DubaiReader

I've just finished this, with tears running down my face. Of the two, I probably marginally preferred A Boy made of Blocks, but this was a close second. It just took me a little longer to get into.

Hannah has known from very young that she had a faulty heart, she never planned for a future and took every day as it came. Her father, Tom, deals with the problem as only someone with a theatrical background and a job at a theatre, can. He puts on elaborate productions for her birthday and makes her whole life mystical. He was just a super-fantastic dad! Her mother had left to pursue her own interests when Hannah was just three years old, so the folk at the theatre became her family.

When we meet her she is a teenager, just beginning to find boys attractive and starting to pull at the apron strings. But also, her heart problem is starting to become more serious. She wants her Dad to go out and start dating again, she's worried he will be all alone if she dies. He has some pretty cheesy relationships but there's plenty to laugh about too.

There are some fabulous characters, some as flamboyant as you would expect at a theatre and some just normal people for whom the theatre is an escape.

An excellent story with an ending that could have gone either way and I liked that I never knew which way.

Recommended.