Heart of Gold - Reviewed by chestnut-hill-lover.x
Note: This review contains spoilers. You may want to read the book first. If you've already read it, just scroll down to the review.
Heart Of Gold is written in Honey's perspective.
Felicity, better known as "Honey" to her friends and family, was sent to board at Chestnut Hill so that she wouldn't have to deal with the effects of her twin brother, Sam's, leukemia. Honey loves Chestnut Hill but hates the fact that she can never know the true extent of Sam's illness and can't see why she isn't allowed to visit Sam. She tries to reason with her parents saying truthfully that she had gone through a bone marrow transplant with him and she could deal with his illness but her parents don't listen. This leads to Honey having trouble concentrating at school and she cannot find comfort in her friends as they do not even know she has a brother let alone a twin with leukemia. Honey hadn't told them as she hadn't wanted to be treated differently.
Whilst picking out baby photos for the "Adams" (Honey's school house) christmas party, her friends see a picture of Sam as a baby they are surprised to hear that Honey has a twin and hadn't told them about him. Later on in the book Dylan gets mad at Honey for helping Patience Duvall--Dylan's enemy--with her pony, Minnie, Honey's only comfort, and she gets mad also for not telling them about Sam. Honey can't deal with it any longer and yells at Dylan but she doesn't spill any more about Sam. Dylan begins to get suspicious that Honey is still holding out on them and tension builds up between them.
The tension is broken at the school auction where Lani, Malory, Dylan and Honey have fun bidding; but later on in the evening Honey receives an important phone call from her mother who informs Honey that Sam has had a bad reaction to the chemotherapy and is back in intensive care at the hospital. Honey is not allowed to visit him until the weekend but she can't wait that long.
Honey confides in Lani at a horse show where Dylan and Malory are competing and Lani manages to get Honey to the hospital via the bus. Honey is almost not allowed in but luckily her dad is at the desk and he takes her to see Sam. Honey talks to Sam and realises he only wants her to have a great life. Later on Mrs. Herson (the housemother) turns up with Lani. Honey feels guilty for getting Lani into trouble and so is surprised to find out that they were actually both in the clear. Lani visits Sam as well and they get back to school in time to help clean the tack after the show!
At the christmas party that night both Lani and Honey think it's time to open up to Malory and Dylan and tell them what has been going on.
This review was submitted by chestnut-hill-lover.x. Thanks!
Buy this book online:
If you want to add your own book review, character profile, or anything else to this site, just use the form on the Content Submission page.