Review - Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

Title: Between the Notes

Author: Sharon Huss Roat

About the book:

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.

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My thoughts:

4 "Lennie is a cool dude" STARS Lennie, I do love you! Dude, you're awesome!! Honestly, I wanted to kick Ivy's ass so many times reading this book that I'm not even sure why I'm rating it 4 stars BUT... Lennie happened, and I loved him so much that I'm willing to forgive Ivy for being stupid until the very end. The problem with unlikable MCs is that you risk losing the reader pretty fast, but I have to give it to the author because she managed to keep me reading even though I wasn't a fan of Ivy and her "I'm poor now" rants. A huge part of that was because I kept hoping for her to realize Lennie was the guy for her. I also want to congratulate the author on writing a very, very good love triangle. Both guys were good-looking, nice, had flaws but also had many qualities. As I kept turning pages and Ivy was still on and on about James, I freaked out because I though she wouldn't pick Lennie (which would've made me give this 0 stars, I swear). So that's how you write a love triangle: you keep the reader guessing and insecure and freaking out until the very end + you force your MC to actually CHOOSE one of them. Well done! I'm super glad I read this, but now I'll suffer from Lennie withdrawal. Life sucks!