This wasn't the easiest book to read. Delving deeply into the emotions of a post heart transplant girl, it took you to places that are unfamiliar, puzzling, and desperately saddening. Lennox played such a huge part in her life and now he has gone.
Her mother, her father, both intertwined with all the hugely emotive feelings that I imagine one suffers after such an operation
The relationship between Ailsa and her blog is interesting, and I kept wanting to nudge her away from its shackles.
I think this is such a well written book, but it did need concentration on the part of the reader to move from one place to another.
Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.

Ailsa Rae is born again at 28 following a lifesaving heart transplant. But what kind of life should she lead when she is carrying a heart that is not yet her own, when she will have check-ups and medication for the rest of her life and when she realises that steroids have made her put on weight, something that never mattered when she didn't have much time. How can she complain when life has been more than fair, when people she has loved have died?

Unsure what to do with a future she didn't have, Ailsa uses her blog to make her decisions until she knows what her new heart really wants.

This book follows Ailsa's first year post-transplant: charting new territory with her mother, a handsome actor, learning to tango, finding her estranged father and what a future full of independence could be like.

It was a sweet and enjoyable story, but fragmented by multiple storytelling techniques - blog posts, emails, reflections and present tense. This made is challenging to be trapped by the story. Having also recently read 'Lost for Words', this novel just felt like a rehash of the same story but with the protagonist having to overcome a different problem from her past.

Thank you to Netgalley, Stephanie Butland and Bonnier Zaffre for my ARC of The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae. 

Summary

It's only been a few months since Ailsa found out that she wasn't going to die after all. Born with a heart condition which gave her 3 instead of 4 chambers in her heart, Ailsa's prognosis had gone from bad to worse, until finally she gets her heart transplant. But now, having been convinced she was going to die, Ailsa has to learn to live again. This novel is Ailsa's story of getting back on her feet and learning not only to live with her new heart but to love with it too.


Review

This is the second novel I've read by Stephanie Butland and she is fast becoming one of my favourites. Her characters are so raw and real you become truly engrossed in them. I love that chance to really fall into a novel and become the character and both Loveday from Lost For Words and Ailsa from The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae are those sorts of characters. Compassionate but oh so strong as they face the things that others think makes them weak. Well that's one thing they're not. Ailsa proves that in her determination to get a job, climb a mountain and even learn to tango. 

Having a blog myself I loved the addition of Ailsa's blog and how it carved out her life for her, while I understood her mothers protestations I also understood the need for her to allow other people to make choices for her and I think that was explored really well. Stephanie's novels are incredibly touching and inspiring. I am an organ donor already but I urge other people to sign up as well, you don't need them when you're gone but you could save somebody else's life.

Ailsa has a new heart, Apple. She got it just in time, when her old one was failing. So she was born again at 28, with a new heart and new rules (anti-rejection meds forever, learn how to live with Apple, what Apple is capable of…). Ailsa story is one of survival and new beginnings. She writes a blog where she polls her decisions with her readers (a few thousands) which is an activity that started way back before she got Apple, when almost nothing else was on the table. Ailsa story is full of pain, but also full of hope and lessons on how to live and what not to miss. She needs to learn how to be on her own, and stablish a relationship with Apple which is the reason of having, suddenly, 60 years extra to live.

I have never read anything by Stephanie Butland and I am very pleased to have started by this wonderful and thought-provoking story. I love Ailsa, she is so sweet and nice, so grateful and full of respect for the unknown person that helped her, so strong…her blog entries are full of humor and hope, they are a cry for help and an attempt to normalize her anything-but-normal life. You can actually feel the need to live in between her lines, the need to prove herself (who wants queuing just to feel alive?). Reading her life actually makes you revise yours a little bit. How many things you can do but actually you don´t do, just because? Well, having everything for granted makes you dismiss many opportunities, and sometimes only through the eyes of someone that is actually discovering life, you learn that there are a lot of things out there you might want to consider.

What word defines you the best? I think Torchbearer is a terrific word. Never actually thought of one of my own

My favorite part is the evolution of Ailsa and Seb relationship through the exchange of emails. So personal and so interesting to see how something wonderful as knowing someone can be done no matter what, any kind of contact works for two soulmates. I only felt that something else could be added when Ailsa and Sea sleep together for the first time...seeing the scar for the first time as he showed his to her felt missing in the story.

A truly unforgettable book and one I could not stop reading till the end.

I enjoyed this book although the subject is fairly serious ,as at the start,Alisa Rae,the main character has just had a heart transplant.
The story follows her as she recovers and learns that a 'normal 'life is not always what she might have expected.She has some hard lessons to learn,but in the end she takes control of her life in a strong and positive way,so it's ultimately an uplifting read.

I loved this heart warming story. It was sensitive and emotional but was also believable. I loved the way the story unfolded and I felt a connection with the characters. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Stephanie Butland for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

I just couldn't connect with this book so I was unable to finishit. The writing and style were fine but it just didn't grab me. Sorry.