Hardcover: 290 pages
In a world where the most stressful thing seems to be winning a soccer game or what to wear in the morning, you take some really basic things for granted.Review
Like the love of your parents. Or hanging with your friends. Or the beating of your heart.
When you’re 16 years old, it never occurs to you that you might die. Emmi Miller’s got a fabulous life. She has tons of friends, does great in school and is an all-star soccer player who played in Europe last summer. It even looks like Sam Hunter, a totally cute baseball player, might be interested in her. And then she gets a virus. No biggy, right? Until the virus goes to her heart and weakens it so much that, without a transplant, Emmi will die.
Will Emmi get a heart in time? Is Sam too good to be true? What about her new friend Abe, who has also had a transplant and guides her through these scary times — is he just being supportive or is there more going on between them? And will Emmi realize it before it’s too late? (Source)
CHANGE OF HEART, by Shari Maurer, is a story of one teenage girl fighting against a life-threatening virus and trying to hold onto some semblance of her life. Maurer created a strong, successful high school athlete and then stripped away everything that Emmi thought was important, giving her a critical eye of everything around her. In the face of death, Emmi got a second chance at life.
I enjoyed this book right from the start. Emmi was a star soccer player with endless opportunities in front of her. In addition to bright college prospects, she was starting to date a dreamy baseball boy. But everything changed when the virus took over her body and heart. She was taken out of school and soon she was drifting away from everything she thought was important. She was out of the loop socially and this was a constant concern for her. While her friends tried to keep up with Emmi's problems, at that age most can't comprehend the struggle and soon Emmi found herself a new friend who previously had a heart transplant, Abe.
Maurer created many fantastic relationships between her characters. She really captured life at that age and the stupid problems that high schoolers face, which they think make or break a person. I found myself being very protective of Emmi. I wanted to still see her succeed, but the people who were most important to her made the situation more about them than her. I suppose that is typical of teens her age, unable to deal with issues that really matter. She was a strong character to begin with so that did not change much, but her outlook on life opened her eyes to more than her original focus previous to the illness. Maurer did not make anything easy on Emmi, and I did find myself bleary-eyed and angry at some points because of the hardships she had to overcome.
I liked the Sam-Emmi-Abe dynamic because I felt this was a triangle that had no right or wrong side. Sam is what Emmi always wanted, but Abe became the friend that Emmi needed after her life was flipped upside down. I had a difficult time (even after reading) deciding who she should be with, and I think Maurer ended that aspect of the book perfectly.
Overall, this book had a some great messages. Live life to the fullest, do everything you can while you are healthy and young so there are no regrets. Learn what is important in life, and fall in love (as much as you can).
For more information about Shari Maurer, check out her website
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