Book Review: Harvesting the Heart, by Jodi Picoult

Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another Picoult book that kept me from sleeping and on the edge of my seat, although not as much of a socially controversial topic as the other two I've read.


At 18, Paige has run away from home to escape her past, hoping to find herself in her future. She meets Nicholas, a surgical resident from Harvard. They are engaged by their 4th date and cut off from his parents.


A relationship that starts out as romantic and fairy-taleish as possible gets harder and more realistic as life goes on. After 8 years of marriage, Nicholas working to be the chief of cardiothoracic surgery, and Paige working 2 jobs just to make ends meet, she gets pregnant.


Paige never had a mom growing up. She doesn't know anything about babies. Nicholas is away all the time. They have no family who they can call for help. Paige has no idea what she is doing and Nicholas comes home every night exhausted and seemingly unwilling to help. Then she just breaks. A quick trip to the store turns into a 3-month excursion to find her mom and connect the pieces of her present with the brokennes of her past.


Meanwhile Nicholas is trying to be a doctor and a single father of a 3-months old.


Paige eventually comes home, but not to what she left. Her heart is different, his heart is different, and the truth starts to make its way to the open.


I really loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I could see the rolling hills of North Carolina, I could hear the sounds of the hospital, I could smell the smells of a baby, I could see the look in Paige's eyes. Picoult does a phenomenal job holding my attention and of course making me think of any of my future babies, my own mom, and how I will be as a mom.


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