Review: Chasing Heartbeats by Kaitlyn Felt

Title: Chasing Heartbeats
Author: Kaitlyn Felt
Series: Chasing Heartbeats #1
Publisher: Create Space
Date Published: July 8th, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Growing up in the invisible and sparsely populated village of Livingston, Michigan, Fiona Kent used to despise her life. Every single summer had always turned out to be the same: along with babysitting her younger brothers, Logan and Tommy, the days always turned out to be long, extremely hot, and utterly boring. Just as Fiona was beginning to drown in the tiny sea that she called her world, though, lymphatic lymphoma whisked Tommy away, shoving her parents into a sheer panic and leaving Logan to lose himself in a deep depression. Shocked by her little brother’s quick and unexpected passing, Fiona suddenly feels grateful for the tall walls that separate her and her little town from the rest of the world and embraces what little innocence and naivety she has left… 

Three years pass and only one photograph of Tommy can be found in Fiona Kent’s house. Though their small-minded neighbors had eventually stopped gossiping about her brother’s death, Fiona was well aware that the rest of her family had made little progress. Logan was still caught up in the dark, deathly winds of his depression and her parents acted as if Tommy had never been born at all. All of that changes, though, when Fiona discovers a black, blank-covered book in the dark, unexplored realms of her basement. Searching through the book’s yellow-tinged pages, Fiona discovers jaw-dropping letters written to Tommy by an ancient, nineteenth century prodigy known by the name of Sophia Grant. Determined to prove Sophia’s wild and accusatory predictions about her precious, deceased brother wrong, Fiona snaps Logan out of his depression, brings the mysterious book to the attention of her two best friends, and begins the unforgettable journey of a lifetime.

A massive thank you to Kaitlyn for sending me her book for an honest review.

The idea for the book was certainly good. Fiona and her brother Logan find a book about their dead brother Tommy that seemed to have predicted his short life. Hmm. Very interesting indeed. I liked the mystery element in the book and the relationship between Fiona and her childhood friend Kyle who comes back from the big New York City to the little town that he grew up in. I love it when authors write two POV from the main characters, but it can backfire. I was so happy when this worked in this book.

The book was a pleasant enough read. However, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

Some parts of the book really annoyed me, for instance the Sophia search on the internet was just weird. Why was there was only one Sophia on Facebook? That was way too easy! They did find the wrong person but the search was still far too easy. It must be really weird to find a book about your deceased brother with his whole life predicted. But I don’t see how apparently the “mere existence of the book proves that anything is really possible?” Erm no it’s just weird. It doesn’t mean that dinosaurs could still be alive or that we have eight lives. I don’t understand why everything had to be turned upside down just because of one book. Fair enough the whole weirdness of the book can put someone on the edge but that line… 

Just no.

I love the idea of the book. I really do. But I can’t ignore what my bookish heart was telling me. This book was not for me.

The way the characters interacted with each other sometimes was frustrating. At one point they would be acting like normal nowadays teenagers and other times I would feel as if they were five years old. I didn’t like the switching of the characters personality.

The writing technique wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. There wasn’t anything special or unique about the way that Kaitlyn wrote the book. Not saying that it’s a bad thing or anything there certainly was a personal touch which is great just nothing stood out for me. It was like reading someone’s ordinary story. Which worked for the book as it sounded as if the book was written by the two main characters.

After the book was discovered and all the letters sent to Tommy were predicting a lot of events that were about to happen as if the person had an insight on the future, I was guessing alongside the four of them who could have possibly written the book and why. Not to mention how they seemed to know exactly what was going to happen. Trying not to give it away- but the conclusion that Taylor and Logan come up with just seems so outrageous!! 

 It’s a good feel kind of thought but it’s not a good twist. It annoyed me when Taylor and Logan said it was a very plausible idea and that it was reasonable when it really wasn’t. It’s just ridiculous- this book isn’t meant to be paranormal or anything like that. I wish that they came up with a different conclusion. This is the first book so maybe it will change in the second, but I won’t find out as I don’t plan on reading the next book.

The title doesn’t make sense to me- maybe it will also be explained in the next book. The cover is pretty, it’s a nice photo… But it’s not a cover cover. It’s just a photo of a pretty blonde lady.