“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 tumors, 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
Their love is epic. But there are too many things keeping them apart.
Stella looses her brother, father and uncle in a devastating car accident that tears her family apart at the age of twelve, six years later she is diagnosed with liver cancer and under goes 2 surgeries to save her life how much tragedy can one family face. Stella just wants to have one epic summer to forget everything, have fun, hook up forget that she is “the girl who lost half her family” “the girl who has cancer” Stella makes plans to visit her best friend/cousin Lisa in Italy for the summer, upon her arrival her first walk on the Italian beach ends up turning her life upside down which excites and terrifies her at the same time.
I really liked the story the pacing was good, the sudden switch of POV from Stella to Max threw me off a little at first, but I quickly got over that. Stella and Max have great chemistry; they are attracted to one another they can’t stay away from each other even though Stella is continually pushing him away. The love scenes are hot without being dirty or extremely graphic. I would have loved to delve a little more into some of the other characters but it wasn’t their story to tell so I was content with Stella and Max. Once again Kostova has done a great job, this is the perfect beach read for summer time.
I gave this book a 4 out of 5 star rating
I was gifted a reviewers copy of In A Heartbeat by the author in exchange for an honest unbiased review.