Closing out the month of April, Donate Life month, with a list of books featuring organ transplant representation. These are books on my TBR, unless there's a recommendation under the about section. This list was actually pretty difficult to curate. So if you have recommendations, PLEASE leave them in the comments section!!! ❤️
Love and all the spoons,
Brooke 🥄✍️
Title: Yours Truly
Author: Abby Jimenez
Rep: Social anxiety, Kidney transplant
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Recommend: Yes, wonderful rep, especially mental health! I really enjoyed the MMC. No male toxicity, which is wonderful to see!
Blurb:
A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match from "a true talent" (Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.
Title: Unlikely Match
Author: Laura Bradbury
Rep: Kidney Transplant
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Blurb:
Could the man I hate be the perfect match I need?
I’m Jules Kelly, a certified bohemian boss babe, whose hip tech company just won subsidized office space in the coolest co-working space in town. From a distance I seem poised to take over the world (or at least the travel industry), and I would be if it weren’t for two big complications:
1. A rare and seriously inconvenient disease is tanking my health by the day, and my only hope for a cure—a transplant—is moving further from my grasp.
2. A soulless database company is sharing my new office space, and its coldly gorgeous, judgmental, CEO is on a path to world dominance (at least in his mind).
Tom Davenport represents the very worst of bro culture in the start-up world. Naturally, we despise each other.
The thing is, as much as Tom's antagonism annoys me, he has an uncanny ability to conjure up my fighting spirit and vitality at a time when my illness is robbing me of both. I'm drawn to him in ways I can't (or would really rather not) understand.
A mysterious angel investor forces our companies to compete for a life-changing amount of money just when my relationship with Tom becomes infinitely more complicated. To make matters worse, things get cutthroat just as my health and time start to run out.
In order to survive, I must decide if I can truly trust my most unlikely ally of all.
Unlikely Match is a high-stakes, occasionally steamy, workplace romance that will leave you feverishly turning pages.
Title: The Aloha Butterfly Kiss
Author: Brooke Gilbert
Rep: Lupus, Migraines, Amputee, Kidney Transplant, Emotional Abuse
Genres: Sweet Romance
Blurb:
It’s love at first sniff for their service dogs, but certainly not for them.
Locke
It’s not every day that a tourist gets washes up on shore at your feet, making such a grand entrance. And it’s just my luck, since I’ve sworn off women. But there’s something about this one that brings out the annoying, protective caveman in me. Suddenly, I’m carrying her back to my bungalow. It doesn’t help that her service dog seems to be falling in love with mine.
Guin
Just like that, I’m in the warm arms of the brooding surfer who picked me up from the sand after the powerful waves beached me. I probably should think this through better, but my Lupus is too angered to protest and the offer of his grandmother's services to treat my sun and sand burn is too good to resist. I’m quickly realizing that my approach to beach life is all wrong and Locke has no problems telling me exactly why. But what I wasn’t expecting was for my VRBO and his bungalow to be one and the same.
When two people are done with love, what does it take for them to open their hearts to fall for each other?
Title: The Curious Heart
Author: Ailsa Rae
Rep: Heart Transplant
Genres: Women's Fiction/Romance
Blurb:
For fans of Josie Silver's One Day in December, The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae is a wholly original, charismatic, and uplifting novel that no reader will soon forget.
Ailsa Rae is learning how to live. She’s only a few months past the heart transplant that—just in time—saved her life. Now, finally, she can be a normal twenty-eight-year-old. She can climb a mountain. Dance. Wait in line all day for tickets to Wimbledon.
But first, she has to put one foot in front of the other. So far, things are as bloody complicated as ever. Her relationship with her mother is at a breaking point and she wants to find her father. Then there's Lennox, whom Ailsa loved and lost. Will she ever find love again?
Her new heart is a bold heart. She just needs to learn to listen to it. From the hospital to her childhood home, on social media and IRL, Ailsa will embark on a journey about what it means to be, and feel, alive. How do we learn to be brave, to accept defeat, to dare to dream?
Title: Three Amazing Things About You
Author: Jill Mansell
Rep: Organ Transplant
Genres: Women's Fiction
Blurb:
Hallie has a secret…doesn't everybody?
Hallie doesn't have long to live. And to make things even more complicated, she's in love with a guy who's seriously out of bounds. She's never going to let him know, of course; she's just going to enjoy every remaining moment of her crush. She's also determined to spend her last months helping those who write into her Dear Rose column with problems of their own. Her doctors can't fix her, but maybe she can fix a few other people's dilemmas before it's too late.
All our lives are full of choices, for better or worse. The amazing thing to see is how connected we all are—in ways we don't even know. On occasion, we have the chance to see the ways we change one another's lives for the better.
Title: A Distant Heart
Author: Sonali Dev
Rep: Heart Transplant
Genres: Women's Fiction
Blurb:
Her name means “miracle” in Sanskrit, and to her parents, that’s exactly what Kimaya is. The first baby to survive after several miscarriages, Kimi grows up in a mansion at the top of Mumbai’s Pali Hill, surrounded by love and privilege. But at eleven years old, she develops a rare illness that requires her to be confined to a germ-free ivory tower in her home, with only the Arabian Sea churning outside her window for company. . . . Until one person dares venture into her world.
Tasked at fourteen years old with supporting his family, Rahul Savant shows up to wash Kimi’s windows, and an unlikely friendship develops across the plastic curtain of her isolation room. As years pass, Rahul becomes Kimi’s eyes to the outside world—and she becomes his inspiration to better himself by enrolling in the police force. But when a life-saving heart transplant offers the chance of a real future, both must face all that ties them together and keeps them apart.
As Kimi anticipates a new life, Rahul struggles with loving someone he may yet lose. And when his investigation into a black market organ ring run by a sociopathic gang lord exposes dangerous secrets that cut too close to home, only Rahul's deep, abiding connection with Kimi can keep her safe—and reveal the true meaning of courage, loss, and second chances.
Infused with the rhythms of life in modern-day India, acclaimed author Sonali Dev’s candid, rewarding novel beautifully evokes all the complexities of the human heart.
Title: Cold Hands, Warm Heart
Author: Jill Wolfson
Rep: Heart Transplant
Genres: YA Romance
Blurb:
Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her fifteen years of life, she's had more doctor's appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don't know each other, don't go to the same school, don't have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide.
Acclaimed author Jill Wolfson tackles this fascinating story with her trademark honesty and wit.
Title: Things We Know
Author: Jessi Kirby
Rep: Heart Transplant
Genres: YA Romance
Blurb:
In this unforgettable novel, Quinn Sullivan falls for the recipient of her boyfriend’s donated heart. Printz Award winner John Corey Whaley calls it “not just a love story, but one with a ferocious pulse.”
After Quinn’s boyfriend, Trent, dies in an accident their junior year, she reaches out to the recipients of his donated organs in hopes of picking up the fragments of her now-unrecognizable life. But whoever received Trent’s heart has chosen to remain silent. The essence of a person, Quinn has always believed, is in the heart. If she finds Trent’s, then in a way, she will still have a piece of him.
Risking everything to get closure once and for all, Quinn goes outside the system to track down nineteen-year-old Colton Thomas, whose life has been forever changed by this priceless gift. But what starts as an accidental run-in quickly develops into something more, sparking an undeniable attraction. She doesn’t want to give in to it—especially since he has no idea how they’re connected—but the time Quinn spends with Colton makes her feel alive again. No matter how hard she’s falling for Colton, though, each beat of his heart reminds her of all she’s lost . . . and all that remains at stake.
Perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, this unique and emotional story about an unexpected bond between two strangers will leave no heart untouched.
Title: A Millions Reasons Why
Author: Jessica Strawser
Rep: kidney failure
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Blurb:
Jessica Strawser's A Million Reasons Why is "a fascinating foray into the questions we are most afraid to ask" (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author)--the story of two women who discover a bond between them that will change both their lives forever.
When two strangers are linked by a mail-in DNA test, it’s an answered prayer—that is, for one half sister. For the other, it will dismantle everything she knows to be true.
But as they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, the roles will reverse in ways no one could have foreseen.
Caroline lives a full, happy life—thriving career, three feisty children, enviable marriage, and a close-knit extended family. She couldn’t have scripted it better. Except for one thing:
She’s about to discover her fundamental beliefs about them all are wrong.
Sela lives a life in shades of gray, suffering from irreversible kidney failure. Her marriage crumbled in the wake of her illness. Her beloved mother, always her closest friend, unexpectedly passed away. She refuses to be defined by her grief, but still, she worries what will happen to her two-year-old son if she doesn’t find a donor match in time.
She’s the only one who knows Caroline is her half sister and may also be her best hope for a future. But Sela’s world isn’t as clear-cut as it appears—and one misstep could destroy it all.
Title: Just Breath
Author: Cammie McGovern
Rep: cystic fibrosis and depression
Genres: YA Romance
Blurb:
From the critically acclaimed author of Say What You Will and A Step Toward Falling comes a deeply emotional new novel, perfect for fans of Five Feet Apart and The Fault in Our Stars.
David Scheinman is the popular president of his senior class, battling cystic fibrosis.
Jamie Turner is a quiet sophomore, struggling with depression.
The pair soon realizes that they’re able to be more themselves with each other than they can be with anyone else, and their unlikely friendship starts to turn into something so much more.
But neither Jamie nor David can bring themselves to reveal the secrets that weigh most heavily on their hearts—and their time for honesty may be running out.
Title: Just Breath
Author:
Rep: cystic fibrosis and lung transplant
Genres: YA Romance
Reccomend: One of my favorite films with disability. Very high on my TBR. Have you read this one? Comment below!
Blurb:
Can you love someone you can never touch?
Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.
The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.
Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella, she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.
What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?
Have you read any books from this list?
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Do you have recs not on this list??? Please help us out!
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