Friday, March 28, 2014

Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge 2014: March - Urban Fantasy ~ Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington



This year Readers Live A Thousand LivesCorrie The Book Crazed Girl, and Lovin' Los Libros have teamed up to host the Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge! For this challenge, the goal is to mix up the genres/categories we read. We have all had those times when we have gotten stuck in the genre/category we are currently reading and read nothing else for a while. The goal here is to mix that up! Each month a different genre/category will be featured and the goal is to read and review one book or more in that genre/category during that month.


For March the genre / category is ~ Urban Fantasy

My Choice:

Between the Lives

by 
Jessica Shirvington



Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is... 

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?



My Thoughts:


I came across Between the Lives a while back while browsing in a bookstore and became immediately intrigued by the blurb. It is an amazing story of love, loss and coming to terms with a life that is uniquely different. Yes, living in two parallel worlds is a fantasy, but Jessica has done a great job of making it seem real and possible.

Since the day she can first remember, Sabine has led two lives. One in a world where everything seems perfect, and the other in a world where hardship plagues her. She doesn't know why its happening and there is no one she trusts enough to ask. Jumping back and forth between the lives is taking it's toll on her and she would like nothing more than for it to end.

'"I want to know that if I drift off to sleep by accident one day, I'll wake up in the same place. I want to live each day once, the best that I can live it."

Then one day, something happens which gives her hope that there might be a way to terminate one life so that she can lead the other in peace. Using what she has discovered to guide her, she performs a series of experiments which are not altogether safe, and from the outside, make her appear suicidal (which I strongly point out is not the case). Unfortunately though, the father in her less perfect world discovers what she is doing and has her imprisoned in a medical clinic. While there, she meets a young man - Ethan. Ethan is a beautiful character, and the only one who is willing to listen to Sabine and believe that there might be some truth in what she tells him.

As you can probably guess, Sabine and Ethan fall in love and it is that love and Ethan's acceptance of the truth which finally convinces her to appreciate the two lives she has and not the single life she thought she craved.

Not meaning to give away any spoilers, I will say that the ending is a little tragic (and I, who rarely cries, even shed a tear). However, having said that, the final pages do leave the reader with a sense of hope and the ability to write in their own HEA.

My Rating: 5 out of 5





3 comments:

  1. So I just added this one to my TBR. This sounds incredible and I liked this authors other books. Wonderful review!

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  2. This is really different. Glad you found it.

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  3. Awesome review girl! I like the sound of Ethan and Sabine. And it must be good if you cried... I'd be a sopping mess!! I think you are pushing me to get this series!

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