Brilliant, cleverly put together. Heart breaking and I could not put the book down. I would recommend for a good holiday read. Enjoy!!

A multi generational tale of loss, love and identity which surprised me in the turns it took. Though the pace is quite slow, I read this one quickly, spurred on by the need for answers. I really enjoyed each perspective and empathised with each of the characters. At times hopeful, at times heartbreaking. A solid and thoroughly enjoyable read.

3.5

My Other Heart is really a story about who we think we are rather than where we come from.

Set in Philadelphia with two concurrent timelines in the 1980s and 2010s; Kit Herzog is the adopted daughter of rich parents whilst Sabrina is the child of Lee Lee Chen, a migrant from China. The girls have been best friends for years but when Kit decides to travel to Japan to find her roots, Sabrina's planned trip to China has to be cancelled and the unravelling of both their lives begins.

Throughout the summer after they have graduated we follow both girls' progress as they discover more about their own personalities while their parents struggle to keep up with the changes in their now,-adult children.

Both the girls are engaging characters. As someone of nearly 60 I have almost forgotten what those teenage days of extreme ego-centricity are like. Everything is about you. The tiniest slights take on a huge significance. Nothing is ever fair and you are just finding out that this us just the tip of the inequality of life.

I did have an overwhelming need to roll my eyes at the girls every now and again but the writing is good and the portrayals of the girls, their families and the fears of everyone as to what life holds in the future felt genuine.

There are several twists along the way that keep the story from wandering into fairytale happy-ever-after territory. On the whole I really enjoyed it. It's a quick read and would make a good summer book for young adults or anyone, like me, who just enjoys a story with a bit of a twist. Definitely recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the advance review copy.

I really struggled with this book. It felt more like a YA novel and although the storyline is good it just didn't hold my interest.

My Other Heart is a deeply moving debut novel that skillfully interweaves the stories of three women across generations and continents—from the trauma of a mother losing her child to the journeys of two graduating teenagers seeking roots, identity, and belonging. beautifully written, thought‑provoking exploration of family, identity, and belonging. While teen dialogue occasionally doesn’t quite ring true, the culminating reunion of Mimi, Kit, and Sabrina unfolds with emotional force. A compelling debut well worth reading.

Ohhh this book broke my heart in the best possible way. I adore stories about adoption and this one was truly special. The mounting tension as Mimi, Kit, and Sabrina circle each other was done so well, and each city’s setting was so carefully crafted. I would highly recommend this.

I loved this book. Sabrina and Kit are students in America, both of East Asian heritage. Kit has been adopted by wealthy white parents, and Sabrina lives in poverty with her Chinese mother. Their story is about their friendship and their plans for the future, and the summer following their high school graduation.
In a separate storyline Mimi loses her baby daughter at the airport when she is returning to Vietnam, and is treated very badly, sedated and put on her flight without her baby.
Eventually the two storylines merge and their is an unexpected twist.
The story is really interesting about the lives of immigrants in the USA, motherhood, and growing up.
Recommended.

In fancy Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Sabrina and Kit are apparently best friends, although Sabrina lives in poverty with her single mum and Kit in luxury with her two parents and massive house. It's narrated through both viewpoints; Kit is pretty insufferable but the author knows that, full of her possible Japanese heritage and clicking her fingers to go to Tokyo where there happens to be a friend of the family (and their troubled daughter and sexy son, also of White and Japanese heritage), while Sabrina loses out on her trip to China to discover her roots when a family crisis takes her savings. Sabrina ends up interning at an immigration law centre where she meets the best character in the book, Eva Kim, who tells it how it is but invites her to explore her self and her activism, as well as working at the country club where she gets weirdly close to Dave, Kit's sort-of boyfriend.

All the time, we're switching to the viewpoint of Mimi Traung, who lost hold of her infant daughter in Philadelphia airport when returning to Vietnam 17 years ago and has lived for the moment when she can return to America and track down her daughter. She has a list of possibles and Kit is on it ... As usual with such books, I had more sympathy for Mimi, the mum, who is also the most complex character. We go into Kit's adoptive mum's viewpoint, too, perhaps to see the full picture of how the process - and Kit's personality - has affected everyone. Interesting and well-plotted but does centre on quite an unpleasant character.

Blog review published 21 July 2025: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/two-netgalley-reads-about-young-people-emma-nanami-strenner-my-other-heart-and-kasim-ali-who-will-remain/

What a heartfelt debut. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A beautifully written story about identity, adoption, family, loss and belonging. It’s poignant and powerful and I was captivated right from the start. A book you can’t put down and is so easy to read.
The chapters are written in different POV’s from Mimi, in 1998 a young woman on her way home to Vietnam when her baby goes missing. And 17 years later, Kit and Sabrina are best friends about to graduate and each go on their own path to find their own family history and roots.
I enjoy the authors writing style which is beautifully descriptive and you are drawn into the story and the lives of Mimi, Kit and Sabrina. The characters feel so real and their struggles are relatable. You feel the emotions coming off the pages. It’s a brilliant character driven story.
I look forward to seeing what @emmastrenner writes next.
Definitely recommend this intimate and moving coming of age book. It’s well worth the read if you enjoy this genre.
With thanks to #NetGallery #RandomHouseUk #Cornerstone for an arc of #MyOtherHeart in exchange for a honest review.
Book publishes 17 July 2025

I did read to the end but in all honesty I was not the target audience. I think my granddaughter was nearer the mark. So my review wouldn’t be helpful and I will just say best for a YA reader.

In 1998, Mimi and her daughter Ngan are waiting at Philadelphia airport for a flight to take them back to Mimi’s home country of Vietnam. But what happens next is something that massively changes both of their lives.

In 2015, two friends are about to graduate high school and are discussing their plans for the summer. They are both Asian-American but Sabrina and her Mum live in the poorer part of the city, while Kit, who has always known that she was adopted, has a rich family and and all the benefits that that brings. Both, however, want to know more about their heritage and plan trips over the summer to do this. But neither could possibly anticipate what their summers would bring and how it would impact the rest of their lives.

I thought this book was wonderfully well written and I really enjoyed it. While I struggled to like Kit, I really liked Sabrina and I thought that the way both of their thoughts, words and behaviours were described were accurate for young women of their age brought up in the western world (as much as I can tell from my middle aged position!). And while I did guess some of the plot fairly early on, it only slightly detracted from my enjoyment. It was also really interesting to read a novel that includes so much on the Asian-American experience. I only wish there were more Eva-Kim’s (Sabrina’s unlikely mentor) in the world!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I really struggled with this book. It felt more like a YA novel and although the storyline is good it just didn't hold my interest.

There are three main viewpoint characters in My Other Heart. Mimi, a young woman who's on her way home to Vietnam when her baby goes missing, plus, Kat and Sabrina, two very different Asian-American girls on the brink of adulthood and friendship.

At the core of the book is a sense of feeling othered, wherever you are, whoever you're with, and trying to understand where you're from, as well as where you're going.

I felt enormous sympathy towards the two girls, though one got on my nerves rather more than the other. However, while they're supposed to be best friends, I never really bought it. I wasn't even sure they liked one another.

It's a slow-paced book, but that isn't on its own a bad thing. You get time to see the characters develop and begin to forge their paths through life. I really got the sense that these were their formative years. But if I sometimes struggled with the girls, I wasn't sure the Mimi pages added much. Her story was sad and a little obvious in its trajectory. Maybe it helped round everything out, but I'm not sure.

There was a lot of good here, but some meandering too.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the pre publication digital copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this novel, in a quiet, appreciative way of the very well written characters; the exploration of young people coming of age, of the experiences of dual heritage people in America, of the emotional worlds of inter county adoption from the child and adults perspectives, and of the heartache and horror of a lost child. I liked all of the very varied characters for different reasons, and especially the clear way in which their lives and relationships are described. I did suspect the plot twist very early on but that didn’t spoil the story for me. I recommend this read.

In may 1998, Mimi her baby daughter Ngan are waiting at the gates of Philadelphia airport, until the unimaginable happens. Seventeen years later, best friends Sabrina and Kit are discussing their summer plans before college, each having trips planned to, respectively, China and Japan, to reconnect with their heritage; all while their parents watch on from their suburbs homes, waiting for secrets to come to life. Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates.

The story is interesting and really intrigued me from the very first pages, but then it lost me a little at times in the middle. The writing is honestly great, it has a certain lyricality to it, while still being very easy to follow, which I really loved. It is a very fascinating read, covering many interesting topics, without ever shying away from the ugly bits of it all. The pacing was a bit weird, and felt much slower than I would have liked at times, but all in all it's not that bad, and it still is definitely worth it. There was a lot of jumping around with different times and POVs, which made it a little difficult to follow at times, but it definitely gets easier the more you get into the story. I do feel like maybe it would resonate with a more YA audience.

My Other Heart is a beautifully written novel that gracefully weaves together the stories of three women across time, continents, and generations. It opens with a tragic scene featuring Mimi and her baby daughter Ngan at the Philadelphia airport in 1998, and the rest of the story unravels from there.

Seventeen years later, we follow best friends Sabrina and Kit, each on their own path to uncover family histories and cultural roots. Their parallel journeys, one to China, the other to Japan, are tender, complex, and steeped in questions about identity, adoption, and what it truly means to belong.

The author’s language is graceful and introspective. She doesn't shy away from difficult themes such as displacement, classism, and I felt the nuances of Asian-American identity seem to be handled with care and clarity. What I found most moving was the way the narrative connected the characters, not just by family bonds, but through the shared desire to understand the past and define the future on their own terms.

While the pacing was occasionally slower than I would have liked, the emotional payoff was more than worth it. The characters felt real and their struggles relatable.
A powerful and tender coming-of-age story, My Other Heart is for readers who love intergenerational fiction that spans cultures and countries, and who appreciate the deeper journeys of life transitions and self-discovery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hutchinson Heinemann for the ARC.

Where to start, when you are blubbering like an idiot at the end. It’s a masterpiece. As a fan of ‘Little fires everywhere” and “the vanishing half” I knew this was going to be a smash hit for me. It’s a beautiful novel which delves into complex issues of coming to age, racism, identity and friendships. Told through various perspectives of cleverly crafted characters we are taken on a journey spanning Vietnam, Japan and Philadelphia.

It opens in 1998 with a young mother Mimi, waiting to return to Vietnam with her infant child. As she looks down, her child is gone and her treatment by the authorities is nothing but shocking as they sedate and deport her.

Fast forward to 2015, Sabrina and her best friend Kit meet up to discuss their summer arrangements before heading off to college. Kit is used to getting everything she wants as an adopted only child of wealthy parents and quickly usurps her friends' plans by claiming it as her own. Just as Sabina wanted to get in touch with her roots by travelling to China, Kit decides to investigate hers in Japan. Naturally her parents have connections there and set her up there. Sabina misses out when her mother needs her saved money to pay a bill and remains in Philadelphia working as an intern and at the local country club. Despite this both girls grow up and come of age on their own over summer.

We cut to the various mothers, and it soon becomes apparent that one of the girls is the missing daughter of Mimi. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking I knew which one, but I won’t spoil it.

I cannot commend this book any higher than to say read it. It's emotional, powerful, and eye-opening. I loved it. Thank You Netgalley and Hutchinson Heinemann for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication

In May 1998, a baby girl is snatched at Philadelphia airport. Her mother, Mimi, is distraught and is flown home alone to Vietnam under sedation after hours of being interrogated and denied help in the search for her missing child. The years pass, but Mimi never forgets that day. She never moves on, and she never stops searching.

Seventeen years later, two best friends have just graduated from high school in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and are looking for one last summer adventure before their futures begin. Sabrina Chen is working two jobs, saving up for her trip to China to meet her mother’s family. Meanwhile, Kit Herzog is headed for Tokyo, looking to connect with her biological mother’s roots and find out more than her wealthy adoptive parents will tell her.

My Other Heart is a profoundly candid novel about the intricate bonds that make us who we are. There are so many intersectional layers of race, class, and cultural divides, as well as grief, love, family, and identity, that intertwine to form tangible moments of truth and connection. It’s more vital than ever to read, share, and tell stories about the barriers immigrants and people of color face in America, and My Other Heart refuses to sanitize the realities of it, even while framing it as a tale of love and belonging.

Told from rotating perspectives, we’re shown how each person is feeling and how messy their interactions and emotions can be. The central characters are always believable in their wants and needs, even if you can recognize that what they want isn’t always what’s best for them. And more often than not, what they experience is too complicated for anyone to navigate without getting hurt. Depending on who’s narrating, their voices and influences shine through even as their thoughts bleed into one another; you get the feeling you’re never too far away from the other characters, even if their threads haven’t been pulled together yet.

Sabrina and Kit’s perspectives are both colored by their respective upbringings, with the added influence of being young and naive to the world. Their desire for connection and acceptance—from adults, their peers, and their first loves—is as poignant as it is endearing. But Mimi’s point of view is the most heartwrenching of them all, as you see her regret over that fateful day pierced with shards of hope for her daughter.

The central mystery surrounding Mimi’s missing child is a slow burn; the novel’s pacing meanders and takes a while to settle into, but the last act will steal your breath away. While you might want more closure and development for the characters, My Other Heart does well to remind you that life isn’t always tied up in a neat little bow; sometimes, people go their whole lives forever changed by a single fleeting moment.

I feel that I am not the right person for this book. I got frustrated at the beginning wanting it to move quicker.
It's well written and emotional but not for me.

powerful and emotional this book pulled me in all directions but all the directions you adore i a book like this. this book felt so smart, so succinct so accomplished. i couldn't bat an eye lid for want to keep reading every single part and take every part in. it made me feel so much for these characters who aren't even real!
two girls in this bright coming of age story is where this book takes us. one of them is adopted and the other is living with her hardworking single mother. we also have a mother who lost her daughter once, years ago at an airport on their way home to Vietnam.
these characters all have their own story to tell but they have some woven arcs mixed in that are brilliantly done.
you are taken into these woman's world. i cant believe the pain and then ongoing pain of our Mum Mimi who lost her child. and our other teenagers who are at the cusp of their last summer before university. but this Summer might teach, change more than they thought possible when you usually come to your last hurrah before Uni,job, adulting.
Sabrina is ready to travel to China. she's worked, worked and worked to be the one who does the right thing. now she wants to go out there and find her roots.
Kit was adopted by a wealthy American family. and now she wants to know more about her biological parents and wants to go to Japan to do so.
i found each of our characters were so powerful to read. i was right in there with them, going through what they were. they had such courage in who they were, different but still all so brave in what they were facing or prepared to face.
this was a brilliant book. and don't be assuming you think you know how its going to play out. because if you are anything like smug little me going in you are about to be proved marvelously wrong haha.