ARC Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Heartbeat
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publication: January 28th 2014 by Harlequin Teen
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: Provided by the kind publisher...

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?

-- My Rating --

4/5 oscars: Really like it.

-- My Thoughts --

     I have only read one other book of Elizabeth Scott's, and it was a really catching and amazing story but not deep. It was cute in a happy way, but this one was much deeper and more complicated and emotional, which I loved.
     Emma's life turned upside down when her mother died. But her stepdad is keeping her alive for the baby inside her. Emma hates to see her dead mother hooked on tubes and her stepdad making that decision without her. And her new growing feelings towards Caleb, the bad-boy she would have never even thought about before.
     Elizabeth Scott tackled a very new subject that I have never read about before. Keeping a body alive when the brain is dead, for the sake of a baby inside the womb? It's a very refreshing idea and I loved how the author explained and developed it. Seeing the characters' reactions toward the whole thing in general was also new.
     The main character we see is Emma. Who is as three-dimensional as any normal person. I could hear her voice inside my head, her feelings in my heart, it was like she was just here, with me. I felt extremely close to her, and her development was obvious in the course of the novel.

     The romance is at its peak. I loved the interactions between Caleb and Emma. They are two opposites that feel like they could never get along, but they do. Their shy, emotional love story makes you remember your own love and how amazing it made you feel. The ending was amazing and it left me teary-eyed with its vulnerability and honesty. Elizabeth Scott definitely knows how to write the most real of contemporaries. And it's recommended to everyone with a soft side and a love of emotional reads!