A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

one’s heart is cold • warm someone’s heart
one’s heart is cold —(also: have a cold heart) said of smb.
devoid of sympathy or feeling: If a man forgets an anniversary
or neglects to say “I love you,” it doesn’t necessarily mean his
heart is cold.
warm someone’s heart—(also: warm someone’s blood) make a
person feel eager or excited: Letters poured in upon her, and
warmed her heart and stimulated her pen. She liked intelligent
criticism and generous praise.
one’s life story • story of one’s life
one’s life story —the account of the career of a person: I must
have given her my complete life story and virtually tons of
shoptalk about my job.
Note: 
The expression does not fully correlate in meaning with
the phrase life history—
1
. = one’s life story: He then started
talking to her and she cut him dead saying “I don’t want to
hear your life history, pal!” 2. (biol.) the life-cycle of an organ-
ism: We were able in the course of four years’ steady work to
complete the life history of six distinct forms.
story of one’s life —
1
. = one’s life story: He was a big mouth.
He picked up strangers … and told them the story of his life.
2. smth. that supposedly summarizes one’s unfortunate life
experience: This is a story of my life, a struggle to find the
truth, a person, who now in his mid-thirties feels, and seems
to be treated as a criminal.
Note:
The expression is not equivalent in meaning to the phrase
hard-luck story
—
1
. a narrative of a person’s misfortunes: From
this beginning unfolds a brilliant tale of human failings and
misery. This is not simply another hard-luck story. 2. an
invented story of one’s bad luck told in order to gain help or
money: Conmen often have a hard luck story to tell, but they
tell it with charm and humor, they seem unconcerned about
you helping them or not.