AUSTRALIAN BLOG TOUR - REVIEW & EXCERPT - BETWEEN THE LIVES by JESSICA SHIRVINGTON - HARPER COLLINS - 5 BEAUTIFUL ETHAN STARS

Click Here to see the blog tour stops

May 3rd cuddlebuggery.com

Monday, May 6th — Treasured Tales for Young Adults

Wednesday, May 8th — Novels on the Run

Friday, May 10th — Forget Me Not

Monday, May 13th — Speculating on Spec Fic

Wednesday, May 15th — YA Midnight Reads

Friday, May 17th — Book Probe Reviews

Monday, May 20th — Vegan YA Nerds

Wednesday, May 22nd — The Book Twins

Friday, May 24th — Paperback Princess

Today is Novels On The Run's stop on the Between The Lives blog tour. I have my review and a great excerpt for you to read. I really loved the whole idea of this book and the cover designer did a wonderful job. Feel the cover and you can feel a shiny and a matt surface. Some lives are shinier than others. Jessica wrote an awesome story that I loved. It is stand alone. Check out the other blogs on the tour as there are some giveaways too. Throw this one up onto you TBR pile.

Enjoy!

Michelle

By: Jessica Shirvington
Published By: Harper Collins
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from Publisher for review , 336 Pages

RATING : 5 BEAUTIFUL ETHAN STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

‘But if you truly want to know, I’ll tell you. Another time.’

If you could live two lives simultaneously, would it be a gift or a curse?

Sabine is doing just that. Midnight every night she leaves one life, one family, one social life and all that comes with it and falls back into her other family, her other social life and friendships.

How would you cope doing that? Your whole ,entire life.

Having one set of parents who are vastly different to the other set of parents, what would that do to you? The juggling act of lives.

Would it be cheating having a boyfriend in each life at the same time?

The future that you have to look forward to, when you are older. Husbands, children.......the list goes on....in two lives.

Or lonely in one life to be complete in another?

How would you cope when you could not stop what was happening to you?

There is no guide book, nobody else about to talk to.... to understand, who wouldn't  think you had stepped off the cray cray bus if you tried to tell them. 

11.59pm ...57...58...59 secs

.....Bam!

You wake up in your Wellesley life and continue your day with no gap, no time to stop and think but carry on where you left off even if at midnight you were kissing your boyfriend...mid kiss!

Mid tongue.

24 hours later....

11.59pm ....57..58..59 seconds

.... Bam!

You are now back in Boston living your Roxbury life, with your little sister Maddie.

When does the day really end for you?

When do you get a real goodnight’s sleep?

When does it become too much and you start experimenting and doing things to your body to prove theories you have, asking yourself questions, what does each life take with it?

Jessica brought a captivating, dangerous , heart felt story to me, with twists, in, ‘Between The Lives.’ She showed me through Sabine’s eyes how hard it was to live this way. We never find out why Sabine was so special that she was given this gift or curse to live out. From birth she has lived this way. Every midnight one life returns you to the previous life and exactly where you left it.

Exact second.

Sabine is turning 18. She is growing up, noticing rules are being broken. The rules she was used to are showing signs of being different. Or maybe she just got older, wiser and started questioning her life/lives and wanting answers. Seeing her surroundings clearer.

She is so tired of being the only one in on the secret.

Wanting it to stop.

Needing one life.

But how do you choose which?

Which family?

Which set of friends? 

What I loved about this story was Jessica kept me intrigued and the pages turned. You will fall into one characters arms.


The sub characters in each of her families and social lives were very different. Brothers in one life who didn’t really show a lot of interest in Sabine, her wealthy life in Wellesley, a mother who is into picking the perfect dress, expensive cars, graduation parties and hormones that are bursting. 

Then you have the other life, the life in which Sabine meets a boy named Ethan.

Ethan is a beautiful character, a deep character.

You will love Ethan J

‘I’m so alone,’ I stammered, feeling empty and cold as everything went black around the edges.

‘You’re not alone, Sabine,’ he whispered. ‘You’re lost.’


‘This is me trusting you.’


‘So you have a type then?’ I asked, teasing despite my racing heart.

He tilted his head towards me, amusement playing in his eyes. ‘No, I’ve always been more interested in finding a one-of-a-kind.’


‘I can see right through you, Sabine,’ he murmured in my ear, pulling me closer, his wintergreen fragrance enveloping me.


Capri is a great friend I liked her. She brought humor and loyalty.

‘Come on , Sabs, what’s the deal? You holding out for Mr Sweep-you-off-your-feet or something? Or are you holding out for me? Cause you know...’

I smacked her again, but I was laughing. ‘You wish.’

She was still looking at me, wanting an answer. I groaned. ‘I don’t know, Cap, I just don’t like anyone like that at the moment.’ I gave her a stern look to emphasize my point, since I was pretty sure Capri was happy to swing either way. ‘But when I do, it will be a guy.’


Sabine is finding herself in a bit of a pickle in more ways than one and it leads her to make decisions and test her theories with dangerous heart pumping experiments.

Gahhh!!

One life was wealth and parties and Dex, the other life was more serious, and I think the life I personally enjoyed reading the most.

At one stage I got this stab of fear that I couldn’t shake. I could see where Jessica was taking me, but in saying that, Jessica also threw in these twists I didn’t see coming.

This I liked!

For what I saw coming, I got curveballed along the way.

Double thumbs up to Jessica.

I’m not going to lie, this book will bring all sorts of emotions out in you. I even had a girlie cry.

Oh yes, I blubbered.

I felt angst and Jessica even had me looking between my fingers, shouting ‘NOOoOOooooo.....’

‘Need someone to know me,’ I murmured. Begged. Because we both knew he still hadn’t answered my question.

‘Why?’ he asked, his voice breaking.

‘Cause no one ever has.’ 

I love feeling a book and Jessica will do that to you. She will make you think about Sabine’s actions and would we have done it any differently? 

Don’t judge until you are in that same position.

Sabine is an intelligent character, a thinker who wants to change her lives, but even she didn’t see that coming.

Well done Jessica J

Michelle

EXCERPT

This scene is from the end of chapter four. Sabine is hosting a party at her Wellesley home but as it nears midnight she is trying desperately to find somewhere private to shift between her two lives.


I picked up the pace, heart racing. Only one option left. I headed for the basement door through the kitchen, passing an almost topless chick I did not, thank god, recognise surrounded by three guys I did recognise trying to talk her into letting them do shots off her. I threw them a disgusted look before I pushed through the door and stumbled down the stairs in the dark. I just needed to find somewhere quiet. Midnight was only a few minutes away and I needed to be at least sitting down. I felt around in the dark, my arm jerking away when it caught on something sharp. I gasped, feeling the sting, and grabbed at my arm, trying to see how bad it was.

The door at the top of the stairs opened, spearing just enough light into the room to glimpse the blood beading from the cut on my forearm. I looked up in time to see the light disappear behind someone who had let the door close behind him.

‘Sabine?’

Shit. It was Dex. I considered not answering, holding my breath and pretending no one was home. But he’d obviously seen me come in. Hell, he could probably hear my pounding heart from where he was. Could things get any more out of control?

‘Down here. I’m just ... I’m ...’ Just hiding in the basement in the pitch dark so I can Shift between my two lives in private.

‘Needed a minute?’ he suggested.

I considered telling him about my arm to distract him, but quickly ruled it out – he’d just insist on taking me up to the kitchen to clean it. The Shift was so close I wanted to be sick. ‘Yeah. I’m just ... you know. I’ll be back up in a minute.’ But then I half jumped, because he’d followed my voice and was right in front of me. His arms slid around my waist. ‘Ah, Dex ...’

‘Shh. I know you don’t want to tonight. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do other ... things.’ His hand slid up my side, grazing the edge of my breast. I fought back the urge to swat his arm away.

‘Dex, I just ... I think I’m drunk,’ I tried, which was true and not helping at all at that moment. I knew I only had about a minute left to get out of the situation, but my stupid mind wouldn’t work. My airways felt like they were closing in on me.

I wriggled a bit, but since Dex chose that instant to move closer, he interpreted it in the very wrong way.

His voice deepened. ‘I’m good to wait until you’re ready, but just so you know ... I’m ready whenever you are.’

Evidently.

I opened my mouth to tell him I needed to be alone, but I was too slow and his mouth was on mine and suddenly I was up against something uncomfortable.

Oh no. No, no, no. This isn’t happening. But it was. On second four, his hand tightened on my waist ... and I Shifted.