*I received a free copy of [title] from [publisher] via Author. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *The Ocean Between Us dealt with quite a few very dark themes, and some of the things that happened made me cry with both sadness and anger. However, there was so much sweet to counteract the bad!
Story:
The Ocean Between us started with showing me that Emma had the childhood from hell! With a mother who abused her, both verbally and physically, she felt trapped. In a life she didn't want. In a house where she wasn't welcome. And in her mind, where she had started to believe everything her mom told her she was or wasn't. Until one day she packed her bags and left South Africa for the US.
Aiden was one of those characters that seemed dangerous on the surface, but who was wholesome and real beneath. I loved how he and Em got to know each other in The Ocean Between Us. Of course, nothing was easy - and the suspense was well done. The atagonists were the kind of villains everybody hate, but they weren't flat or without interest anyway.
The darkness in The Ocean Between Us was very dark. And it didn't come only from Emma's past, there was more of it in her present as well. And the way she developed as a character was astounding. I also really enjoyed how Aiden helped her become stronger, but she also was strong without having him at her back. That made her even more real as a character in my opinion. I'm putting the rest of this series on my TBR list, because I definitely need more.