Rating: 
Summary: Understanding the Teenage Years and Triangle Relationships
Review: My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr was a fast-paced understanding of how teenagers and their parents relate to each other. Also, an added dimension is Garret's book is the complicated issues of friends and sexually issues. The book's setting is around the New York City area and centers around two families. Ellen and Link belong to one set of parents and their best friend, James belongs to the Wentworth family. Link, James, and Ellen become triangulated and help each other through their difficulties.Garrett effectively pulls the reader into My Heartbeat by examining how the families (in the book) do not deal with the teenage problems like sexually issues. I felt connected to this book because my family never talked and did everything to evade in-depth conversations. Like the two families in this book, avoidance can be a big problem for any family and Garret wonderfully communicates their difficulties and I found myself not being able to put Heartbeat down. You must read Heartbeat if you enjoy teenage issues.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!!
Review: My Heartbeat os a really, really good book. It deals with a sensitive issue, but still ends up being good. After Ellen asks her brother's best friend James and her brother Link the question (Are you gay or. . .) she dives into reading about gay people, and I learned several things that I did not know such as that michaelangalo, who designed the Vatican, was gay (I'm not really sure if this is true or not, but since it was in the book i'm guessing it was) and that Oscar Wilde who had several children was also gay. I really liked the ending, because Ellen discovered a lot about herself, plus she got together with James which didn't exactly resolve the issue of him being gay or straight (he had slept with guys before), but I enjoyed it cause I always love romantic parts. Also, there were subtle hints towards the end that Link was gay but that was never resolved, since he had a girlfriend during the book. So you never really know what everyone wants to know, which is why I only gave it 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!!
Review: My Heartbeat os a really, really good book. It deals with a sensitive issue, but still ends up being good. After Ellen asks her brother's best friend James and her brother Link the question (Are you gay or. . .) she dives into reading about gay people, and I learned several things that I did not know such as that michaelangalo, who designed the Vatican, was gay (I'm not really sure if this is true or not, but since it was in the book i'm guessing it was) and that Oscar Wilde who had several children was also gay. I really liked the ending, because Ellen discovered a lot about herself, plus she got together with James which didn't exactly resolve the issue of him being gay or straight (he had slept with guys before), but I enjoyed it cause I always love romantic parts. Also, there were subtle hints towards the end that Link was gay but that was never resolved, since he had a girlfriend during the book. So you never really know what everyone wants to know, which is why I only gave it 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: "My Heartbeat"
Review: My Heatbeat tossed around a lot of issues. I will have to read it again but towards the end I really wasn't sure what was going on because Link implied a lot about his sexuality but I never did figure out whether he was gay or not. The dialouge was ok but the McConell's and James alike spoke differently than everyday people did and thus, made some parts a bit unbelievable. I liked the feel of the book and I enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: hmmmm.
Review: Okay, so I mostly liked the way the main character Ellen was written in this book. It was nice to follow her relationships with her brother Link, her dad, and her brother's best friend and her eventual boyfriend James. Ellen spends the book trying to figure out what love means, what relationships both romantic and not should be like, and what's important to her. It was good to see a story where the main character was someone you could connect with, since Ellen is a person with everyday problems and is trying to figure out what life is all about. Here is a spoiler! If you don't want to know what happens at the end of this book, don't keep reading this! What really bothered me about this story was Ellen sleeping with James at the end of the book. She is just fourteen years old, and there is no discussion in the book of what losing her virginity really means to her, or to James. Ellen doesn't really say what she thinks about being ready to have sex, if she felt like it was really the right thing to do, what she thinks about sex, or anything like this. I think sex is a subject that needs to be treated more carefully in books aimed at teens, especially if you are writing about characters who are as young as Ellen is. This is my one hang-up with an otherwise well-written and mostly enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: READ IT
Review: The book My HeartBeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr is a book all kids should undersatnd. This book is one of the best i have read. Ellen 14, learns about love, family and knowing what might just happen. the other two main charecters are Link her brother and his best friend James. Now Ellen has a big crush on James. As they go through there highschool year a girl asks them a question. After this James and Links life changed from there on. James became his person amd so did Link. This got Ellen very scared and wound up. this tought her a very valuable lesson. The author is trying to tell you that don't gp to fast into your crushes, and always know whats behind you. I recommend this book to people who are willing to think of stuff and who have good imagry skills, and for peole who like a seriouse adventure. What was the question? How could one question change the lives of two people? Read the book and you will find out.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and believable slice of life
Review: This book was about fourteen-year-old Ellen who has a crush on her older brother's best friend. When one of her classmates asks whether her brother and his best friend are "a couple," Ellen begins exploring the idea of what it means to be gay. The reviews about this novel say something about it being remarkable for refusing to 'pigeon-hole' any of its characters and that it's 'messy, just like real life,' and both those reviews are dead-on. All the characters in this novel were so unique and yet so universal, so real and so mysterious. I loved them all desperately. The author did a really good job of giving enough hints so that the reader could totally read between the lines, but she never spelled things out or let her narrator 'figure out' more than would be typical of a 14-year-old girl in her situation. The dialog in this book is amazing and actually made my heart hurt in several places because it was so real. I didn't agree with a lot of the characters' actions, but I understood them. I also didn't like that the novel didn't take the direction I expected and that it had one of those mostly unresolved endings--but it was so lifelike that that somehow fit for it. It was like a novel that was just a slice of a few months of these characters' lives that were incredibly defining for them--and it didn't need to have a plot except that you know the characters will never be the same after the events of the book are done. I also think it's a great book for adolescents because of the way it deals with the issue of gayness--but not so great for adolescents because it involves some sexual choices that I disagree with--but great for them because it's very open and not at all preachy about these choices.
Rating: 
Summary: A heartbeat everyone should hear
Review: This is a beautifully written book that manages to be both thoughtul and provocative without ever being didactic. Although intended for a young adult audience I would recommend this book to anyone who's ever navigated the challenging paths of love.
Rating:
Summary: Navigating the Unwritten Social Laws
Review: This is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to those who are 13 and up. You can really connect with Ellen,the writing style is simple and easy to read, but the issues discussed are deep. Ellen's search for answers to her brother's behavior, lead her to a deeper understanding of herself. The question of homosexuality and how many people treat is as wrong even though it's no longer a crime, or even a sin, is explored with deep understanding and care, and Ellen comes to see how many unwritten social laws are still followed. The ideas are expressed gently, you don't get bashed over the head with the right or wrong answers. You are given opinions and left to figure them out youself. This is book for people who enjoy thinking about what they read, a second reading helps see finer points, as does every reading after. Ellen's relationships with her father, mother, brother, and boyfriend are astonishing in there depth and connection to the real world. Her attitude towards sex is real, though I still think she should have been a little older. No matter what, this book is real, and nothing you read seems impossible. That's what makes it special, its reality, and its clarity, the feeling that this is true, even though its fiction.
Rating:
Summary: I WILL NEVER FORGET
Review: This is on my top list of books. I read it in one night and just loved it. Its a book any teenager will understand and you learn a lot! I can't even expalin how much I liked it!
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