Review Detail

Conditions of a Heart was such a beautiful, heartbreaking, and humorous story, not only about living with a chronic illness, but also about accepting and loving yourself and your family. The author’s own experience growing up with a disability reverberated throughout the pages. Mangle had me laughing or crying several times throughout.

I love how real these characters are.
Brynn is a multi-faceted character, but so are all the side characters. Especially Brynn’s father who is living with the same condition, and Brynn’s mother and sister on the opposite side, loving people living with EDS. Mangle succeeded in showing that each side has its own set of struggles, heartbreaks, and triumphs.

Despite the overall subject of the book being somewhat serious, Mangle does inject a lot of humor into her writing. So often, books about chronic illness are serious all the time, but Brynn’s inner monologue adds a little light to her situation. Brynn essentially doesn’t want people to see her as breakable.

In addition to Brynn's health, she is also dealing with the school board that sided with the boy whose parents use money to excuse his bad behavior.
I would have loved to see a resolution to the fight Brynn and her friends had with the school board. It ended with Brynn putting the parents of the boy in question in their place, and we can assume the outcome, but I think it would have been nice to have confirmation.

The romance is an organic subplot. It is a cute second chance romance that never felt forced. It was wonderful to see how Oliver accepted Brynn as she always was and how in the end, they were stronger for it.

There is strong found family vibes and it features a cat cafe.

Conditions of a Heart has a great focus on Brynn’s self identity, even if you don’t have a chronic illness, I think anybody would find something to relate to in Brynn’s story.