Guard Your Heart

Author:

Sue Divin

Illustrator:

N/A

Published by:

Macmillan Children's Books

First Published:

1 Apr 2021

Ideal for readers aged

15+y

My Review

I have to say I adored this book - in so many ways it's your classic teen romance novel, but in the ways that count, it's not. As well as championing a different approach to teen relationships, it is a novel about friendship and about reconciliation. Incredibly powerful and eye-opening, refreshing and a real tear jerker at the end, it's different to any teen romance novel I've ever read and I loved it.

It's different in theme to other books I recommend on here, but if you have teen girls who absorb the plethora of teen romance novels that flood the teen market then this is a book that they might love but will open their eyes to another culture and point in history, as well as a different way of approaching sex in relationships.

Heads Up!

The novel has moments of gut wrenching violence, references to domestic abuse, alcoholism, and gun use. All of these ingredients contribute to a realistic portrayal of Northern Ireland during and post The Troubles, and form an integral part of the story for readers.

Sue Divin does a brilliant job of drawing in teens with the portrayal of a realistic relationship where the attraction between Iona and Aidan is very real and described, and the thrill of physical contact between them is palpable - in this way it's similar to so many books for teens about relationships. However, the core difference is Iona's feisty determination to leave sex for marriage. She and Aidan have to navigate this, as well as the huge problem of their family backgrounds, as their relationship deepens.

Publisher Review

Guard Your Heart is the Carnegie shortlisted debut novel from Sue Divin. Boy meets girl on the Northern Irish border. Derry. Summer 2016. Aidan and Iona, now eighteen, were both born on the day of the Northern Ireland peace deal. Aidan is Catholic, Irish, and Republican. With his ex-political prisoner father gone and his mother dead, Aidan’s hope is pinned on exam results earning him a one-way ticket out of Derry. To anywhere. Iona, Protestant and British, has a brother and father in the police. She’s got university ambitions, a strong faith and a fervent belief that boys without one track minds are a myth. At a post-exam party, Aidan wanders alone across the Peace Bridge and becomes the victim of a brutal sectarian attack. Iona witnessed the attack; picked up Aidan’s phone and filmed what happened, and gets in touch with him to return the phone. When the two meet, alone and on neutral territory, the differences between them seem insurmountable. Both their fathers held guns, but safer to keep that secret for now. Despite their differences and the secrets they have to keep from each other, there is mutual intrigue, and their friendship grows. And so what? It’s not the Troubles. But for both Iona and Aidan it seems like everything is keeping them apart , when all they want is to be together . . .