Review: The Shape of My Heart – Ann Aguirre

*I received a free copy of The Shape of My Heart from Harlequin HQN via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney's social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she's made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore.

Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain he's been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it's time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney's the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that's ever been broken, there's another that can make it complete.

The Shape of My Heart is raw, real, sweet, sad, hard, tough, romantic, very sexy and beautiful!

My The Shape of My Heart review:

Beautifully written, with amazing characters, The Shape of My Heart sure tugged at my heart-strings, and I felt like my heart was expanding when things were good for Max and Courtney. Likewise, when things were difficult, my heart was a shriveled, dry thing in my chest that weighed a ton and a half at least! The way their relationship started was the best, because Max and Courtney were friends first, then Courtney first realized she wouldn’t mind to have more with Max, but at the same time she didn’t want to do anything that could possibly ruin their relationship. One of my favorite tropes in contemporary romances is the friends-to-lovers trope, and Ms. Aguirre really managed this beautifully.

While both Courtney and Max had difficult things from their pasts, they were still well-adjusted, strong and loyal characters, and the way they interacted with each other and with other people showed that they would always have each others’ back. The story unfolded in such a way that I just couldn’t put it down, I stayed up until way past midnight before I got so tired I didn’t have a choice, though. While the story was told from Courtney’s point of view, I still got to know Max really well, too, and he was so different from the way he seemed in I Want it That Way. A sensitive guy, who is used to being on his own but slowly building strong friendships, he’s been hiding his hurt behind a flirty mask, using humor to pretend everything is all well in his world. Opening up to Courtney, he showed a completely different side to himself, and I loved everything about him.

A character-driven story, The Shape of My Heart included all the things I love in a good contemporary New Adult story, there is a lot of love and romance, great conversations, beautiful hotness and sexytimes, and, of course a big dose of anguish as well. I also really enjoyed the way Courtney grew up, took charge of her life and managed to finally come to terms with the fact that her high-school sweetheart had died. When she started playing for a band, she expanded her horizons, while at the same time she followed an old dream. Max had some truly beautiful quotes, and I could probably fill a whole page with those I enjoyed the most, he managed to both surprise and enchant both Courtney and me at numerous occasions.

If you are looking for a strong NA story, where there is a minimum of drama, but a  maximum of human interaction, growth, love and passion, you should definitely check out the whole 2B trilogy, I don’t think I’d even be able to pick a favorite from this series, the stories are quite different even if they happen in the same universe, with characters that are friends, and I have rarely been so involved with the characters and the stories they tell.

Some of my favorite The Shape of My Heart quotes:

I wasn’t harboring a secret desire to take off my glasses and flip my hair, so my secret love interest would realize I was beautiful all along. In my view, my looks supplied simplicity. Anyone who got with me wanted the real me, no question. 

In all honesty, I was much more interested in that guy – the serious, smart, intense one. 

The wounded eyes? Those were real. Not this. So I put on the helmet and wrapped my arms around his waist, content to be the warm body on the back of his bike. 

“Fine. My favorite genre is horror, but I also like sci-fi, fresh and edgy stuff, not boring white guys saving the universe and banging space hotties.” Surprise popped up like a weasel. Great, now I had that kids’ song stuck in my head. “Wait. Your read mostly genre fiction?  Max Cooper. You’re a secret geek.” “Don’t tell anyone, ‘kay? Not that they’d believe you.”

Dana totally elevatored him, and when I raised my brow at her, she grinned. “Hey, I can window shop.” “I’m standing right here,” Max pointed out. “How cute, he thinks he can complain when we objectify him.”

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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