Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott

Summary:
Abby long ago accepted that she can't measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister, Tess, but at least she knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby's life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.

Abby's got a plan to bring Tess back, though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli. But then she learns a shocking secret about Tess. Something that was always right there, but she'd never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could. (from back cover)

Review:
I really love Elizabeth Scott and all her books, so I was excited to read her latest novel, Between Here and Forever. While it wasn't my favorite book, I still enjoyed the read.

I liked the concept of Between Here and Forever: Abby's perfect and popular older sister is in a coma and Abby will do anything to get her to wake up. When Abby sees a beautiful boy working at the hospital, she enlists him to talk to Tess because who can resist a good-looking boy? Abby is sure Eli will fall for Tess, which is what she's counting on, but when the two forge a relationship, Abby begins to reexamine how she views herself.

I liked Abby, even though she annoyed me a lot. For one, she never seemed to really like or get along with Tess, but still visits her sleeping body every single day. Abby has this skewed view of the world, in that she thinks that no one will ever like her because her sister is so much prettier, nicer, and all around better. As the story progresses, you can see that Tess was nowhere near the perfect child but Abby is still super hard on herself. It's difficult to read about a person with such low self-esteem. Luckily for the reader, Abby realizes that she has a lot to offer the world and that she deserves to be happy.

I really liked Eli, who becomes Abby's potential love interest. I'm not going to give anything away, but the boy has his own secrets and troubles, and it was nice to see Abby and Eli sharing their pasts.

Once we find out Tess's big "secret" that's when Between Here and Forever became really interesting. I had actually predicted something different, so I was surprised to learn what it was. After that point, there's a lot of narration about Tess and what happened to her before the car accident. I liked that Abby was able to realize that Tess, like any other human, is not perfect at all and still makes mistakes. This allows Abby to see her self-worth.

I enjoyed Between Here and Forever; it was a fast-paced and insightufl read. I would have liked it more if Abby wasn't so hard on herself all the time, but I know she had to be that way in the beginning so the audience could see her growth on the page. This was another nicely written book by Elizabeth Scott.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
Release Date: May 24, 2011
FTC: received from publisher.

2011/Simon Pulse/252 pages.