Review: Instructions For A Second Hand Heart by Tamsyn Murrary

Jonny has a faulty heart and his time is running out. Niamh has just lost her twin brother in a tragic accident. As their fates collide, soon Jonny is on the mend - but desperate to know more about his donor. When he tracks down Niamh, he only intends to find out about her brother, the first owner of his heart. He doesn't plan on falling in love... A stunning, tear-jerking novel about grief, guilt, and the unpredictability of love.

Review: I was worried how emotional this book would be before picking it up as I had heard nothing but good things about it in terms of the amount that I was going to cry, but as soon as I started reading it, i forgot all about that and found myself drawn into the world of Johnny and Niamh. I found this to be an incredibly quick read because I was so drawn to the two of them as characters and the stories that they had to tell, I raced through the pages!

This sounds like quite a morbid topic for a YA novel but this is so much more than a story about people who have died and people who are close to dying. Niamh and Johnny are just two teenagers, like any other teenagers. The difference between them and many other teenagers is that they have this different take on life, a heightened respect for it in many ways and they know, but don't always appreciate how precious their lives are. I really liked getting to know them as characters and found myself wanting to find out more about them and about their growing friendship.

Obviously there many emotional aspects to this book. Dealing with terminally ill children and children who loose their lives is always going to be emotional but that is not the main aspect of this novel, so if you are worried about it being a morbid look at death and cancer and the like, then you need not fear! As I've mentioned above, these characters have a respect for life that so many of us forget about because of how close they have come to loss, but this doesn't mean either that this book is all about the completion of bucket lists and living life to the full. It is more about an attitude and a mind set than an about any actual thing. 

I so enjoyed this book, i cried twice and it left me thinking. These characters have stayed with me and I do hope to hear more about them one day but they will stay with me for a while yet, and that, to me, is the sign of a good book!

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