How to Save a Life by Eva Carter

 

☆☆☆☆☆
.ePUB, 398 pages
Expected Publication: May 18th 2021 by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

About the Book:
Kerry Smith is going to save lives—and so is her best friend, Tim Palmer. After years of working toward medical school, they are about to take their entrance exams. But on the eve of the new millennium, a classmate goes into cardiac arrest, changing everything. For nearly eighteen minutes, rising soccer star Joel Greenaway is dead. For nearly eighteen minutes, Kerry performs CPR on her longtime crush. And for nearly eighteen minutes, Tim is too shocked to help. Though they don’t yet know it, those eighteen minutes will change the next eighteen years of their lives. Because, as it turns out, saving a life doesn’t always guarantee a happy ending. With his soccer career cut short, Joel lashes out and breaks Kerry’s heart by ending their burgeoning relationship with a cruelty that derails her future, while Tim struggles to reconcile his dream of becoming a doctor with the reality of failing to act. As each struggles to move on from the events of that fateful New Year’s Eve, their lives can’t seem to stop colliding year after year. Pulled by their shared histories and her big heart, Kerry soon finds herself picking up the pieces after both broken men. But when Kerry is the one who needs saving, will anyone be there for her?

My Review:

There isn't a doubt in my mind that How to Save a Life is going to be an incredibly well loved novel in 2021. It has all the necessary elements...interesting characters, an engaging plot, and a beautifully done love story. This book touched me in so many ways, it made me laugh, cry, swoon and cringe. I love it when a book can make me feel so many different emotions. Told through three different points of view, it was a pleasure to get into the minds of these special characters, the good, the bad and the ugly. And even though these three aren't the finest mankind has to offer I was still rooting for them all, it takes a special and talented author to be able to do that.

It surprised me how serious the book became, even though the plot suggested something else entirely, a romantic coming of age story about two people who want to become doctors, but this book was so much more. The brilliant writing, inspiring plot and characters that will stick with you long after the last page make this a winner of a book and a must read. This book is heartfelt, moving, and tragic. I am always looking for something different to read and this book met all my needs in that regard. I could not put this one down and I highly recommend it. All the stars.

NOTE: Eva Carter was inspired to write How to Save a Life by her own experience of giving CPR to her partner, who was successfully resuscitated, as well as her mother’s stories of work as a trauma nurse. 

Disclosure:
Thank you NetGalley, Eva Carter and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

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