If you’ve read any of Jodi Picoult’s books or Kelly Rimmer’s and are a sucker for books that draw you in and wring you out emotionally, then I’d recommend My Life for Yours to you!
My Life For Yours
Your life or your unborn child’s – how do you choose?
Paige and Nick are happy. They have a beautiful home, a loving family and, most importantly, they would do anything for each other. Now, they are having a baby and it feels like all their dreams are coming true.
But joy turns to despair when they discover that Paige has a rare, life-threatening heart condition and they lose their longed-for child. Heartbroken, the couple must accept the reality that they may not become parents after all.
Just as they begin to come to terms with their loss, Paige unexpectedly falls pregnant again. Paige’s heart is still weak, and to carry the baby to term puts them both at risk. The couple now face an impossible decision: Paige’s life or the life of their unborn child?
If Paige keeps the baby, she could lose her life and destroy the man she loves. If Nick tries to stop her, he may lose them both forever. It’s the most important decision they have ever had to make – and time is running out.
My Life for Yours is a heartbreaking, gripping and emotional story about love, loss and an impossible choice, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kelly Rimmer and Kate Hewitt.
My review
Reading the description of the book didn’t quite prepare me for the emotional roller-coaster this book was.
Told from the perspective of Paige and Nick, the book takes us from their beautiful relationship into unknown territory, when Paige develops a heart problem during her first, long-awaited pregnancy. This results in her losing her baby and turning their world upside down.
When Paige gets pregnant again, an unplanned pregnancy and one that is potentially dangerous for both her and the baby, all hell breaks loose. Paige is determined to keep the baby, while Nick, her family and friends don’t want her to put her life at risk.
There are so many issues that have been dealt with so beautifully by the author – the right of a woman to decide about her body, how families often don’t give the individual members the freedom to choose, a husband’s fear of losing the love of his life, the whole medical ethical question of whose life is more important – a mother’s or the baby’s…. Then there’s the question of how our experiences of the past influence our present. Nick’s unresolved guilt of the past, won’t allow him to have another person die on his watch. This leads him to act in ways that almost causes a break up with Paige. But through it all – there’s love and kindness and letting go written about with poignant prose.
The two main characters are wonderful people caught up in something so difficult that tests the limits of their love and personality. You empathize with both of them and you shed tears as you read both their perspectives on this heartbreaking choice. All of the other characters too are so well etched by the author.
I just had to read this book right through, waiting to see how it ends, and yet not wanting it to end at all! That for me is what a beautiful book makes the reader feel!
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Author Bio
Vanessa Carnevale is an Australian author of women’s fiction. She is also the host of Your Beautiful Writing Life retreats held in Tuscany and Australia.
Vanessa loves to travel, and spent several years living in Florence, Italy, a place she considers her second home. She lives in Australia with her husband and two children.
Her previous novels, THE MEMORIES OF US and THE FLORENTINE BRIDGE are published by HarperCollins and have been translated into German and Slovenian. Vanessa’s third novel will be published by Bookouture in August 2020.
You can connect with Vanessa on Instagram| Facebook | Twitter and her website.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.