ABOUT THE BOOK

Broken Heart Syndrome: A sudden and acute form of heart failure, brought on by emotional or physical distress.

After years of studying cardiac medicine, thirty-one-year-old Keisha knows the heart inside out. She knows the average heart rate for each age group, she can name every valve, and she can tell you exactly how much blood it pumps daily.

The one thing she doesn’t know is how to fall in love. And nor does she want to. The secret her tattoo covers is a reminder that the best way to protect a heart is to never let it feel in the first place…

Seventy-nine-year-old Clive is Subject Five in Keisha’s latest research project. He’s been in love since he was seventeen, ever since he met Nancy at a tea dance. But last night, his beloved wife was killed. Suddenly, he has no one to waltz with. He has woken up in a hospital, a widower diagnosed with Broken Heart Syndrome.

These strangers, brought together by a broken heart, must face up to the truth of their pasts. Can Clive teach his new friend that until you’ve loved, you haven’t lived? And can Keisha help him see that it’s never too late for a second chance?

For anyone who has ever felt the pang of heartbreak and feared you might never heal again, this beautiful tale teaches us how to dust ourselves off and seek happiness again. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Josie Silver, and Rosie Walsh will love this moving and uplifting story.

MY REVIEW

This is an unusual love story between a 31-year-old woman and her 79-year-old test subject. Not a romantic love story, but a story that brings two broken-hearted people together in an unconventional and very fulfilling way.

Keisha tries to fix broken hearts…literally. She is working on her Ph.D. to find out if beetroot juice helps mend a broken heart. The medical term is takotsubo cardiomyopathy. The layman’s term is Broken Heart Syndrome.

Keisha has an unconventional habit of checking her pulse on average twenty-eight times per day. It’s a result of a trauma she endured at age 15.  She has a structure to her life. The way she eats. The way she works. Not one for social interaction, she is resigned to the fact she will be meeting with this elderly man who has apparent memory issues. But what she finds is a camaraderie with a lost soul wanting to get some semblance of his life back.

Keisha’s subject Clive is found disoriented as the result of what appears to be a heart attack after claiming he has seen his dead wife murdered in their kitchen. However, there is no body, no blood, and no wife. Can this cantankerous and colorful man find a way to live his life with pieces of his memory gone?

Keisha and Clive are such a wonderful pair. They seem to understand each other from the first time they meet with their scars inside and out.  Keisha comes out of her shell, and Clive finds a purpose to go on.  Their stories are heartbreaking, but there is a wonderful happy ending.  

As for supporting characters, George, Clive’s nurse, is a kind and supportive man who has his eyes on Keisha. Lucy is Keisha’s clumsy and absentminded roommate and colleague at work who needs to stay away from cooking altogether. And Tess who owns the local cafe and is Keisha’s Tinder matchmaker is trying a little study of her own to find love for Keisha by arranging 100 dates for her.

Overall, I couldn’t wait to find out Clive’s past and Keisha’s secret, and in the end, it was sob-worthy, but it all worked out.  If you enjoy quirky characters with tragic pasts and a story that will heal the heart, give this book a try.  

Thank you to Ms. Miller for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When Catherine Miller became a mum to twins, she decided her hands weren’t full enough so wrote a novel with every spare moment she managed to find. By the time the twins were two, Catherine had a two-book deal with Carina UK. Her debut novel, Waiting For You, came out in March 2016.

Catherine was a NHS physiotherapist, but for health reasons she retired early from this career. As she loved her physiotherapy job, she decided if she couldn’t do that she would pursue her writing dream. It took a few years and a couple of babies, but in 2015 she won the Katie Fforde bursary, was a finalist in the London Book Fair Write Stuff Competition and highly commended in Woman magazine’s writing competition. Since then she’s had four novels published.

Follow Catherine on Twitter.

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