The Heart Between Us

Gorgeous cover, compelling premise, and a story full of interest. I was skeptical at first because I don't always like contemporary fiction (it can get so angsty) but the idea of the bucket list was quite an attraction to convince me to read the story.

Overall I did enjoy it. The sisters both had issues and hadn't spent time with each other in years. I liked that they were in a situation where they had to work through the issues in their relationship. I also liked how they took hold and decided to look at life in a new way.

But the bucket list flew by at a dizzying pace and with scant detail at each spot (usually just focus on one or two things in each place, without much context or mention of how they got there); I really wanted more than one chapter at each place. The romance was pretty much all long distance, so it was hard to even count that as part of the plot, even though I wanted the ladies to have happy endings in that respect. And I felt that the constantly changing scenery, framing one new place with one step forward in the sisters' relationship, felt more formulaic than natural. In all, I felt that the scope ended up being a bit ambitious for a regular-length novel and that it tried to be too many things at once. But I did still enjoy it and I loved the resolution at the end.

Content: skinny dipping, scene with heavy married innuendo

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.