Between The Notes
by Sharon Huss Roat
Published on June 16th 2015
by HarperTeen
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Goodreads
When Ivy Emerson’s family loses their house—complete with her beloved piano—the fear of what’s to come seizes her like a bad case of stage fright. Only this isn’t one of her single, terrifying performances. It’s her life.
And it isn’t pretty.
Ivy is forced to move with her family out of their affluent neighborhood to Lakeside, also known as “the wrong side of the tracks.” Hiding the truth from her friends—and the cute new guy in school, who may have secrets of his own—seems like a good idea at first. But when a bad boy next door threatens to ruin everything, Ivy’s carefully crafted lies begin to unravel . . . and there is no way to stop them.
As things get to the breaking point, Ivy turns to her music, some unlikely new friends, and the trusting heart of her disabled little brother. She may be surprised that not everyone is who she thought they were . . . including herself.
Debut author Sharon Huss Roat crafts a charming and timely story of what happens when life as you know it flips completely upside down.
I really liked this book! I didn’t love it, but I enjoyed it. I think the best way to describe how I felt is underwhelmed. I expected more than I got and while this is not a bad book at all, it wasn’t amazing either.
Between the Notes is about Ivy Emerson. Due to financial problems, she and her family have to move to a smaller house in Lakeside, the neighborhood known as “the wrong side of the tracks”. She hides the truth from her friends, but then the bad boy next door threatens to ruin everything. When her lies start to unravel, she turns to her music and some unlikely new friends.
This could have been sooo amazing! But I was so underwhelmed. I think my biggest problems with this book are the romance and the main character. I liked Ivy and in the second half of the book, after she finally comes clean about her move and everything, I started liking her better, but the first half of the book I was so annoyed by her! She acted like a snob sometimes. She looked down on everyone in her new neighborhood and I was really irritated by her attitude. But she grew a lot and in the end I did like her.
The romance is weird… At first it seems simple. A cute romance between her and the “bad boy” next door. But it’s not. There’s another new guy in school. Her best friend Reesa wants him but Ivy ends up liking him and going on a date and I didn’t like that romance at all. Friends before boyfriends, right? But then it turns into this double love triangle with the boy next door. I did like that romance, but it was kind of annoying too. I think this was mainly because I didn’t like Ivy. I wanted her to make up her mind because I knew right from the start how this was going to end.
I did like the overall story and the message it sends. I liked the other characters. Molly is awesome, Lennie is soooooo sweet and Brady is just the cutest thing ever. I hated Willow and the other one.. Can’t remember her name. Reesa was okay but I didn’t really like her most of the time.
In the end I wanted more of the Ivy that’s a great singer and amazing piano player with stagefright. I liked that girl. A lot. Between the Notes is a cute and kind of sweet story that I did enjoy in the end. I recommend it to fans of contemporary romance.
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It’s a shame you didn’t love the romance and the MC, the premise does sound interesting,
A lovely review! Sharon – Obsession with Books
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
Thank you!
While this sounds like a promising enough book, I am not sure about reading it myself. I just have too many books on my TBR to read something that is ‘underwhelming’ . I strive for books that will blow me away, even though of course they don’t always. Thank you for your informative review. Well done!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
I’m the same. I always try to pick books that I’m sure to love. Or at least I expect to love. That’s why I always check with a couple of my friends whom I share a very similar opinion on most books with.