-Blog Tour Stop, Review- In a Heartbeat by Teodora Kostova

Excited, excited, excited for my stop on this blog tour!

I read the book as soon as I got my digital copy and boy what a surprise!

Anyway, I'm just about to share my thoughts on it ;)

Check it out and don't miss all the OTHER STOPS

*** Stella

“I’ve been in and out of hospitals for the past ten months. I’ve had half my liver removed and even though this time the doctors are very optimistic that they’ve removed all of the tumours, they can’t be sure. In another three months they want me here again for a check up. Right now I feel better than I’ve ever felt. I know the damn thing is gone, at least for the moment. Despite that, I can’t make any plans for the future, not yet. I need to go somewhere where nobody knows me, where I can relax and maybe even forget about all this. Where I can meet people who don’t think of me as the girl who lost her father and her brother in a car accident, and who has cancer. I want to have fun, even if it’s for a couple of months.”

When Stella decides to visit her estranged cousin Lisa in Genoa, she has no idea Italy will give her a new reason to live.

Max

“Her gaze locked on a scene so beautiful, the picturesque beach paled in comparison. A lifeguard emerged from the water, his orange trunks stuck to his legs and water dripping all over him. He shook his head to get rid of some of the water in his hair and Stella felt as if everything started developing in slow motion – tiny drops of water slid from his neck down his broad chest and muscular arms, along a weaving tattoo on his right shoulder, and continued downwards towards his chest and washboard stomach, finally getting lost in the waistband of his trunks. A part of another tattoo peeked over his trunks on his left hip, the other part hidden under them. It was a total Baywatch moment.”

Their love is epic. But there are too many things keeping them apart.

“How could you keep this from me, Lisa? If you had told me the first day I met him, I would have avoided him like the plague. Nothing would have happened between us.”

“I kept your secrets, too, Stella.”

Are Max and Stella strong enough to fight not only for their love, but for their lives? ***

********

My Thoughts?

I never tire to fall in love with books, with their characters, with the authors' writing... Everything.

When I picked up this book and read those first pages I knew I was in for a ride, a torturous, sad yet magical ride.

I love that the book had 2 POVs, I always have enjoyed contemporary books that are told from both the main character plus another one. It doesn't necessarily have to be the love interest, a best friend, a mother... Any can do as long as I get a double insight which means double the awesome.

The main character Stella, while not as relatable to me, I think a lot of girls out there will be able to make the connection sooner and definitely so much more deeply than I did since I've never had to go through what she has... But she was likable in a way that made me ache for her, trust her, believe her, and root for her.

-"I fight that fear every single day, because I don't want to spend my life not actually living it, but being afraid of it..."-

Stella was forced to grow up too soon, forced to suffer through things that no normal teenager has to suffer, see things that no girl her age is supposed to see but above all else she is forced to not get attached to anyone, not a single new person.

And that's not because she's a lonely person or a secluded one, on the contrary I felt she wanted to see so much more, wanted to be so much more, to become someone... But... Sometimes life isn't what we think it to be and fate always plays us some cruel jokes... and this time... Stella is the punch line.

Having her illness, I can feel why most people give up, why most simply stop fighting. Because there is so much more than just the sick person, the medics, the medicines and a clinic... There's the family, the friends, the boy/man...

And Max, what an incredible surprise to a ladies man! First of all... his looks are yummy... But it's his personality that Stella and I fell for instantly. He's real, he's not afraid to show a vulnerable side, he's not shy, and he fights... Not only the physical punch-you-bye-bye though there is that... But the emotional one, the one that involves fighting and keep going and keep rooting when the person next to you, the person you care for has given up, thrown the towel... Just, stopped.

-She looked hotter than the deepest fire pit in hell.-

But he was so much more than that.

They were both fun! Both amazing! And all the other secondary characters? TO DIE FOR!!! Specially these other 2... That if I'm right... will get their own story soon -fangirls-

Lisa, Nikki... Even Stella's brother and father and mother... But... There were 2...

That really? See, 1. Gia X_X I liked her even though she doesn't have that much protagonism in the book I still felt she played a HUGE part in certain things that at the end? Led up to that awesome ending... 2. Beppe, -stunned silence-

Yeap, when a character by name alone can stun you into silence, for me? That's as good as it gets.

All in all, I loved the change of scenery, I loved to be able to travel -whereas by imagination- to Europe, to Italy... To those gorgeous places all while sitting right at home.

And I feel ever so grateful to the author for not sugar-coating anything but also giving me what I most desired for these 2. Because, real life is already too hard to deal reading about it right? But these kinds of stories, these types of characters, these kinds of friends... Everything was completely perfect, utterly perfect. I wouldn't have done it any other way.

-Wasting precious moments and over-thinking every single step was a massive waste of time.-

While at some points I thought the book was dragging things too much... When I got to a certain scene? All those thoughts went out and through the window. Making me feel all warm inside while I was crying all at the same time.

And my weaknesses! The cover is good but for me, I've seen way too many covers with the same theme, same look, same colors... I still like it though, It doesn't exactly portray what the whole book is about. And my second weakness, the book tittle?!! PERFECT doesn't even begin to cover it. It's in the book as much as it is on it! Enough said.

A read that will break your heart, open your eyes, bring tears to said eyes, make you blush, make you scream, make you tear some hairs out... All while patching you heart safe back again, making you smile like a silly person, make you hot and bothered, make you appreciate and see life in a completely different way, and make you realize that...

Is better to:

-Don't exist. Live.-

A book that'll stick with me for a long while... Opened my eyes, and even shook some sense into me,

I give this book;

5= Clouds In The Heavens READ IT!

-book provided by author in exchange of my honest review-

********

Author Bio

Hi, my name is Teodora and I live in London with my husband Ted and my son Jason. I've been writing ever since I can remember, but it became my full time job in 2010 when I decided that everything else I've tried bores me to death and I have to do what I've always wanted to do, but never had to guts to fully embrace. I've been a journalist, an editor, a personal assistant and an interior designer among other things, but as soon as the novelty of the new, exciting job wears off, I always go back to writing. Being twitchy, impatient, loud and hasty are not qualities that help a writer, because I have to sit alone, preferably still, and write for most of the day, but I absolutely love it. It's the only time that I'm truly at peace and the only thing I can do for more than ten minutes at a time - my son has a bigger attention span than me.

When I'm procrastinating, I like to go to the gym, cook Italian meals (and eat them), read, listen to rock music, watch indie movies and True Blood re-runs. Or, in the worst case scenario, get beaten at every Wii game by a five year old.

Stalk Teodora!

Series blog:

In a Heartbeat Goodreads

Get it!

Amazon UK

Amazon US