A story told from narratives of the main characters, Owner of A Lonely Heart is a book that truly packs a punch.

Each character is complex and is dealing with their own issues. Gemma is a widow and is trying her best to move on with her life with the hope of getting pregnant. Casey is Dan's 12 year old daughter who gets in touch with him whilst going through treatment for a brain tumour. Dan is Casey's estranged Dad who still struggles with this past.

Eva Carter has written an emotional and thought-provoking read by using love, hope and courage as underlying themes.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is highly emotional and heartbreaking. Just so you know, you night wanna keep tissues in hand.

A perfectly vulnerable and poised story that brings 3 people together despite the hard circumstances.
And I my heart was not ready for this!

This was a simple, fun, easy and quick read. The perfect type of book for your holiday, beach, pool kind of read. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Oh I think my heart just grew a whole bunch in the space of 384 pages. This story is told by 3 people whose lives become entwined through foolish mistakes, childhood trauma, confidence, grief, medical issues and family dynamics.

This book covers some sensitive topics - Cancer and fertility treatment but thr author handles them brilliantly with such care and respect.

This book had me shedding tears... feeling hopeful, cheering them on and even laughing.. yes all the feels!!! It's a really bloody good book. However I kinda wished there was a few more chapters about Angelica - she is portrayed as the bad person however I think if there was more about her life then her actions may be more justified. This didn't take anything away from the book it was still an amazing read!!!

Highly recommending to all my friends.

Gemma who is still grieving the loss of her husband bumps into Dan at the hospital. Gemma is taking her therapy dog Bear to visit the children and Dan's daughter happens to be one of them. Casey is twelve years old and has a brain tumour and is undergoing proton therapy.

Casey absolutely loves bear and Gemma and thinks her father does too. She is staying in his flat with her mother while her treatments lasts. Dan and her mother are not on good terms as this is the first time Dan has met his daughter.

Gemma's life is complicated at the moment and Dan is so used to flitting from one girl to the next, he has never had a long term relationship or even wanted one.
Should Dan show Gemma his true self? After the childhood he had with his father he's not sure anyone would want the real Dan. Should Gemma tell him the truth about what she's going through ? Will Dan run a mile when he finds out ?
I enjoyed this book. It is a very tender story of parent and child relationships and what it means to be a parent. It's about fate or coincidence and about moving on.
The is the second book I've read by Eva Carter and they are both really good reads.

Thank you Eve Carter for allowing me to read this for an honest review. I loved the story It was a real roller coaster of emotions
Gemma is grieving and finding it hard to move on after losing her husband. Dan puts up a good front but has huge hangups from a difficult childhood, Casey is Dan's daughter whom he has only just met. Bear is Gemma's therapy dog when the 4 meet an instant connection is made and their lives intertwine. I really enjoyed how the story unfolded the relationships formed. I ran a gambit of emotions and didn't want it to end. Its a lovely summer read

This was a lovely a lovely story with some great characters and an emotional story line.. Very easy to become immersed in the story and the emotional ups and downs it generated. My kind of conclusion. which crosses the T, dots the I and leaves one feeling really satisfied.

I really enjoyed Eva Carter’s 2021 book “How to Save a Life”, and I think she’s got a real talent, although honestly, this one didn’t hit quite the same heights for me sadly.

I liked the relationship between Casey and Gemma, it was familiar and friendly without being patronising due to the age gap. I liked the addition of Bear, the therapy dog. I didn’t particularly like Dan to begin with, I felt he was a bit of a caricature, but he grew on me, especially in his scenes with Casey. Angelica never warmed herself to me, even by the end, she just got too under my skin for me to like her.

I like the storyline of Casey’s illness, there’s a subtle honesty with it. However I generally found the whole thing too slow. It was held together by two, maybe three plot points and I just don’t think any of them were particularly strong enough to carry a 400-page book.

I do like the happily-ever-after type books, generally because they’re predictable and you can rely on them for being cosy and safe, but I felt the whole “shallow man falls in love with woman who is not his type and at the same time the woman changes him and makes him realise she’s the one for him” trope a bit clingy and awkward.

The use of the three POVs was a nice touch, just enough to give enough variation and emotion, but the entire thing - writing, characters, plot - just didn’t live up to my expectations sadly. Having said that, I do think overall she is an interesting writer and I will look for future works. Just this one wasn’t for me.

I read How to Save a Life by Eva Carter and loved it. I loved this book too, she’s a great writer. The storyline, the characters, the emotions are all great. It was poignant, funny, happy, sad, interesting - all you could ask for in a book

Loved this beautiful book and could relate to almost every character. I loved how they all came together.
Beautiful book should be turned into a movie .

Escape to Italy this summer and fall in love with the perfect holiday romance!

When Lily's long-term relationship ends, she flees her life in New York to travel to her best friend's wedding on the sun-drenched Italian island of Ischia - but could there be more to the secluded island than she ever imagined?

Ten days with nothing but sparkling seas, breath-taking beaches and delicious food sounds like the perfect cure for a broken heart. And Lily can hardly believe she'd never heard of Ischia before now. But Lily's blissful break is short-lived as she discovers not only has she lost her boyfriend, she's also lost her job.

As Lily searches for inspiration, she connects with local Matt, who shows her the magic the beautiful Italian island has to offer, and quickly inspiration strikes: Ischia needs more tourists and Lily knows just how to help.

As Ischia slowly heals Lily's heart, will she in turn inject new life into the island? And will local Matt offer the possibility of a future she'd never dreamed of?

Eva Carter has done it again. How To Save A Life was a book I absolutely adored, and Owner of a Lonely Heart will be pushed into friends and families hands as soon as it is released.

At the centre of the book are Gemma, Dan and Casey. Each is dealing with major life changes, and over the course of four weeks the three find their lives becoming entwined. Bringing the three characters together and telling their story from different perspectives, adds an extra dimension and insight into their thoughts and feelings. I shared tears with them over tough childhood situations, grief, self confidence issues and family dynamics as well as some serious medical problems. My heart hurt as each of them made foolish mistakes, but then cheered them on as they attempted to put things right. I also laughed and sighed, and swear I felt my heart grow bigger, just from reading this amazing story.

A book that will ricochet you from love to loss to tears and back to laughter in the space of a chapter.
Set in Bristol it beautifully describes the city through the various eyes of Gemma, Dan and Casey giving three very different perspectives of the place and 3 different takes on parenting!
I was rooting for each and every character from the word go and felt transported into the story as I read- all the marks of an excellent book!

@currentlyreading__
Book 41 of 2022

Thank you to @NetGalley, @katewritesbooks and the publisher @panmacmillan for the advanced e-copy of 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' ahead of publication next month on 7th July.

I absolutely loved 'How to Save a Life', the debut from @katewritesbooks (https://www.instagram.com/p/CJdm2YhgCF7/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) and the latest offering from Kate/ Eva is just as lovely. It is a totally uplifting book and one very much centred on the notion of second chances, the importance of human connections and moving on from traumatic experiences.

Gemma is grieving for her late husband Andrew, Dan is troubled from an emotional childhood which has affected his adulthood and Casey is his twelve year old daughter having proton beam therapy for a brain tumour. All three characters collide in an emotional whirlwind - Gemma and Andrew physically collide as they bump into each other in the hospital grounds where Gemma has taken her dog, Bear, for his regular session as a therapy dog and Casey collides with her father, previously absent from her life until she finds him on social media and tells him about her tumour and how she and her mother need to stay in his city of Bristol whilst she receives specialised treatment.

Despite the few tears I shed whilst reading, ultimately this was a feel-good read, I turned the last page with a smile on my face and as with all great books, the thought that all would be happily ever after for each and every character with whom I had the pleasure of spending a few hours of my days off from work. 😊

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Oh this book. This beautiful, gorgeously written, utterly uplifting and simply stunning. What I was excepting to be a really sad storyline ending up being something that was beautiful and uplifting , joyful and hopeful. Wonderful work.

4.5 stars

I love books that keep you up until the early hours because you can't put the book down and this book has certainly kept me up late the last couple of nights.

This book discusses some difficult subjects (cancer and fertility treatment being the main 2) but handles them with the respect they deserve.

You experience a roller-coaster of emotions whilst reading this book, from sadness to anger to frustration to amusement not necessarily in that order. This book made me smile but also made me cry.

It's a really good book and the only reason I've marked it down half a star is that I wonder if having a couple of chapters by Angelica may have been helpful. She's seen at times as the bad guy and I wonder if delving into her more as a person could have added an extra layer to the book without taking away from the main story. That's just my opinion and as I've said before it's still a really good book, I will certainly be recommending it to friends to read.

Thank you Netgalley for an early copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this heartwarming book - set in Bristol three lost people find their second chance. Gemma is a 32 year old illustrator coming to terms with the loss of her husband and going through the process of trying to conceive their much wanted child. Dan - a man child - who is made to grow up and face the truth about himself when he offers to provide a base for his daughter, Casey and her mother, while she undergoes treatment for a brain tumour.

Dan learns about the reality of fatherhood and comes to understand how his own father warped his understanding of family relationships. As they all face their fears and secrets new relationships are formed.

Ultimately an uplifting book - one to be recommended.

This was a very good read, what I thought was going to be a sad storyline with teenagers poorly in hospital and possible death turned out to be an uplifting heart warming storyline. I loved the relationship that evolved between 2 of the main characters considering he had never been a father and suddenly had a 12 year old and the ups and downs of his relationship with Gemma. A lovely read and I highly recommend it.

A surprisingly uplifting five-star read. This is one of those stories that should be so dark and depressing, as it deals with bereavement and young people in hospital, histories that would be enough to break many. But somehow Eva Carter manages to show the side of this that will surprise you, it gives a great warmth to everyone and just reminds us that no matter how dark, there is always a lightness to life.

What a fabulous story! I loved the characters and really enjoyed how the story of family, fatherhood, friendship and love developed. It was heart warming and a real pleasure to read!

I really enjoyed this story and the different depths it brought to the plot lines that threaded through out I felt it was all really well written and made me not want to put it down!