My review: Heartbeat by Faith Sullivan

Katie and Adam are afraid of love.

She carries the scars of a first kiss gone terribly wrong.

He uproots his life to flee the stinging betrayal of an ex.

When trust is no longer an option, all romance is suspect.

As a young paramedic, Adam rescues people for a living but cannot save himself. Katie, just out of high school, struggles with a tortured home life she cannot escape.

Everything changes when Katie hops into the front seat of Adam's ambulance. Overwhelmed by what they are feeling, neither possess the confidence to make the first move. They walk away from each other, full of regret. 

To find her, Adam risks his future. To be with him, Katie sacrifices her security. 

Little do they know, what little time they do have, is being measured by a heartbeat that is slowly dying out.

I struggled a lot with this book.  I kept waiting for the fairy tale to happen, but alas this one just didn't fulfill that fantasy for me.  One the one hand I love my fantasy endings because well #1 I'm a girl who loves to dream about the happy ever after and #2 I view reading as an escape into another world where reality won't catch up with me and I can live in the moment and the lives of the many characters that I meet.  One the other hand I applaud Faith for being realistic in that there isn't always a happy ending at the end of every story we read.

From the very beginning it's clear that Katie and Adam don't have it as easy as one would think.  Katie's only ever been kissed once and that ended badly and Adam left his life as a bodyguard after he found out his fiance was cheating on him.

Katie spends her Sundays the same way every weekend with her Grandma at the movie theater.  But this Sunday is different.  They get into a car accident leaving the cinema parking lot.  Her Grandma doesn't appear to be in the best shape so the ambulance is called.  That's the first time she saw Adam.  They both felt that invisible pull, but even after spending the entire ambulance ride sitting side by side they can't bring themselves to ask one another on a date and so begins the game of cat and mouse with them.  Adam takes her name and phone number off her Grandmother's chart but after meeting her father with his cold persona, Adam gives up after the first phone call after her dad hangs up on him.

For Katie the only person she has in her life is her Grandma and her cousin.  Her cousin moved away to be with her family, so all Katie has left is her Grandma.  Katie cannot work.  Since a very young age she gets sick at least once a month and no employer wants an employee who can only work three weeks out of every month.  Living at home with her dad and Grandma Katie struggles to get by with no job and no where to go.  As Katie's Grandmother's health begins to decline after she returns home from the hospital, Katie must face reality in that her Grandma isn't always going to be there for her.  Soon after her Grandmother returns to the hospital, she is forced to go to a retirement home to be cared for where she ultimately dies.  

For Adam, life has not been easy as well.  His parents live far away and his brother lives three hours away.  He lives in an apartment well away from the main city and only has himself to rely on.  So when one of his co-workers Chuck, takes an interest in making his life hell and happens to be the nephew of the owner of the ambulance company Adam works for he must fight to keep his job.  So when he ends up being at the scene when Katie's Grandmother dies, Adam tries his best to comfort her but between Chuck and Katie's father they are torn apart and Adam ends up being suspended without pay for violating company policy for obtaining access to Katie's personal information.  The shining light here was when Katie's cousin slipped Adam Katie's cell phone number.  So when Katie and Adam make plans to get together and meet at the park, Katie's father finds out about the attraction between Katie and Adam.  But without Katie's Grandmother there, Katie's father is quick to kick her out the door.  Katie turns to the one and only person she can, Adam.  From here things begin their downhill spiral of events.  All I can say is expect the unexpected here.  Don't think you know how their story ends because believe me when it happens, you won't even see it coming.

This story is realistic and tugs at the strings of your heart on multiple occasions.  I didn't know whether to feel happy for them or to cry because it was one heck of an emotional roller coaster.  I do look forward to reading Come What May to find out what happens next, 4 stars.

***Review copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review***

I really hate talking about myself. My goal is to have the shortest author bio imaginable. I would much rather have a conversation with my readers. Are you able to escape within my pages? Does my writing make you feel something? Are there characters that you can't get out of your head? Let me know!

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