Symptoms of a Heartbreak

by Sona Charaipotra

Most sixteen year-olds cause at least some damage on their path to adulthood. But Saira Sehgal has vowed to first do no harm. A girl genius, she’s the youngest MD in America - and she hasn’t picked an easy specialty: She’s working in the cancer ward.

Saira’s always been good at getting what she wants, but she’s new to adult challenges - like getting out from under the thumb of her doting mother, who works at the same hospital; like proving herself to coworkers who don’t take her seriously; and crushing on a cute boy who happens to have stage-two leukemia.

Turns out “heartbreak” is one ailment Saira still doesn’t know how to treat.

• ISBN10: 1250250994
• ISBN13: 9781250250995
• Publish Date: 1 August 2020 (first published 1 June 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Square Fish
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

I swear the blurb for this read that she risked her career to get her crush into the trial study. That's incorrect. I kept thinking about the mix up while reading. Thankfully, I see the current blurb is clearer and not misleading. Hazard of reading review copies early.

-Super cute
-Funny
-Sweet
-Social media manager BFF
-Big sister in college
-Trouble with driving
-She's a beard, which gets complicated when she meets someone she actually likes.
-Typical teen romance in extraordinary situation
-Main couple doesn't get to spend much time together on the page during the story
-Teens are teens, even the Genius
-Relatable and fully of empathy
-Love the push/pull between dreams and growing up too fast and evolving friendships
-Big family with big drama
-All the patients and their family are different and full characters, not just swappable background NPCs.
-Love how the work nemesis was happened and gives space for those that don't cope well.
-Ending is an open satisfying HEAFN.

Recommended for YA contemp fans of To All the Boys I Loved Before and Sandhya Menon

[Sam@WLABB]

FACT: I watched Doogie Howser, when the episodes originally aired, and I was totally fascinated with his trials and tribulations as he attempted to navigate the adult world as a teen.

My love of Dr. Doogie drove my desire to read Symptoms of a Heartbreak, and I throughly enjoyed the new life Charaipotra breathed into this concept.

Being a girl genius seemed kind of like a blessing and curse for Saira. Here she was, 16 years old, and a medical professional. She was responsible for making life or death decisions for her patients, but she could not get the other doctors to take her seriously, AND she still had to abide by her parent's rules. This was something Saira struggled with in the book, and I felt like Charaipotra did an admirable job capturing Saira's emotions and reactions to many of the situations that arose because of this. In the beginning, she showed her age, but slowly, I saw Saira growing and maturing and becoming more professional, and learning that certain things need to be earned.

This book was on the lighter side, and there are many, many fun, sweet, tender, and amusing moments, but Saira was an intern in the pediatric oncology ward, so there were some heartbreaking and painful moments as well. Be prepared. I know I shed some tears.

But never fear, because I was also treated to an adorable romance. Saira's reaction to Link was so sweet, and gosh darn it! These two were precious together. Their union was filled with many complications, but I was still all in on this pairing.

Here's a quick list of other things I adored:
• Siblings - Saira and her sister shared some really special moments.
• Dadi - You know I love grandmas, and Dadi not only was a hoot, she was wise.
• Food! - There was a LOT of amazing cooking and eating in the book.
• Central NJ - It's so rare to see books set where I live, and I will always get excited about this.
• The Ending - I don't want to give anything away, but I was happy with it.
• Family - Saira's family was fantastic, and I loved what a prominent role they played in this story.

Overall, this was a wonderful, touching, and heartfelt read, which made me laugh, and also bought me to tears, but mostly, it made me cheer for this fierce and fabulous girl genius.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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