Genre: Contemporary
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: January 28, 2014
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?
I've been dying for Heartbeat since about June last year. It sounded sweet, it sounded heartbreaking, and I'm always one for a good girl/bad boy romance and contemporary standalone. And I tried to love the book, I really did. But I couldn't get past the hypocrisy and annoying character and thoughtless actions, no matter how much I wanted to love this story.
My main problem with the story was Emma. I just felt like she was so hypocritical when she kept going on and on about how Dan (her stepfather) didn't know what her mom would want while, at the same time, saying how her mother wouldn't have wanted this then going to "Well she can't do/say anything now. She's dead." It just made me want to slap her because how could she not realize how much pain Dan was going through? What made me want to slap her even more was that she hurt Dan as much as she could. Of course she couldn't just ignore him right? She had to give him even more grief about keeping his own son alive.
I didn't really get her side. I did sort of understand how painful it must've been, but I just didn't understand why the hell she would think her mom would want the baby she sacrificed herself for to die? How could she think her mother would want the child to die and how could she think it was selfish of Dan to want to keep his son, her brother, alive. It made me so angry that she wanted the baby to die (at a certain point) and then suddenly contradict herself. Or at least, that's how it seemed to me.
There were times Emma seemed like an okay character, but that wasn't very often and she really just annoyed me.
The romance was...interesting. So I wasn't quite the biggest fan of it because I felt like it was really rushed--but I do think that for such a short story that it was pretty well paced, though I still wasn't wholly satisfied by it.
Despite all my misgivings though, Heartbeat seems to be a pretty well loved novel and the feel of the novel is actually pretty New Adult, so if you're a fan of NA, I definitely think this could be one of your next favorites!
My main problem with the story was Emma. I just felt like she was so hypocritical when she kept going on and on about how Dan (her stepfather) didn't know what her mom would want while, at the same time, saying how her mother wouldn't have wanted this then going to "Well she can't do/say anything now. She's dead." It just made me want to slap her because how could she not realize how much pain Dan was going through? What made me want to slap her even more was that she hurt Dan as much as she could. Of course she couldn't just ignore him right? She had to give him even more grief about keeping his own son alive.
I didn't really get her side. I did sort of understand how painful it must've been, but I just didn't understand why the hell she would think her mom would want the baby she sacrificed herself for to die? How could she think her mother would want the child to die and how could she think it was selfish of Dan to want to keep his son, her brother, alive. It made me so angry that she wanted the baby to die (at a certain point) and then suddenly contradict herself. Or at least, that's how it seemed to me.
There were times Emma seemed like an okay character, but that wasn't very often and she really just annoyed me.
The romance was...interesting. So I wasn't quite the biggest fan of it because I felt like it was really rushed--but I do think that for such a short story that it was pretty well paced, though I still wasn't wholly satisfied by it.
Despite all my misgivings though, Heartbeat seems to be a pretty well loved novel and the feel of the novel is actually pretty New Adult, so if you're a fan of NA, I definitely think this could be one of your next favorites!
This is the second review of this book I have read
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a lot have problems with Emma, but the thing is, Nikki, I didn't
I read this a long while ago, the ARC, my review is on my blog if you wanna check it out
I really liked the book but Emma, I felt with her and connected with her, but not exactly loved her
I loved the book, though
Your reader,
Soma
http://insomnia-of-books.blogspot.com/
Yeah I've seen a few negative reviews for this book and I was recently approved for it. But since it was midterm time, I ended up deciding to just put the book down because the beginning was kind of rubbing me the wrong way with how much of an attitude she had towards her dad, like you said.
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