Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott
Expected Release Date: Jan. 28, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed by: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher but it did not influence this review in any way.*

My rating: 3 stars out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Life. Death. And...Love?
Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.
But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.
Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma - the one who exist in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is best friend Olivia - New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.
Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death - and maybe, for love?

       From reading the synopsis I knew going in that I was going to get my heart broken. But I welcomed it because sometimes I need to read sad and angsty, break-my-heart-into-million-of-little-pieces book to have my heart be slowly put together. So a few pages into the book and I'm already feeling the angst and anger that the main character, Emma, is experiencing.

However, after a few chapters, my patience with Emma and her attitude towards her stepfather, Dan, was wearing thin. At first, I was sympathetic with her grief and her anger but after her insistence that she knew best about what her mother wanted and how Dan was wrong, it became irritating. She proclaimed that Dan didn't love her or her mom and that he only cared about his unborn child but I never saw that. Instead, all we got was flashbacks of Dan being nothing but a devoted husband and stepfather. So she continued to lash out against him but she never sat down to talk to him, which made sense considering what we learn towards the end. However, by that point, I just found her to be a self-centered, spoiled brat so it was a little too late. 

The story line with Caleb was very touching. And while they're both dealing with such powerful emotions that can hurt the "newness" of the relationship, I liked how being together bought them closer and in turn, they became alive. It was really interesting learning about Caleb and his family and how Emma reacted to how he was being treated. However, I don't think she ever made the connection of how Caleb was being treated by his parents to how she was treating Dan so I was a little bothered by that. 

Overall, I liked the book and the story but I just couldn't click with Emma.  I also found some plot holes in Emma's mom pregnancy that had me scratching my head, wondering if I missed something. While it meant to be a touching and sad story, my heart was left intact and not broken in million little pieces I was expecting.