Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Second Hand Heart Reviews

• 
  Erin

  2.5 stars
  
  I love Catherine Ryan Hyde's books. Whenever I select one of her titles, I feel like I am accepting a warm hug from a beloved grandmother. How lucky that Kindle Unlimited includes so many of her titles.
  
  But I didn't really like this 2011 novel about a widower and the young woman that receives his wife's heart. The chapters alternate between Richard(the grieving husband) and Vida(the young woman who is given his wife, Laurie's heart). I much preferred the chapters told from Richard's perspective. This was a man grieving and struggling to find a way to live without the woman he had loved. On the other hand, the childish thinking and behavior of Vida made it hard for me to believe she was a 19 or 20 year old woman. While the author stresses that Vida was very sick and her mother very overprotective, I felt a lot of her actions made it hard to connect with the character.
  
  In fact, I preferred the secondary characters- Richard's mother in law and Esther, the Holocaust survivor who befriended Vida. Victor and his dog, Jax were great additions as well. Any interactions between them and the two main protagonists were always my most highlighted scenes.
  
  I felt the first part of the novel was slower with a lot of details and then the story just sped as fast as it could to a resolution. Once things were resolved it made me wonder why Second Hand Heart was a full length novel especially when the story resolved itself in the way I expected it too.
  
  Overall, it did have the sweetness and charming characters that I find in a CRH novel but the plot just didn't appeal.
  
  Goodreads review published 24/02/23
• 
  Marleen

  Second Hand Heart tells the story of a 19-year old girl, recipient of a new heart transplanted from a woman that just died in a car accident. The grieving husband of the dead woman agrees to be contacted by the recipient's family and from there a strange relationship ensues.
  This might well be the least enjoyable book I’ve read by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Somehow this surprises me. I like this author - A few of her books are on my favorite shelf.
  Believe me, I did my best and absolutely tried to enjoy this book but I just couldn’t connect, nor empathize with the main character. Vida’s behavior is odd to say the least. That continuous childlike behavior was rather irritating. As for Richard, the dead wife's husband, I truly liked him a lot but his actions were equally hard for me to understand. Here and there, there were some valuable messages that I could take away about the human condition, the human heart and about cellular memory.
  The idea behind the story is interesting enough. There’s no doubt that people are affected by transplanted organs – that goes for the donor’s family as for the recipient, but I guess I didn’t connect with its execution, particularly not translated into Vida's story.
• 
  🐢Eliza {Bat Tziyon}🌸

  After trying really hard, I unfortunately have to say I’m giving up on this book. The clicking just isn’t happening. I’m disliking the writing and I don’t think I’ve ever come across a character I am as disappointed in as I’m disappointed in Vida. She’s moody, egotistical, surly, and demanding. I don’t think I care one bit what happens to her.
• 
  Micki

  I had the good fortune of connecting with Catherine Ryan Hyde this summer as a result of an adolescent literature class I took. One of the books I was required to read was Ryan Hyde’s Jumpstart the World, which addressed some LGBTQ issues. I really liked Jumpstart the World, and was stoked when my class had the opportunity to visit with her via Skype. I was also thrilled to have the opportunity to get a copy Secondhand Heart in order to read and review it. I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.
  
  The narrative of Secondhand Heart is shared between 19 year old Vida, who is in desperate need of a new heart, and 36 year old Richard, who is the husband of the donor whose heart finds itself beating in Vida’s body. Their story is told in form of journal entries, which may take some getting used to, but it helps make the character voices more authentic and distinctive.
  
  What I really like about this book is its sheer, raw emotion. Vida has spent her entire life in a fairly sterile, safe environment due to the fragility of her heart and health. When she gets the unexpected news she is getting a “new” heart, she is thrust back into the world of the living. She isn’t prepared to live because she’s been preparing to die. Richard has lost his wife in a tragic accident and he no longer knows how to live. He doesn’t allow himself to grieve, and instead agrees to meet Vida. Thus begins an interesting journey fueled by the cellular memories of Vida’s donor heart, and Richard’s inability to let go of the heart that is no longer his to love. Even if you don’t really believe in the whole cellular memory thing, the story of Vida and Richard will at least give you something to think about.
  
• 
  JG (Introverted Reader)

  Vida is 19 years old and dying. She's been dying her entire life. Not in the vague way that we are all destined to die, but in a way that has led her through multiple heart surgeries in her short life. This time, it's for real. Her doctors are talking weeks if she's lucky. She's been bumped to the top of the waiting list for heart transplants. And then she gets a new heart and she's able to start living.
  
  On the flip side, Richard has everything. A job and a wife that he loves. Until he loses Lorrie in a tragic car accident. He chooses to donate her organs and Vida gets her heart. Vida's and Richard's lives are forever entwined after that. The first time Richard walks into her hospital room after the transplant, Vida tells him that she loves him. She's never met him before, but she feels a deep, romantic love for him.
  
  At my old job, I was the tiniest of tiny cogs in the transplant process. I did electrocardiograms on the donors so that doctors could make sure the heart was in good working order from an "electrical" standpoint. I was glad that the families had chosen to donate their loved ones' organs, but I hated that part of the job. I never saw the recipients (the actual transplant happened in larger hospitals), so I only saw the donors, and I knew that this beautiful child, wife, father, loved one would not be going home to his or her family. They were all beautiful and they were all young. I didn't do it often, but I was never able to detach myself from the sadness on that end. It was hard for me, to say the least.
  
  It was nice to read a book where I could really sort of experience the life that comes out of such a tragic loss/beautiful gift. Vida, meaning life in Spanish, is a perfect mix of wisdom and innocence. She's led a very sheltered life by necessity. She hasn't been able to get out and run around and play, simply because her weak heart wouldn't let her. She's experienced most of her life from the inside of her house, looking out at the world through a window. Staring the reality of death down daily has led her to realize what is important in life though. Relationships, fairness, and honesty are always important to her. After the transplant, she wants to see as much of the world as she can and face everything on her own terms. She knows how much she's missed and she's making up for lost time.
  
  Richard says something that really made me think. Vida's mother asks him why he decided to donate, and his first response is a stock reply of "Wouldn't anybody?" He talks through it a little and eventually comes to a reason that feels real. "I know why I donated. I wanted people to never forget her. As many as possible. This way I knew you would never forget her, and neither would Vida. And anybody who loved Vida. And the woman in Tiburon who got her corneas, she'll never forget Lorrie, and neither will her family and everybody who loves her. And I could go on with the other organs, but ... I wanted as big a group of people as possible to think about Lorrie on an ongoing basis. Not just get over it and forget." That's possibly one of the most compelling reasons I've ever come across for organ donation. Sure, saving a stranger's life should be the best reason, but in the throes of grief, it's got to be hard to think about that. Something that helps others remember your loved one? That might get through.
  
  Vida's best friend is her neighbor, Ethel, a 90-ish concentration camp survivor. You know I'm drawn to concentration camp stories, so I liked the element. There was a reason for it though. After Vida's transplant, they have a thoughtful conversation about the purpose of a life that came so close to death. Ethel has lived her life in a bubble, almost afraid to live. Vida is choosing to seize the opportunity she's been given and squeeze everything she can out of it.
  
  The biggest part of the book revolves around cellular memory. I don't think I've ever heard about this, but I'm curious. Apparently there's a hypothesis that our memories do not reside solely in our brain; our very cells might retain memories. Think about what that would mean in organ donation. Scientists are studying recipients who suddenly develop traits similar to the donors whose organs they've received, or even "remember" things that never happened to them but did happen to the donor. It was pretty fascinating. There's a brief overview at the
  San Francisco Medical Society page.
  
  I liked the way things turned out. I won't go into it, I just wasn't sure that I was very happy with the obvious ending, but there was a twist that made me very happy.
  
  I was expecting sort of a light chick-lit book when I started this. I'm left with a lot to think over, and I'm very happy about that. There's a lot going on in this short-ish novel. I recommend it.
• 
  Dee

  I thought the beginning was groundbreaking but lost its lust when she fell for the guy and somehow appeared to have a big personality change...wasn't the character I had from the start...however it pulled itself back and was an interesting read.
• 
  Mary

  Found the style of writing much too childish
• 
  Rachel Docherty

  3.49⭐️ I didn’t love this book by CRH, it was just ok. The idea around cellular memory and that memories can be stored in individual cells was interesting. However the story around the main characters of Vida (19) and Richard (the husband who donated his wife’s heart) just didn’t jive with me as much as I would have liked. I did enjoy reading about Vida’s road trip at the end, especially since I’ve been to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and could visualize the story so clearly.
• 
  Linda

  So I was reluctant to read another Catherine Ryan Hyde, as I had found her writing to be simple and boring. I'm not beginning 2021 with Goodreads 🤦‍♀️ , I'm 2 for 2 👎🏼. I may have to return to previous way , if @ 100 pages, I'm not enjoying or interested , I need to leave it unfinished....--- there are too many Goodreads out there , and I hope I begin to find those again - soon!
• 
  Rohit Goyal

  Do you believe it is possible for memory to live on in the cells of transplanted organs ?
  The statement seems to be more Biological than Logical... But believe me, it created a nice Love Story. Do read and Find out.
• 
  Irene Bue

  3.5 stars
• 
  Danielle

  Vida means “Life” in Spanish. Ironic enough, the actual Vida has a life that revolves around death, or at the very least the almost near certainty of it in her near future. When Vida is suddenly given a second chance at the hand of another she does what comes naturally, she seeks out the one her new heart has lost – Richard. It’s Richard’s loss and Vida’s gain that moves them both forward in life, their paths intertwining, but not exactly in the ways you’d expect. Both seeking something just beyond their grasp, but more important than either can comprehend in their current situations. Life.
  
  Obviously I’d be remiss to fail to mention how Second Hand Heart initially drew me in because of its similarities to the popular movie, Return to Me. It’s one of my favorites. But outside of the fact that both the book and the movie have heart transplant patients as the central character and a love story of sorts, they truly are very different. One major difference being that Richard, the husband who lost his wife chooses to remain in open contact with whomever receives his late wife’s organs. This is crucial, because were it not for this very unique interaction between Vida and Richard the story could be completely different. Both are excellent though, mind you.
  
  Vida. Her character was so well developed. Honestly. You could tell from the very beginning she’d had a lot of time to think. She was okay with death, which for most of us is quite the opposite. Once she’s given the opportunity to be free of this daily burden she hardly knows what to do with herself, and it’s evident even in the way she speaks. In the beginning of the story you almost want to shake her, she’s so passive. After a while though I came to realize that was just another way of coping, of helping those around her deal with the death she’s already come to grips with. After her life “begins” she’s like a kindergartner asking a thousand questions, making demands, and always seeming to wander aimlessly but with a purpose. By the end, she finally comes to a certain easiness with her new life and I loved the transformation.
  
  Richard was a completely different situation all together for me. I felt like I could relate so well to him in so many situations. His fear for his wife’s heart now in Vida’s small body and his utter confusion at how to proceed with life. I think so many of us are like this. We live life taking for granted the things we hold most dear, until one day they are just gone. Most of us don’t get the opportunity for long good-byes like Vida thought she had, although I’m not sure it entirely matters. I think what I was reminded of most with Richard was the importance of truly loving those we care for like we may not see them even a few moments later. Make sure we appreciate them, tell them and be mindful of them. Because you never know.
  
  Second Hand Heart was more than a story about a girl who got a second take on life and fell in love because of it. It’s about living and appreciating and loving. Never letting go, but remembering that life stops for no one. Both Vida and Richard had incredible journeys to struggle through, both extremely different in ways and so similar in others. And once they’d realized they needed each other, they were finally able to move forward and live.
• 
  Lorin Cary

  Second Hand Heart is now available in the US as an ebook, and that’s a good thing. Publishers here didn’t grab the book when it first appeared, and that’s puzzling because this is an excellent novel. A young girl, Vida (Spanish for life), gets a heart transplant and for the first time is free of the thought that she could die at any moment. Hyde could have left it at that. She does not. She probes grief, love, parenthood, resentment, friendship and a variety of seemingly unrelated topics. This is not fluff reading, nor is it merely the story of Vida’s heart transplant and her emergence into adulthood from the protective cocoon required by her sickly youth. Hyde transports us on a voyage in which Vida’s mother, the donor, an elderly neighbor and several other well defined characters provide threads woven together masterfully. As is always the case with her novels, Hyde’s protagonist periodically drops in memorable pieces of wisdom. I particularly loved the notion that worries should come with labels on them; I’ll leave it to the reader to find out why. In an afterword, the author discusses the personal origins of the story.
• 
  Carolyn

  Vida is 19 and has a life-threatening heart condition. Richard is 36 and has just lost his beloved wife in a car accident. When Richard is invited to the hospital to meet the young woman who received his wife's donor heart, Vida takes one look at him and feels she's loved him all her life. Is Vida just a sheltered and confused young woman? Or is there truth behind the theory of cellular memory? Can a heart remember, at least for a time, on its own?
  
  Everything about this book is unexpected. You think you're in for one thing, but you get quite another. The characters don't behave the way I thought they would, the story unfolds in a landscape utterly different to where it begins and instead of being pleasantly entertained by a sweet story...I found a moving lesson about living as opposed to just existing.
• 
  Amber Green

  this is the story of a girl
  
  Except that she didn't exactly cry a river or drown the whole world. Instead, it's a story of a new heart, growing up, and learning to let go. It is incredibly heartwarming and while not much of a tear-jerker it does make you think about things a little differently. The writing style was beautifully written and easy to understand. The main character Vida was incredibly relatable and her adventure was an interesting one for sure. I felt the most for Richard and in the end I actually found myself enjoying the resolution. I like that her story and his didn't have the ending you might have assumed and that things were left sort of open ended for both of them.
• 
  Coryann

  I was a little disappointed in Second Hand Heart. It didn't catch my attention like all other of Hyde's books. At about 75% of the way through I was wondering where she was going with this. The plot didn't have a clear direction and wasn't really that entertaining. It doesn't get much better as you progress either. If I could I would give this book 2.5 stars - somewhere between just liking it and not really liking it. But, I erred on the nice side. I wouldn't recommend it. It's definitely not the author's best work and to me the book doesn't really go anywhere.
• 
  Brittany

  It took me until 49% into the book to really get interested in it, which was evidenced by the fact that it took me over 3 months to read the first 49% and 2 days to read the last 51%. I also really did not like the main characters, both in personality and in voice. I have read one other book by Catherine Ryan Hyde and really enjoyed it-- couldn't put it down. So this was a disappointment. Overall I like the premise and the plot I just don't like the way it was told. In the end, I would not recommend this book so I gave it 2 stars.
• 
  What Lynsey Read

  I thought that it was rubbish. Vida read more like a thirteen year old than a woman of twenty and right from the start this grated on me. She was childish & immature and as a result, any burgeoning relationship between her and Richard was completely unbelievable. OK, she may have led a sheltered life but that makes the plausability of their relationship even more questionable. Why would a grown man grieving his wife entertain the whims of a child. Was the heart enough? I think not.
• 
  Brandi Kosiner

  On one hand I really loved the voice of Vida and i wanted to know what happens to her as well as her friend Ester. But I just couldn't get past Richard. His voice didn't connect with me and I didn't relate with his grief. I don't know if it was because I only got to know Lorrie through his emails with her mom or what but even just trying to skim through his section our didn't keep my interest.
  Sorry Vida and hope life treats you well!
• 
  Sawsan

  Ok I think I liked the book more toward the end! It was my least favorite book for Catherine but the story is interesting.. I've heard about the cellular memory and transplant patients but didn't really read any facts before. I have to give Catherine a good credit for her accurate and detailed description for the heart surgeries and medical description. I wasn't surprised when at the end she said she attended an open heart syrgery for this book!!
• 
  Gabrielle W.

  I want to start off by saying that I won this book through Goodreads First reads.
  The book is written as if you are reading a journal...which isn't my type of book.
  It is written really well, and I found it very easy to read, but I just had a hard time staying focused.
  And, I don't know but, I found at times it was slow moving...Honestly, I just couldn't get into it...
• 
  Sarah

  This book was okay. For me it ended a bit too fast and I did I feel like the story was really finished. So I was torn on what to rate it because for the most part the story was pretty good in some places but in others it just seemed rushed to me.
• 
  Ana

  I did not enjoy this. I was expecting way better! The characters are the most unrealistic people i have ever read about. Their actions were so confusing and I felt so out of the loop every chapter. Towards the end it got slight better but not worth 3 stars.