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A Heart For Robbie (2014)

by J.P. Barnaby(Favorite Author)

4.39 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1632160676 (ISBN13: 9781632160676)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

review 1: My Review:Something that you need to know going into reading this book... Yes, there is a romantic story line, but Robbie with his need for a heart and his father, Julian, are really the soul of this story.Julian is a single, out and proud, gay man. He's also a best-selling YA author. His best friend, Erin, who is married with 4 kids of her own acted as a surrogate for him and Robbie was born. But when he was born, something was wrong with his heart. Without a transplant he won't live to see his first birthday. Simon is deeply in the closet. No one in his life knows that he's gay. He has an overbearing mother who tries at every turn to marry him off. He works as the insurance liaison at the hospital for a bigoted jerk who's never hidden the way he feels about homosexuals. ... moreHe volunteers at a youth center that just sent a coach away from volunteering because it was revealed that he was gay. Simon is well aware that he would lose everything if he came out and find himself even more alone than he is now. But Julian sees Simon for what he is and Simon finds himself increasingly drawn to the troubled father...a huge no-no since his son is one of the patients at the hospital.But the focus of the story is Robbie and how terrified Julian is that he has this wonderful new son, only to lose him to heart failure. Watching a child die is every parents nightmare and the book follows Julian through the up's and down's and medical emergencies that would haunt most parents for the rest of their lives. It's after one of those adrenaline, terrifying incidences that Julian and Simon find each other. It's a bittersweet story about the fragility of the bonds that tie us into our relationships. Without Robbie's medical problems, Julian and Simon would never have met and probably spent the rest of their lives unhappy and alone and unfulfilled. And both these men love Robbie desperately.There was one part of the story that I absolutely LOVED. Julian is an author and his characters are so real, they are entities that travel with him through life, offering him advice and support. I love the way that he communicates continuously with them throughout the story. Those characters love and mourn with him over Robbie's status too. There were also little nuggets of GLBT fiction culture thrown in throughout the story with these imaginary characters. I'm sure I didn't catch all of them, but the ones I did made me smile.This is a tough book because of the story, but it's beautiful. I never found it to be too much emotionally and I did enjoy getting to know Julian and Simon and Robbie and Clay and Liam. (I think I got the imaginary character names right, but I didn't check those...)
review 2: It took me awhile to get to this one because I have had the same opinion on every one of J.P.'s books I have read, and unfortunately this one went the same way.The first 40 percent, although heartbreaking, was very slow and repetitive. It wasn't until Simon and Julian began interacting that the book picked up and gained some much needed depth. This first part, as in all her books, is spent filling the reader in on the characters and their lives. I would love to see the author write where all this is more subtly weaved into the story, rather than dumped on the readers heads all in 80 or so pages. But that is just me.I also had some issues with Simon being such a doormat. But knowing this still is the case in some instances, I suspended belief.I couldn't, however, suspend belief when the center Simon volunteered at suspended not one, but two men from the program because they were gay. In big city (Chicago for instance) programs, especially ones of the nature in this book, this just DOES NOT happen.Those points made, this is a very well written, researched book. One I am sure even J.P. shed more than a tear or two writing. It will break your heart then rebuild it and break it again, but only for a chapter or two. All in all I enjoyed this book, read it fast, and recommend it to anyone who can deal with the rollercoaster of emotions having a sick child takes you through. less

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