Review: Inbetween by Tanya Fuller

I ended up buying Inbetween because I saw the sequel, Blurred, in one of Giselle's Fresh Batch posts over at Xpresso Reads. The cover was pretty and the summary had my interest, so it wasn't long before I looked up what the first book was about and decided that I'd have to read it.

Those who have been around my blog for a while likely know that I have a mad obsession for stories where either Death as a character, or characters who have some type of connection to the afterlife, fall in love. So my interest in Inbetween likely comes as no surprise. What is probably kinda shocking is that I bought this for my Kindle, rather then in paperback. For someone who loves physical copies that probably seems kinda scandalous, but saving $5 on it by going digital was too good a sale to pass up on a new to me series.

But now I'm rambling. Want to know what I thought of Inbetween? Then read on!

(Summary from GoodReads)

Since the car crash that took her father’s life three years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky — and unending — lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.

It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left…his soul.

The first thing I can tell you about Inbetween, and I really hate to say this, is that it's slow. This book had major pacing issues, likely in an attempt to develop the characters. The problem is that it made me have a really hard time remaining focused on reading it for the first 3/4, and then it took off like a bat outta hell for the last 1/4 but it was too late. 

I liked the characters, although of the major ones Cash and Easton were my favorites, not Emma or Finn. With Cash, I just thought he was the most majorly awesome best friend and really sweet. (Despite all my whining I am dying to read his story in Blurred.) As for Easton... he's a smart ass with violet eyes and a heart of gold hidden under all that hell-made soot he's stuck wandering around in. What's not to love? :D (He put me in mind of another violet eyed scoundrel I love from one of my own stories, so I suppose I may be a wee bit biased here?) 

Finn made me mad. Like, I wanted to chuck my Kindle mad. What a totally selfish asshat and I don't care what we learn from Balthazar at the end of the book--I still feel that way. I don't necessarily think he and Emma shouldn't have gotten their HEA. But I wasn't desperate for them to get it, either. I was way more interested in reading about Easton and Cash. 

As for Emma... She was predictable. She wasn't a horrible heroine or anything, but she didn't really stick out for me and she and Finn did some stuff that really made me want to knock their heads together a few times within this story. (Especially what they do to Cash. And the position Finn puts Easton in. Bleh!) 

The mythology was well constructed and very interesting, if a little cold all the way around. To put it bluntly? If this is the afterlife (which I realize it's not; this is purely fiction the same as any of us who write in that vein) that I would be very, very scared. I suppose that makes for better fictional work then something that's all sugar cookies and butterflies, but that was my thought through several chunks of this book. In a word: eek!

As long as you are cool with being patient about the book having a slow start, there is much in Inbetween that is worth checking out. The characters are interesting, rather then flat out likable. There are a lot of shades of gray and a lot of things that happen are worth questioning and really thinking about. There really isn't much cut and dry heroism (excluding Cash. <3) If it helps, I do plan to read the next book despite any gripes I'm giving here. 

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