The Space Between Us by Megan Hart

 

From Goodreads:

Tesla Martin is drifting pleasantly through life, slinging lattes at Morningstar Mocha, enjoying the ebb and flow of caffeine-starved customers, devoted to her cadre of regulars. But none of the bottomless-cup crowd compares with Meredith, a charismatic force of nature who can coax intimate tales from even the shyest of Morningstar’s clientele.Caught in Meredith’s sensual, irresistible orbit, inexpressibly flattered by the siren’s attention, Tesla shares long-buried chapters of her life, holding nothing back. Nothing Meredith proposes seems impossible—not even Tesla sleeping with Meredith’s husband, Charlie, while she looks on. After all, it’s all in fun, isn’t it?

In a heartbeat, vulnerable Tesla is swept into a spectacular love triangle. Together, gentle, grounded Charlie and sparkling, maddening Meredith are everything Tesla has ever needed, wanted, or dreamed of, even if no one else on earth understands. They’re three against the world.

But soon one of the vertices begins pulling away until only two points remain—and the space between them gapes with confusion, with grief and with possibility….

 

My Review:

Stories end but life doesn’t. Life keeps going. You might cry yourself to sleep every night and wake up in the morning still weeping, but life moves forward in seconds that turn to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days. Everyone has a story. This is how one begins.

Tesla Martin lives an ordinary life, living in the basement of a friend and his family. She works at a local coffee shop, Morningstar Mocha, where the cast of regulars is as different as the flavored coffee. One customer in particular is always the center of attention and has captured Tesla’s.  Meredith comes into the coffee shop several times a week, asking the regulars the stories taking it all in and loving the attention. The day she asks Tesla her wildest thing she ever did, she beings to tell her first story.

The story and the friendship shared with Meredith turns into a girl date with crushes, unrequited love some grinding on the dance floor and a proposition.   “I want you to fuck my husband” Tesla is shocked but not turned off by what is offered, she likes Meredith and feels a pull towards her. Could this be the way she gets to be with her? Tesla agrees to go on a date with Meredith and her husband Charlie to see if she, he and she are is up for this.

I’m not a straight girl. I’m not a queer girl, either. I guess you could say I’m sexually fluid. Love comes in all shapes and flavor, and I just want to be able to taste them all.

The relationship between Tesla, Meredith and Charlie works out well in the beginning. A bit of jealousy peeks out here and there but the sex help s to sooth over any green with a fire burning bright blue orange and red.

The three of us could’ve made a circle, soft and smooth but what happened made us into a triangle with sharp, stabbing points.

While Meredith was selfish throughout the book and a bit annoying she didn’t bother me. I was too focused on Charlie and Tesla. I just loved Charlie. He is the smart, handsome, humble and shy school teacher who just did what he wife wanted. The situation gets out of hand and out of heart when he loses control over his emotions.

He didn’t say anything. We could communicate so easily with silence what some people needed an entire dictionary of words to say. I kissed him because I could. Because here in this place, on this couch and in this house, Charlie belonged to me in a way that had nothing to do with rings or ceremonies.

I went through a massive range of emotions in the 10 hours it took me to read this. There was intrigue, sadness, pain, desire, empathy, compassion, rage and heart ache. Tesla just about did me in a few times with my poor romantic heart. The girl has some issues and this situation could have made her or broken her in a way that she would have been beyond repair.

And there is was one more time – envy, that nasty thing. It’s not always about what someone else has. Sometimes it is can be about what they don’t have. It wasn’t good for me, it was awful. It was breaking my heart. It was leaving me alone and I hated it.

I loved all the history given in this book. The Murphy twins, The Compound with Tesla’s parents and Vic. None of the side stories or supporting characters was out-of-place or filler. Each one served a purpose to the story, without them there would have been huge gaps that would have made the reader confused.

This was my second book by Megan Hart and I am so glad I took a chance on it. I liked this book; really liked it which yes, surprises me. There wasn’t a thing that I thought was outrageous, silly or unbelievable. There was simply nothing I didn’t like about it. Everything was tucked tightly in its place and regardless of how the outcome is perceived, I believe it was flawless.

 

ARC provided by Harlequin via NetGalley.