Think this tried to cover a lot of issues that teenagers might be facing - witnessing domestic abuse, hoarders, problems with parents - that it felt too much and inauthentic.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I adored Rachael's first YA book The State Of Grace so I was keen to get my hands on My Box-Shaped Heart. It certainly didn't disappoint! Rachael has a great talent for creating characters that you cannot help but grow to adore! Both Holly and Ed are dealing with complicated home situations and the story follows them as they meeting during their one escape - swimming.I would definitely recommend it!

This was such an easy to read and contemporary story. It's complexity only adds to the narrative. The characters are perfectly flawed and engaging.

Rachael Lucas has done it again! I adored The State of Grace and was really highly anticipating the release of My Box-Shaped Heart as a result and I was not at all disappointed. This book is gorgeous and filled with layered characters that I could really connect with. I loved their stories and how authentic the whole book felt. What really stood out for me is that this is the kind of book that someone somewhere will pick up and see themselves for the first time.

Holly and I clicked immediately. I really felt for her when learning about her living conditions with her mother. Although she loves her mother wholeheartedly, she is embarrassed by the state of their house due to her mum’s hoarding, which inevitably causes her some social difficulties too. The teachers are concerned about her, she has so much responsibility on those young shoulders and I just really warmed to her. Holly’s passion is swimming and it was really great to read a book where the character’s passion was what really kept her going when things were tough.

At a first glimpse I was wary of Ed (or ‘the boy’ as I first called him in my review notes). He seemed quite full of himself but I could also sense there was something going on. When that something became more revealed my feelings for Ed changed completely and I just adored him.

There are a whole host of other fantastic characters in this book including Cressi the amazing neighbour who supports Holly with her swimming as well as at home with her mother. I think we could all do with a Cressi in our lives from time to time! I also really liked reading the scenes with Allie and Rio in and I warmed to Lauren more and more as the book went on. In fact some of my favourite scenes were with Lauren and Holly. There are also a few not so nice characters in the book so it’s not all rainbows and puppies!

The friendship and romance with Holly and Ed was so perfectly written it still makes my heart swell thinking about it now and I read this book a few months ago! They are absolutely adorable and I’m not sure I will ever see Oreos in the same way again after that gorgeous scene (if you’ve read the book then you know the one, if you haven’t then what are you waiting for?)

My favourite thing about this book though? Definitely seeing Holly’s struggle and I say this because her struggle is so real and so many readers will resonate with it. Holly is embarrassed of their house, she keeps herself to herself because of her mum but at the same time she adores her mum and still counts herself as lucky to have a loving home – even if it’s not her dream home physically. Some parts of this struggle were so honest that they left me feeling raw with emotion. It’s a really touching and beautiful read.

I don’t want to go much into the plot as I think this is a book that is best discovered for yourself but what I can tell you is that My Box-Shaped Heart is much more than it first appears. It is a book about friendship, love, families, learning to love yourself and it will leave your heart pounding with emotion. I really can’t wait to see what Rachael Lucas will write next!

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Books and Rachael Lucas for my advanced copy in exchange of a fair and honest review.

Holly and Ed meet in a swimming pool, which is awkward because they are both wearing “almost no clothes”. Not-so interesting side tale – I met my closest friend’s husband for the first time whilst in my swimwear, and I can attest to this being all the kinds of awkward.

Holly goes to the pool because she needs “a place to go that isn’t home”; swimming is her escape from her life. She is unhappy, her mother is a hoarder (her house is literally full of stuff), she’s ignored by most people, she’s far from popular and she struggles to wrap her head around relationships:

“It’s not like I can watch my loving parents being physically affectionate with each other and think, ah- this is what it’s supposed to look like.”

Holly’s parents are not together, and her mum and step-father separated, leaving her with a sort-of step-sister, Lauren, and a lot of confusing feelings about herself and her family.

“It’s the strange thing about families like ours: we were one; then we weren’t any more. But you can’t just turn it off like that.”

The tension in her relationship with Lauren is clear quite early: you can tell that they don’t know what they are to each other now. It must be really confusing to go from being sisters to not having a relationship, and I really felt for both girls, and enjoyed seeing how they worked on this as the story progressed.

Holly is doing the best she can to keep on top of things at school and at home, whilst also working at the swimming pool. She’s exhausted with the stress of trying to adult for her mum (all of the gold stars to her, because adulting is hard enough to do for yourself, never mind for someone else).  Then when she’s close to not being able to take any more, her mum falls over a pile of stuff in the house and breaks her leg.

Cressi from the swimming pool is an utterly wonderful human. She sweeps in to give Holly a break, telling her:

“You focus on school, and being sixteen. I’ll sort this stuff out. That’s what friends are for.”

She is supportive both of Holly and her mother and goes out of her way to help them both, showing that humans can sometimes be decent. She helps to get on top of the house, pulling off a seemingly impossible cleaning job, and Holly realises that the cleaner the house gets, the brighter she feels about her life.

Holly’s life is changing. She’s starting to make friends at school, get a grip on her relationship with Lauren, and then there’s Ed. Ed is something of a mystery. He’s clearly been wealthy at some point, but his designer clothes are looking a bit worse for wear, and he’s clearly hiding something.

Honestly, these two melted the frozen cockles of my heart. They are so cute! Husband and I met in our teens; we didn’t quite meet at a swimming pool, but early in our relationship I spent a fair amount of time at swimming pools watching him play water polo, so this gave me a lot of the nostalgic feelings. Rachael describes Holly’s first love beautifully:

“My knees just go ZING and my stomach does this flipping over thing.”

I could not get enough of these two. They are the cutest couple and I was rooting for them right to the end. I loved this story. Get yourself a copy of My Box-Shaped Heart and you can love it too.

Holly has a passion for swimming because in the water everyone is the same. No one sticks out for being weird or being poor. Holly lives on a council estate with her mum who also happens to be a hoarder. It doesn’t make her home life ideal. Holly meets Ed at the swimming pool who swims to escape from his home. He used to have money, he was on the swim team, he had known who he was and what he wanted. Now, he lives in a house assigned by the women’s refuge with an uncertain future. An unlikely romance starts between the two and they find a window into each other’s lives.

My Box-Shaped Heart was an easy read with an awkward, but cute, first-time romance. I loved how their romance developed and I loved how both Holly and Ed had a passion for swimming. I liked how, in a way, they were both each other’s escape from their own individual home lives. I mostly enjoyed the swimming aspect because it is something that you don’t often see in YA which was nice.

Holly also lived on a council estate in Scotland and I really appreciated that and I also appreciated the fact that Holly swims and works at a council swimming pool. I’ve not read many books with a working-class m/c. I most recently read Skylarks by Karen Gregory which I adored but My Box-Shaped Heart focused less on the fact that the m/c is working class but more on Holly’s character arc and her relationship with her mother and her growing romance with Ed.

My Box-Shaped Heart features some pretty heavy topics such as depression, hoarding, and domestic abuse but it still manages to be a nice summer read with a light-hearted romance.

Overall, My Box-Shaped Heart is a lovely read that I do recommend if you are looking for a light-hearted romance which also features some deeper and heavier themes.

I'd seen a lot of excitement for this book brewing over on Twitter so when I saw it go up on NetGalley I just knew I had to try My Box-Shaped Heart. I love YA contemporary books, especially UKYA, so this is right up my street. Luckily, it didn't disappoint and was a book that I looked forward to picking up every time I had a spare 5 minutes.

One thing that I really liked about this book is how the main characters all come from dysfunctional families that aren't the "norm". Coming from a single-parent family, I could really relate to Holly and what she was going through at home with her mum, which I so rarely find in YA. I also liked how one situation that comes up in the book is handled very sensitively, and for me I didn't find it triggering, which, again, is different to a lot of YA books.

I really enjoyed reading My Box-Shaped Heart and felt that the only thing that let it down was that it felt a bit lacking somehow towards the end; it just needed that little something to make it stand out more. That said, I would still thoroughly recommend this book - it was a nice light read, perfect for the summer or if you're looking for a quick read that's easy to get into!

I honestly don't know how Rachael Lucas pulls this one off, but she does and it is simply wonderful!


My Box-Shaped Heart deals with so many big, serious issues. Holly's mum is struggling with her own mental health problems. Holly is having to care for her, and cope with everything on her own. She has problems at school and an awkward relationship with the girl who was her step-sister until their parents split up. Ed has his own parent problems he's trying to deal with. Neither of them fit in, and they're trying to figure out the relationship between them around all of this.


My Box-Shaped Heart should be heavy, hard hitting and emotional. It should leave the reader drained. Yet somehow it doesn't.


There's definitely an awful lot of emotion in there, don't get me wrong. This is a novel that packs a punch. And yet, somehow it wraps it up in beautiful prose that leaves you feeling warm, comfortable, possibly even slightly fuzzy. This is a novel that says "Yes, life is hard, people will let you down, but it's going to be okay." It's a novel I needed to read, and it's a novel I'll be reading again because it is so important to be reminded of that. That we're not alone, that we're not too weird, that we'll get through. It's lovely.


There's something else that struck me while I was reading My Box-Shaped Heart. Now I'm a very tactile person. My ex-wife regularly used to disapprove of the way I'd walk through shops touching things, just to get a feel for them. My Box-Shaped Heart is possibly the first book I've read where that sense of touch comes across really strongly in the writing.

"We're in a meadow full of wildflowers, and as we walk I run my hands along the tops of the grasses, feeling them tickling my palms."

"I press the flat of my hand against it for a second, feeling the way each little stone jabs into my palm."

Rachael's writing really pulls you into the story, with all of your senses engaged. It is very clever, and very well done.

What a fantastic book! It was so refreshing to read a book with an accurate portrayal of a poorer family. The family dynamic between Holly, her Mum and Lauren was so real and truly representative of complicated families. The romance was quite insta-love, but felt honest due to the age of the MCs. Overall a beautiful book that I could not put down.

Rachael Lucas has done it again, she has found something which doesn't normally get talked about openly in young adult literature and blown it wide open in this novel. This book is definitely a reminder that we don't know what goes on behind closed doors and that we really don't know what people, specifically young people, are dealing with at home when we come into contact with them and decide how to treat them! This book also serves as a reminder to those who might be dealing with the issues in this book that they are not alone, that there are other people like them and there are people out there who are willing to help them.

I found Holly and Ed really easy to like as characters. Because of the way the book is structured, you have an instant sympathy for Holly and so that really helps you get to know her and get on here side. Ed is such a sweetheart and the fact that he has something in common with Holly will just make you root for the two of them all the way to the end of the book. The swimming pool is also a major player in this book, it is a salve for Holly and another thing that links her and Ed. I know the value of getting under the water and forgetting everything else that is going on with the world and I am glad that this author has shone a light on that!

Obviously there are a lot of issues dealt with in this novel, there's a definite trigger warning for domestic abuse here, however I think that the way Rachael Lucas deals with these issues, through these young people, is really great and really sensitive. I think that because we are seeing these issues play out in the lives of these young people, they almost don't become the main focus of the book, they are a hurdle which Holly and Ed need to, not overcome, but accept as part of their lives. I just really liked the fact that this author has openly dealt with the issue of hoarding and everything else she covers in this book through the medium of young adult literature. The storyline was gripping, the characters were easy to like and this was a great read.

So this was classed as a childrens book. But who cares. I love the author and read it no matter what! I really enjoyed this book and it tackled some issues that are normally swept under the ruf and I applaud Rachael for doing this. Another fab story from Rachael.

So vivid that the characters stayed with you long after the last page. Every character was completely true to life, the scenarios so easily recognisable. Not afraid to touch on difficult subjects - but done in a way that wove them naturally into the story. Highly recommend

This was such a good book. I'm a big fan of quieter books that tell real, heartfelt stories and this is such a good example of that. I felt drawn into the lives of the characters, particularly Holly's, so well that as times it felt like I was standing alongside them watching their story play out. This book deals with some really big social issues and handles them so very well. A really impressive read.

I heard about Rachael Lucas through an A Playful Day podcast, in which Kate and Rachael talked about working class writers and books with working class settings. So when I saw her new book was available through Net Galley, I was keen to read it!
 It's a Young Adult book, focussing on 16 year old Holly. Who, by the way, is far cooler than I was at 16!! As I expected from the podcast episode, it has a working class setting, but what I hadn't expected was the extent to which it looked at different life experiences between social classes, which I liked. This included the feelings of embarrassment or shame we can have about our backgrounds; the pressures we can feel to fit in and what it's like not to: the isolation or that discomfort when you realise how different a friend's life is to your own.
The book deals with some serious concepts like domestic violence and potential hoarding disorders, along with the impact living with such things can have on young people.
I enjoyed the story itself very much and loved watching how the characters progressed and changed, even in the small timeframe of the book. And I was left wondering a lot about where the characters would all have been a year or so down the line. But I will leave my wonderings in vagueness, so I don't spoil the story!
 The book will be published on 17 May 2018, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

An easy read with lots of romance and friendship. The characters are good and I really enjoyed each of them which doesn't alway happen. In terms of the story I thought the plot was good, realistic and kept me reading to find out what happened. The only aspect I wanted more from was the mental health side aspect of the story. Overall I would highly recommend.

Holly has a tough time time in school as she gets bullies while Holly's mum is also a hoarder and so she escapes to the swimming pool for relaxation and to escape her and life. Cressi, a kind neighbour manages to allow Holly to be a swimming assistant and Holly is grateful to have an excuse to not be at home. However, her mum has a broken leg from falling in all the mess and when kind Cressi calls in to check on them both she helps clear the house and slowly the hoarding mess lessens so much her Mum even brightens up and goes to the doctors where she's to start CBT for depression, seemingly triggered by her breakup with Lauren's dad.



Allie and Rio are her two best school friends from school and often hang out with her and Allie later confides in them both that she's gay and later the trio attend a gallery where Allie tells them who her crush is.



Ed goes to the swimming baths to escape his abusive dad whom used to hit his mum until they got lives to a safe house where he hopefully can't trace them to. His and Holly's lives collide quite literally as they swim into each other by accident one day and proceed to see each other at the baths and their bus stop and when Ed gives her his number it's inevitable they start hanging out more and more as they escape their chaotic lives together.



Both Ed and Holly deal with tough situations forced on them thanks to their parents own issues. They found friendship and love in each other unexpectedly as well as giving them another reason escaping their parents drama was right for them as they shouldn't be expected to look after them. Cressi was a kind soul to step in and I commend the book for her character as she gave a more stable adult presence in Holly's life who took an interest in helping her grow as a person and encouraged her interests. It was a cute read as they find their bubble of combined happiness.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

This is quite an easy read and full of romance and friendship where you least expect it. The characters are good and story plot is good so true to life has you wanting to read more to see what happens. Can read quickly and curl up and read on a lovely day. It's a powerful story to with many difficulties that families have.
You have holly who's mum is a border and she is picked on at school for being different and she's fed up with it. She wants to be invisible but she lives swimming so she goes to the swimming pool to excape life. Then you have Ed who's life has changed so much as he's moved into a safe house and no longer has money he had everything he ever wanted now has nothing. They form a friendship which is what you wouldn't expect as so different but can they find romance and happiness or not and can they support each other with their difficult lives.

I was interested in this book because I know a hoarder, in the literal sense of the word. So I was disappointed that this issue, flagged up in the blurb, was barely touched upon. But I’ve jumped ahead too far...
Holly is a teenager who doesn’t fit in (as far as she feels) because she is held back by her homelike and the burdens this places on her. Then she meets Ed who doesn’t see these things and she can live the life a teenager should. This allows her to brave some other relationships in a more fulfilling sense which is nice. Ed also has secrets and together they manoeuvre through the mess that is life. This part of the story is fine. Here comes a bit of a spoiler.

My one complaint is that some of the series issues (the reasons for hoarding and depression are glossed over and fixed just too easily. Wouldn’t it be a worry for a teenager facing these issues to see someone drowning in depression one minute then all but fixed the next? I was almost annoyed at how quickly Holly’s mother was able to access therapy, and how happily it cured her issues without any apparent effort. I don’t thin’ it is fair to treat such serious issues as more of an after thought than anything else.

It works as a sweet love story but certainly not as an examination into mental health and the other issues it so boldly brings to the forefront and then, sadly, casts aside.