience with an ex was pretending to be her. Rosie finds out that Morgan’s best friend who was also an ex killed both Morgan and Daphne. At the end of the book Rosie starts to obsess with the detective that was on Morgan’s case. This book was very interesting and I did not guess the bad guy properly. This book is a must read for 2025.

I really enjoyed this book and was surprised by the twist in the middle. It was a page turner and a fast paced read.

This book grabbed me from the very beginning and didn’t let go, making it impossible to stop turning the pages. I do feel The main character seems intentionally written to be a bit frustrating, which adds to the way the story guides your thoughts as you try to piece together the outcome. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Rosie Lachlan has had a rough year. First, she was dumped in her wedding dress. Then, she found out she had a heart defect and needed a transplant to survive. When Rosie starts corresponding with the husband of her heart donor on a site called Donor Connect, she realizes that he is well-known author Morgan Thorne. As Rosie and Morgan start to form a bond, she can't help but realize how perfect they are for one another. Rosie's best friend is concerned for Rosie's mental and physical health, but Rosie is laser focused on figuring out if Morgan Thorne could be The One or if he is a psychopath who is responsible for his wife's death.

I enjoyed this book! Rosie is the type of flawed main character I love to read - she's likeable but makes very frustrating decisions! I like how the author moved the plot forward using the Donor Connect correspondence, and I really enjoyed how she worked twists into the story elusively - sometimes I didn't even know a twist was coming, so it allowed me to be immersed in the story without expecting something. There was enough action to really hook me, but didn't move so quickly that the character development suffered. I particularly liked the ending which leaves the reader guessing a little, while still giving a satisfying conclusion to the story.

This book is a masterpiece. The main, character gets a heart transplant and reaches out to the husband of the donor and there is where the action begins. The plot unravels like a ball of yarn and Icould not figure out how all of the events connected or who was the mastermind of the horrible events that ensue. Turns out, no one can be trusted. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this title on net galley.

When heart transplant recipient Rosie begins to connect with her heart transplant donors husbans, Morgan Thorne through a secure donors choose website she begins to think that he might have been responsible for his wife’s death.
This was a read that had me hooked most of the way through the book. It was twisty in all of the right places and there were many different angles I didn’t anticipate or expect….all of the way until the end . While I had a strong feeling of “who done it” about 3/4 of the way through, the writing style kept me engaged enough to confirm
My suspicions. I am definitely going to back read this aotjor’s other work!

This is an appealing thriller about a woman that just had a heart transplant.

I had to know what was going to happen when Rosie contacted Morgan with a Donor Connect email. His wife, Daphne, had the good heart that replaced Rosie’s. After some time, she noticed that she had different cravings like the desire for potatoes that she previously hated. Naturally, she was curious about the donor’s life.

But one girl told her to be careful: his wife may have been murdered by Morgan. After several emails back and forth and having a good feeling about this man, she knew this could change everything. They weren’t supposed to identify their names and addresses but it was easy to figure it out. He was a famous author of dark thrillers. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to want to meet him.

The first half of the story was exciting trying to wrap my head around a woman that had a new heart and how that would change her perspectives. Yet, the second half slowed down even though it was full of revelations about Morgan’s wife and what was going to happen next with the detectives working on it. The characters were believable and it was full of drama about trying to find one’s soulmate. I can think of a number of people that would love to read this.

My thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of January 14, 2025.

Rosie, Rosie, Rosie.... It's been a tough year. She was dumped while wearing her wedding dress. YIKES! But she did receive a lifesaving heart transplant so that was something to be immensely grateful for. It's natural to wonder about the donor, who wouldn't? Rosie believes that the doner was the wife of a famous author who she begins messaging on DonorConnect . Obsession is the name of the game in Cross My Heart! She has his wife's heart, now she wants him!

Obsessed much?

This book kept me on my toes. There are quite a few characters and as I got to know more about them, I began to scratch my head. Hmmmm....who can be trusted in this book?? Who is reliable? What is going to happen next? I had no idea where Megan Collins was going to take me on this wild ride, but I kept on my rose-tinted glasses and enjoyed the twist filled ride.

Megan Collins excels at writing unreliable and interesting characters. She also kept me on my toes and engaged and I Cross My Heart, this was a riveting book. I found it to be well thought out, creatively told, wonderfully written, and intense!