Review: Sexy and tender romance!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2013
In a Heartbeat tugs at the heartstrings right from the start, with the shocking accident that tears Stella's world apart.  Then it tosses more at your emotions when her life-altering diagnosis with liver cancer puts a halt on all of her future plans.  I didn't really like the fast-forwarding through all of these events to get to Stella's present day story, because it obviously glossed over some huge events in her life, but once things got moving I was very happy where I was at...right with Stella and the scrumptious, delectable, swoon-worthy Massimo!!When Stella decided to pack up and head to Italy so she could reunite with some of her family, her mind was set on having fun and living her life for what she had left. I think it's the perspective of anyone who's faced death, that each day you're given is a gift to be treasured, and that's pretty much what Stella planned on doing.  So the distractingly sexy lifeguard she sat gawking at on that first day seemed like the perfect answer to grabbing life by the board shorts...errr, horns.  They were both well aware of the sparks that flew every time they touched, and they were both willing to give into it.  If only it weren't for that pesky little problem of Massimo (Max) being Stella's cousin's best friend, who she refuses to see left heartbroken, and Stella having a questionable future given her health struggles.  The intensity between Max and Stella was great, Teodora Kostova makes you feel every bit of the sexual tension between them as they dance around the possibility of being more than just friends. Of course I wanted Stella to just ignore her cousin's concerns and just let Max have his way with her, but I loved the suspense of their emotions being so high-strung! They hurt each other, they were cheating themselves of the love they wanted, and they put up with the torture of wanting someone so badly that they couldn't have even though the solution seemed simple.  Whew!! Through the drama they grew closer, though, so the hard work paid off...and yeah, it was steaming hot when it did!I couldn't shake the feeling all throughout this story that the characters were actually older than their supposed age.  That sounds weird, I know, but I think it's just that they acted much more mature and settled in life than your typical 18 to 21-year-old would.  It didn't bother me, but I found myself having to stop and re-look at scenes in terms of a younger character at times.  It was actually kind of refreshing having young characters that weren't juvenile and careless, and it made for a smoother transition to the epilogue in terms of their maturity.Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I loved Max and Stella.  Theirs was a very sweet and sexy love story that I think will appeal to the romance reader masses!!