Even though it's a challenging read, I found myself having to put little effort into following the story. I still can't tell you what happened exactly, but I went with the flow and finished it in two reading sessions. Not to sound like an overly spiritual Sue or anything, but I guess I just 'felt' it. Halfway through the book, I even had to cry a little, something which happens rarely while reading, not even when one of my favourite characters dies. The book is about changes—the ones that you can control, and the ones that you can’t. It’s about commitment and friendship. It’s about the stages in between where you have nothing but the unknown ahead of you. Two friends find a portal to another dimension and use this “in-between place” to avoid the stress of their everyday lives. What they don’t realize is that every time they enter, they alter reality. I don't think I feel the same way about that. Or maybe I do and I'm just not ready to admit it yet.

What made me fall head over heels was the fact that the other side of the portal, or the 'in between' as Rom and Magnolia call it, was basically a wasteland. Yeah, a ruined beauty. AHH!!!! Let's just say that the most amazing thing an author could give me is an abandoned anything. (House, town, mansion, castle, store, etc.) I love exploring abandoned sights whenever I can and this book definitely made me feel like I was exploring right along with the characters. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9535 Ocr_module_version 0.0.10 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000199 Openlibrary_edition Being honest, I don't think I got 90+%. But I got enough to be here trying to write a review that could invite conversation and sharing of thoughts and feelings. I think this is the sort of book where multiple interpretations work, and you're reading a very, very different story depending on which one of them resonates most with you. In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey. The writing style appealed to me, even if the overall story didn't conclude in a way I expected or wanted.If you're expecting some YA romance with a bit of urban fantasy mixed up with it, you're going to be in for an interesting (no pun intended) ride. My GOD, this book was intense! The way it ended was vague. I do believe that Katie should have given it more time, let the world built and ended things more clearly. Even though I really want to know what happened to Rom and Magnolia and if they end up together, it doesn't bother me much, not because I don't care about them but because, through out the book, they were able to give me a nice feeling of happiness which I can't really explain. friends, Rom and Magnolia, find a portal in their town and things start to get interesting after that. Magnolia loves collecting lost things and Rom is a helpless geek who I was infatuated with the entire story. I miss them so much already that it's insane. This was one of the books that made me want to reread it again as soon as I finished it. (I just might!) The story felt genuine, and the conclusion was one I figured out, but I wasn’t quite sure of the how. I will leave that for you to discover.

This book took me by complete surprise but only because the cover looks so cheerful but it took a dark turn and I loved every second of it! I am so mad at myself for not having read this sooner!! This was the first book I have read by Katie and I fell absolutely in love!! Vlahos’scompassionate,beautifully written book contains profound wisdom. It is for anyone with an open heart who loves a good story and anyone who fears but would like to better understand hospice and the end of life.” —Katy Butler, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Dying Well Tender and transformative . . . The great surpriseof The In-Between is that it makes dying feel like a peaceful, dynamic, and nourishing event that can potentially transform the lives of those who are left behind. Readers will cheer on Hadley Vlahos and, like me, be forever grateful that she wrote this book.” —Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group Despite it all though the one responsible for her death remains a mystery, glimpses of hidden hate within the characters belying an ending that tears the heart out and leaves it in tatters. Hosmer's ability to touch on real family drama and what one will endure for the sake of their children, paints life into these ordinary people who could live down the street from any one of us.

Success!

I imagine Julie and her family dealing with the same questions while reconnecting to one another. Julie remembers Darla singing "Galway Bay" and "Danny Boy" when she was just eight years old. Magnolia describes it as " Because when things change, they become easier to forget about. It makes me feel like that could happen to me", she told him. "I don't ever want to be forgotten"". How easy it was for us to avoid it, the heat between us. How often I think of us, the way I looked at him and the way he looked at me, just the same. I loved the characters, their chemistry at the beginning of the book had me hooked. The plot is VERY interesting and I actually wish I had a bit more of it, IF it was executed better. My problem, that made reading this book a little painful, was the time transitions. I had to re-read a couple of times to understand if the current scene was taking place in the past or the present. I’d like to start off by saying that I am a tremendous fan of the author. Her first two books blew me away with her exceptional and brilliant story telling ability. This also applies to Somewhere In Between in regards to her skills as an author. And I can’t say enough about the narration by Erica Maity. It was flawless perfection!

There were a few minor issues unrelated to my bias that seemed a bit random. And based on the title, I was expecting a more fast paced suspense thriller. However, this does NOT diminish the brilliance of the author’s writing. Dawn is a master of seamlessly moving between time and space with her storylines. And her ability to create solid, believable characters (even ones you hate!) magnifies the talent of her craft.This is a book that could spark discussion for what the book might be all about. It definitely left me thinking. This book is gorgeous! Seriously, if I hasn't gotten a review copy, I might have just gotten it for the cover alone (I tend to do that a lot...). Anyway, I really wanted to like this book.

A twisted psychological thriller that alternates chapters between then (memories from her past) to now (events she views as a ghost). This was brilliant and addictive. Now before this turns into 'My Dear Diary', I have to say there's something about the name Zane that annoys me to no end. Especially if it's the name of a non-caring drug-dealing boyfriend. Then again, it might just be that mostly. I just find it excruciatingly painful to watch or read about women who are together with a guy like that and are still desperately trying to win his love by any means. Bah. Magnolia, a wannabe punk who has just been dumped by her super-cool boyfriend, Zane, is wandering aimlessly on her way home when she meets Rom; a boy who, unbeknownst to her, has been staring longingly at her and her technicolor hair all school year. Their strange friendship becomes even stranger when together, they discover an alternate universe that is much like their own, but so very different. This "in-between" place becomes a refuge for them; a refuge from school, life, and often themselves. We have a lovely pair of characters who have found a portal to a place where time doesn't seem to exist. (This kind of confused me a bit, and I tried to understand it more through-out the book, but I didn't get the answers I was looking for.) Anyway, this "in-between" place is where they go to avoid certain things or decisions they have to make in life. I'm sure we all would love to have a place like this, huh? THE BOOK IS WEIRD and it would not be everyone's cup of tea, but even so, I would still recommend that people give this book a try. If you don't mind finding the answers to all the unanswered questions left at the end, you will enjoy the book. I will consider reading this author again. I want to explore more of her works.The cast in this piece is fairly modest in size. It stars Rom, a geek of sorts, though not one with particularly good grades, and Magnolia, a kind of wannabe punk. They're the sort of misfit children that find each other and immediately establish a bond. They're not hipster or antisocial or even outright rejects, they're just kids who struggle with the challenges of adolescent life. They have friends and even relationships, but still have a hard time finding connections that really make them feel alive, ones that make life worth living. They're a far more compelling pair than I'm probably making them sound, though. In spite of how heavily they fall into classic teen angst tropes, these two actually feel very sincerely developed. This is probably because they aren't necessarily rebelling against the world. They don't have some juvenile chip on their shoulder nor do they insist on being miserable, they just can't seem to find satisfaction in life the same way that others do. They simply want something a little more. Readers also get to see them at different points in time and it was great fun to have the different nuggets of character development all come together around the middle of the book and then we get to see the characters grow from there. It's a very clever way to tell a love/friendship story and one I really enjoyed. In terms of the rest of the cast, there really isn't too much going on. There are other characters in the story, but they are largely to the side and you'll never really get to know them very well. There is a very important explanation in the summary of the book, which I missed and would have been extremely helpful had it appeared somewhere in the book itself. I only discovered it after having finished. It says, "What they don’t realize is that every time they enter, they alter reality." I feel like I need to reread the book with this in mind. I never noticed things changing when they stepped out of the in-between place until the extremely altered world-state near the ending. Virgil is without a voice due to throat cancer and sometimes uses an electrolarynx or write notes. His very rich and poignant story is told by the narrator. I appreciated passages in which the details were meticulous and meditative.