Blog Tour + Giveaway: Between by Jessica Warman

A huge thanks goes to the publisher for providing me with an ARC for this blog tour.

Title: Between

Author: Jessica Warman

Summary: (goodreads) Elizabeth Valchar --- pretty, popular and rich --- wakes up the morning after her 18th birthday on the yacht where she’d been celebrating with her closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, she finds her own drowned body is hitting the side of the boat. Liz is dead. She has no memory of what happened to her, and can only observe in horror the fallout of her death.

She’s also soon joined by Alex Berg, a quiet boy from her high school who was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The two keep each other company, floating in and out of memories and trying to piece together the details of what happened to each of them.

In her regular life, Liz was a runner. It wasn’t abnormal for her to run 8-10 miles per day. But as memories from closer to her death begin to surface, Liz finds that she’d been running much more than normal, and that she’d all but stopped eating. Liz’s mother, who died when Liz was nine, had battled with anorexia as well, and those around her worried that Liz was following in her mother’s footsteps. But something more sinister was consuming Liz from the inside out...

Review: Mysteries? I love mysteries. And this was a pretty interesting book combining many different threads such as moving on, accepting the truth, life after death and forgiving oneself. I was kind of expecting it to be more action-driven which is why I may seem a little let down by the pace, but this was a really great "thinking" novel and I loved it overall.

So my favorite aspect was the mystery surrounding Liz's death and it pretty much is what drives the story. Although I guessed at the resolution a little early on, there were plenty of twists that I wasn't expecting and little details that I knew meant something, but I didn't know what. I make it sound so ambiguous, but I don't want to spoil the story.

The truth was complicated and I think that is a big part of what made the entire book seem so realistic. I could label it Realistic Fiction instead of supernatural because the voice and idea of life after death that Warman constructed was completely natural. That was the most amazing part of Between. I can see it happening. Like a narrative.

Except for maybe Alex (it could be argued), all of the characters were flawed in some way. Completely, shockingly flawed considering their lifestyles. And I suppose that their huge flaws made them as human as you or me. The ARC describes the book as "one that is also a heartbreaking character study" and I agree with that statement to the fullest. The eight main characters in this book were created with unique talents and weaknesses, putting together a complex cast and story line allowing the reader to forge a connection to each person even if their situations were a bit on the die hard side.

My only complaint for this novel is that although Liz was supposed to grow as a person now that she is dead, she started out completely and utterly annoying. I didn't comprehend her stupidity! But this isn't a bad thing actually, because having a reaction is another sign of a good book. Personally, I would have like a more active mode of writing, because the essential parts took place in memories which were in the past while the present was just so melancholy.

I admit that I cried during this book. To be let into Liz's world and Caroline's world and Richie's was difficult. I think these three characters were the most alive and broken at the same time. I can say that I will remember them for a long time because of the impact they had. But if I had to choose, my favorite would be Alex, because I can relate to him the most and he was the best.

Rating: 1 2 3 3.5 4 5

Visit Jessica Warman's site: http://jessicawarman.com/

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Contest ends September 5th, 2011. Good luck :)