"Is it possible to love in more than one way?"

This is possibly one of my favorite reads this year. It is certainly one of the most impactful books I’ve read this year.

Jace and Andrea come from vastly different backgrounds. She comes from an extremely wealthy family and he is from a family of aspiring musicians barely getting by. When their paths cross as teens they fall hard and fast, and are certain their love can endure. What will happen when fate tears them apart? Will the love they were so sure of at 17 weather all that the universe has to throw at them?

This was my first book by this author and I absolutely adored it. It is beautifully written and the characters are fully fleshed out. It is a coming of age story spanning 15 years, during which Jace and Andrea experience multiple lifetimes worth of misfortune and tragedy, but also an abundance of love. I particularly like the exploration of the different kinds of love that people can experience.

Andrea and Jace’s love story is beautiful and heart wrenching, and this book will tear you apart just to put you back together.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of the audio book in exchange for an honest review.

I knew next to nothing about this book before I read it, but it looked interesting. After seeing a few really positive early reviews, I decided to give it a try! My expectations were low — I didn’t know this author at all. And at first, I thought maybe my low expectations were being fulfilled, but then the story swept me away. And let me tell you, Sarah Ready may write dramatically, but she knows how to tell a story and pull on a heartstring. She refused to let me go. This turned out to be a VERY good reading experience.

When it comes to reviewing the writing, I’m of two minds. First of all, Ready weaved an excellent story. I was fully committed by the end. However, it was wildly dramatic and unbelievable. It almost felt like Ready brainstormed a list of dramatic events that could happen in someone’s life and then used all of them. In fact, for a little fun, create a BINGO board of potential dramatic plot events before reading and then see how many you check off while reading.

Andrea and Jace are wonderful characters. This is a star-crossed-lovers, Romeo and Juliet kind of story where two people coming from very different worlds fall in love. Can their love survive it? What I really appreciated from Sarah Ready is that Andrea and Jace are not the only two characters who get nuance and depth. In fact, it is some of the side characters who seem to get some of the biggest character developments. To be fair, this is a pretty big book, but Ready took advantage of her pages and told a good story with good characters who had good character arcs.

The settings Ready situates her story in really emphasizes the collision of worlds when Jace and Andi are together. Andrea’s home life is so incredibly palatial, it feels exaggerated. Jace’s home is less exaggerated, perhaps because it is clear he comes from a place with deep love, which warms up the atmosphere of his “wrong side of the tracks” home. However, much of the book takes place in the park or in music venues — these neutral places where Jace and Andi can be together without the baggage of their history or family expectations. Music is a constant theme throughout the novel, which to Jace feels closely connected to love and family. It is why Andrea can be invited into these spaces, despite the fact that music is Jace's family's heritage.

Sarah Ready explores all that love can survive and withstand through this novel. She makes it nearly impossible for Jace and Andi to be together. It makes for a wonderful love story, pulling on the classic tropes of the genre. I’m not sure if this book says much that is new, other than a new exploration of whether true love can be present for multiple people. That was interesting.

This is a wonderfully captivating story. Allow yourself to be swept into the story without getting too caught up in the details and experience all the emotions that come with this type of dramatic literary love tale.

Also, the audio version of this is great! It’s dual cast narration! No complaints whatsoever.

🌻ARC/ALC Review🌻

The Space Between by @sarahreadyauthor

I want to start off with I don’t think I actually read the description for this book and picked it solely because it was written by Sarah Ready. I have enjoyed Sarah’s books since I listened to her ALC of Josh and Gemma Make a Baby.

So when I started the audio for this book I was getting frustrated with why I wasn’t getting into it and connecting and at about 50% I finally decided to ditch the audio (after trying multiple speeds to see if that was the problem) and go with the ebook and man that saved this book.

I have listened to Sarah’s last 3 books as ALCs and loved them all but this one just wasn’t hitting. But once I started to read it, like actually read the ebook I fell in love. In this book you don’t get just one love story but two great love stories and I absolutely loved it.

I would recommend this book, just maybe not the audio. Also be warned you will need some tissues on stand by.

Rating: 4.5⭐️
Audio: 2⭐️

I didn’t like the audio. But I loved the book

#sarahreadyauthor #thespacebetween #rockstar #friendstolovers #secondchanceromance #bookstagram #netgalley

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to review this ARC.

I will be up front in saying that I often struggle with audiobooks, and find it hard to stay invested in the story. I have a much higher DNF rate for audio books than physical books - and this is one that I simply couldn't bring myself to finish in audio format, but am curious how I would have held up with a print copy.

I was almost immediately turned off by the narrator in the first chapter calling Louis Armstrong "Lewis" rather that "Louie", as my whole life I'd referred to him as Louie Armstrong. This distracted me for the entirety of the first few chapters, to the point where I had to then google Louis Armstrong to see how it's correctly pronounced.

I then struggled with the touristic view of New York that the author takes; while it makes for good story telling (think seeing all your classic New York sites), it doesn't make for genuine story telling. I'm not from New York, and I couldn't find out where the author was from, but my guess isn't there either - I think New Yorkers avoid those tourist traps like the plague.

I'm also a cynic for the insta-love plot that this was heavy on, I much prefer a slow, complicated romantic build, rather than love at first sight, and this is really what this was.

This is one of my top listens of the year! Sarah delivers an amazing story filled with true love, and perseverance. I felt so many emotions as I listened this book - heartache, sadness, joy and happiness - there may have been a few tears. Jace and Andrea come from two different worlds but their love for one another is one for the ages. Andrea is one tough cookies, sets her own path and is very committed to Jace. Jace loves Andrea with all his heart and will stop at nothing to make sure she is safe, happy and well taken care of. Their love journey goes through many ups and downs, misunderstandings, fighting the people that are working against them but ultimately love wins. This story will stick with me for some time as it is so beautifully written. James Fouhey and Rachel F. Hirsch deliver a beautiful performance. They give both Jace and Andrea perfect voice, emotion and personalities.

Sweet, romantic, emotional. Really enjoyed Andrea and Jace and their love story. Found it cute and believable. I liked the points of view from each main character. This is a fun, easy read. Narrators James Fouhey & Rachel F. Hirsch did a great job.

I'm not a New Yorker and have only been a handful of times, but I did find it distracting that the author had the characters running around town to various locations in one day as if they were close. I remember a few times thinking is "that can't happen." It definitely made my mind wonder away from the story. I also found that the supporting cast, were all very basic level. There was no real depth to their relationships with the main characters. There was description about what their personalities were like and why they wouldn't maybe accept the relationship between Jace and Andrea but even those were very surface level.
Also, the space between, which is the title and main focus of the book I feel, comes far into the story and feel rushed, I felt the author spent so much time building this love story between Jace and Andrea and then the space between was rushed and very one sided focusing mostly on Andrea. I didn't hate it, but I also was meh about it all and I felt that you knew the ending during their whole time apart and therefore all of it also didn't matter.
Epilogue was too much. I don't want to give it away but I was like oh boy I get it.

Regardless, fun and quick read. I would definitely recommend. Would have given a 3.5 stars if there were halfs.

Thank you W. W. Crown, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks and NetGalley for the arc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐½
This book was an emotional rollercoaster. The best book I've read from this author so far.
Jace and Andrea meet in Central Park when they are both seventeen. Jace is a budding musician who lost his parents at thirteen and was raised by his two older brothers. Andrea comes from money, a family that values achievements more than friendship and love. Andrea and Jace connect right away. What follows is a love story of epic proportions.
I loved both Jace and Andrea. They were both so real. The story is told through alternating POV's and I think it gives so much depth to the story. This could have been a full five star read without some charicature-like side characters.
I listened to the audiobook. Narrators James Fouhey and Rachel F. Hirsch were both spectacular and just right for this book.

Oh my God!! This book! This story! God!! 😭😭😭
I never thought I'd enjoy a 500+ pages romance but Sarah Ready has proven me wrong. Because man! This book was everything!

“𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒚, 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖.”

The story starts in Central Park where Jace and his brothers are playing music when a girl with a red scarf catches their music. Later that night, when Jace is being bullied by a bunch of guys, that girl—Andy—rescues him with stones in her bag as her weapon. Thus begins their beautiful relationship of friendship, love, passion, and betrayal, all entwined into the chords of music, spanning over a time of 14 years.

Jace has always grown up with love in his house, and music, and these two things are his passion. He and his brothers aim to make it big in life through their music but right at the beginning of this path, he falls in love in with Andy.
Andy is the daughter of the multi-billionaire Mr. Hughes but she doesn't want the money or fame. All she wants is to be with the love of her life, and let go of all her family's expectations. But life has a peculiar way of interfering in our plans and that's what The Space Between tries to show us.

This book and its characters are so deep and I loved knowing them and understanding them. Each one is layered and has their demons. And yet, it's a celebration to watch love prevail.

“𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝑮𝑬𝑻 𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝑰𝑻!”

I absolutely LOVED every bit of this book. Sarah Ready, with her exceptional way of storytelling, pulled me into the story right from the first page and the entire story flowed flawlessly. We go through so many ups and downs with these characters, fall in love with them and go through heartbreaks over and over... but in the end, it showed me how love can prevail... how home is not a place but a person... and if your love is true, then no amount of time or space can make you get over it.

I've cried with this book, I've laughed with it too. I got angry with this book, so much so that I could feel my blood boiling! It made my heart swell with love, and it also made me understand fate and human emotions better. And I think, as an author, if you were able to achieve this, you've won in life!

“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅.
𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆.”

If you want to read a book that defines LOVE, I'd recommend you read this book.

I will forever be grateful to NetGalley, W. W. Crown, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), and Sarah Ready for providing me a free ALC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

The Space Between
🌟🌟🌟🌟
I really enjoyed the book. It has great characters that you will cheer on. Love is power & can prevail!!
Thank you Netgallery for the opportunity to read this great book.

Wow. My heart. My soul. It hurt. 🫶🏻

This book was just wow. A new absolute fave🥹

Following Jace and Andrea, who are from the opposite sides of the track, they find solace in each other but couldn’t be more different in terms of how they grew up.

Jase, a musical prodigy from a close knit family who dreams of playing music around the world with his brothers. Orphaned at a young age, he still feels the love from his brothers but also within the music they play.

Andrea, the well known daughter of a ridiculously wealthy and cunning family on the Upper East side must dress the part, act the part of an ice princess and marry for connections. She doesn’t know love. Not from her father or mother or brothers. She is alone.

Until Jase. He sees her. Really sees her. And she lets her ice facade down. With Jase, she is not the person she has to pretend to be at home and SHE sees him. A beautiful soul that she can not live without.

The Space Between follows the timeline of when Jace and Andi are 17/18 through the years where Jase and his brothers start to become a successful Rockstar band until adult hood, where they struggle to stay together testing the love that they have for each other.

Through the whirlwind of life, where their path veers unexpectedly from each other and years later weaves them back like moths to a flame and spans over a number of years… this was everything. I don’t want to say much at all, apart from just to READ IT.

I loved all the characters and their character arcs through the book because it shows that what you see on the outside can just be a wall to really hide to what is really happening inside one person’s mind and life.

If you’ve been following me for a bit, you’ll know I’m not a crier but damn someone was cutting onions during the last bit of the book.

I adored absolutely all of it and can’t wait for the paperback in my hands because I need to annotate basically half the book.

This one that I will happily read again and again. 🩵

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I have never heard of this author. The storyline is well written. I loved the time jumps. Equal heartache and happiness made for a great book, I listened to the audiobook. The narrators were perfect for this book. I will read more from
This author and listen to more from these narrators.

Title: The Space Between
Author: Sarah Ready
Narrator: James Fouhey, Rachel F. Hirsch
Pub Date: July 25, 2023
Audio Length: 13 hr 13 min
Genres: Romance
Tropes: Unrequited Love, Old Flame, Young Love, Coming of Age, Rich vs. Poor
Location: New York City
Character/plot: Mixed
Feeling: Tearjerker, Romantic
TW/CWs: grief, death, suicidal thoughts, abusive parental relationships (emotional is witnessed, physical is mentioned), assault (short scene)
Romance: open door

"The best way to move through grief is to concentrate on the right now. Not the past, not the future. Just this moment right here. That small space between the past and the future. Like the moment between the inhale and the exhale."

It took me a long time to gather myself to write this review. This was an emotional rollercoaster and the narrators did an incredible job of taking us on this journey. I think I'm going to be in the extreme minority here, but the romance that I enjoyed the most really surprised me. I actually loved the middle of the book the best. Watching the tender romance bloom between Andi and Reed kind of stole my heart. The way she took care of him and then his daughter was the real love story for me. And I did especially love that this book showcased so well that there are so many different types of love in our life. But Ready did such an incredible job with this part of the book that I had trouble moving on to the end. But to me, the real takeaway was to be open to all types of love and opportunities in our life. We never truly know who that person may be.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publisher, author, and narrator for an advanced copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own.

This has to be my favourite Sarah Ready book so far, and several of her previous ones have been among my top reads!

I just have a serious bone to pick about the mispronunciation of the name of a celebrity that is used frequently throughout the book - by Jace’s character who’s family idolizes him. Louis Armstrong. He is also one of my idols as a former musician (and “What a Wonderful World” is one of my top songs of all time) … I truly hope each mention of the name is re-recorded before this audio book actually releases. I was horrified every time the male narrator said Lewis Armstrong! His name is Louis (French pronunciation, Lou-E, NOT Lewis). I was tempted to switch to reading only the ebook because it was that distracting and cringey.

Other than that, this has to be one of the best books I’ve read, with massive character development, for Jace, between the members of Jace’s family, Andrea accepting her fate, as well as their former classmate who plays a major part in their story. I enjoyed every moment and couldn’t put it down - I binged the whole 13 hours/ 500 pages in a single sitting! It’s truly that amazing! A true 5-star read!

The time jump idea isn’t normally something I am too fond of, but it really works well for this storyline. I really wanted to smack a lot of the characters - a sign that Ready wrote them perfectly! This book made me go through so many emotions in such a short time, but mostly they were just plain happiness. It’s brilliant and it’s hard to say too much without giving away the plot. Andrea is a fantastic character while Jace is perfectly flawed but lovable.

I definitely recommend this one to all, but go for the ebook if that name pronounciation problem isn’t corrected. The narrators were both new voices to me, and while I enjoyed the performance of Andrea by Rachel F. Hirsch, I think I was jaded against James Fouhey from the start because of the “Lewis” mistakes, but his performance was fine (nothing incredible).

I received an advance read and listen copy from NetGalley and W.W. Crown (Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles/Members' Audiobooks), and this is my honest opinion.

Jace and Andy meet in Central Park and their fate is sealed. They are each others person, heart, soul, happiness and forever. They don’t care that they are from opposite sides of the track and have lived very different lives, for them love is enough. Until it isn’t. And when it is seemingly over they both lead separate lives and yet can’t let go no matter where their lives take them. Fame and fortune, love, responsibility, family and yet they still can’t let go. It’s a long, circuitous, emotional road they each take to finding their forever happiness. I absolutely adored listening to this wonderful book. The ups, the downs, the characters and the narrator made an already wonderful story even better. Sarah Ready is fast becoming a favorite author of mine. This was a real feel good happily ever after. I also loved that her NYC references were spot on accurate.

This is a wild roller coaster ride of emotions. They find their soulmates young but life, circumstances and people get in their way to happiness. Jace and Andrea are interesting, relatable, intriguing characters. I liked them from the start and enjoyed their growth throughout the story. There were many aspects of their romance that I loved and a few that I wish had been done differently. I like the secondary characters and found that they added to the fabric of the story.

I listened to this book on audio and really enjoyed the narrators. They brought me into the story and held me there.

TW: death of parents; mention of child abuse; discussion about a suicide attempt; death on page; fight against and death from cancer.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and W.W. Crown for this advanced audiobook of The Space Between by Sarah Ready! I’m going to start off by saying this is probably one of my new favorite books of 2023!

This had everything you need in a love story: a meet cute, attraction, complication, electricity, and a great reveal. The character development was on point too. This was one big emotional rollercoaster and I was completely here for it. I love a second chance romance and the insta-love aspect was done very well (I’m usually not a fan). The dual POV, the narration, the musical aspect, & all of the traveling were the cherries on top of this sweet story.

If you need different kinds of love, this will fill your heart and soul! Sarah Ready, you sure have a way with words! I can’t wait until your next book. Please hurry up!

This was an excellent audiobook. It pulls the heart strings so have you're tissues ready for tears.
It's an interesting layout with time jumps and certainly takes liberty with suspension of disbelief but still a very enjoyable book that I highly recommend.

This book was great. So many emotions while reading it. At the beginning I wasn’t a fan of the characters, but as time went on and they grew, I began to enjoy them more. Not just the MC’s but the side ones as well. At the beginning there were plenty of YA vibes. I am not a fan of YA so I am glad it went past that and the last 2/3’rds were not YA feeling. I do wish that the first part of the book was shorter, and more time was spent when Jace and Andrea/Andi were older. This was a cute read with some real intense moments. This is a good book club book as there are many themes to discuss. Sarah Ready always delivers!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Crown, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles.. Review for both ebook and audio. What a great love story. Will definitely recommend. Narrators did a great job.

The Space Between is an amazing epic love story. It just might be the best love story I have ever read. I couldn't have loved it more.

Andi and Jace come from different worlds. She is a socialite and he is from the wrong side of the tracks. Yet they fall in love and start a whirlwind love affair. Their love is everything they need until life tears them apart.

The Space Between starts as a beautiful YA romance and then it rips your heart out. In the best way. Like a guttural punch. It hurt. A LOT. I needed to take a break.

There are so many different types of love in this book. Loving with your heart, loving with your head and loving with everything in the space between. (see what I did there 😉)