Heart Murmurs

By: R.R. Smythe

Narrated by: Anne Marie Damman

Mia Templeton is dying. Or was dying. After receiving a heart transplant, her world is forever altered. Before her eyes open, she overhears her donor was a murdered girl of the same age. Whispers invade Mia's head before she's even left the recovery room. She develops tastes for foods she once hated, and dreams so vivid, she feels they're someone else's memories. Her personality is altered - once a quiet doormat, she's now inexplicably flippant, and confident. And her unexplained longing for the new boy at school is borderline obsessive. Morgan Kelley is new. Adopted by his aunt, a descendant of Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), he's thrown into life at a new high school, and as a historical guide for his aunt's store - a homage to all things Alcott. Conspiracy theories abound about his mangled lower leg - but no one has been brave enough to ask. Till Mia.

Something is awry with the Underground Railroad tunnels beneath his aunt's home. Mia and Morgan enter the world of a secret Literary Society - and are drafted to help bring a rogue Literary giant to justice, solve the mystery of her heart donor, the real fate of Beth from Little Women.

©2012 R R Smythe/Ronna Hochbein (P)2014 Ronna Hochbein

Interesting

That first I was unsure what was going on. R.R. Smyth opens a world of imagination. Well written.
There is no foul language or sex scenes. This book could be read by teenagers.
Narrator Anne Marie Damman does a wonderful job giving each character their own unique voices and bringing them alive. Well done. This book was supplied to me for a honest review.

There is a lot to keep up with

While I did not dislike this book, the synopsis is not quite enough to go on. I was expecting what I read in the synopsis, to read about a girl that had some of the inclinations of the person that gave her a heart. Sadly, it’s a lot more than that. A lot more.

What I did like was the personalities in the story. The characters do seem to jump off of the page. Or out of the headphones since I listened to this one. They are all in high school so it was pretty easy to remember and sympathize with the main character. She’s a mouse and people are used to walking all over her; at least until her operation. But her personality did not do a complete flip. In most cases she spoke up for herself and that was odd, but it was the voices that she was starting to hear that really started to add something to the story.

Insert Morgan, the hot new kid that all the girls are drooling over! Mia isn’t shy about trying to find out who he is. It’s almost like she feels compelled to be with him but can’t explain why. This portion was a little odd too but young love always is so whatever, I was willing to go with the flow. The strangeness is when Morgan and Mia actually meet and all kinds of weird, or weirder stuff starts happening.

This is the part where I started getting lost. Ever see Project Runway? It’s an obsession of mine. Tim Gunn tells the participating designers to reel in their designs if they are getting too crazy and I feel like that’s what needs to be done here. First we have the heart transplant, the reader has to understand where Mia was compared to is currently, get to know all her friends, her obsession with Morgan, her job and her obsession with Austin (although I get that), and on top of that there is this whole entire caste system that is thrown in!

I’m not saying I did not like it but wow, that is a lot to keep up with. The further I got into listening to the book, the more happens too! It is a really strange mixture of Alice in Wonderland meets The Hunger Games with a bit of Twilight in there because Mia cannot live without Morgan. Ugh… I hate insta love.

There’s an entire portion that is all about Edgar Allan Poe. I love his writing. LOVE! Like I would stalk him if he were alive today, maybe not literally but still, I would think about it. This is just another added portion to ALL of the above. Why is this even in here? I get the literary part of it but there has to be a moment when someone like Tim Gunn says, can we please edit back some of this script, please?

So, really… it’s an okay book but there’s a lot in this. Like, a LOT. I wouldn’t mind the story if it were spread out and there were some clues as to why things happen the way they do at the end and why people are making her fight, and who are these people anyway!? It’s just too much.

The audio portion was really good. There was one part where there is a bit of screeching when someone talks but it is there to really bring it all to life. The narration by Anne Marie Damon was fantastic and kept me involved even with everything going on.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

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So much more to this book than what the synopsis suggests.

This book was really not what I was expecting.
Love transcended through time. Definitely a fantasy/romance novel. We meet Po the American poet. We meet people from different time periods and a girl given someone else’s heart.

Audio was good. Narration fits the book well.
I’ve never listened to anything like this book before. It’s one of those books I may need to listen to more than once to know exactly how I feel about it if that makes sense 🤜🤛