Book Review: Between Here and Forever

Between Here and Forever
by Elizabeth Scott
258 pages - Hardcover
Expected publication date: May 24th 2011 by Simon Pulse
Source: ARC from Simon & Schuster Galley Grab

Summary: (from Goodreads)

Abby accepted that she can’t measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby’s life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it’s nothing compared to living without her.

She’s got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she’d never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn’t always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could..

Review:

Between Here and Forever is a powerful novel that delves deeply into the topics of sexuality, racial discrimination and self-acceptance. Abby has been living in the shadow of her sister, Tess, for all her life. In Abby's eyes, Tess is the most perfect girl in town. She has learned how to deal with having a sister who is loved by everyone. That is, by accepting that she is nothing compared to Tess. Although she claims that she is perfectly contented with who she is, it is clear that she is insecure and tries to hide it by flat out downgrading herself.

She also claims that she hates her sister; how she always gets everybody's attention, including the first boy she ever loved. Which could be true but despite whatever she says, it is obvious that she truly loves her sister. She does everything to make her sister wake up; bringing a good-looking boy to her hospital room and making him talk to her. As if his swoon-inducing voice could make her sister magically open her eyes and start conversing with him.

Between Here and Forever has a lot of depth and surprising turn of events, but despite that, this book didn't quite work out well enough for me. The characters and plot were okay. Eli and Abby are not the most likable characters there is. The atmosphere in this book is quite gloomy as well. I didn't like how Abby always sees the worse in herself. Like when Eli told her that Clement called her a 'firecracker', she thought Clement just compared her to 'a thing that people blow up on holidays'. Or when Eli compared her to a dragon, she thought '[I] ...got called a big scaly-firebreathing monster'. It's amusing at first but when you find out that she's actually serious, it suddenly gets annoying..

But nevertheless, the story in its entirety is still worth the read. I finished this in a little over than four hours. This is my third Scott book and although it didn't quite reach my expectations, I'm still on the look out for her future works. And as well as past.

Rating: 3/5 stars

*This e-ARC was provided by the publisher (Simon & Schuster via S&S Galley Grab) in exchange for an honest review.