I was drawn into this story right away when the protagonist, a young and gifted pediatric heart surgeon, strikes up a conversation with a little girl about horses. It is based on a true story about the heart-lung machine and the struggles that came along with perfecting it. My heart really went out to all the children who didn’t survive the early operations- and to our protagonist for feeling like a failure when they didn’t survive. The resiliency and empathy needed to work with very sick children is incredible on its own, combining that with the doctor’s struggle with mental illness (bipolar disorder). This book is so good that I hope to see it made into a movie one day. I’ll definitely be keeping this author on my radar. Thank you for writing this brilliant masterpiece.

My rating: 5/5 stars

You can check out where to buy this great story on Goodreads and follow J.R. Alcyone on Twitter!