Things We Know By Heart
Author: Jessi Kirby
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: April 21, 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary:
After Quinn’s boyfriend, Trent, dies in an accident their junior year, she reaches out to the recipients of his donated organs as part of her mourning process. When the recipient of Trent’s heart remains silent, she secretly goes outside the system to track down nineteen-year-old Colton Thomas, hoping to find peace once and for all.
If only it were that easy. What starts as an accidental run-in with Colton quickly becomes an undeniable attraction. She doesn’t want to give in to it – especially since he has no idea how they’re connected – though it’s the first time in months Quinn has felt happy again. But no matter how hard she’s falling for Colton, each beat of his heart reminds her of all she’s lost…and all that remains at stake.
First Sentence: I don’t know how I knew, when the sirens woke me just before dawn, that they were for him.
My Review:
As soon as I read the synopsis of Things We Know By Heart, I had a very strong need for the book. I’ve watched or read something similar to the plot of Things We Know By Heart – I forgot what, it was definitely a long time ago – and really enjoyed it. I had extremely high hopes for Things We Know By Heart, hopes so high that it was automatically put into my top ten most anticipated 2015 books list. Never mind that Things We Know By Heart is a contemporary and contemporaries rarely impress me. That didn’t matter – I was completely confident that I would still love Things We Know By Heart. Sure, I didn’t enjoy and had to DNF Jessi Kirby’s debut novel, Moonglass, but things can change right? Besides, I’ve heard really great things about Golden, Jessi Kirby’s latest released book so therefore, I should love Things We Know By Heart. To my extreme disappointment, I found myself not enjoying Things We Know By Heart at all and even contemplating to DNF it or not.
Four hundred days and too many heartbeats to count.
Four hundred days and too many places and moments where Trent no longer exists. And still no answer from one of the only places he does. (ARC 5)
Things We Know By Heart didn’t make me feel anything but boredom. I expected to feel all the emotions when I read a book focused on grief – I mean, Quinn is mourning over her dead boyfriend. I expected to cry (or at least tear up), I expected to have my heartstrings tugged, I expected to feel things. What I actually got was boredom. There were three main factors that caused this to happen: Things We Know By Heart was bogged down with too many details, the pacing of Things We Know By Heart was very slow, and you could cut at least forty pages out of Things We Know By Heart (to improve the pacing of Things We Know By Heart and prevent it from being too detailed). Things We Know By Heart is extremely detailed – we know how every single thing looks like and what is happening every single moment. At least a third of all the given details weren’t needed. The pacing was also pretty slow, which made things worse.
As for the romance, I sadly didn’t feel it. Like I said above, I didn’t feel anything. I just read about Quinn meeting Colton and them hanging out together, but didn’t feel a speck of chemistry between them. I also didn’t feel any connection between them nor did I see how they fell for each other – I was just bored. In fact, I don’t get what Colton saw in Quinn the first place when they first met. According to Quinn, Colton is really cute and attractive, so what made him interested in her out of all the other girls?
And then I think of how well I know the heart that beats in his chest right now. How knowing it makes me feel like I know him on another level too. How a tiny little part of me wonders if Trent’s heart in his chest is what makes it so easy to be with Colton. (ARC 165)
The only upside to Things We Know By Heart is that it did teach me a few new things that I’ve never thought of – or even knew – before. Before reading Things We Know By Heart, silly me didn’t realize that once heart receivers receive a new heart, everything is not suddenly magically okay. No, the heart receivers have a new problem: they have to eat medicine that prevents their body from rejecting their new heart for the rest of their life. That must be so stressful – to remember to stop life for awhile just to eat medicine that keeps you alive.
Overall, Things We Know By Heart was a huge disappointment. I can’t even express how disappointed I am with it in words. Hopefully my next read won’t disappoint me at much or at all.
I can’t handle books that don’t keep me going, my brain goes all over the place and I cannot focus!
Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
Missie recently posted…Discussion Post – Shipping
I didn’t enjoy this one very much, either! I was quite disappointed by this one as well. However, I didn’t really think that the story was too detailed like you thought it was, but I can see how a lot of it can be cut out. The thing that didn’t work for me was yes, the romance (wasn’t feeling it), but also the moral of the story. I felt like the moral was like you need romantic love to feel better from grief? Idk, I just wasn’t comfortable with that theme. Thanks for your honest review, Kelly!!
That’s very disappointing to hear :/ I was rather looking forward to this one, too, and I’m a bit hesitate to check it out now since this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of someone not enjoying it. It’s always a shame to see such a promising plot/setting take a turn right down snooze lane. Sorry you didn’t enjoy it!
Again another book that I was looking forward to…I am sorry to hear that again this one didn’t work out for you. But i will still give this one a chance and see if I will feel the same way as you did. Thanks for this review at least my expectations will be managed.
I’m surprised Things We Know By Heart didn’t win you over since it seemed to win over so many other readers. Seriously, since the cover came out or even the synopsis, it felt like every type of book reader and booklover of YA was raving about this book. But now that I know the pacing is slow, I’m already turned off by this book. I’m sure I’ll end up wishing to DNF the book too. And I never do because then I feel bad… :/ Hopefully you like Jessi Kirby’s upcoming books!
This book is in my To-Read Books. Plus it has a beautiful cover. I read your review and I was kind of disappointed. Was it really that boring? Well, we all have different views so I guess I’ll read it first. :)
This book has been either LOVE or MEH for everyone I’ve seen – it was definitely meh for me. Not entirely terrible, but I was bored and disconnected. I didn’t care about the characters and thought it was incredibly predictable. I’m bummed because it was easily my most anticipated read for this year.
Lauren @ Bookmark Lit recently posted…Blog Tour Review: 99 Days
Hmm, your review is not the first negative one I have seen. That is disappointing because the premise sounds so interesting. I may skip this one.
Cynthia recently posted…Musing Mondays – Taking Control Of My TBR Pile
This one has gotten some very mixed reviews, and it is one of those books that screams “I’m gonna make you boo hoo”. I don’t read those very often. They have to be pretty darn special to make me. I have yet to read The Fault in Our Stars, and I probably never will. But I had some hopes for this one. Now I am not too sure!
Jaime Lester recently posted…Me on the Floor, Bleeding
I was really disappointed with this one, too! I didn’t end up liking it all that much and it could have been so great, I think. x.x
Great review Kelly. <3 But aw, I'm so sorry this book was disappointing, since you wanted to love it so much :( This, sadly, happens way too often. Ugh. I shall never read this book, lol, as I do not care for the plot at all. Sigh. And aw. It was boring and slow-paced? Ugh. How annoying :\ But I'm glad you still enjoyed a lot of other parts of this book :) Thanks for sharing sweetie. <3
Carina Olsen recently posted…Cress Tuesday #78
Good review. Too bad this book was a disappointment; the summary sounded really good.
Oh dear, I was really looking forward to reading this one and having my heart broken :( I’ve been dying to read this book ever since you featured the cover in one of your cover guessing game and it’s disappointing to to see that it bored you. I’m not a fan of contemps either but I just finished The Last Time We Say Goodbye and it just ripped out my heart, so I figured this one would be just as amazing, seeing that both books deal with grief. And it sucks that the romance didn’t do anything to the book either.. :(
It’s too bad that “Things We Know By Heart” didn’t live up to your expectations :( And I was hoping to grab this book because the whole premise does sound amazing! But now I’m having second thoughts about getting the book after reading your review hehe. Hopefully other contemporaries won’t be as a disappointment as this. Happy spring Kelly! :)