. Rumor Has It: Tour Stop! Review, Excerpt, Giveaway: Inbetween

YAY! Tara Fuller's Inbetween Blog Tour stops at Rumor Has it today! We have a Rumor Has It review, an Inbetween excerpt and an Inbetween Blog Tour Giveaway! Thank you to Shane @ Itching For Books for allowing Rumor Has It to participate in this tour and thank you to Entangled Teen for providing an ARC.

Inbetween by Tara Fuller

Genre: YA

It's Raining Men! 2012 Challenge

4 of 5 Stars

Goodreads Says: Since the car crash that took her father’s life three years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky — and unending — lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.

It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left…his soul.

The Review

Aaaawww!

Finn spent the last 27 years in love with one girl, one soul. A decision he makes separates them but when fate places him in her path one more time, he decides that he has to make sure no harm comes to her ever again. Finn is breaking every rule in the book to be with her, to protect her, while still reaping souls who need to be transported to the Inbetween.

I really liked this world that Tara Fuller has created. Finn is that gentleman with old school values who is loyal and protective to a fault. Emma is trying to make the best of her situation and although she doesn’t know exactly what’s going on she is willing to find out and not play the victim. Cash is that best friend that loves you and will be there unconditionally. Cash is a mystery and I'm sure the next book will be his story. Easton and Anaya, again, are those best friends that are unconditionally there for you but won’t hesitate to set you straight, all the time. Maeve, well Maeve was that perfect psychotic villain.

Tara Fuller pulls off many things with this read and there is so much you can walk away with.

This is what resonated most with me:

This is an epic love story made of that slow sweet love, the kind that will forever embed itself in your soul, whose memories pop up when you least expect it to and lingers for the remainder of your existence. You are left wondering what you are willing to do and sacrifice for love. You are left wondering if a love like that is even possible anymore.

The concept of the Inbetween was interesting and once I finished the book I couldn’t help but to think about it. See the Inbetween is this place between Heaven and Hell. It’s where souls need to do the time to either be sent to Heaven or Hell. This concept is not so hard to accept or to ponder about. What I found interesting is that in this book it’s your actions leading to your death that determine where you will go and not the sum of your life actions. This concept sparked an hour long conversation where my 10 year old son, my 13 year old niece and I talked about what happens when you make one fatal choice that messes up your chances to reach utopia. Let’s just say it’s a trip to think about but I challenge you to do just that.

The plot in this story is not a complicated one. It’s not full of crazy twists and turns and frankly it didn’t need to be. It felt clean and had a very specific purpose. Finn needed to keep Allison/Emma alive. Period. Why? She has a psycho spirit after her. However, within that simplicity you find a very unique story utilizing reapers that will keep you wanting to turn the pages, promises to provoke some very interesting thoughts and will have you wishing you had the next installment in your hands.

Congrats to Tara Fuller for another wonderful story and "Good Eye" Entangled Teens. ;-)

The Excerpt

The crowd swallowed her, taking her away from me. In the distance a fire engine's siren started to wail. Easton scowled and opened his mouth to rip me apart, but the words stayed stuck there. He grabbed his scythe. " He knows," he finally choked out.

I could already feel Balthazar's pull like fire eating its way through me cell by cell, overriding the call of the dead I'd ignored to save Emma.

Two strikes against me in a matter of a minute. I was so screwed.

Easton gave in to the call, and without a word disappeared.

I held on a little longer and drifted toward the crowd. A fireman carrying a medic bag led Emma to a bench in the courtyard and checked her vital signs, while she warily looked into the crowd. She plucked a few blades of grass out of her hair and brushed her blue sweater off, her hands shaking.

I'd touched her.

She'd seen me. Talked to me.

But she hadn't remembered. I should have been thankful for that. If she ever remembered who I really was, what I'd done to her, to us... She'd hate me.

I braced my hands on my knees, unable to look away from her. My world was spinning. And it wasn't the hell I knew I was about to pay with Balthazar. It wasn't even the energy I'd spent touching her. It was knowing that everything had just changed. It was knowing there was no way I could go an eternity without that again. Balthazar's call turned to spikes in my skull blocking my thoughts.

I would have given anything to have one more moment with her. To let her know I was there. That I'd always be there. But instead, I gave in to the wind. As usual, I belonged to death.