REVIEW: Meet Me When My Heart Stops by Becky Hunter

Emery is born with a heart condition that means her heart could quite literally stop at any moment. The people around her know what to do - if they act quickly enough there will be no lasting damage, and Emery's heart can be restarted. But when this happens, she is briefly technically dead.

Each time Emery's heart stops, she meets Nick. His purpose is to help people adjust to the fact that they are dead, to help them say goodbye, before they move on entirely. He does not usually meet people more than once - but with Emery, he is able to make a connection, and he finds himself drawn to her.

As Emery's life progresses, and she goes through ups and downs, she finds that a part of her is longing for those moments when her heart will stop - so that she can see Nick again.

"I don't know what to say. Usually, when I see someone, it is unequivocally the end. But with her, I get the sense that it's all only just beginning."

A story of life, death and love told through a unique spin on the classic fated lovers trope - Meet Me When My Heart stops is one of those stories that strikes a delicate balance between authentic, harsh reality and subtle magic to create something quite surreal and impactful.

We watch Emery grow from a frightened child, to a rebellious teenager into a fully grown woman and it’s hard not to care for her as we watch her live every day with the unknown hanging over her head, and this strange mystery following her closely behind. The whole story is narrated in a highly personal way, letting the reader into her thoughts and showing us such strong emotions with her happiest moments and worst pain and everything in between but from a unique perspective of her watchful onlooker, letting us join him and giving the reader that feeling of us protecting and looking over her too.

For me, it read a little too slow for me to fully become invested, at times felt just a little too unexplained, and perhaps I may just not have a taste for the “bittersweet” love stories anymore but I think many readers will fall in love with this bittersweet book.

⭐⭐⭐

Meet Me When My Heart Stops is available from Atlantic Books/Corvus. I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

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