Wow, what a page turner. This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I ended up reading it all in one sitting. There were a lot of twists and turns along the way, and there was a pretty big twist towards the middle of the book that I didn't expect, and I will say, that the story did pick up from there. My main downside, and it's a big one, was that I guessed the ending of this book pretty early on <spoiler> around the time that person was introduced </spoiler> so it wasn't really a shock to me when the big reveal happened. I also was not really a fan of Rosie, initially. The way that she was acting, made it really hard for me to see passed it, which was pretty obsessive, but I do think that this was done intentionally, because it did match the storyline in the beginning and really caused you to question a lot.

Rating: 3.5 stars rounded down
Thank you to Atria Books, Megan Collins, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest review.

Good fast paced thriller. A different premise than what I’m used to but still enjoyable. My first by this author and looking forward to more

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the copy of Cross My Heart. This one gets a 3.5 star rating from me! I kept going back and forth on who I thought the killer was and was entertained throughout, but I think the story got a little long and the ending just wasn’t as gripping as I was hoping it would be.

A simple but compelling premise. What if a year after her heart transplant, a young woman starts reaching out, through a confidential gateway, to the husband of the once owner of her new heart? Tricky thriller with tons of red herrings to keep you off balance and more than one surprise to keep surprised. Fast-paced.

Rosie has had a heart transplant and realizes that she has a famous author's wife's heart. As she and Morgan begin to email back and forth thru the donor registry, she begins to have feelings for him. But as she learns more about them, she wonders if he killed her. Does she want to be with his wife's killer?

This is a good book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Many twists and turns to keep you guessing.

This one had all the good stuff from tragedy, heartbreak, anger, resentment, and just so emotional with the suspense, lies, and mystery surrounding murder! I really liked Rosie's character and how much she developed from beginning to end. She is failing with relationships and love, she isn't happy while trying to find someone to spend her life with and then her heart gets in the way... literally when it starts to fail and she needs a transplant to live! Rosie dives into connecting through DonorConnect with the wife's husband Morgan whose heart she has. At first she wants to know about Daphne Thorne, she does have her heart so why not know more about the woman whose heart it was to begin with. The problem is Rosie can't tell Morgan she knows whose heart she has, and that she also knows who he is since it is supposed to be anonymous. She starts moving past learning about Daphne and fantasizing about being with Morgan romantically in a relationship. The more Rosie digs to feed her fantasy of her and Morgan the more she gets entangled into what she may not want to, and is Morgan who she thinks he is? Was Morgan and Daphne's marriage like what it was depicted as to the outside world?
I loved how I was intrigued at what Rosie was thinking, and reading about having her "Rosie colored glasses" on when she looked at people and situations around her. The premise doesn't give it away but this is so much more complex with more characters that come into the plot to make it really interesting and twisted! For a little bit I was questioning between two characters who was responsible for the murders and then figured it out near the end, but it was all still soooo good! I like being able to read a story that makes you feel like you have to question if you can trust multiple characters, and figure out their motives and reveal their lies to understand their roles to the storyline! I do like shorter chapters and some of these were a little too long for my liking so that I could not leave off in the middle because ... life and kids, but I loved the whole story itself! The end I was very happy for Rosie to learn what she did about everyone around her and to really reflect. Even though this was of mystery/thriller genre, some of it hit close to home dealing with love, how you can see yourself, how you learn from bad relationships, and could be relatable to some real life outlook! I just loved it all!!! Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Megan Collins for this great read to review! I also loved that Collins came up with a Taylor Swift playlist to go along with this and will definitely have to compare the book to the playlist and see how good they go together!

Thriller • Unreliable Narrator • Mystery
Publication Date • 14 January 2025

❥ Thank you @atriabooks for the free book! And thank you @claireisbookish for the bookmark 🔖

♡ 1 sentence summary: 𝚆𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚑𝚞𝚜𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚛.

What a ride! If you’re looking for something quick and fast paced to break a reading slump, this might be your book.

This is a cast of unreliable narrators at their finest. I enjoyed how we got multiple perspectives from the “Donor Connect” emails sent back and forth between Rosie and Morgan Thorne.

Morgan Thorne is a best selling author, and also was husband to Daphne, who in dying saved the life of Rosie, our pink haired main protagonist.

Rosie works in her family’s bridal store, a jilted former bride-to-be, who goes for all the wrong men. And now she is online stalking the author who she thinks was married to her heart donor.

There’s some things to unpack about expectations of women/marriage and relationships, as well as the line between inspiration versus profiting from someone else’s story.

However mostly, this was a wild, unhinged ride that you can’t look away from.

The main character of this book was so cringey and made me so uncomfortable. She really needs professional help and I’m disappointed that no one is suggesting that throughout the book. I was interested in the character’s health issues and coping post transplant. I couldn’t get past my feelings for the main character enough to really enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I really enjoyed this book and had a fun time reading it. I feel like it's the perfect palate cleanser book as it's very bingeable.

This one was a twisty surprise!

This book follows Rosie, who received a heart transplant a year ago and recently reached out to her donor's family through an anonymous website designed to connect donors and recipients. She connects with Morgan, the husband of her heart donor Daphne, and starts getting to know him. Though Rosie is convinced they share a special bond, she soon uncovers disturbing rumors that raise more questions than answers about who Morgan really is.

I went into this book knowing very little about it, and by the end of part 1, I was even more intrigued about where the story was heading. The narrative was incredibly engaging and held my attention throughout. While some of my theories proved correct and others didn't, I remained completely invested in seeing how everything would unfold.

I loved the mystery and tense atmosphere of the book. The unreliability of Rosie as a narrator added another fascinating layer to the story. The resolution was thought out—even at 90% through, many questions remained unanswered. It built to a whirlwind ending that I thoroughly enjoyed, leaving me guessing until the very last word.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this one!

Cross My Heart is a dark, twisty story about a heart transplant recipient who becomes obsessed with her donor’s husband.
Rosie has struggled with love, and working at her parents’ bridal shop, surrounded by women who are freshly in love with their partners, doesn’t help. She lives in her parents garage apartment with her pink hair and wants to love maybe a little too much. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie begins anonymously messaging through DonorConnect and starts talking to her donor’s husband, Morgan. Rosie quickly becomes convinced that she and Morgan are destined to be together. But when rumors emerge that Morgan might be involved in his wife Daphne’s death, Rosie starts to question everything. After all, she only wants to be loved!
Cross My Heart grabbed my attention right away. The book boasts thriller and romance elements, keeping me connected to the story. Details would give spoilers, but I will say I was constantly questioning the veracity of all characters. Some were not very likable, and Rosie came across as obsessive/immature at times.
The story is split into two parts, and I found Part 1 to be the most engaging - I loved it! The second half shows the unhinged side of characters, which keeps things interesting. Some of the twists were totally unexpected, and I loved that! Others, however, were easy to predict. The ending, though, felt lacking climax. Taylor Swift fans will have fun with all the multiple references.
The obsession, stalker-y, YOU movie vibes were definitely the highlight of the story. The chapters were somewhat long. The story would keep me interested, but the excessive filler and lengthy dialogue made parts in the second half drag. Slightly shorter chapters and faster pacing would have earned it another star.

This review is a little hard for me to articulate. While I thoroughly enjoyed the second half of this book, the first half was not so great. I don't like books where there is texting and correspondence between people like the ones in this book from the National Donor registry. I understand it was an intrical part of the story. Maybe set the scene for at least two of the characters but I just don't usually finish that kind of book. I did however stick with this one and at almost the exact halfway mark, it picked up and took off. None stop thrills.

I did figure out so much of what was going on and who was doing what but it did not take away from the book. I did not however grasp fully who the actual murderer was and that is quite unusual for me. While I suspected that person I never fully landed on her.

A woman, Rosie Lachlan, gets a heart transplant and then finds out who her donor is. She is pulled into a lot of excitement when the donor's husband reaches out to her. Or answers when she reaches out to him. Rosie was a grown woman who came across as very childish in her correspondence with her donor's husband, Morgan Thorne. Morgan was an author and he also sounded pretty childish for his age. I did not like Morgan. I thought he was very shallow. Maybe he was suppose to be but to me he just didn't fit the part I was imagining for him. Rosie had lots of problems with exes it seems. She definitely needed some help mentally. Later in the book she did get physically stronger and good for her. She wanted to live.

I didn't really like any of the characters in this book. Each played their part well but needed to grow up or be stated as younger than they were. Rosie runs the bridal shop that belongs to her mother. Morgan is an author. Rosie is like two people. She can't seem to let go of men when she falls in love. She has pulled some pretty crazy stunts that always backfire on her. Morgan seems to be writing about other people's tragedies. While I understand that authors do that, he writes about people he claims to love's tragedies. People that he should not be writing about. It's certainly not helping them.

While I devoured the second half of this book, the first half had me questioning whether to continue. I will say that a lot of people love this type of book. It's just me in this case. I do not. Though I did keep going and ended up loving it, that first half made it lose part of the appeal I get from great thrillers. This author writes excellent books but to me this one fell short a bit.

I have to ask.... To what end would you go for the person you loved? Would you kill for them? Would you cross lines for them? Or would you accept defeat and move on?

Thank you #NetGalley, #AtriaBooks, for this ARC.

3 stars

Rosie Lachlan receives a heart transplant and falls in love with her donor’s husband through their (supposedly anonymous) email exchanges on DonorConnect. This was a FUN thriller. The inkling of something is not quite right with these characters starts from page one and strengthens with each chapter. Cross My Heart is a romance/psychological thriller mashup with a wild premise and entertaining characters. I enjoyed the mixed media aspect. Part 2 made my head spin in the best way, the twist was so cleverly written. Perfect read for romance readers that also love thrillers!

Cross my heart by Megan collins is fast-paced, wild ride of a thriller.

Morgan thorn is a best selling author who sadly lost his wife, Daphne, in an accident. Daphne was a heart donor and her heart ends up with Rosie, a young and naive woman who just had her heart broken by her fiancé. Rosie realizes her heart belongs to Morgan and they anonymously begin to connect and exchange messages, leading Rosie to visualize them together. As Rosie gets deeper involved with Morgan, she begins to wonder more about what happened with Daphne and how innocent Morgan is.

I won’t say more about the plot for risk of giving away the twists and turns it takes but just buckle up for a few along the way. Rosie is a slightly annoying character, but I think that’s intentional and the reader will find him/herself wondering about Rosie’s reliability as a narrator. The reveal at the end makes sense if you aren’t distracted by some of the sleight of hand tricks Collins uses throughout (meant as a compliment)! This is a fun and propulsive read and the pages will fly. Collins has a great handle on pacing and narration here.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked throughout this until the very end. I hated the ending and it really ruined the whole ride for me.

Rosie is a recent heart transplant patient and also very depressed and self-conscious after her breakup with her boyfriend. She uses the donor portal to message the spouse of her heart donor and discovers the widower is none other than Morgan Thorne, a famous thriller author that happens to live in her town. As they keep communicating, Rosie begins to wonder how Morgan’s wife actually died and gets pulled into a dangerous game.

I liked this book and the twists, but sometimes the Rosie character annoyed me. She was so needy and stupid on one page and then the next page she would understand what was going on. I would have preferred if she was less of an unreliable narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Megan Collins for a copy of this book

you want to talk about bingeworthy?!!! 🤯👏🏼📖💖 i had a BLAST reading this one—if you need a book to kick your reading slump or grab you right away, this is it! and it’s out today 🥳

⭐️ rating: 4.5 stars
genre: thriller + mystery
#️⃣ pages: 320
✍🏼 same author of THE FAMILY PLOT
🥳 out today
#gifted @atriabooks 🫶🏼
read if you like: psychological thrillers, unreliable narrators, romantic suspense (TELL ME LIES or VERITY vibes), swiftie references, murder mysteries

the number one question i got the other day: quick, fast paced book recs. HERE YA GO! i finished this in two sittings—it started with a bang and was so addictive. i personally love psychological thrillers where you’re really inside each character’s mind, so this was a delight for me. mix that with some unreliable narrator action and somewhat of a stalker/obsessive MC plot, and you’re in for fun. it kind of gave me Lisa Jewell and Alice Feeney vibes! if you like TELL ME LIES or VERITY where it’s more of a romantic suspense vs hardcore thriller, you’ll like this one. the main twist was a shock for me and while some of the ending was a bit far fetched, i had a GREAT time escaping into this one 💜

CROSS MY HEART has a great premise too—a woman gets a heart transplant and then messages anonymously with her donor’s husband on an app. she begins to fall for him—maybe obsessively—but hears through friends that his past is suspect… and maybe his wife’s death wasn’t an accident like everyone was told to believe 👀

that’s all i’m saying! it was so creative. our girl Rosie was something else 😂 i also appreciated how it was equally heavy in plot and character development, which is rare in thrillers tbh. i thought i had one of the main twists figured out but got it wrong and that’s always fun for me as a hardcore thriller reader ;) i can’t say enough how fun + quick this book was!

i’ve read her other work—THE FAMILY PLOT—and liked it but it leans more horror/thriller. this is deff more mainstream and again has the romantic suspense that i think will appeal to a lot of readers!

and the cover is STUNNING! pick it up and thank me later 💖🔪

✨CROSS MY HEART✨

5/5⭐️

READ IF YOU LOVE:
👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏼 Domestic Thrillers
🩷 Romantic Suspense
😍 MC with Emotional Promiscuity
🧩 Puzzle Piece Endings
👑 Taylor Swift

SHORT DESCRIPTION:
Rosie received a heart transplant and learned her donors husband is a local author, Morgan. She begins to message him on DonorConnect to learn more about him. She falls in love very easy and because she always has her Rosie-colored glasses on…she may or may not become obsessed with him and also wanting to know more about his deceased wife (Daphne). That’s when she starts uncovering questions surrounding Daphnes death and Morgan himself.

REVIEW:
Let me just start with the fact that I literally couldn’t put this down and when I inevitable had to (because mom duty never stops) I immediately picked it back up the minute I was free. I delayed starting Onyx Storm because it was THAT good. There are two parts of the book and I audibly said, “WTF” after I finished the first part. All of the characters are not the most likeable, yet I found myself rooting for them all at least at some point into the story. I can’t say too much about the plot without spoiling it, so I’ll just say *Chef’s Kiss*.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @AtriaBooks for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

This is an interesting one to rate. I have to put it somewhere in the middle - going to go with 3 stars. There were multiple times throughout the book where I wanted to DNF just because of the traits of the main character, but the plot kept getting more interesting and reeling me back in. The last 20% of the book was a lot better than the rest and I enjoyed the tension and uniqueness of the plot. I did guess the final twist ahead of time, but that doesn’t really impact my rating.

I've been a Megan Collins fan for years, but CROSS MY HEART is my favorite of her novels yet! From the first moment I heard about this premise, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy and see how the story unfolded -- and from the very first page, Collins didn't disappoint. You'll second-guess every character in this twisty, engaging novel that masterfully walks the lines between obsession, connection, and compassion. A must read for suspense fans (and, it must be said, Swifties).