Author: Melissa Pearl
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, paranormal, ghosts, fantasy, death, suspense
Published: September 8, 2015 (first published October 31, 2012)
Publisher: Alloy Entertainment
Purchase: Amazon
Nicole Tepper has it all—beauty, popularity, and the perfect boyfriend. But after a party she can’t remember, she wakes up in a ghostly state, trapped between life and death. Nicole’s injured body is lying in a wooded area, but she has no idea where—or how long she has left to live.
Only one person can hear her now: Dale Finnegan, a loner classmate that Nicole has relentlessly bullied. Dale’s the last person in school who would want to help her, but he sets their tangled history aside to try to save her life. As they dig into what happened at the party, they discover her boyfriend isn’t as perfect as he seems—and neither are her friends. With the clock ticking down and her life slipping away, Nicole must face a hard truth: Was what happened to her a terrible accident? Or does someone want her dead?
This is a new, revised edition of the previously released novel Betwixt.
* * *
The Space Between Heartbeats is such a wonderfully written novel that made me go angry, worry, and smile. I had mixed feelings while reading yet I still ended up really liking this.
Nicole, smart and popular, goes to a party on a school day. Unexpectedly, she woke up on the woods, her body aching. Next thing she knows, she's at home and her mother doesn't seem to care about her, her friends seem to ignore her. She started hating everyone until she realized that no one can actually see or hear her - that is except Dale Finnegan, an old friend but now bullied classmate.
I did not like Nicole - why she entered the popular crowd, why she tries to keep up with them, why she bullies Dale. Nicole's life is your cliched story - unreal friends who're there when you're having a party and not when you're crying on the side, and a boyfriend who basically wants you for your reputation and basically for other things he can get from you. Nicole doesn't realize all these until she finds herself floating around, half dead, and looking for help.
While I did no like Nicole in the beginning, she basically grew in me. I love her development - how she came into realizations and how she basically accepted everything in the end. Her reason for keeping up with the popular crowd was later on explored in the novel. I initially ended up raging and complaining about everything but thinking rationally, I thought that everything that happened - what she did, her parents did - are quite natural reactions and maybe a form of an emotional self-defense.
Aside from Nicole's exploration of the people around her, there's the mystery of what happened to her. Why is her body in the woods and bleeding to death? Who did that to her? This aspect of the story isn't very surprising. There was a decent and obvious point outs to the culprit. And while what he did was really stupid, I completely understand him.
I LOVE the ending. I think that it sums up Nicole's development, realizations. I find it sweet. I even ended up looking really stupid because of the smile I'm making as I read through just because everything was so sweet and cheesy!!
OVERALL, The Space Between Heartbeats is a cliche yet really wonderful novel. It's such a delight reading it even though I had mixed feelings for Nicole. Dale is such a book-boyfriend worthy guy! The Space Between Heartbeats is a recommended read for YA contemporary lovers and those who enjoy the death-ghost-wondering-on-Earth novels.
* * *
What I Like: (1) Nicole's development, (2) Dale, the sweet dorky guy :P, (3) it's quite easy to feel for Nicole, (4) the development of the mystery, while predictable, I think that it was well played out, (5) the sweet romance between Nicole and Dale :3
What I Didn’t Like: (1) who Nicole was - just because she's annoying. ugh, (2) I know that the novel is really trying to emotionally move me but I didn't cry or even shed a tear. nope. nada!
~I received this book in exchange for an honest review~
let's connect!
