What if a transplant organ retained the memories of its original owner? And what if that person needed you to know or do something before they could rest? This is the premise of The Gift. 

Jenna was dying from a viral infection that attacked her heart when the perfect donor heart became available. Months after recovery, she’s trying to come to terms with all that has happened to her when she starts having weird dreams and feeling as though someone is watching her. The meds she is on are pretty powerful with crazy side effects, and she and her therapist blame it on the meds at first. However, Jenna can’t ignore the feeling that her new heart is trying to tell her something about the donor, something important. And she can’t ignore it. The more she digs into the death of her donor, the more she believes that she’s onto something, but it also becomes apparent that she is putting her life in danger by pursuing it. 

The concept was a little bit of a stretch, but it is intriguing and is excellent fodder for this type of book. The story was properly intense and there were definitely moments where I was so caught up in it that my heart was racing…not something that is easily accomplished, I assure you. And the ending was all a great surprise to me, which I loved. I don’t mind figuring it out early on if the book is well written, but I do love being taken for a ride and not being able to pin down a direction. It’s so much more fun when you think you know what’s around the bend, only to find yourself completely off the rails. 

How is this for a recommendation: before I’d even finished, I went looking for the author’s other book, The Sister, and purchased it. I think that about says it all, doesn’t it?

Suspenseful story that will keep you reading. Well written.

A twisty, unique thriller! Highly recommended to all thriller fans!

A really great book, that has kept me enthralled the whole way through. I loved how this book kept me gripped, although I would have liked to have known what happened to Nathan in the end.

This is a fast paced, gripping novel from start to finish. The action is non stop and the plot races along with breakneck speed.  When the ending comes it is surprising and satisfying. If you like mystery thrillers, this is for you.

After reading and thoroughly enjoying The Sister last year I couldn't wait to read the latest offering from Louise Jensen.
 This is another fast paced, well written thriller investigating the cellular memory theory. Can organ donors do more than just save lives? Can you take on personality traits, food cravings, and memories of the donor?  
If you want a can't put it down thought provoking read then look no further.
I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it.

A different kind of thriller that is part medical story, but I found it rather drawn out

Now that I have finished crying, I can finally see my laptop screen to write this review. Not that I have the words just yet . . .
Louise has done it again.
She has completely knocked it out of the park and has brought us all another utterly amazing thriller!
It's a pet hate of many readers and bloggers when books are packaged as psychological thrillers when they are not, this time however, Louise has nailed it! AGAIN!!!!
The Gift brings us the story of Jenna, a heart transplant patient who sets out to discover what she can about her donor, however all is not as it seems, and as she starts to meet the people involved with Callie, the donor, she starts to realise that perhaps Callie's death wasn't the accident everyone claims it was.
I completely fell in love with Jenna; Louise writes in a such a detailed and descriptive way that you cannot help but be drawn into the world of her characters, you feel for them, you love them, you hurt for them. AS much as this IS a psychological thriller, it will mess with your head, there is no denying it, there is also an exceptionally clever undertone of something more, not chick-litty romance, but something deeper, something that grabs your heart and doesn't let go, something that takes you into the lives of characters in a way that doesn't happen with other books. Something that makes you want to keep reading, something that stops from you from being able to put it down, something that makes you never want the book to end. And when it does, you are utterly bereft, you just want more, more words, more pages to turn, more everything!
From the thriller point of view, Louise builds up to such an utterly horrifying ending you will be left shocked and stunned by the revelations! With constant twists and turns, she takes us on a journey that leaves you breathless and desperate to read the next page (ahem, chapter . . .  who am I kidding . . . I read it in one sitting!!) As the tension builds and the suspicions mount, you will be kept guessing at every step of the journey as to who has done what and why, but I promise, you will not guess the ending!
My God! It's a bloody corker!!!!
Louise is an exquisite writer, the emotions on the pages are so raw, you can almost feel them, almost put yourself in that situation and feel the things going on as if they were happening to you.
There is no denying that Louise Jensen is THE best new author we have had the pleasure of being introduced to this year.
I know that she was worried that book two wouldn't be as good as the first, that perhaps she hadn't done her new characters justice as she still had Charlie and Grace (from The Sister) on her mind, Louise has documented this on her blog, however, she had no need to worry. The reviews so far by us lucky advanced readers have already been amazing, and I think this shows just how good a writer Louise is, whilst worrying and fretting and sometimes obsessing, that no one will like her new characters, she has written a book that has jumped straight into my Top Ten Books of the Year (I'm not telling you where though, that will have to wait until that blog post!) but not just mine, many, many others too! I've yet to hear a negative comment about it, and why would I?
The Gift is perfect. So perfect in fact that, following my decision to give Frailty by Betsy Reavley 5-Stars . . . I'm pulling out this one for Louise:
MY FIRST EVER GOLD STAR AWARD
I can't think of any other book, or author, who deserves it more!
Louise is fast becoming a household name and I am so excited to see what the future for us, how else she will captivate, shock, stun and thrill us, because, I am in no doubt, this lady is here to stay.

Hands down the best book I've read in 2017 thus far. Holy smokes!!!!!! I read this book in one day and I wanted so much more! I was so sad when it was over.  This book is about a girl named Jenna who receives a heart from a girl named Callie who died in a car accident.  Jenna has memories from Callie's heart and Jenna is obsessed with Callie's life.  She meets with Callie's life and even meets up with Callie's boyfriend...things go horribly wrong when Jenna finds out the truth about why Callie was in another part of town and crashes into a tree and dies. You'll be trying to figure out what happened to Callie from the start and you'll become obsessed like Jenna to find out the truth!.

Three and three quarter stars
Jenna (who it has to be said is pretty annoying) has a heart transplant and that should be that, but she is determined to find out who the donor was despite advice to the contrary.  There's some mystery about this donor, Callie and Jenna being Jenna refuses to give up until she knows what it is.  Great story and writing and I loved it until it started veering on the incredulous plus not all the ends were tied up ie some of the other characters.  Despite that I was still gripped and thought it was a good, exciting thriller which was different from normal.

Jenna has receive the gift of life as the recipient of a donated heart.  As she is recovering from her surgery she finds that she is obsessed with learning more about the person whose heart now beats in her body.  Jenna has been having strange dreams and memories and she believes that this is "cellular memory".  She is feeling the fears and emotions of her donor,  named Callie.  
The story progresses as Jenna meets Callie's family and Jenna believes Callie's death was not an accident.  She is determined to find out if Callie's death was a homicide.  
I found Jenna's character to be a bit unrealistic at times and not always that likable. There is suspense and mystery in this novel as Jenna investigates Callie's death on her own.  The conclusion holds the most suspense but I felt that there were some holes in the story as it came to an end.  One character in the story also had a dramatic personality change that left me a bit baffled.  The ending was not at all predictable so that had me give this novel a solid three stars.  I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and this is my honest review.

The Gift

Louise Jensen





I've never read Louise Jensen before and I'm so glad I took a chance on a new author and read THE GIFT. Wow! What a fascinating story and one that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Jenna is in desperate need of a heart transplant. She receives a new heart and six months after the surgery, against the advice of her counselor, her doctors, and even the transplant team, she tracks down the donor family. This is the part where I wanted to take Jenna and just give her a good shake! Seriously, why would she want to bring all that pain of losing a loved one back in the faces of Callie's parents? Once you start reading, you will understand what is driving her to get to he truth!


All she wants to do is thank them and give them some closure. She thinks it will help them to see Callie's heart living and beating in Jenna. Once Jenna goes and meets them, she finds out that Callie died in a car accident, but Jenna believes there is much more to the story. THE GIFT is going to have you flipping the pages like crazy, trying to figure out what really happened to Callie. I've never hear of cellular memory, where memories stay with the heart, and I was constantly thinking about that while reading and even after I put the book down. The tension and heart stopping situations Jenna finds herself in are going to grab you by the throat and never let you go.


THE GIFT is filled with chills, thrills, twists and turns, that you won't be able to get instantly caught up in all that Jenna is going through. Your heart will be pounding and you will be sitting there shaking your heard going "no way, no way" over and over again. I was completely emotionally invested in Jenna and what she was going through and my heart was breaking for what she was learning about Callie and all she went through. What was it that Callie was trying to tell her? She had to get to the truth! Jenna felt that Callie deserved at least that much for the gift she gave to her. I found myself holding my breath right up until the very end and after reading THE GIFT, I'm excited to read Louis Jensen's debut novel, The Sister.

Special Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture Publishing and Louise Jensen for the opportunity to read "The Gift" in return for a fair and honest review. 

After reading Louise Jensen's debut novel,  "The Sister"  I couldn't wait to read more by this very talented author.  I loved  her debut novel and was very excited to read "The Gift" to see if it measured up to her first novel.
In my opinion, it was as amazing as "The Sister" quite possibly better!! 

Jenna is critically ill,  a virus has attacked her heart and she is running out of time. There is no hope for Jenna unless a heart becomes available for a transplant. She is lucky enough to receive a donor heart from Callie, who has been killed in a car accident. What a true miracle!!  The most precious "Gift" she could ever receive!! 

After recovering from her life saving surgery,  Jenna isn't feeling like herself. She has feelings and dreams that she can't explain. At first she believes these strange feelings and dreams are side effects from the medications she takes to keep her body from rejecting her new heart.  Upon learning about Cellular Memory, Jenna is convinced that Callie, her heart donor is trying to tell her something very important. How far is Jenna willing to go to find out what Callie is trying to tell her?!?! 

"We all have our reasons for doing the things we do, don’t we? The lies we tell. We are all a mixture of good and bad and I don’t think anyone is entirely one thing or the other."

Louise Jensen incorporates the concept of cellular memory into this extraordinary psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the story! 
Cellular memory is a term used by medical personnel that believe patients of organ transplants can take on some of the traits and memories from the donor. I personally enjoy when reading a book and find it necessary to research a subject to learn more! 

This is truly a gripping complex story with an abundance  of twists and turns that keeps you turning the pages until the very end!!  I highly recommend this 5* book to everyone who loves a brilliant well-written psychological  thriller!!! 

Louise Jensen has done it again - another winner!!  Simply Fabulous Ms Jensen!!

This is an excellent thought provoking novel by author Louise Jensen.
This novel is a gripping psychological thriller that steadily builds up the tension throughout.
The lead character Jenna is hospitalised with an heart condition and is in urgent need of a transplant when she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. While recovering in hospital after the transplant she decides to end her relationship with her boyfriend Sam and is determined to start a new life. After being discharged from hospital Jenna suffers from strange dreams and panic attacks and focuses on trying to find out more about her donor Callie and how she died. She contacts Callie's family and tries to uncover the truth behind her death by getting close to them.
There are some twists and turns and also the subject of cellular memory which is a very interesting side issue. All in all I enjoyed this novel very much and will look out for more from this author in the future.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Bookouture for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
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“…My vision begins to mist and the room fades away until I’m shrouded in darkness. Where am I? There’s shouting. My heart is pounding. Sweet trickles down my face. A shadow looms towards me… I’m scared. So scared. Something very bad is happening and I am not safe…”
This is how Jenna feels now. From the moment she has her heart transplanted her fear and paranoia for some inconceivable danger has risen and it is so tangible she can’t shake the feeling off.
The Gift is a psychological thriller by Louise Jensen.

My thoughts: - Jenna has suffered from viral Myocarditis and had a heart transplant. And now after the transplant she is having dangerous visions of something, some people she doesn’t know. She talked to her therapist but to no avail. Are those really her donor Callie’s memory? Can a heart store memories? Is there really something called cellular memory?  And if the heart really stored Callie’s memory how did she die?
I must say that the plot is amazing; very intriguing and full of suspense. This novel is truly a page turner. Each chapter has been woven deftly with utmost care.

Drawbacks and ratings: - The ending though is a bit obscure. I mean Callie’s death. How did she die is not stated clearly. And when we see Amanda turning into a monster well…that was scary. But was it really so necessary to try to kill Jenna? I don’t know.
I wanted to give it a 5 but 4 only, for the ending. 
But I am glad that at last Jenna was happy with Sam. He is perfect.

Thanksgiving: - Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review the book.

I devoured Louise Jensen's clever, affecting debut, The Sister, and waited for the follow-up with bated breath. Would The Gift have the same intelligence, the same emotional draw, the same gripability? Alas, and it pains me to say it, but the answer is no. 

Jenna lives life to the full until, out of the blue, she's cut down by a lethal virus. Her only hope of survival is a heart transplant. When a donor is found, Jenna's life is saved, her future assured. As she comes to terms with the new heart beating inside her and the life-changing implications of her transplant, she is plagued with troubling dreams, unusual cravings and memories which aren't her own. Is it the side effects of the cocktail of drugs keeping her alive - or something far more sinister? Is tragic Callie, whose heart now beats in her chest, reaching out to Jenna? And just how much danger is Jenna in?

The notion of Cellular Memory - whereby a transplanted organ can retain the memories, thoughts and emotions of the donor, and pass them on to the recipient - is a compelling one. It could - and has, in the past, many times over - form the foundations of a riveting, uneasy read. Unfortunately, Jensen has taken this fascinating and potential-laden subject and turned it into something convoluted yet bland, laced with cliche and improbability. The writing is messy and repetitive - I lost count of the times Jenna bit her tongue until it bled, or her stomach roiled, or rotting leaves 'pervaded her nostrils', or she ate a cornet. The similes employed throughout would be more at home in the exercise book of a primary school pupil; thoughts 'circle like sharks', a heart 'swells like popcorn', teeth 'rattle together like castanets'. And the coincidences! So very many, to the point that credulity is stretched as thinly as the plot itself. Here's a taster: Callie, Jenna's donor, has a sister, Sophie, who is embroiled with Owen, who happens to be the ex-boyfriend of Jenna's boyfriend's mum. Are you still with me? Good. So, we have two completely random souls, donor and recipient, bound by myriad connections. Unless they all live in the same village with a population of roughly 30 - and a world-class hospital specialising in heart transplants - it hardly seems likely. 

For a recent heart transplant patient, Jenna does an awful lot of 'pelting' about, not to mention lugging heavy furniture in front of her door as she barricades herself into her flat, terrified of whoever is following her (coupled with the adrenaline that is constantly streaming through her, it's a wonder her new heart holds up for more than ten minutes). Jenna's mounting paranoia is painted one dimensionally, each episode drawn identically to the last, and as a result the reader feels cheated out of the tension they deserve. It's not only situations which get the 1D treatment - characters, too, are flat, and they each speak with the same wooden, indistinct voice; they all seem to meld into one, with little to differentiate one from another. They all layer on emphasis by talking. Like. This. And they do puzzling things; I've never known anyone, for example, who would invite a fainting stranger back to theirs for dinner without so much as a by-your-leave, then confide their heartbreak to said stranger scant minutes after meeting. 

Unfortunately, The Gift is not redeemed by impeccable plotting. Rather, it rattles along feeling very much as if it's been made up on the way. The denouement - which is reached via circuitous coincidence and jaw-dropping improbability - is woeful for all the wrong reasons, leaving the reader feeling short-changed and frustrated. Jensen attempts to ramp up the tension and supply us with twists, but they all fall rather flat, given what we've been through to get here. Guns, drug smuggling and murder are all uncovered, and I am eternally grateful that I don't live in that sparsely populated but nightmarishly violent village. World-class hospital or no.

Jensen has researched the topic of Cellular Memory in some detail, which is evident from the Wiki-like explanations awkwardly shoe-horned into the stilted dialogue - 'At Honolulu University, Hawaii, the School of Nursing carried out research', declares Jenna. Who speaks like that?! Ah, copy and paste speaks like that. Of course. There are some reminders of the beautiful prose which peppered the pages of The Sister; Jenna/Callie's happy memories take on a hazy, summer's day long ago texture which is quite lovely. But overall, The Gift feels rushed, insubstantial, ephemeral.

Given Jensen's previous work, I'm not writing her off just yet; she absolutely has the ability to produce affecting, touching words and fine plots. But ultimately, The Gift is slightly preposterous, and lacking in heart.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is extremely well written and delightfully creepy. I'll admit it took me most of the book to warm to Jenna, it didnt stop me enjoying every single page of it.

The Gift is the new novel by Louise Jensen, author of The Sister. Even though I have yet to read The Sister, I've heard very good things about it, so I'll definitely be picking it up soon. I felt drawn to The Gift, particularly due to its rather interesting premise.

Jenna's life is changed when, after an illness, she has to undergo a heart transplant. Now recovered and facing many more years of life, rather than feeling lucky about her situation, Jenna is unable to shake off the guilt she feels. Guilt that she is only still alive because someone else is dead.

Worse still, Jenna has been experiencing strange dreams and thoughts since her operation - thoughts that don't seem to belong to her. And since leaving long-term boyfriend Sam, it's proving difficult for Jenna to share her worries. The dreams won't stop, leading her to believe that this isn't simply a coincidence.

Despite the warnings of both her therapist and best friend, Jenna tracks down the family of her donor. Her heart, she soon discovers, had belonged to Callie, a young woman who died in a car crash. Even though the investigation was closed, with Callie's death ruled as accidental, there are still some unanswered questions about what happened. Why was Callie driving in that particular area? Was her boyfriend involved? When Callie's distraught father admits that the uncertainty keeps him awake at night, Jenna decides to investigate the case herself.

Feeling as though Callie's heart is attempting to give her answers, Jenna sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her donor's death and finally bring closure to her family. The strange dreams that Jenna experiences provide clues to Callie's life - people, places, glimpses into her final days. Jenna is even starting to like foods that she didn't like before; foods which Callie loved.

Jenna researches the odd goings-on, leading her to discover the theory of Cellular Memory - a hypothesis that memories can be stored in cells. By inheriting Callie's heart, has Jenna taken on a part of Callie herself?

Whilst her therapist and friends are concerned about her new 'obsession', Jenna is getting ever closer to working out what happened on the night of Callie's death. She even tracks down and befriends Callie's boyfriend Nathan after her suspicions grow, but can he really be responsible? Meanwhile, as Jenna focuses her efforts on Callie, other aspects of her life are starting to become difficult. There's her relationship with Sam, and the job as a veterinary nurse which she once loved. Her constant mistakes are driving her to believe that returning to work so soon was a bad choice. As Jenna learns more about her donor's life, her own is falling by the wayside.

But she has to find out what happened - and figure out what Callie is trying to tell her.

The Gift is an addictive, fast-paced read. It was impossible to put down. I enjoy thrillers and had expected to be taken with this one, but it was much more gripping than I had envisioned. I personally loved the concept of Cellular Memory in The Gift, which was such an original premise. It gave the novel a slightly supernatural feel, which I loved. There were various possibilities when it came to Callie's death, and plenty of ways to keep the reader guessing, but I thought the outcome was unpredictable. Obviously I don't want to give spoilers here, but I felt that the ending was perfectly written. Nothing was left out, nothing left me disappointed (something I've experienced with a few thrillers recently.)

Great pacing, well-developed characters and an original plot make The Gift a fantastic thriller. Louise Jensen is a very talented writer, and I'm looking forward to reading her future releases as well as The Sister.

Rating: 5/5

I had not heard of this author but the blurb of the book definitely captured my interest. Jenna is recovering from heart replacement surgery. She is seeing things and hearing voices in her head. The donor heart seems to be speaking to her, and against advice she wants to meet the parents of the young girl who's heart she has received. She learns about Callie and the tragic way she died, but something just doesn't add up and Jenna is determined to find out what really happened to Callie and whether her accident was just an accident or was it murder.

This book had me captivated from the beginning and had some real twists and turns in it that you didn't know what or who to believe. Thank you to Net-galley and Bookoutre for the ARC of this book and I have not hesitation in recommending it to people to enjoy psychological thrillers and domestic noir novels.

I loved this book. I thought the plot was fantastic and so unique. The story begins with Jenna, a young woman who recently had a heart transplant. Soon after the transplant she notices that she has memories of things that didn't happen to her and starts to wonder just who the heart came from.
The Gift felt like a game of cat and mouse, the pace slowed and sped up at all the right points and the ending felt like such a climax. 
I've read loads of thrillers recently and my interest in them had drooped a little because they all seemed to go in the same direction but Louise's style of writing kept me hooked until the very end. I would love to read more from this author.