This tells the story of Ailsa who has just had a heart transplant. She is adjusting to a new life as such, as it had been very uncertain whether she would survive much longer. She now is able to do things that she would never have been able to do previously. I truly got thoroughly taken in by this book. I couldn't stop reading once i started. It was an emaotional and engaging ride. I truly loved all the characters and found them memorable. Definitely a book to read and enjoy..

I wasn’t sure about this book and if it was just another love story (chose it from my tbr pile from the front cover and title only) it wasn’t what I was expecting but so much more. It is about love but firstly love for living, love for surviving the day, love for your mum, love for someone no longer here and of course love for someone who becomes more than a friend.
It was an enjoyable read as it was funny, thought provoking and flowed how I wanted it too. It didn’t disappoint.
I would happily recommend this to my friends as a reminder that life needs to be lived in what ever way is best for you. I loved the line that you don’t have to be happy all the time even if you have everything - how true is that... we are still human :)

A very unusual book ,looking at life before and after a heart transplant. A love story and a life story.

This was a lovely book to read. It is the story of Ailsa who needs to have a heart transplant due to a serious and lifelong problem. She creates a blog to share her thoughts and to explain the ups and downs of the procedure both before and after. It gives you an interesting insight to the long, but not always successful, process of waiting for a new heart. Ailsa clearly has a new lease of life and chooses to make the most of it whilst knowing that a close friend was not as lucky as her. I felt that I could empathise with Ailsa and, whilst it is written in a lighthearted way, it is talking about something serious. I couldn't put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, Stephanie Butland writes wonderfully empathetic characters that tug at the heart strings as they face their own set of difficulties. In this case Ailsa receives a life saving heart transplant, and finally gets to experience real life. Heart warming and uplifting.

An original and uplifting story about the gift of life and its many challenges

28-year old Ailsa Rae has spent her entire life unwell, having been born with a congenital heart defect that leaves her constantly struggling to oxygenate her body. After receiving a heart transplant in the nick of time, Ailsa is ready to finally start living the life she’s always dreamed of – getting a job, learning to dance and finding love. However, despite everyone around her telling her how lucky she is (something Ailsa knows first-hand, having watched a close friend die whilst waiting for a liver transplant), life isn’t as much of a wonderful adventure as she had expected. Her mother is struggling to come to terms with her daughter’s new independence, she’s never known her father and, after spending several years letting polls on her blog ‘Blueheart’ make decisions for her, Ailsa must learn to step out on her own and find out who she really is. Being normal may be easy and dull for everyone else, but for someone who’s never known normal, it may, in fact, be the biggest challenge yet.

This was a really interesting and unique book. The author has clearly done a lot of research on transplants and manages to handle quite a sensitive topic in a way that is light-hearted (excuse the pun!) but doesn’t shy away from serious issues, such as the opt-in vs opt-out organ transplant systems argument. I had never heard of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome before reading this story, and whilst the author doesn’t go into great detail about Ailsa’s condition, it was interesting to consider the life of a transplant patient pre- and post-operation through their own eyes and to think about the changes and challenges that someone like Ailsa may face, even once they have received a desperately needed organ.

The layout of the story (told via a combination of blog posts, emails and third-person narrative) was a little confusing at times and the timing did jump about a bit from past to present which was a little tricky for me to get my head around. However, the story was well-written and Ailsa was a very real and likeable character – I empathised with her struggles and, whilst she has her flaws, never found her overly annoying or unsympathetic. The other characters are also well-rounded and fleshed out, and the writing is both quirky, humorous and sad at times, particularly when Ailsa remembers her friend Lennox who died whilst on the transplant list. The romantic aspect of this story was potentially a little unrealistic but it was also quite sweet, and the overall book is uplifting and emotive without being overly cheesy or sickening.

One final thing that did bother me about this story was that Ailsa makes repeated references to her heart reacting to her emotional state – speeding up when she feels anxious, skipping a beat when something surprises her etc. Transplanted hearts are denervated (meaning that the nerves going to the heart are cut during the operation) and I am not sure how scientifically accurate it is that Ailsa’s heart would ‘react’ to her emotional state in the way she describes. This is only a small issue, but it did niggle at me as I was reading and marginally affected my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book to others and would be keen to seek out more stories by this author. I think it is great that this novel is raising awareness of organ donation and hope that it might encourage some readers to sign up to the organ donor register and potentially save the lives of real people like Ailsa.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

I really enjoyed this book. It makes you think about what people on the transplant list go through. It is easy to assume and make assumptions. This book really challenges our misconceptions as we follow Ailsa through from her life both before and after her heart transplant; the harrowing death of a past love and the beginnings of a new one. Funny and fast paced. Light hearted yet thought provoking. Will definitely look out for more from this author.

I absolutely loved Stephanie Butland's last novel, "Lost for Words" (it was set in a bookshop so no prizes for guessing why it appealed to me so much) and when I saw her book available on Netgalley I couldn't click request fast enough.

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae follows Ailsa just a couple of months after the heart transplant she had been waiting for her whole life. We join Ailsa as she learns how to live, how to be an adult and how to navigate a life in which she suddenly has a future that involves more than hospital stays and dying.

I thought the premise to this book was really interesting. I've read a lot of books which focus on long term illness, but never a book which explores how somebody starts to rebuild their life once they have that operation they've been waiting for since birth. I don't think I'd ever considered what it would be like for someone in that position, so used to waiting by the phone to hear of a possible organ and having people look after you as if you were a child, to suddenly be better and have to completely rebuild how they thought about themselves and develop some independence.

The book is written with the use of flashbacks to before the heart transplant and I enjoyed these glimpses into Ailsa's previous life which helped to make me feel as if I knew both versions of Ailsa- with her old heart and with her new heart (which she names Apple).

I also really liked the use of Ailsa's blog as a story telling device. It was in these sections that I felt Ailsa was being the most true to herself, and it added another layer to her personality.

The writing was completley addictive and I found myself swept into the story quickly. It was such a life affirming story and I really felt like I was with Ailsa as she experience new things and grabbed her new chance at life with both hands.

I absolutely loved the romantic storyline, but I also loved that having a boyfriend wasn't Ailsa's main priority and her career, hobbies, friends and family were much more her focus.

I would recommend this book to fans of Sophie Kinsella, Jojo Moyes and anybody who loves reading the equivalent of a hug in book form!

I’m writing this review with tears in my eyes as I have just finished this book and the ending was very lovely and emotional. This is a delightful read. I loved Stephanie’s other book, Lost for Words, and I love this one just as much. Stephanie makes the protagonist in each book a kind of underdog that you just want to support and hope that they come out on top. It’s warm, endearing and utterly charming. The characters are likeable and believable and I really wanted to meet up with them all. I especially wanted to go and view the play and I might even go and learn to Tango! Although it did make me tear up, it wasn't too emotionally upsetting. Stephanie dealt with difficult subjects in a very delicate way and she is now topping my favourite authors list!
Thanks to Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading about Ailsa and Apple. The story of Ailsa and her new heart was sensitively written and also very entertaining. I loved the style of writing; loved how there was a play within the book and enjoyed picturing the streets and buildings of Edinburgh. Highly recommended.

I thought this book was cleverly and sensitively written. Knowing someone with HLHS, I was worried it would be too emotional, but it was funny, clever and charming. I'd love to know more about how Apple gets on in the future

Brilliant. I laughed and I cried and I want to read it all over again. Ailsa gets the new heart that saves her life and tries to learn to start living. She meets Seb and starts to do new things. Her blog is really brave and honest. The whole story is beautifully written and obviously well researched. Ailsa has a lot of living to catch up on and this book tells her story wonderfully.

Clearly a lot of research had taken place about heart transplants but apart from that I didn't enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. I found the addition of Scottish expressions very tiresome and I think an unnecessary addition to the text. I liked reading the blog entries. It was an interesting read about both the physical and emotional aspects of a heart transplant.

Cleverly written and with a great story line but that’s not why this book touched me…

A very long time ago, working as a student nurse, I was involved in something similar. Working on nightduty the call came at 3am that the long-awaited heart had been found and within an hour an air ambulance had arrived to whisk her on her journey of a lifetime. As memories go it is a distant one. It happened in the 80’s and is something I haven’t thought of in years. But it’s all there in this book; the hope, expectation and fear of the future. And in being given that second chance the realisation that there’s an expectation to make the most of it. Finally there’s the added edge of sadness as, of course, there’s tragedy lingering…another person who hasn’t been as lucky, another set of grieving parents…

Excellently executed

I’m so pleased to have discovered this author! I absolutely loved this book, it is witty, touching and heartfelt with characters that I would rush to read more about. Having struggled for her whole life with a heart condition, Ailsa is given a transplant and starts her life again in her late twenties. We follow her as she falls in love, deals with loss and family feuds (both real and fictional) and finally gains some control over her life, whether she wants it or not. A very enjoyable read that I didn’t want to end. Thanks NetGalley!

Fun, serious, emotional, heart wrenching. Very cleverly written, insightful. These are the words to describe this wonderful book about Alisa, a 28 year old who is hoping for a new heart so she can experience ‘normal’. Read this book to discover the true meaning of life. A truly beautiful and satisfying read.

Didn’t really enjoy this book but would suggest others read it to make their own opinions heard

I've just read a pre-release of "The curious heart of Ailsa Rae". I was a bit dubious to begin with, but it's a delightful book, very moving, entertaining and informative. It's about a young woman who was birn with a heart defect and eventually receives a transplant when she's in her twenties. While extremely ill and waiting for a transplant she starts a blog, which gathers a fair following and helps sustain her both through the waiting and the subsequent post-transplant road back to a fairly "normal" life. We share in Ailsa's road to recovery and development of relationships until she has gained the confidence to live and enjoy her life. I really enjoyed the book - funny, moving, engaging, lifelike... and I recommend it.

Ailsa Rae has never been a normal child doing the mundane every day stuff, so when her life changes her energies all go into finding her new normal.

A brilliant book with a storyline that as a parent makes you stop and think what if. This book covers off multiple topics and really brings organ donation to the forefront in a sensitive and heartfelt story.

I loved this book and enjoyed the style in which it was written and following the iourney of Ailsa Rae. This is a book I will definitely be recommending to my family anf friends

Wonderful book, I was enthralled from the first page. Not only an intersting read but an educational one tooI I liked the way it was written in a mixture of ways from blog posts, to emails, to the first person. Ailsa is not perfect, but someone you can identify with. We watch from illness in childhood, to her heart transplant through to finding love in adulthood. A truly interesting read which I found difficult to put down.