Review: The Gift by Louise Jensen @Fab_fiction @bookouture


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Release date: December 16, 2016

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Blurb: 

The perfect daughter. The perfect girlfriend. The perfect murder? 


Jenna is seriously ill. She’s lost all hope of getting the heart transplant she needs to live. But just as her life is ebbing away, she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. 

Who was Callie and how did she die? Jenna is determined to find out. 


The closer Jenna gets to those who loved Callie, the more questions arise about her untimely death. Someone knows what happened to Callie. Why won’t they talk? 


Jenna is about to uncover the truth, but it could cost her everything; her loved ones, her sanity, even her life. 


A compelling, gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist from the author of the Number One bestseller The Sister. 

Review: 

I was a HUGE fan of Jensen’s debut novel, The Sister so I’ve been eagerly awaiting her second book, The Gift since the cover reveal a few months back, isn’t it stunning?! I love how it has a similar look to the cover of The Sister and I would’ve been able to tell it was her book without even seeing her name on the cover. I’m so pleased to say that I absolutely loved this book, in fact I may have even liked it a little bit more than The Sister even though I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.

Six months ago Jenna needed a heart transplant or she would’ve died. Now that she’s on the mend, she has an unexplainable urge to contact the donors family. Everyone in her life is against this, her therapist especially thinks it’s a terrible idea but Jenna cannot let it go. She wants to thank them, but she also wants to find out about the woman who’s heart she received. I can’t say I blame her, the trauma she’s been through is a tremendous one and I felt like if it was something she felt so strongly about, then she needed to do it. As Jenna starts to delve into Cassie’s life, she gets more than she expected. 

This is the type of book that grips you from page one and never lets you go until the final page. I was completely absorbed in Jenna’s story and really felt for her. After her transplant she breaks up with her longtime boyfriend, Sam because she doesn’t want to be a burden. She cuts herself off from the outside world as she struggles to deal with her new life. I can only imagine what she’s going through and Jensen did a beautiful job telling her story with empathy and grace. Besides the physical changes Jenna is dealing with she is also experiencing some other side effects. There is something called Cellular Memory which is a phenomenon that transplant recipients sometimes experience. This fascinated me, I want to read more about it. For Jenna, she has very vivid dreams, more like memories that are not hers. She knows they are Callie’s, but what is the dead woman trying to tell her? She’s inexplicably connected to her beyond the physical and she finds herself a bit obsessed with the woman who gave her the gift of life. But things quickly turn dangerous and Jenna may be in over her head.

That’s about all I can say plotwise, but I can’t recommend this book highly enough. The Gift has the same awesome sense of paranoia that I loved in The Sister and I again found myself looking over my own shoulder. There are several smaller twists followed by a big whopper that left me breathless. By the last twenty percent of the book you would’ve had to prise it out of my cold dead hands to get me to put it down, it was honestly that gripping. Fans of The Sister will not be disappointed and if you haven’t read that, what are you waiting for?! Get cracking on both of these, you won’t regret it.

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my review copy.

35 thoughts on “Review: The Gift by Louise Jensen @Fab_fiction @bookouture”

  2. Books, Vertigo and Tea says:
    Reply

    First of all, there is something about the cover that works for me so well! Secondly, I have always found the phenomenon with transplant recipients fascinating! This is very promising indeed 🙂 And like Annie mentioned, if the ending surprised you then I am sold haha.

    Liked by 2 people

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