This was very emotional - prepare to feel a LOT when you're reading this! This is a story of survival and recovery, and life after almost-certain death, and I think it was done so well. I loved following Sydney on her journey after her heart transplant, as she struggles with "survivor's guilt" and feeling like she has to honour the donor, while at the same time trying to live her life after not expecting to live past her teens. Sydney is a great main character and you really root for her throughout, and feel everything she's going through. It was a little predictable at times, but overall, such a fantastic read!

I started this story with resevations. Books like this can become real ableist, real fast! I was somewhat reassured to read that the author herself has gotten a heart transplant. So at least she knows what she is talking about. And I saw she had sensitivity readers and talked to teens who had gotten transplants. Still, I was scared. Even though I read and loved 'scars like wings' a few years ago. You never know what type of internalized ableism people unconciously put into their books.

And I had a lot of mixed feelings during the first half of this book. So much so that I skipped to read the last 50 pages first. To see if it would turn out okay. And that massively reassured me. It would be okay. Sad, but okay. No ableist tropes here! So if you are disabled/ill and scared like me. Let me tell you, this story is very selfaware, beautiful, sad, and hopeful all at once.

Sydney is young, has been sick a long time. And sort of has forgotten how to live. She has been in waiting mode, in survival mode. Now she has gotten a new heart, a new chance at life. But how do you live? And how do you live with the guilt of someone having to have died for you to have this second chance. And when does it stop being about not-dying and starts to be about living? That is what 'Every borrowed beat' is about. And it was very selfaware!

Sydney knows she is having a hard time. Knows it doesn't make sense. Knows she is pushing it and not making the best choices. And other characters point it out to her again and again. And that was a relief. No toxic perseverence here! Her bad choices were constantly discouraged and she does grow and change her views and actions, I'm glad to report.

Massive content warning for child death tho. It was handled very well, but a warning would have been nice. To mentally prepare myself. Because it was very intense and emotional and hard!

Lastly, I really appreciate the choices the author made surrounding death & the afterlife. This book is about life, not death. And there are beautiful conversations about where we might come from and what is the point of life and what makes us who we are, what informs our choices. It got very deep and poetic at times. But there was never a conversation about what is/could be after this life on earth. And that was really refreshing, especially from a Christian author!! No agenda or trying to get you to see/believe it from their point of view. Just respect and letting the reader fill that part in for themselves. Very well done!

"You asked me once about how we live with ourselves, how we move on. I think the answer is, we don't. We move forward."

Sydney Wells should have died. She was supposed to die. But she has been given a new heart. Her only job is not to break it. She then can't help but think that somebody else's life was cut short, she does some detective work and finds her donors name. She then attend the donors memorial service where she meets Clayton the donors best friend.

Stewart beautifully explores themes of grief, healing, and the ethics of organ donation, while also delivering a tender romance between two deeply scarred individuals.

I am incredibly grateful to both NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for the opportunity to read and review Every Borrowed Beat. Being selected to explore this captivating story before its official release has been such a treat, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it with all of you. A huge thank you to the teams at NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for their generosity and for making this advanced reading experience possible.

Sydney Wells should have died. She was supposed to die.

She never expected, after years of waiting, to receive a heart transplant. Now she doesn't know what to do with her life. Her daily routine consisted of staying indoors, eating heart-healthy foods and posting about her transplant list experiences on TheWaitingList with her long distance BFF (and heart failure buddy) Chloe.

Now Sydney latches onto learning as much as she can about the person whose heart she inherited. After finding the family of her likely donor, Mia, Sydney falls deep into her world and may also be falling for Mia's best friend, Clayton.

In the most respectful way possible, I am so here for the sick girl trope. Don't get me wrong, I am very aware that real people suffer these very real health issues and I am not taking away from that at all or romanticising it.

I grew up reading books such as The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I loved books that made me feel things and Every Borrowed Beat brought that right back. I spent my evening sobbing whilst finishing this book.

It's a beautifully tragic book and I found that it was really worth my time. But what I found even more worth my time was the acknowledgements at the end of the book, I highly recommend reading those even if you don't normally. It's clear after reading those acknowledgements that Erin Stewart put a lot of herself into this book and I want to thank her for sharing and being vulnerable. It's admirable.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was cute, it was exciting and it was sad... but these are all things I love in a book.

Every Borrowed Beat is a YA read which follows the budding relationship between Sydney who has been given a second chance at life and Clayton whose best friend recently died in a freak accident. The story of Sydney's recovery from major transplant surgery, her relationships with others who are still on the transplant waiting list and Clayton's grief over the loss of his friend add up to a thought provoking story about survivor's guilt and the challenge of allowing yourself to move on with your life.

this book was such a good binge read, but there was a few plot holes in some points of the story.
there was character dynamics and relationships.

if you are looking for something light and cute to read

Every Borrowed Beat by Erin Stewart was such a good book. Lovely storyline. Loved everything about it. I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can.

What a beautiful book! Ya readers and readers of all ages are going to love this one! I was weeping at practically every page!