I was constantly editing the book.Initially it was more about the Troubles; the word count went up and down by about 60,000 words as I tried to incorporate the whole Northern-Irish story. I wanted to show that growing up in war was extreme butit was wallpaper;we never knew anything different than the town being barricaded and people running around with guns. Everybody wasliving the same life—going to school,trying to meet boys.’ Delaney's writing is a beautiful wave flowing lyrically through the life of Mary Rattigan. A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs. Anne Griffin author of WHEN ALL IS SAID

The growth of Mary, the maturing of Mary and the development of love and intense emotion brought tears to my eyes at the end. This is in many ways a familiar story but it is told in such a fresh, entertaining, funny and moving way, it felt like I was reading something brand new.' RODDY DOYLE A friend writing for Mills and Boon once told Tish that readers ‘love to love the characters’. ‘It’s liberating writing the man of your dreams, like John Johns—nice, quiet, and randy.’ I wanted to scream out, too, that Mary was just a child, coerced by a man who abused his authority - something regrettably overlooked in the book; wanted to wrap Mary in my arms and tell her she owed no one no part of her. I finished reading this book this morning and I am completely gutted. I am so going to miss the very human, flawed, relatable characters, especially the protagonist Mary. Throughout the whole narrative I really invested in Mary; she made me laugh, she made me cry, she frustrated me, but she never let me down. Mary is a true literary heroine that deserves to be celebrated.But you can’t stop thinking about her and about the life she told you about and you start feeling a weird kind of nostalgia and you wish her story was written down so you could revisit it whenever you feel lonely. So, I’m giving this book 4 stars now that I finished it even though, it doesn’t feel like a 4 stars. But it my heart, it feels like it. As much as it feels like the Irish immigration novel is its own category, there's also been a rise in novels about Northern Irish women who never leave the place of their birth. Books such as “Milkman” and “Big Girl, Small Town” explore the interior lives of young women whose voices are often ignored by the larger community. Though Delaney's novel fits neatly alongside these others it's also very much its own piece as it poignantly presents the perspective of a married woman who comes to learn the habits and nature of her husband over many years but tragically fails to understand his heart. It's also a captivating coming of age tale as we follow the painful abuse she suffers at her mother's hand and how her sexual awakening becomes a form of rebellion because the worst thing she could ever become is a T.R.A.M.P. Though she finds it liberating to transgress the moral expectations placed upon her she soon finds the enormous longterm consequences of this brief pleasure which is over in “less time than baking a sponge cake”. It's heart wrenching when she realises that her parents would honestly prefer her to be blown up by a bomb rather than be “in the family way” as an unwed teen. Tish Delaney's writing is engaging and she has a strong eye for character and dialogue . . . Mary's story of finding love in the most unlikely of circumstances will draw readers in and you'd need a heart of stone not to be moved by the ending. Daily Express

So now Mary is in her adult life, and the lessons, hardship and things she’s been through has made her into the woman she is now. Her mother forces Mary into a shotgun marriage with a local farmer, John, who lives with his mother. She becomes a farmer's wife, and in the next 25 years goes on to have 5 children, and a strangely weird relationship with John that is characterised by a strong physical, heavily sexually active relations behind closed doors in the bedroom and one of an estranged silence between the two of them in every sphere of life elsewhere, despite their close proximity to each other. In a emotionally charged and heartbreaking narrative, Mary lives through the years as a traumatised woman, growing up in many areas, yet so understandably emotionally stunted in others. It would be all too easy to superficially attribute her feelings towards John as those of hate, things are so much more complicated and can she actually face the truth of what lies between them? I'm not quite sure how to categorise this book. It's a coming of age story and there are momentsof humour and also deep sadness. It is very much a novel with a strong sense of place - rural Tyrone - and time, highlighting the stranglehold of the catholic church and the troubles, (the Omagh bomb is particulary devastating).

I’m not going to tell you what this book is about (there are people who tell books better than me and also, Google it) but I will tell you what was wrong with this one. Delaney’s true skill here was displaying the complex relationships and emotions experienced by every character in the novel. Everything is vividly raw, no one understands what others are holding close to them, each person has a purpose and will strive for that without sharing their feelings or dreams. It’s a heartbreaking portrayal of how deeply miscommunication can wound us, how sometimes trauma can cause irreparable damage, and how the walls we build can be strong enough to ruin us. I really feel that Before My Actual Heart Breaks is a book I will always adore. Already I am desperate to reread it. Mary and John are both emotionally crippled and unable to talk to each other. Mary, as a result of the treatment she received from her mother and John from events in his past, which are not fully revealed to Mary (and the reader) until late in the book. There were times when I wanted to shake them both for their obtuseness, particularly Mary who stubbornly refused to reach out to John, missing so many opportunities to voice what she was feeling. John’s mother Bridie is a wonderful character, kind and gentle, creating a safe haven for Mary after she was thrown out of her family, and providing the glue to hold Mary and John together as their family grows.