Review: The Space Beyond by Melissa Pearl

The Space Beyond (The Space Between #1.5)
Melissa Pearl

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
“There’s more than one way to say, I love you.”

Have you ever been so in love with someone, but not had the courage to tell them?
Nicole Tepper is that girl. She loves her boyfriend Dale, but fearing rejection, keeps her feelings buried deep. She can’t even let on how heartbroken she is when Dale begins applying for colleges thousands of miles away from her; never even whispering a word about how much she wishes he would stay close.

But, when Dale is rejected from Colombia University in NYC, due to a police record that follows him wherever he goes, Nicole soon discovers that love can drive her to do things she never thought possible.

There’s more than one way to say, I love you and Nicole is about to prove to Dale that she loves him beyond all common sense.

Please note: This book is designed to be read after The Space Between Heartbeats.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

The Space Beyond reads like an extended epilogue, it wraps up some plot lines even better than the main book did and gives the couple another thing to struggle with. Dale is applying to colleges on the other side of the country and when he gets rejected from Columbia, Nicole will do anything to make sure he gets in anyway even though she doesn’t want him to go.

The Space Beyond pulled me right back into the lives of these characters, I liked seeing how Nicole and Dale were doing now a while later and seeing how close they were. Although I was a bit sad to see Nicole still struggling with being afraid of rejection, but I feel that she’s in a better place after the events of this book. The book also has a nice message of focusing on the other person’s needs and how there are multiple ways to say I love you. It just bothered me a bit that in their attempts to do something for the other they forgot to communicate their own feelings and what was going on, which made them feel a bit distant from each other until everything came to light at the end of the book. I liked how everything got resolved at the end.

I liked that we got to see more of Adam and while at the end of The Space Between Heartbeats things end on a positive note, I felt this story did a good job of following through on that and showing more of Adam changing. I also liked seeing how things with the sheriff got resolved and I felt it was a satisfying conclusion to the story.

To summarize: The Space Beyond reads like an extended epilogue, we see more of Nicole and Dale and it wraps up a few threads even better than the main book. I liked being back in this world and reading about Nicole and Dave. Nicole has to figure out how to convey her feelings to Dave and also struggles with how sometimes she has to place his needs above her own. It bothered me how in that process they forgot to communicate and they felt a bit distant from one another in this story due to that. I liked how things got wrapped up at the end and also how things with both Adam and the sheriff got an even more clearly wrapped up ending. I would definitely recommend reading this one after The Space Between Heartbeats if you want a bit more of Dale and Nicole.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.