The Wrong Heart

By: Jennifer Hartmann

Narrated by: Stefanie Kay, Neill Thorne

When my husband died, he left my broken heart behind.

He left another heart behind, too - his.

I know it's wrong. I shouldn't be contacting the recipient of my husband's heart. I don't even expect him to reply....

But there's a desperate, twisted part of me that hopes he will.

No names. No personal details. Just a conversation.

The only thing I have left of my husband is inside him.

Warning: This book contains heavy themes, such as loss of a loved one and suicide. Please listen responsibly.

©2021 Jennifer Hartmann (P)2021 Jennifer Hartmann

Critic reviews

"Mind-blowing. Body-heating. Heart-stealing. He's a tortured hero, and she's a beautiful broken melody, colliding together in death and resurrecting from places within, where 'the beats are loud and songful.' All the damn stars!" (Pam Godwin, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today best-selling author)

"They say there is no reward without pain, and that’s how we’d describe The Wrong Heart. This author shredded our hearts to pieces, then stitched them back together with love, sincerity, and a whole lot of clever and insightful storytelling. The Wrong Heart has left an indelible mark on our hearts, as we’re still living every moment of this unforgettable emotionally stirring story of love, grief, and second chances." (Totally Booked Blog)

"There are books where you read the last page and then move on with your life, and then there are BOOKS, which even after the last page, stays with you forever. THIS is one of those books." (Lilith Seven Reviews)

I wasn't ready. 😭❤😭

This book was so powerful. It had my heart from the beginning. I was crying twenty minutes into the story. It was heartbreaking and so beautiful at the same time. Overcoming grief, loss, pain, trauma, tragedy. Finding love, opening up again, trying to be okay with moving on and trusting your heart. I was an emotional wreck because this had all the feels. But I wasn’t ready for the epilogue. Being married, you don't really think about that part. That epilogue had my heart in my throat. I was ugly crying. Five star read!! I'm still trying to recover. ❤😢

You have to read/listen to this book!

This story will NEVER get old. One of the best books I’ve ever read & the audiobook is superb!!

Wow

This book deals with the heavy subject of death. All deaths; natural, by accidents, and by suicide. It tells how devastating it can be to go on for the ones still living. On the brighter side, It also shows that the joys of life are in the little things that keep us going in hard times. Excellently written story and not completely typical. It does have some slow moments, but they just pull you in to the story and make it more believable.

The right heart

I love that J. Hartmann’s stories lean towards the dark. This is my second book from her and I am not disappointed. I listened to Still Beating and liked that story. So I thought I would give this one a try too and wasn’t disappointed. It was a tad long and overdrawn. Could have shaved maybe an hour or two from the overall story but that’s not enough reason to dislike it. I say if you’re not squeamish toward heartbreak, suicide, anti-social behaviors etc, give it a read. These subjects are not something to shy away from but to understand. These things happen.



**spoiler!**
It became obvious what one of the major twists was. Like, hmm when’s he going for his scheduled right heart cath with biopsy. Or the strict anti rejection drugs. No mention of any of those. And the reason he would have needed a heart transplant from ‘trauma’ is far fetched. In the real world he’d have died before they could even procure a donor heart if the injury was so bad he needed a transplant. Hearts don’t fall from the sky! Let’s say he perforated his aorta. Dead. Or punctured one of his chambers, also dead. If he’s lucky. Maybe he’d be on ECMO for a time. They would first try to surgically “fix” the trauma to his heart if they get to him in time if it’s a young, healthy, 32 yo heart without cardiac history. Not go directly to transplant.


Anyway that doesn’t take away from the whole of the story. I was just wondering how it all fit in. Because it was glaringly obvious and didn’t make sense to me.

How it was woven in as to “why” these two people were connected made sense in the end.

This was a great listen. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and a lot of them I tend to forget. They’re not memorable. I think this one and Still Beating are memorable. When you can connect with characters and you can place yourself in their shoes and they linger in your thoughts, that is great story telling.

Just WOW!

Don’t be fooled by the smuttier looking cover, this book is one of (if not the) best books I’ve ever read/listened to! It grabbed my heart and would NOT let go! Holy moly! I just finished listening and want to listen to it all over again! The voice actors were great and the emotion/writing of this book was gripping! Easiest five star read, EVER! Jennifer is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors!

Raw and Heavy Storyline

The Wrong Heart, written by Jennifer Hartmann, is an angst-filled contemporary romance that deals with heavy themes, such as the loss of a loved one and self-harm/suicide.

The book is a dual POV that follows the FMC of Melody, who just experienced a significant loss; her husband, Charlie, died in a horrible hit-and-run. Charlie was an organ donor, and his heart was given to an unknown person. Desperate, Melody reaches out to get information on the recipient of the heart, only to be given an email address. Parker, the MMC, is the owner of the email address.

This story is deep, and the emotions in this book are raw and heavy. You could feel Melody’s loss and pain. I wanted nothing more than to find her comfort. Parker’s story - wow. His tragic childhood damaged him on so many different levels. The book is an emotional roller coaster that barely gives you a moment to breathe before something else gut-wrenching happens.

The narration was done very well, and you could feel the angst, pain, relief, and love.

Emotional

So so emotional… grab a tissue. You’ll need it. Such beautiful writing, references. A beautiful beautiful story.

So many emotions!!!

This book deals with some really tough issues! Death of a spouse. Attempted suicide. Child abuse. It is not for the faint of heart. But the story is SO good! Melody gets married to her high school sweetheart, and he dies on their 5th wedding anniversary. This was obviously a tough thing for her to deal with. She ends up in a suicide prevention group. This is where she meets Parker. He is her opposite in EVERY way! And is nothing like her late husband. But that is probably what attracts her to him. They end up going through a lot, even though Parker has this cant stay away/cant stand to be around her attitude. Parker is a tough one to deal with because you know what he has been through, but still get so hurt by some of the things that he says.

This book had me emotional in quite a few places. I really felt for Melody. She just seemed to keep having to deal with one thing after another and she somehow managed to keep a mostly sunny outlook on things. The narration was ON POINT!!! Stefanie and Neill brought the emotion! Brought the intensity! I was totally captivated listening to them!



Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spice 🔥🔥🔥
Swoon 😍😍😍
Angst 💔💔💔
Narration 👏👏👏👏👏

prepare for your heart to be ripped out!!

There's so much I have to say about this book but first I need to acknowledged the stars of this audio!
Neill Thorne and Stefanie Kay are phenomenal; they honestly left me bereft at many parts of this book.

When I say this book needs to be listened to and not read, it's because both of these insanely talented narrators brought this book and all the emotions to life!!
Neill has become my newest favorite narrator because he is so incredibly talented. He voiced several characters and was consistent with the juggling between them. Stefanie is brand new to me but I will be looking up more audio by her.

There's no other book out there like this one which made it 5 stars , hell, 10 stars!!

I won't be giving anything away that would affect a new listener's enjoyment, but just know: you will cry your heart out, you will fall in love with an unlovable character. you will feel so much for the hero and heroine you won't be able to contain and you won't expect any of the twists!!!

Love it!

I loved this book. This is the second book by this author I’ve listened to and she is amazing. There are trigger warnings for this book, so make sure you check them out before going into it.
This book is full of emotion and angst. The story pulls you in and keeps you wrapped until the final word.
Melody is a young grieving widow. Her grief has paralyzed her and kept her from
being able to live and move forward. She decides to reach out to her husband’s heart recipient. Everything is anonymous, but she feels led to hold on to whatever last bit of her husband she can.
Parker is a troubled guy. He is angry at everyone and feels he doesn’t deserve anything good in his life. His past has also paralyzed him in the past preventing him from living a happy life.
When these two come together in a support group, they can’t resist the pull they feel for one another. Together they are flawed, but together they put each other back together.
This story was painful and yet beautiful. It was a true representation of how your past and grief can prevent you from seeing the good in the world. Jennifer was able to capture all that in this story.
Stefanie Kay and Neil Thorne were the narrators of this book. Their acting brought all the emotions to life. They were perfect in this together. They brought the raw and beautiful emotions off the page.