Just this past week I finished reading a novel by Laekan Zea Kemp called “The Girl In Between”. My blog has featured many book spotlights, but I have yet to do a book review. “The Girl In Between” deserves one!
First things first, here is some basic information about “The Girl In Between”:
- It has 727 reviews with an average 4.1 star rating (as of 12/13/2016)!
- It is the first in a series of four novels
- The kindle edition is 289 pages
- As of 12/13/2016 it is #7 in Science Fiction & Fantasy – Paranormal & Urban
- I don’t think it states this somewhere, but I would say this novel is geared towards young adult. However, I’m an adult and still enjoyed it so don’t let that scare you away
- The best part? The kindle edition is FREE!
I came across “The Girl In Between” when
doing a search on Amazon. I wanted to try something different than my normal romance genre. When I read the blurb, I definitely found it interesting enough to give it a shot. And I can surely say I’m glad I did!
The novel starts off with Bryn in a sleep state. She is a teenager who suffers from KLS (Klein Levin Syndrome), a disorder that causes one to sleep for extended periods of time. During this particular sleep-state episode, a boy washes up on the shore of a beach who she brings back to life.
Throughout the novel we follow Bryn in her real life and in her sleep-state life. She’s trying to figure out who the boy in her “dreams” is because he doesn’t remember a thing. The only thing he knows is that he’s real and he needs to find a way out. Through interaction with him, as well as from the help of her friends in her awake life, she puts clue after clue together to determine who he is and where he is.
There is some mystery to the plot as well that may or may not get answered in the rest of the series (I have yet to read the second book, let alone the rest of the series). One is that there are shadows that are following Bryn. They almost want to suck the life out of her, but they have yet to do so. Another is that one of her doctors knows more about what is going on than they are letting anyone know.
I have one last thing I want to say about this story before letting you know what I would rate it. And as a word of caution, this will be a spoiler so do not read the rest of this paragraph should you not want the ending given away. ********* Okay. This book ended very well, BUT not complete. Bryn does find the mystery boy who we come to find out is Roman. The only issue is that he’s in a coma. Bryn visits him in the hospital where his body lays and hopes to wake him up. Does she?
Like I mentioned above, I liked this book and am glad I took a chance on it. I’m not really one to read fantasy or science fiction type novels, but the blurb on Amazon was enticing enough to give it a shot. Kudos to Laekan Zea Kemp for hooking me in with the blurb alone! I thought the novel, overall, was well-written. There was great description, but not overly done. It flowed nicely, too! I’d say the best part was that I had the urge to keep reading because, A, I wanted to know if she would find Roman; and, B, I wanted to know if he would wake up. I found myself glued to the screen, quickly reading to reach the end. I loved the ending. I felt satisfied with the end in that if I never read further, I wouldn’t feel like something was missing. However, it also ended in a way that not all loose ends were tied up so for those who are sticklers on everything in a novel coming to a close, you may want to read further for sure then. The bonus love story was a plus, too! I liked that I still got a little romance in the novel along with the other themes.
One thing that I found slightly difficult was that on occasion I would get confused about which state Bryn was in. For the most part, though, there was no issue. All of this said, I would definitely recommend this to others, and I would rate it a 4 out of 5 stars!
**This is not a clean novel. There are some swear words and questionable situations so please take caution when trying to figure out if this novel is good for you!**
If you’d like to read “The Girl In Between”, please go to the book’s Amazon page at: