The Space Between Us by Megan Hart
Erotic Contemporary
Releases: September 25, 2012
Harlequin

Reviewed by Mandi

I think Megan Hart is an excellent erotic story teller. I have read Broken, Dirty, Tempted and Stranger and pretty much loved each book. She challenges me as a reader and makes me stretch my boundaries. Her endings are rocky HEA’s at best (although that is one of the things I love about her books), and the ending of The Space Between Us to me is very sad. The prologue of the book is actually the end (we go back a few months in chapter one.) The final ending does have another small chapter, but you pretty much know in the prologue how things will end up. And it made me nervous. There are kind of three storylines that take place. I’ll go into each one.

Tesla works at a coffee shop. She is bisexual, having had relationships with both men and women. As she states, “I’m not a straight girl. I’m not a queer girl, either. I guess you could say I’m sexually fluid.” Growing up, she spent her summers in a compound with her parents and her brother Cap. She was encouraged to try new things, and she knew  that her parents with all the other adults, shared each other’s bed at this compound. It was here she met Vic, who worked on cars. He is five years older than she is and Tesla crushed on him. Things exploded one night and they shared a physical release. While nothing comes of this permanently, later in life when Tesla’s parents both pack up and leave, leaving her (at 17) and her 14 year old brother with no options, they both move in with Vic and his wife Elaine.

I really enjoyed the Vic storyline. Both the brief flashbacks to their relationship on the compound to her time spent living with him now. She doesn’t live with him because she is a slacker, more because I think she clings to him as family. There isn’t really a weirdness between them because they shared a sexual moment (maybe a tiny hint of weirdness) and Tesla truly loves and respects his wife and their kids. I think she feels sad that she lives in someone else’s basement and has a shitty boss and maybe a little lost in life. So when Meredith comes into her life, the decision to be with her and her husband might have been an easy one.

Meredith is a force of nature in Tesla’s eyes. Outgoing, a little crazy, and everyone is drawn to her. Tesla crushes on her hard. Meredith visits the coffee shop often, and a friendship of sorts develops. Meredith always wants Tesla to tell her crazy stories about herself, and one day asks Meredith if she will sleep with her husband. Since Tesla has feelings for Meredith, she says yes, more to be with her than with her husband Charlie.

Charlie is apparently cool with all of this, they meet and eventually the three of them end up in bed. At first Charlie and Tesla interact, as well as Charlie and Meredith. For as wild as Meredith seemed (or claimed) she really isn’t, and it takes a lot of prodding from Tesla to start a physical relationship with Meredith.

Meredith is a hard character to figure out. She always felt very fake and I never took her sincerely. I didn’t understand her relationship with Charlie. I believe they had been married eight years when Tesla enters their life, but I guess I just didn’t feel chemistry between them. Of course you could argue they didn’t have chemistry so that is why they were looking for another body in their bed. But I never connected with Charlie and Meredith’s relationship.

Along the same lines, I had a hard time with Charlie. He is very low key, not a big presence. At times I found my self kind of pitying him, as he has been stuck in this weird marriage with Meredith who definitely has the balls in the relationship. I guess also I’m not used to this type of ménage. In other stories, the husband and wife are so in love, but I just didn’t feel that here. I just think this type of set-up is not my favorite.

The third storyline takes us back to Tesla’s high school years where she explores her sexuality with identical twin brothers. I have a rule that I don’t like or will read brother ménage, but I think the author does a nice job using this as an example of Tesla’s past sexual experience. She even compares her relationship with the two brothers at one point to her relationship with Charlie and Meredith.

By the end, I just felt unsatisfied. I like how Meredith reacts at the end, and what she says to Charlie and Tesla. It made send for her character. But I just didn’t feel the love or chemistry between Charlie and Tesla and I think that is a key relationship I needed to believe in. I liked Tesla individually, and I was totally indifferent to Charlie.

Rating: C

Recent Reviews:
The Raunch Dilettante – B
Seductive Musings – 3.5/5
Book Lovers Inc – 4/5
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