Title: Between
Author: Jessica Warman
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Walker and Company
Number of Pages: 464
Source: My copy
Elizabeth Valchar-pretty, popular, and perfect-wakes up the morning after her eighteenth birthday party on her family's yacht, where she'd been celebrating with her six closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, what she finds will change everything she thought she knew about her life, her friends, and everything in between. As Liz begins to unravel the circumstances surrounding her birthday night, she will find that no one around her, least of all Liz herself, was perfect-or innocent. (goodreads)
A Big thank you to Melissa from the blog I Swim For Oceans for mentioning this book in a blog post. For some reason it just called out to me and I purchased it on a whim. I sat down to read it on a day I was really tired, and before I knew had half of the book read. This book is so good that it can actually be read in one sitting. I read this on my kindle, and when I learned it was around 500 pages long, I couldn't believe that I read it as fast as I did.
This is one of those rare young adult books that just pulls you right in from the beginning and doesn't let go until you finish. This book has a little bit of everything romance, mystery, teen drama, and makes you realize that being perfect has its price. Liz is such a unique heroine, because her faults are ripped open for examination, and it's not pretty. The characters in the book just came alive for me, and I could feel their pain as if I were experiencing it.
There are a lot of mature themes (drugs, alcohol, anxeroia) that go on this book, and it is definitely one for the older YA crowd, and wouldn't recommend it for young readers. My heart just ached for Liz and everything that she went through. There is a mystery surrounding Liz, and I have to say that I was in denial about everything until it was staring me right in the face. There are a lot of surprises in this book, and I loved how everything came together in the end. I was screaming a bit, ok a lot at the villain and loved how karma worked it's magic.
Between reminded me a lot of the Christopher Pike books I devoured when I was a teen. Words really can't say how much I loved this book. The end had me wishing that this was one book that wasn't a stand alone book. I can not wait to read more by Jessica Warman.
Edited to add: Blogger was giving me fits about everything, so that is why the book info looks funky.
