I’m a big fan of Jodi Picoult novels and somewhere I had this one on my shelf at home but had never actually read it. Harvesting the Heart tells the story of Paige and Nicholas, a pair who have nothing in common but are inexplicably drawn to each other.

Paige was raised as a Catholic by an Irish father and her mother left when she was only small, so racked with guilt following a teenage pregnancy and secret abortion she feels she has no choice but to runaway. She boards a bus with no money and limited belongings and runs away from Chicago to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Once there she manages to get a job in a diner where she waitresses and draws portraits of the customers for additional tips.

Nicholas was raised in a wealthy family, his Dad is a Doctor and his Mom a famous photographer. He has had every opportunity available to him; although not necessarily a happy family life, and is a very promising medical student hoping to specialist in cardiothoracic surgery.

The pair meet in the diner when Nicholas notices that Paige has sketched him. They embark on a whirlwind romance; much to Nicholas’ parents disappointment, and quickly end up engaged then married and pregnant. However, Nicholas’ ambition and Paige’s difficult and secretive history cause problems in their household. These problems are magnified when baby Max comes along.

There are things I absolutely love about this book: the flawed nature of the characters, the brilliance of Picoult in the way she describes people and let’s you fall in love with them, the perseverance her characters have. However, there were also things I didn’t like, I wish the prologue didn’t exist, I didn’t want to know from the start that Paige was going to leave as it made me question everything she did and then I felt it ended too abruptly and I wanted to know how things turned out in more detail than a flash to the future in Paige’s vision. Don’t get me wrong I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but it could’ve been perfect.