Stella
“I’ve been in and out of hospitals for the past ten months. I’ve had half my liver removed and even though this time the doctors are very optimistic that they’ve removed all of the tumours, they can’t be sure. In another three months they want me here again for a check up. Right now I feel better than I’ve ever felt. I know the damn thing is gone, at least for the moment. Despite that, I can’t make any plans for the future, not yet. I need to go somewhere where nobody knows me, where I can relax and maybe even forget about all this. Where I can meet people who don’t think of me as the girl who lost her father and her brother in a car accident, and who has cancer. I want to have fun, even if it’s for a couple of months.”
When Stella decides to visit her estranged cousin Lisa in Genoa, she has no idea Italy will give her a new reason to live.
Max
“Her gaze locked on a scene so beautiful, the picturesque beach paled in comparison. A lifeguard emerged from the water, his orange trunks stuck to his legs and water dripping all over him. He shook his head to get rid of some of the water in his hair and Stella felt as if everything started developing in slow motion – tiny drops of water slid from his neck down his broad chest and muscular arms, along a weaving tattoo on his right shoulder, and continued downwards towards his chest and washboard stomach, finally getting lost in the waistband of his trunks. A part of another tattoo peeked over his trunks on his left hip, the other part hidden under them. It was a total Baywatch moment.”
Their love is epic. But there are too many things keeping them apart.
“How could you keep this from me, Lisa? If you had told me the first day I met him, I would have avoided him like the plague. Nothing would have happened between us.”
“I kept your secrets, too, Stella.”
Are Max and Stella strong enough to fight not only for their love, but for their lives?
“I’ve been in and out of hospitals for the past ten months. I’ve had half my liver removed and even though this time the doctors are very optimistic that they’ve removed all of the tumours, they can’t be sure. In another three months they want me here again for a check up. Right now I feel better than I’ve ever felt. I know the damn thing is gone, at least for the moment. Despite that, I can’t make any plans for the future, not yet. I need to go somewhere where nobody knows me, where I can relax and maybe even forget about all this. Where I can meet people who don’t think of me as the girl who lost her father and her brother in a car accident, and who has cancer. I want to have fun, even if it’s for a couple of months.”
When Stella decides to visit her estranged cousin Lisa in Genoa, she has no idea Italy will give her a new reason to live.
Max
“Her gaze locked on a scene so beautiful, the picturesque beach paled in comparison. A lifeguard emerged from the water, his orange trunks stuck to his legs and water dripping all over him. He shook his head to get rid of some of the water in his hair and Stella felt as if everything started developing in slow motion – tiny drops of water slid from his neck down his broad chest and muscular arms, along a weaving tattoo on his right shoulder, and continued downwards towards his chest and washboard stomach, finally getting lost in the waistband of his trunks. A part of another tattoo peeked over his trunks on his left hip, the other part hidden under them. It was a total Baywatch moment.”
Their love is epic. But there are too many things keeping them apart.
“How could you keep this from me, Lisa? If you had told me the first day I met him, I would have avoided him like the plague. Nothing would have happened between us.”
“I kept your secrets, too, Stella.”
Are Max and Stella strong enough to fight not only for their love, but for their lives?
"Gia had let Beppe into her life so easily, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She’d held him when he’d hurt so badly he’d thought he might die; she’d talked him down when he’d been so angry he’d considered doing something he’d regret for the rest of his life.
Gia had saved his life.
At least once he needed to be strong for her.
This right now, this moment, was theirs. It belonged to them, not to abusive or dead fathers, not to guilt, regret or sorrow, not to the past or the future."
But will their love survive when tragedy separates them?
“I have to go, Gia. I’m tired and I feel empty. I know you need me, but I have nothing left to give you. I need to heal.”
“I miss you so much it’s hard to breathe.”
NOW
"Beppe was still Gia’s closest friend. But they’d never be anything more than that again. Remembering what it felt like to have the person you love most in the world be torn away from you still hurt. Gia was determined never to be put into that position again."
There was never lack of love, but can Beppe win Gia’s trust again?
FOREVER
“When I was broken you gave me pieces of yourself and made me whole again.”
'Then, Now, Forever' is the second book of the Heartbeat series. It features characters from the first book in the series - 'In a Heartbeat' - but can be read as a stand alone novel. It's the complete story of Beppe and Gia - no cliffhanger.
New Adult Contemporary Romance, recommended for readers 17+ due to language, sexual situations and incredibly hot Italian guys.
~In a Heartbeat~
I loved this book so much! At first I wasn’t sure if
I was emotionally ready for this but I am so glad I did! In a Heartbeat is
about finding yourself and enjoying life after tragedy has struck not just once
but a multiple of times. Our main character is Stella and she is a survivor.
Our male lead is the very hot Max. I can really say too much on this story
because it will give away huge parts but I’ll say a little something about how
these two meet. Stella, after a heartbreaking accident, tries to get back to
the life she lead before but is once again rocked with some terrible news.
After restarting her life once more, she decides it’s time to enjoy life as
much as she can and decides to travel to Italy to stay with her cousin for the
summer. Little did she know that a chance encounter with a hot life guard would
spark something in her she never thought she’d feel again. This is where we
meet Max and the connection between the two is instant. Knowing what she knows
about herself, Stella fights the strong attraction she has for Max because she
knows nothing good can come of it. However Max isn’t easily swayed by her
“friendship only” relationship and will push Stella past the point of no
return. This is as much as I will tell you because A LOT happens in this book
but it is a HEA book and the secondary characters are hilarious and I believe
also get a story. You might shed some tears reading this but you get a HEA so
do not fear. I do highly recommend this book!!
~Then, Now, Forever~
From the beautiful cover, to the fact that I loved
the first book, In a Heartbeat, I knew I had to read this book. Then, Now,
Forever tells the untold story of Gia and Beppe. We first learned about these
two in the first book as Max’s sister and his best friend. There was chemistry between the two that you
wanted to know about but were too focused on Max and Stella to figure out. Well
these two get their own story and let me tell you it’s an emotional one! There
are three parts to the story as the title suggest; Then is part one and
explains how they met, Now retells their
story during the first book and Forever is part three. Then (part one) starts
off when six year old Beppe meets eight year old Gia; she offers to clean his knee
and insists on taking him home to meet Max and they become best friends. Flash
forward eight years to the death of their father, Gia seeks comfort that only
Beppe can give and its then that their friendship turns into a relationship. While
their relationship may be going strong, Beppe’s home life is anything but
happy. Constantly being beaten by his father while his mother did nothing to
help, Gia and Max become his family and refuge, begging him to run away and
stay with them. Beppe knows his father would only hunt him down and being a
minor he has no choice but to stay and take it. One night just beating Beppe isn’t
enough and his father stabs Beppe, killing Beppe’s mother and then himself. While
recovering in the hospital, Gia never left Beppe’s side but was filled with
worry about what would happen next with Beppe: where would he go and how could
she keep him out of the foster system? Out of the blue, Beppe’s grandfather comes
back into his life offering to take him home to Tuscany to stay until he turned
eighteen. With no choice but to go, Beppe must leave those he loves for a
family he thought he never had. Heartbroken, Gia understands his need to leave
and promises to wait for Beppe until he can come back. Beppe knew he wasn’t
emotionally ready to go home yet and chooses to stay with his grandfather,
breaking the rest of Gia’s heart in the process. In Now (part two), Beppe is back and he is
instant on getting back what he lost, but finds out that the Gia he left might
not be the same Gia he had grown to love. I will stop right here because any
more from this part will give away the third part of the story, Forever, so
just go and buy the book to find out what happens next! You’ll get to see Max,
Stella and Lisa as well and find out more about how they are doing. So hurry
and go get this one I recommend it!
~REVIEW BY VANESSA~
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