Scan barcode
A review by tiffanywang29
Heart Like Mine by Amy Hatvany
4.0
I got this book at a yard sale, simply because it was only 50 cents, had a nice title, and was in fairly good shape (this was before I got caught in the rain and had to stuff it up my sweatshirt). Surprisingly, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I won't say that any of the ideas are really different or special (it strikes me as more of the YA books that I read as a middle schooler/9th grader with more of an adult-ish twist), but it was indeed poignant. Grace, Ava, and Kelli were all sympathetic characters, and all fairly likable in their own ways; I was again surprised at how attached I felt towards them.
So Grace, a single woman resolved not to have children, yet dating a divorced man with two kids. This isn't a problem until his ex-wife Kelli dies, leaving him (and by extension, Grace) with the responsibility of caring for them full time. You see her constant insecurities with these kids, but (at least for me) you find yourself rooting for her. Honestly, she does a pretty darn good job for the most part. Reflecting, though at the end of the book, I realize the enormous change between her first encounter with the kids after Kelli dies and her final exchange with Ava at the end of the book.
Although she is extremely unstable and technically dead in the present, Kelli was somehow also a likable character. Hatvany does a really good job revealing Kelli's entire story while only picking certain scenes to illustrate in detail. We end up adventuring through Kelli's entire past, telling a complete story. I also appreciate that Hatvany leaves no questions about Kelli's death-we see it from her perspective, so we know exactly what happens.
For me, Ava's perspective was the most frustrating, which strangely means that Hatvany did a great job portraying a hormonal 13-year-old. She hates Grace for trying to replace her mother, but Grace is really good to her, but then she also feels guilty for liking Grace. Her emotions are mostly spot on for a grieving, angry girl. I will say that some of her escapades with Bree, her best friend, are fairly unlikely and are obviously things that would only happen in a fiction book. Yet the underlying emotions are there, and that's what drives the book.
Grace and Victor's relationship really shouldn't have lasted. For everything that Grace was as a person, she should not have stood for everything she had to deal with, except for the sake of the kids. Victor treated her very badly after Kelli died, and I can see how that Grace couldn't leave (honestly, in real life, if she did, the kids probably would have ended up in foster care or something because he could not take care of them). He's fiercely protective of his children, but can't actually take care of their basic needs. Grace does this all for them, and then he takes it all for granted. The one time they do get in a real fight, they unrealistically make up way too quickly and honestly quite awkwardly. It just isn't realistic. Regardless, like I said earlier, this book relies heavily on the characters' emotions rather than the actual events.
Pretty much every character in the book has some kind of parent issue. Grace's father was absent. Victor's dad left when he was five. Ava and Max's parents divorced and then Kelli died. Kelli's parents were the stereotypical "strict parents create sneaky kids," but they were also extremely cold after Kelli's mistake. Bree's parents are divorced and she hates her dad's girlfriends. I think Melody and maybe Diane have parent problems too... Anyways, I didn't have that much a problem with this, other than sometimes I forgot whose situation was what, especially at the beginning, when the setting was still being developed. Unfortunately, in a society where something like 50% of marriages do indeed end up in divorce, many of these problems are prevalent in a harsh reality.
In a final note, something that really struck a chord with me was the deep attachment Ava and Max had with Kelli. Ava especially could barely see past Kelli's faults, and every time Grace did something motherly that made Ava angry, I wanted to scream at her and compare what the two women would have done in that situation. Hatvany made a great stylistic decision in writing from Kelli's point of view, because if not for that, she would have been an absolutely despicable, weak character. As bad of a mother she was, she loved her children fiercely, and her background reflects why. For the three main characters, Hatvany really effectively wove a story that showed where they started to get to where they ended, and it was beautiful.
So Grace, a single woman resolved not to have children, yet dating a divorced man with two kids. This isn't a problem until his ex-wife Kelli dies, leaving him (and by extension, Grace) with the responsibility of caring for them full time. You see her constant insecurities with these kids, but (at least for me) you find yourself rooting for her. Honestly, she does a pretty darn good job for the most part. Reflecting, though at the end of the book, I realize the enormous change between her first encounter with the kids after Kelli dies and her final exchange with Ava at the end of the book.
Although she is extremely unstable and technically dead in the present, Kelli was somehow also a likable character. Hatvany does a really good job revealing Kelli's entire story while only picking certain scenes to illustrate in detail. We end up adventuring through Kelli's entire past, telling a complete story. I also appreciate that Hatvany leaves no questions about Kelli's death-we see it from her perspective, so we know exactly what happens.
For me, Ava's perspective was the most frustrating, which strangely means that Hatvany did a great job portraying a hormonal 13-year-old. She hates Grace for trying to replace her mother, but Grace is really good to her, but then she also feels guilty for liking Grace. Her emotions are mostly spot on for a grieving, angry girl. I will say that some of her escapades with Bree, her best friend, are fairly unlikely and are obviously things that would only happen in a fiction book. Yet the underlying emotions are there, and that's what drives the book.
Grace and Victor's relationship really shouldn't have lasted. For everything that Grace was as a person, she should not have stood for everything she had to deal with, except for the sake of the kids. Victor treated her very badly after Kelli died, and I can see how that Grace couldn't leave (honestly, in real life, if she did, the kids probably would have ended up in foster care or something because he could not take care of them). He's fiercely protective of his children, but can't actually take care of their basic needs. Grace does this all for them, and then he takes it all for granted. The one time they do get in a real fight, they unrealistically make up way too quickly and honestly quite awkwardly. It just isn't realistic. Regardless, like I said earlier, this book relies heavily on the characters' emotions rather than the actual events.
Pretty much every character in the book has some kind of parent issue. Grace's father was absent. Victor's dad left when he was five. Ava and Max's parents divorced and then Kelli died. Kelli's parents were the stereotypical "strict parents create sneaky kids," but they were also extremely cold after Kelli's mistake. Bree's parents are divorced and she hates her dad's girlfriends. I think Melody and maybe Diane have parent problems too... Anyways, I didn't have that much a problem with this, other than sometimes I forgot whose situation was what, especially at the beginning, when the setting was still being developed. Unfortunately, in a society where something like 50% of marriages do indeed end up in divorce, many of these problems are prevalent in a harsh reality.
In a final note, something that really struck a chord with me was the deep attachment Ava and Max had with Kelli. Ava especially could barely see past Kelli's faults, and every time Grace did something motherly that made Ava angry, I wanted to scream at her and compare what the two women would have done in that situation. Hatvany made a great stylistic decision in writing from Kelli's point of view, because if not for that, she would have been an absolutely despicable, weak character. As bad of a mother she was, she loved her children fiercely, and her background reflects why. For the three main characters, Hatvany really effectively wove a story that showed where they started to get to where they ended, and it was beautiful.