Heartbeat

by Elizabeth Scott

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/04/heartbeat-by-elizabeth-scott.html
Heartbeat is an incredibly emotional journey about letting go, healing and learning to live again. Emma has never felt more alone, the only person she felt ever truly loved her, is being kept alive by the man who was supposed to have loved her. Stepfather Dan has raised Emma as his own child and the small family unit was happy, healthy and safe. After two years of trying, Dan was thrilled to become a father, but Emma believes her mother only wanted the baby to satisfy Dan, and was scared to go through another pregnancy at her age. So when Emma's mother died, Dan made the decision to keep her mother's body alive and Emma is incredibly angry.

Emma deal with her grief through anger, she's angry with Dan for assuming he knew what Emma's mother wanted, and she's angry at her unborn half brother. She cares about little other than how she feels and has shut Dan out of her life. Under any other circumstance, Emma's character would be highly criticised, but she's distraught and her pain and inner conflict are confronting and raw. Her pain leaps off each pain and I found it irritating, emotional and equally as distressing. It isn't until she starts spending time with Caleb, that she begins to find an outlet and can breath again.

Caleb isn't without his own issues, and is justified in his own rage. He doesn't want to fix Emma, nor take her pain away. He simply offers comfort and support and shows Emma that she isn't alone. I liked Emma well enough, but her behavior became tedious annoying. She's grieving, but as other character also mentions, she uses that to justify her anger and how she treats her loving step father is deplorable. But Elizabeth Scott is incredibly clever, she's created Emma who the majority of readers will want to throttle, but given she's deeply grieving, most readers won't criticise her character. When your grieving, most people will excuse your behavior, and Heartbeat won't be any different.

But I really enjoyed it, despite Emma. It was incredibly raw and confronting and brought a maturity to the young adult genre rarely seen with most new releases.