I've been reading some fairly heavy chunksters this year. So when one of my reps gave me a ARC of Elizabeth Scott's latest YA book this week, I found myself drawn in.Heart Beat is full of teen angst & issues a la Jodi Picoult.
Emma's voice feels authentic and likeable despite her pain and anger and grief.
Her mother has just died, but is being kept 'alive' on life support for the sake of an unborn baby.
Emma feels left out of the decision making process and becomes estranged from her step-father.
Her anger becomes self-destructive as she gradually fails her subjects at school & begins hanging out with the wrong kind of people, including bad boy Caleb.Emma's voice gets a little annoying by the end & it seems to take her a long time to work out a few home truths, but hey, most people I know fail to see what's right under their noses in the real world!
You can probably predict how this will end, but the predictable happy ending doesn't stop this book from being an entertaining, issue-based story with a little romance.
Heart Beat is due for release in March through Harlequin Australia.
I haven't heard of this author, or the new book before Brona. Interesting to read your review. I would have thought that the background story of the mother being kept alive was too preposterous to be convincing, but there is a case of that happening right now in America (Texas maybe I forget). It's nice to have a break of style of book every once in a while- variety being the spice of life and all that.
ReplyDeleteYes, the book references the other case and the author cites this story as her motivation for writing the book.
DeleteIt's the kind of romance with issues I would have enjoyed as a teen :-)
There must have been more than one case of this! There has been a case in the media in the last week or so.
ReplyDeleteHi Brona, look forward to your Ausread link up. Great idea.
ReplyDelete