Novel Review: Between Us and the Moon by Rebecca Maizel

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: June 2015

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A luminous young adult novel that evokes Judy Blume’s Forever for a new generation.

Ever since Sarah was born, she’s lived in the shadow of her beautiful older sister, Scarlett. But this summer on Cape Cod, she’s determined to finally grow up. Then she meets gorgeous college boy Andrew. He sees her as the girl she wants to be. A girl who’s older than she is. A girl like Scarlett.

Before she knows what’s happened, one little lie has transformed into something real. And by the end of August, she might have to choose between falling in love, and finding herself.

Fans of Jenny Han and Stephanie Perkins are destined to fall for this story about how life and love are impossible to predict.

The Cover:

I like this cover a lot. It's cute and romantic without being too cheesy or embarrassing. I think the setting works well for the book, and that the title works really well, too. I think it gives a good idea for what you're getting with the book, and I liked that.

Review:

“‘People are damaged sometimes,’ Gran always says. ‘But you can’t let their damage walk all over you. You gotta be there for them. Help them pick themselves up and brush off the dirt but you’ve got to protect yourself, too.’” (ARC, pg. 175)

                      

This book was either going to be great or terrible, and yet it kind of fell in between for me. I loved parts, but the ending almost ruined it for me.

First of all, I’m not a fan of lying. In general, I just don’t like it. And lying to the extent that Sarah does really bothered me. It wasn’t so bad in the beginning, when she was pretending to be like her sister. That’s not the same, because she was doing it in a way to put more confidence in herself. Plus, she wasn’t very good at it to begin with. Even on first meeting Andrew, she had a hard time not being herself.

It was when she started lying about who she was that it bothered me. And when, after doing everything she did with Andrew, she still never told him the truth about her age. That was just terrible of her.

I guess some people would be upset at their age difference, but it really didn’t bother me. The only thing that bothered me about it was the legal issue, and how he could have gotten in trouble because of how far she went without being honest. Otherwise, I didn’t think it was enough of a gap to bother me.

Though I think it helps that I loved them as a couple. They were exactly what the other needed. Their chemistry was great from the very beginning, and I loved how they talked and bantered. They were cute together, and Andrew was such a sweetheart. He’s a good guy, and that made me love him even more. I was a fan of them from the very beginning.

I think that’s why the ending made me so upset. I can see why the reveal was so terrible, because of course, but the ending kind of ruined it for me. Maybe not even that there was a time skip, but that there wasn’t really much closure or a make up between them. I liked them too much to like that ending.

I did like where Sarah was with herself at the end of the book, though. The confidence she grew in herself, and that she’d finally made real friends, more than the one. That she could be honest with herself. And that her relationship with her family had eased into a comfortable one, with the frustrations and hurt feelings revealed and dealt with. I like that there wasn’t some huge blow-up, but there was a growth and a change to make things better. I was impressed with that.

I liked this book, mostly. And I think that the ending was maybe even realistic, even if it made me unhappy.

 A review copy was provided by Cuddlebuggery's Little Blogger, Big Ambitions project and Tonyalee at Lilybloombooks. Thank you so, so much!