Title: Heartbeat
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication date: January 28th, 2014
My rating: 3 of 5
(Book read on May 27th, 2014, from the review copy received from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange of an honest review.)
Summary:
Life. Death. And...Love?Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge. Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?
My Thoughts on the Book:
I've only read one book by Elizabeth Scott - Perfect You, which I absolutely adored. So, Heartbeat is my second Elizabeth Scott read, and I have mixed feelings about it.The first half of the book I absolutely loved. It was really sad & heartbreaking, I had tears in my eyes for most of it, but I still found myself captivated by the story. But, after that, my enjoyment started to decline, and I started to get a little bored & the fault was in the main character Emma & her stubbornness.The idea & the story is quite interesting, though sad. Emma - the main character, even though I didn't agree with her, for the first half of the book - I could understand her & I was so heartbroken for her, so I liked her. She's sad & so, so angry, and as I said - I could understand her why. But, after a half of this book, after some conversations were had, she still seemed to be stuck in the same place, and instead of starting to understand or accept the reality slowly, she was still obstinated, and that started getting old real fast, and I started to get irritated with her more & more, which influensed my enjoyment of the story. I still liked her when she was with Caleb, but all the other times in most of the second of the book, she was annoying & unlikable, and just not fair to those around her.Caleb was interesting character & I really liked him. He had suffered a loss of his own, and had started coping with it in a bad way since it happened, but I liked the fact that he himself realised that he can't go on like that, and he has to stop selfdestruct himself & the people that might found themselves in his way. Even though he's still broken, he still wants to fight & live.I really liked that they found each other. For their period in their lives, they were good for each other, and I really liked them as a couple. They were sweet, the chemistry was great, and I enjoyed watching them getting to know each other, confide in each other, and slowly falling for each other.I really liked Emma's best friend Olivia, she was such a fun character & a great friend. I also really liked the way it was written, the way through Emma's memories, we got to know her mom, Emma herself before she lost her mom, and the life they shared, and how much that has changed for them all.The ending I liked a lot. Once again I got tears in my eyes, and it was bittersweet ending to this contemporary novel.If you'd like to read something different, and you're a fan of YA contemporary novels, I recommend this book.
