Review

Heart on a Chain – Cindy C. Bennett

17-year-old Kate has lived her whole life in abject poverty, with an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother, who severely abuses Kate. At school, her second-hand clothing marks her as a target. Her refusal to stand up for herself makes her the recipient of her classmates taunts and bullying. That is, until Henry returns.

Henry Jamison moved away six years earlier, just as he and Kate had begun an to develop feelings for one another. He returns to find the bright, funny, outgoing girl he had known now timidly hiding in corners, barely speaking to anyone around her, suspicious of even him.

Kate can’t figure out what game Henry is playing with her - for surely it is a game. What else would the gorgeous, popular boy from her past want with her?

Kate finally decides to trust Henry’s intentions, opening her heart to him. Just when it seems he might be genuine in his friendship, tragedy strikes, threatening everything Kate has worked so hard to gain. Can Henry help her to overcome this new devastation, or will it tear them apart forever?

Heart on a chain is such a beautiful book, let me just start by saying that I rarely ever cry during books. I cried reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and that was about it. I am not saying that I never cry. I cry. I cried watching despicable me, or goodness sake. I saw it in the theatres and my friend was silently laughing while these silent tears rolled down my cheeks. I went into a hysterical fit while watching Bambi and Dumbo.

I even laugh so hard I cry at the dinner table; yep I’m a cryer. But for some reason, I rarely ever cry during a book, so to bring so much emotion from me (a crying but not crying person), has to be an achievement.

What can I say? This book was amazing, it was everything a good book should be, it was heart-warming, it had amazing (not all good) characters, it had an amazing hero and heroine, it had a great plot and it was really well written. What can I say? I loved it. Because I am terrible at giving reviews, I normally just rant on forever, I am going to make a list describing the book.

1. Heart on a chain is about Hannah, a girl whose mother beats her, her father is practically un-aware (I’m sure he knows what’s going on but he does nothing to stop it). So, Hannah has spent the last 6 years of high school and middle school being the laughing stock of the schools. Because she is poor, does not defend herself and because they can. This all starts to change when her old friend Henry moves back to town. Henry use to be Hannah’s best friend and maybe for a little while something more. Henry comes back to this girl who is a shell of the girl he knew. Over time they become friends and then when everything is settling down, maybe something more.
2. So, it had a good plot and there were enough twists and turns to keep you interested (so much that I was thoroughly shocked at some parts of the book), I have never before read a book with any resemblance to a plot like this. It was original and interesting and I stayed up (not studying for a test) to read this (totally worth it)!
3. Now onto the characters, the author wrote the characters so well, there were some that you wanted to hate because of what they did and then you see their past and you learn why they are like that, lot’s of mixed emotions. There were a few characters (especially the main ones) that you just instantly loved; they had normal flaws, flaws that us as humans (and some aliens) have too. Yes, there were parts of the book where I wanted to slap Hannah for being such an idiot (I refrained myself). But that’s what a good book has. It has us so emotionally vested in a character that we want to do that. This book sure has a lot of that.

This book is a great read, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read, it may be out of your usual genre of books but give it a go, with the beautifully written characters and story, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Pages: 322

Publication Date: December 2010

Publisher: CreateSpace


Rating: 5 Stars