3.5* stars

Thank you to the publisher Marylee MacDonald and Grand Canyon Press and Bookishfirst for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gene, his father was an anesthesiologist always doing his best to save the lives of people in need. But on a family trip, they drive by an ancient but even though Gene’s father tries his best he can’t save that little girl. That memory has always stuck in Gene’s mind and his father's too. Now Gene with his father gone is in the shadow of his amazing father. When he spends his summer trailing a famous heart surgeon everyone in the hospital remembers his father and its big shoes to follow in. This novel explores Gene and his summer as he tried to get over the love of his life and as he untangles the multitude of lies his family has told him over the years.

I like how this story is set up. It starts off right away with that fatal ancient. This gets the reader's heart attached to Gene as they feel the pain he feels and the sorrow he feels with all the people he loses in his life. In the beginning of the story, it switches between different timelines giving the reader some needed background information but then it eventually stays in the year the story is taking place. This story is considered historical but it’s not really, the only way it is considered this is because it takes place in the 70s but that’s as far as it goes.

I really enjoyed this book. At first, when reading the plot, I thought this book would be cheesy and just like every other book about a guy falling in love at first sight, but as the book went on you could see why they fell in love and could feel the chemistry to the very end. The writing style flows easily, so it is easy to understand and still very engaging to readers.

This story is in no way face-paced. It is pretty slow. I still liked it because it was more of a slow pleasant read you don’t have to think hard about. The story is very detailed and is very well written, but it’s just not an action-packed thriller. And it doesn’t really have much of a conflict. There are of course some small things but the book itself doesn’t have the main plot. The story mainly just goes with the fly randomly throwing different side stories in, but those small side stories are still entertaining. And the ending wasn’t much of an ending because there was nothing really to resolve except maybe with his love life.

I did really enjoy reading the experiences inside the heart room and hospital. This was my favorite part. I loved hearing about the patients and how they develop a relationship with their patients. It was very realistic in how the medical staff interacts and the medical jargon really added so much to the book.

I was so sad to hear about the author, but it’s wonderful that his work gets to live on and we get to read it. ( )

The book’s opening scenes are set in the early 1960’s and immediately involved the reader in drama when Gene’s family comes upon a tragic accident. The story picks up again in 1974, as Gene is embarking on a career in medicine, beginning with a college stint in the ‘Heart Room.’ As the story progresses, the title of the book hints that there is definitely a double meaning to the words “Open Heart.” This book explores a young man’s quest to understand the human condition and the profound ways he grows as he journeys life’s path. ( )

This book began slow, for me. Although I love historical fiction, this era is not one that I know much about or care to read about. When the opportunity came to read this book, however, I did jump at the chance.

This book focused on Gene, a (near) college graduate, caught between being a boy and a man. He takes a summer internship at a hospital, being an "assistant" on the hospital's "Heart Team", performing open heart surgeries. Part of the book focuses on that, part focuses on the relationship Gene had with his (now) deceased father, and part focuses on his relationship with his high school girlfriend, Patty.

The book began with a series of flashbacks, and I found it to be a little confusing, overall. It was disorienting, especially when you were first meeting and getting to know these characters. The book was slow, and covered a lot of topics, but it all did come together in the end.

Generally, I liked this book, but thought it covered TOO much (too many relationships and too many "problems") I especially liked the female characters, and thought that they were more dimensional than the "flat" male characters of Gene, his father and the other medical personnel that Gene worked with. In the end, I am glad that I read it. I give this books 3.5/5 stars, rounded up to 4. ( )

I really liked this book! I have to admit that while I thought this book sounded interesting from the start, I was only mildly interested in it. Once I had a copy in my possession, I decided to give it a try and I ended up reading the entire book cover to cover in a single day. I was drawn into this story as soon as I started reading and it captured my attention until I turned the last page. I am so glad that I took a chance on this book.

This book falls into several genres. It is a coming of age story, a historical fiction tale since it is set in the 970s, and a medical drama because a large portion of the book takes place in the operating room. I loved the fact that not only was this book was able to do so many things but that it did them well. I am not sure that all readers will enjoy the detailed surgery scenes in this book since they are a little graphic but I loved them. Of course, I have also been known to watch surgeries on television as a form of entertainment.

Gene is a young man living in 1970s Arizona. He meets a girl at the start of the story and wants to get to know her better. When they are on their first date together, she has an emergency and Gene calls his father, who is a doctor, to come help. Patty ends up needing surgery and Gene is there for her every step of the way. When Gene is in college, he knows his grades may not be enough to get him into medical school so he spends his summer following a heart surgeon and his team at the hospital in hopes of getting a recommendation.

We really watch Gene grow up in this book. There were some times in this book that I wanted to look away because I knew Gene was about to do something that was not going to work out well. I love it when a book can make a character feel so real that it is almost painful to watch their life implode. This book does deal with a lot of tough issues and Gene learns a lot of lessons in these pages. I am just glad that I was able to go on this journey with him.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a well-written story and I loved the medical aspect of the story. I think that Gregory D. Williams crafted a very entertaining story and I was saddened to learn that he passed away in 2020 before the publication of this book.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Grand Canyon Press. ( )