Review: Then, Now, Forever (Heartbeat #2)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2014
A gifted copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. To view Vanessa's full review, visit [...]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!