“She was living the life she thought she should, not the life she thought she could.”
Genre: Fiction, New Adult, Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Depression and suicidal ideation.
“The Heart of the Deal” is Lindsay MacMillan’s debut novel and it follows Rae, a young Wall Street investment banker who is originally from Indiana, and whose poetic dreams make her feel stuck in her job and, at times, even stuck in New York. She is in her mid-twenties and seeing how life is flourishing for her friends and yes, she’s happy for them, but she’s also heartbroken that she isn’t getting her happily ever after… but what even is her happily ever after supposed to look like? That’s for her to find out and for us to follow along.
First things first, wow. This is a heavy one, but one that’s worth reading. Don’t let the cover fool you, this book is partly about depression and mental health struggles and how they affect the person going through them and how they shift the lives of everyone around them as well.
I’m not the biggest fan of third-person narratives, but I actually really enjoyed reading this book. Because it was in third-person it took me a bit longer to get hooked on it, but once I was, I finished the book as soon as was humanly possible with my work and school schedule.
Full-on disclaimer, I am a big swiftie (aka Taylor Swift superfan) and I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved all the Taylor Swift song references here and there. I had my suspicions that the author was a swiftie (I can usually tell) but with the lil’ Paper Rings scene (and the “fuck the patriarchy” and the “forevermore” and the “single strand of golden thread” and many more), it was all confirmed. It couldn’t be a coincidence anymore. This just made the book a little more enjoyable for me, as I was trying to find all the other imperceptible references.
I feel like there was a lot going on in this book. I’m used to romances that are more straightforward—where the whole plotline revolves around one thing or one period of time. But this book? It’ll take you across state lines and it’ll have you see Rae fall in and out of love various times, something more akin to real life and its volatileness, not just have the main characters fall in love and live their happily ever after right away. Yes, I know that that is what we all want and what a few get, but then there are more of us that have thought we’ve been fully in love with different people at different stages of our lives. Love is always different. Even love between the same two people at different stages of their lives could look radically different when compared, as was also seen in this book. But that’s what makes love so wonderful, isn’t it?
I feel like this book, that’s about a quarter-life crisis, could easily induce a quarter-life crisis on its readers. Lindsay MacMillan will have you thinking about life and what you want from it and what (you think) will make you happy. It’ll make you want to take a leap towards your dreams.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who’s single or casually dating under 30, as that seems to be this book’s target audience. Nonetheless, if you’re happily taken or above that age range, don’t hesitate to grab this book. I, myself, am taken and I enjoyed this book thoroughly even though I have never used dating apps, which was a side of the story I couldn’t directly relate to. I think this book would be a wonderful addition to the shelves or any New Adult and YA literature lover. Don’t expect this to be an all-consuming, explicit romance, because it’s not that, but the romantic bits and pieces will still succeed at warming your heart.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and Alcove Press in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: June 07, 2022
“But love wasn’t just the lightness in the air and sunny days with mountain views that stretched for miles. It was the clouds and the weights and the fog that blocked even your own feet sometimes. Real love required finding a way, not walking away.”
andrea's galley 