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?
“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?
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My Thoughts:
And just like that, in a heartbeat, their lives changed forever.
Happiness is discovering an author who's work you haven't read before and falling in love with the characters they have created and the story they have woven. So after reading In a Heartbeat, I am very happy indeed!!!
In a Heartbeat started with me having a huge smile on my face. Stella is part of a wonderful happy family. But within a few pages of starting this my face no longer contained that smile. Things fell apart very quickly. From one thing to the next Stella endures way more than any girl her age should have to deal with. Cancer being one of those things. After her latest round of treatment, Stella decides to get away for a few months and go to Italy to spend time with her Cousin Lisa and her Aunt Niki. Somewhere where she's not known as the girl with cancer.
Not long after arriving, Stella is on the beach when she catches sight of the incredibly gorgeous lifeguard Max. Stella is completely captivated by him. And it turns out that he is her cousins friend and they will be spending plenty of time together. After fighting their feelings for each other it soon becomes impossible to ignore and a beautiful romance blossoms between the two of them. But always in the back of Stella's mind is the possibility of her cancer returning.
My favourite character hands down was Max. He starts out as a flirt and readily admits to the amount of girls that he's been with. But his feelings for Stella are like nothing he's ever felt before. He was so loving and sweet and caring. It was impossible not to love him. And he's definitely going on my list of book boyfriends.
He had black shorts on and nothing else. The muscles on his chest, arms and shoulders flexed with every step he took.The tattoo on his hip moved in sync with his body and at that moment all Stella wanted to do was yank his shorts down and explore it. With her mouth.
Stella was an incredibly strong character. Once she set her mind on something she was pretty hard to sway. And while I loved that about her, it was also something that frustrated me at times. I found myself silently begging her to change some of the decisions that she made.
The supporting cast was fantastic as well. I loved Stella and Lisa's mum's. They were so supportive and loving and giving. ANother character I adored was Beppe. He is Max's best friend, a complete out and out flirt but so incredibly fun and adorable!!!
Another plus for me was the inclusion of soccer (Football). Man, how much do I love that sport!!! And Liverpool like Stella to boot!!! I loved her passion for the game. Her knowledge of the sport. So wonderful to read about one of my absolute passions in a book that I loved!!
Oh and I did a little squee every time that the title of the book was used throughout the story. I love when an author does that!!
While there is an amazing amount of wonderful romance in this book. It was so much more than that. FIlled with so many deep and real situations, In a Heartbeat was such a great, well written read. I will definitely be reading book two in the series.
Fight for what you really want and never, ever settle for anything less.
Don't exist. Live.
4.5/5 I Love Max Stars!!
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.
GIVEAWAY: There will be three winners who will each win an eBook of In a Heartbeat and a signed bookmark.
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Well, this is the first time i hear of the book but it looks very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover and the title, too
Definitely some hot romance, there
Your reader,
Soma
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