***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: Elizabeth Scott

Title: Heart Beat
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Series: n/a
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source: received from publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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?

A couple years ago I read Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott and I really liked it. So when I saw Heart Beat on NetGalley I couldn't resist.

I would honestly give it about a 3 ½ stars. I did really enjoy it but Emma got on my nerves a lot. You see the problem with reading young adult sometimes, is the mature side of you wants to slap these teens silly. I think I liked Between Here and Forever a little better, but once again Scott didn't disappoint. I could not put this one down, even though Emma drove me nuts.

To an extent I could see where she was coming from. This is an interesting situation. Her mother dies while pregnant. Her body is being kept alive to sustain the fetus until it is old enough to survive outside the womb. Emma does not believe her mother would have wanted this and she harbors a whole lot of hate towards her step father for making that decision without her. Well, obviously her mother would want that. Maybe it's obvious to me because I'm a mother? Not only does she have this unhealthy anger towards her step dad, she refuses to acknowledge that the baby is her future sibling.

Pretty much the whole story is her working out her feelings over her moms passing. Which is very hard to do when she's still visiting her moms body. How do you find closure doing that? It's not very easy I'm sure, so that was her only saving grace in my eyes.

Heart Beat isn't all doom and gloom though, along the way Emma builds a relationship with a boy she probably never would have talked to had all of this not gone down. They understand each other and the love that blooms between them is sweet.

I did really like Heart Beat. Reading this reminded me I have a few more of Scott's books on my shelf that I should really get to sooner than later.

About the author:

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Hey there, I'm Elizabeth. I write young adult novels. I live just outside Washington DC with my
husband and dog, and am unable to pass a bookstore without stopping and going inside. All right, and I can't leave without buying at least one book. Usually two. (Or more!)

Find Elizabeth:

Website | Twitter |Goodreads