The Space Between Us

Sep 07, 2012 Becs - Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: net-galley-for-review, contemporary-romance, erotic-romance, review-copy, menage, smuttastic

Is Megan Hart the Thomas Hardy of erotic fiction? I think she may be – she’s busy heaping more misery on miserable people with miserable lives. I do quite like it though – I really enjoy some angst in the books I read and I especially like the characters to suffer and suffer they truly do.

We have Tesla coasting along in life working as a barista. She doesn’t appear to have any ambitions and is happy just to keep bumping along the way she is. This makes her sound humdrum but she is anything but –...more Is Megan Hart the Thomas Hardy of erotic fiction? I think she may be – she’s busy heaping more misery on miserable people with miserable lives. I do quite like it though – I really enjoy some angst in the books I read and I especially like the characters to suffer and suffer they truly do.

We have Tesla coasting along in life working as a barista. She doesn’t appear to have any ambitions and is happy just to keep bumping along the way she is. This makes her sound humdrum but she is anything but – she definitely marches to an entirely different beat than everybody else. She’s had a highly unconventional childhood being raised by two hippies spending long summers in communes and has a totally different perspective on sex than the rest of us. She’s uninhibited and totally unrestricted by the mores of society.

She is heteroflexible and, at the beginning of the novel, she is crushing on one of her customers at the coffee shop, Meredith. Meredith comes in almost daily and seems to charm all the staff and customers into giving up their most intimate secrets. Everyone has a story to tell, she says and she collects them with relish. She and Tesla get to know each other better until one day Meredith asks her to fuck her husband so she can watch and Tesla agrees to meet him, to see if it would work and so they begin their ménage relationship – just the three of them!

Meredith – how I hated her. She’s a social butterfly, flitting from her latest interest to the next, bored quickly by everyone and everything, totally capricious and a complete BIATCH!! She’s like an F5 tornado, tearing through everyone, destroying everything she touches and leaving a trail of devastation in her wake and she can scarcely manage a backward glance.

Tesla, on the other hand, I loved. She’s a little different from most heroines, is unapologetic for who she is but is capable of deep love for those around her. Charlie, Meredith’s husband, I loved too and felt very sorry for him. I feel that he’s been blinded by Meredith for a long time and will do anything to appease her, including fucking another woman in front of her. I was just waiting for the scales to fall from his eyes.

There’s also a whole bunch of supporting characters whose lives are fairly miserable – they have ongoing issues that are not resolved in this story. They just appear to add to the general air of misery that pervades this book. But, I’m selling it short. Yes, there’s not a lot of joy here but it does kinda get under your skin, take root and flourish – I thought about this book a lot when I was away from it, wondering where it would go.

I’m undecided how to describe the ending – not conventionally happy, for sure, and it’s certainly doesn't end in a neat little package all tied up in a bow but it’s a progression from how the book begins so it satisfies me. It’s refreshingly different from a lot of erotic fiction and deeply thoughtful. Yes, I enjoyed this.

4 stars thoughtful erotic fiction

ARC courtesy of Harlequin via NetGalley

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Sep 22, 2012 Glass rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, arc, harlequin, love-the-cover, romance, way-too-hot

All of you guys who read Megan Hart's books can already guess what's waiting for you in her new novel, The Space Between Us. This woman gave the whole new meaning to erotic romance genre. Unlike lot of books in this category, main focus is on the story behind the sex - don't get me wrong, this woman knows how to write hot scenes that will leave you panting. Her books could be good example for difference between pornography and erotica in literature - first is purely graphical with the sole purp...more All of you guys who read Megan Hart's books can already guess what's waiting for you in her new novel, The Space Between Us. This woman gave the whole new meaning to erotic romance genre. Unlike lot of books in this category, main focus is on the story behind the sex - don't get me wrong, this woman knows how to write hot scenes that will leave you panting. Her books could be good example for difference between pornography and erotica in literature - first is purely graphical with the sole purpose to quickly satisfy one of the our primal urges, and second is more subtle and writers have more serious approach to the subject (although, it can be quite graphic as well).

The Space Between Us is story about menage and bisexuality. Okay, hold your panties! It's not that kind of story. Menage in this novel isn't author's secret fantasy put on the paper as the attempt to live it at least on that way. No, Megan Hart tries to go deeper and figure out what is beyond someones sexual fantasies or choices. You have two storylines in the novel - one is Tesla's present and the other is her past. Those two things aren't separate - everything that she went through defines who she is now, from her past relationships, childhood to the way her parents lived. Other two characters, Meredith and Charlie, are well written. I had the feeling that two of them were actually different aspects of Tesla's personalty - she has this inner struggle going on through the whole book. You'll have to read it to see how it ends.

Other thing that I really liked was that three-way relationship wasn't pictured with big pink glasses or alpha males with no problem to share one woman. I've read Sharing Hailey by Samantha Ann King few weeks after The Space Between Us and that is big-pink-glasses menage. I love that book, it's even on my favorite shelf - every girl needs a fantasy like that from time to time, but here you have real life story without all super strong men part.

Megan Hart tries to stay realistic even when she writes about taboo themes and that is why I like her. Her books would be great choice for all of those who like their reading with extra spice, but still down to earth.

***NOTE! Copy of the book is kindly provided by the publisher, Harlequin, via NetGalley. I'm not paid for writing review - I do this for free as lover of written word. All opinions in this review are personal.
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Aug 26, 2012 ♆ BookAddict ~ La Crimson Femme rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: erotica, romance, netgalley-reviews, menage, arc

Tesla lives in a basement of her friends Vic and Elain. She is working a seemingly dead end job as a coffee barista. Seen as a wild child, Tesla is actually quite sedate. She doesn't want to stick out and is happily living one day at a time.

Telsa's life is complicated with relationships that are not within the norm. While she did have two parents and one brother, it wasn't a conventional family. They spent summers at a hippie commune where her parents were swinging. Telsa's sexual education and...more Tesla lives in a basement of her friends Vic and Elain. She is working a seemingly dead end job as a coffee barista. Seen as a wild child, Tesla is actually quite sedate. She doesn't want to stick out and is happily living one day at a time.

Telsa's life is complicated with relationships that are not within the norm. While she did have two parents and one brother, it wasn't a conventional family. They spent summers at a hippie commune where her parents were swinging. Telsa's sexual education and freedom is unorthodox which shaped her life. Even her first experiences were a bit out of the ordinary which makes her so attractive.

This attraction is what pulls Meredith, one of her regular customers to her. Meredith stops by the coffee shop every day and wants to hear stories about other people's lives. She so stunning, Telsa can not help, but fall for her. Tesla is sexually fluid so for her, it's an unrequited crush. Meredith is married so there is no hope for Telsa, or is there? After months of afternoon coffee, Meredith springs the question. "Will you fuck my husband while I watch?" Telsa is shocked as this is not what she's expecting.

This story is one of alternative love and the downright difficulties people face. I'm no stranger to a poly relationship but I can say that it would not work for me. For Telsa who wants a true threesome, it comes close to crushing her. Because one of the triad is going in with a false guise. This is a triangle as Meredith truly loves her husband, Charlie. Charlie falls for Telsa. Telsa has been in love with Meredith the entire time.

Ms. Hart creates another fabulous story with heartbreak and bittersweet endings. She shows the good, bad and ugly side of menages as well as poly relationships. It's not easy and the communication required is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, when one of the members is going in to get something else out of it, it breaks the circle of trust - completely.

This story is watching a train derail. I know what will happen. How it happens or what causes the train to finally come off the tracks, this is what I'm waiting to see, with my gut clenching in apprehension. While it is no one's fault, the train wreck causes massive collateral damage. It's heartbreaking and there is no way to fix it. As in, Ms. Hart never fixes the stories where it's all happily ever after as if no one has been hurt. Instead, she creates survivors who start a new chapter in their life - because nothing ever stays the same. If there is one thing to be taken away from this moving love story is - go in with your eyes wide open.

The twists and turns in this story melded along with Telsa's past relationships add a depth. We see how Telsa's character is shaped and what she's really longing to be. Her journey through pain and joy is what makes this book so powerful. Even if I'm not a fan of Telsa's lifestyle or choices, Ms. Hart creates a character who is engaging and above all, desirable by being herself. Telsa isn't weak nor is she perfect. I highly recommend this story to romance readers who want to read the unvarnished truths of a menage relationship.

*ARC from http://www.netgalley.com/*
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Aug 26, 2012 Rose rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mature, erotica, contemporary, arc-or-galley, netgalley, romance, tbr-challenge, pretty-cover

Initial reaction:Megan Hart's "The Space Between Us" is a story of exploration of a young woman with a damaged history trying to find a place/space to feel loved. There are many paths that she takes in the path of that, but ultimately, Tesla's journey takes her full circle to find the relationship she ultimately wants, and it's more that she knows what she wants, but doesn't know how to assert it.

I liked the story arc well enough and understood the journey as far as how it transpired, but I'll a...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Mandi Schreiner rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 y...more 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
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Sep 20, 2012 Purple rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, anti-romance-story, beautifully-written-disaster, dark, heart-breaking-story, hot-steamy, it-could-have-been-5-stars-but, mixed-feelings, this-author-rocks, very-emotional, very-fucked-up-characters, drama, favorites, realistic, f-m-f

"Everyone has a story..."

"Stories end, but life doesn’t. Not just because you lose the person you love. 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."

Only Megan Hart can "make me" read books that deal with themes with which I'm not comfortable with or with which I have,let's say,issues or prejudices in a way and to make me actually like them.And why...more "Everyone has a story..."

"Stories end, but life doesn’t. Not just because you lose the person you love. 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."

Only Megan Hart can "make me" read books that deal with themes with which I'm not comfortable with or with which I have,let's say,issues or prejudices in a way and to make me actually like them.And why is that you wonder?Well, the answer is pretty simple and I probably wrote it billion times already, but I don't think it will ever be enough to express the amazing writing style of this author. Her books just keep getting better and better.

"This was ending all around me, and all I could do was go along with it.

It wasn’t good for me, it was awful.
It was breaking my heart. It was leaving me alone, and I hated it.

I had not one gorgeous and attentive lover, but two. Why, then, did I feel so alone?"

The Space Between Us is another very emotional book with flawed and messed-up characters with a past and present lifestyle which are anything but perfect.
These characters make a lot of wrong choices, but after hearing their life-story, piece by piece, we begin to understand why they behave the way they behave and can't, but feel sympathy towards them.

The only thing which made me not rating it with 5 stars is the ending. I was so not expecting that.
After I read the last sentence I was so confused, I even thought I was missing some pages.It just felt fake and unbelievable that things would end that way. I guess I was expecting something more, something unique, something more realistic and typical for Megan Hart and not just a "plain HEA" (and kind of abrupt), but the story itself was very good.

"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 flavors, and I just want to be able to taste them all."

I just wanted to have some freedom. I wanted to be a little wild sometimes.(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 Letitia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, netgalley, erotic-romance-erotica

Rating: B- ... Heat: Hot

The Space Between Us starts with the end, so it only seems appropriate for me to do the same. This book very nearly does not give us a HEA. This stomach churning, emotion playing story waits to the last – the very last – possible moment to give us a hint, a peak, at the possibility of a HEA. Which, though it felt completely unsatisfying, did fit with the overall tone. Megan Hart did an excellent job toying with my emotions. By the very end, my stomach was such a mess that...more

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Aug 28, 2012 LethalLovely~I'll Be Your River rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: erotica-romantica, arcs, on-kindle, rrrc-monthly-reads, 5-and-4-star-ratings, reviews

ARC provided by Harlequin and Netgalley. Thank you!

A caveat: I'm a rabid, unashamed Megan Hart fan. I've read seven books by her, including this one, and while they haven't all been great, I've found that (for me at least) Hart consistently churns out interesting and intriguing books that turn me into a happy, emotional wreck.

The Space Between Us follows Tesla Martin, a 26-year-old Barista who works at Morningstar Mocha (a coffee shop that's been featured in at least one other Hart novel). She a...more ARC provided by Harlequin and Netgalley. Thank you!

A caveat: I'm a rabid, unashamed Megan Hart fan. I've read seven books by her, including this one, and while they haven't all been great, I've found that (for me at least) Hart consistently churns out interesting and intriguing books that turn me into a happy, emotional wreck.

The Space Between Us follows Tesla Martin, a 26-year-old Barista who works at Morningstar Mocha (a coffee shop that's been featured in at least one other Hart novel). She and her younger brother Captain were raised by unconventional parents who took them to a commune during the summer where Tesla and Captain ran wild while their parents engaged in sex with other couples. Suffice it to say, Tesla's upbringing makes her an extremely interesting protagonist. At the coffee shop, she becomes friends with Meredith, a glamorous, married older woman of leisure. Tesla is insanely attracted to Meredith but knows it won't go anywhere, so when Meredith asks her point blank if Tesla will have sex with her husband, Tesla is more than a little shocked.

Menages are not something I'm unfamiliar with when it comes to Hart. Her erotic romance, Tempted was about a menage and the ramifications of one. So I had an idea of what to expect going into TSBU. Having a romantic relationship with one person is hard enough without adding someone else to the mix. I fully believe that they can work-if everyone goes into with eyes wide open, aware of what they want and what they don't want from each other. That was not the case with TSBU, as I'm sure is true for a lot of real life menages.

Yes, a big part of this book was dedicated to the relationship between Tesla, Meredith and her husband, Charlie. But a lot of it was about Tesla finding her own self. In this book, Tesla learned what she wanted and what she was unwilling to take. She also discovered pieces of herself that she never realized were broken and voids that she didn't realize she wanted to fill. I wish Hart had've delved deeper into the comfortable and utterly complicated relationship between Tesla and Vic (a friend who she has lived with since the age of seventeen) but I guess if she did, the mystery would be gone. I also wish the ending of TSBU wasn't so abrupt, but I feel that way about every single Hart novel I've read. That's probably apart of Hart's diabolical plan to leave her readers panting and begging for more.

The title for this book is appropriate in so many ways. Not only is it about the space between Tesla, Meredith and Charlie but it's also about the space between what you think you're content to have and what you're afraid to want.(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just couldn't put this book down! Megan has an amazing knack for writing the most wonderfully broken characters. They are so real, that they almost leap off the page. I also love how she let's the readers uncover bits and pieces of the characters past, like revealing layers of an onion.

While this book might not be everyone's cup of tea, I totally loved it. It was smart, funny, and sexy as hell!

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Feb 07, 2013 Zarinah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This a story of a woman who tries to live her life in a menage trios relationship with a husband and a wife. The story really draws me into the main character Telsa because she tries to relate and gets along with everyone she meets at her job in the coffee shop. The connection between characters were lacking though if felt as though they were forced together in a relationship.
I have read books like " rough, raw, and ready"( rough riders #5) by lorelei James, "the baumgartners plus one by selena...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Sharon Hawes Dodd rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 Stars -- Megan Hart's books are wonderful romantic stories of people that have been damaged and are searching for love/sex/connection. Her books have kept me up reading well into the early morning hours not wanting to stop knowing her characters.

This story of Tesla, Meredith and Charlie was not as compelling as some of her other books, however, I found myself conflicted about that. Was it the simple premise of living as a threesome that I could not get my head around or was it that I really...more 3.5 Stars -- Megan Hart's books are wonderful romantic stories of people that have been damaged and are searching for love/sex/connection. Her books have kept me up reading well into the early morning hours not wanting to stop knowing her characters.

This story of Tesla, Meredith and Charlie was not as compelling as some of her other books, however, I found myself conflicted about that. Was it the simple premise of living as a threesome that I could not get my head around or was it that I really did not like Meredith and could not get past that and let the story weave its magic? I'm not certain but I still admire Megan Hart's talent for bringing the ordinary every day and workplace into the story so you feel the bonds and connections in the character's lives. This is a bonus of her books, these ordinary settings that say so much about a character.

Tesla and her brother Cap came from a household of college professors who spend summers escaping mainstream culture living on a "compound" of hippies practicing free love and illegal drug sales. It is there they meet Vic a mechanic/undercover detective on his first big job. Vic befriends both Tesla and Cap and cares for them after a bust on the compound(they avoid with his help) and their parents desert them for new locals. Vic and his wife Elaine are still living with Tesla as she works as a coffee barista and part time child care provider for their two children. Tesla has had a previous relationship where she's been involved in a threesome as a teen but picks one over the other and it ends. She did this with twin boys and still yearns for that connection so it is not out of bounds for her to consider Meredith's (a coffeehouse regular) proposal to join her and her husband Charlie in bed.

This relationship has a predictable ending but since the reader spends so little time with Charlie either at work or outside sex with Tesla and his wife Meredith, I found it hard to understand and feel connected to the ultimate outcome of this novel.

If you love Megan Hart you will like this book.(less)

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Nov 12, 2012 SM Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: home-collection

From the moment I read the synopsis, I had to read this book. I'm not sure if I've read Megan Hart before, but I will be reading more.

Honestly, The Space Between Us is not a typical romance, even with the possibility of a happy ending that we're ultimately given. But. And this is huge: Speaking from a very intense personal experience, this book nails it.

To bring a third into a marriage is incredibly complicated, even while it can be beautiful. And even while it is beautiful, one is aware that it...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Jenny - totallybookedblog rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve read Dirty, Tempted and Stranger by Megan Hart and loved all three . They pushed me out of my comfort zone and absolutely loved it!

I was happy to receive an ARC of The Space Between from Netgalley and couldn’t wait to read more from this author.

I love that this author’s characters have so many layers and I always love tearing my way through them throughout her stories. She has always managed to give me that emotional connection I so crave when I am reading her books and her characters are s...more

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Sep 22, 2012 willaful rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, first-person, menage

In a genre that seems to be becoming heavily focused on specific kinks, Hart's erotica is notable for covering a wide range of human sexuality and emotion. Our narrator here is coffee shop employee Tesla, someone whose co-workers and customers think of as sexually adventurous, "wild," a characterization which makes her somewhat uncomfortable. Although her background is unconventional and her sexual preferences varied, she just feels ordinary, like herself. "I'm not a straight girl. I'm not a que...more In a genre that seems to be becoming heavily focused on specific kinks, Hart's erotica is notable for covering a wide range of human sexuality and emotion. Our narrator here is coffee shop employee Tesla, someone whose co-workers and customers think of as sexually adventurous, "wild," a characterization which makes her somewhat uncomfortable. Although her background is unconventional and her sexual preferences varied, she just feels ordinary, like herself. "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 flavors, and I just want to be able to taste them all."

What some people don't realize is that Tesla's openness toward sex doesn't mean she's either unprincipled or unfeeling. And what Tesla doesn't realize is the fact that people "really don't know me at all" could make her very vulnerable to being hurt.

One of Tesla's favorite customers is Meredith, a beautiful and charismatic married woman who's constantly after stories of Tesla's "wild, crazy" life. When Meredith tells Tesla that she and her husband want to live out a fantasy about him with another woman, Tesla is more interested in being with Meredith. Her previous experience with a threesome did not end well: "The three of us could've made a circle, soft and smooth, but what had happened made us into a triangle with sharp, stabbing points." But Meredith's husband Charlie turns out to be an attractive, adorable man, making the possibility of being with both of them an apparent win-win.

In the past, I've sometimes thought that Hart's books were negative towards polyamorous people, but I didn't feel that here. I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that serious problems arise in the threesome, but it's not that the situation itself is inherently bad, more that the motivations behind it were. I really like how Tesla is depicted here, as someone who simply accepts her varied enjoyment of sex without feeling odd or out there. It's also not the only important aspect of her character: she is also loyal, sensitive and kind, deserving of the love of someone, or several someones.

My main problem with the book was that I never liked Meredith or found her remotely attractive, which made it hard to understand Tesla's feelings for her. (Or Charlie's, for that matter.) From her first introduction, she seemed superficial and insincere. I also found the ending of the story a bit abrupt and unsatisfying, almost tacked on. But I love Hart's quiet yet tension-filled writing, which gives tremendous power to her sex scenes. The story was compulsively readable; I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to read erotica that is really about who people are, not just what they like to do in bed.

(reviewed from e-arc provided by netGalley)(less)

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Sep 20, 2012 Michele rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs

*This book was provided to the reviewer by the author in exchange for an honest review at SeductiveMusings.blogspot.com

I have to admit right up front that I am a huge fan of Megan Hart. One of the things I love most about her books is how she has, over time, created this vividly drawn world in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Characters from previous books often make appearances, but never in a way that expects you to have read those books or doesn’t make sense within the current story. Ther...more *This book was provided to the reviewer by the author in exchange for an honest review at SeductiveMusings.blogspot.com

I have to admit right up front that I am a huge fan of Megan Hart. One of the things I love most about her books is how she has, over time, created this vividly drawn world in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Characters from previous books often make appearances, but never in a way that expects you to have read those books or doesn’t make sense within the current story. There are a wealth of both new and previously seen supporting characters in “The Space Between Us”, most of whom we meet at Morningside Mocha, the coffee shop where Tesla Martin works.

Tesla is a woman who has survived so much early in her life and now only wants to exist from day to day. She’s trying to avoid any additional drama but knows that she’ll never have more than she does right now if she doesn’t take any chances. Everyone thinks she’s a wild child based on her past (if they know it) and how she presents herself to others, but the sad truth is that her life is so dull that it’s practically standing still.

It’s Meredith who sways Tesla into a sexual triad with her own husband Charlie, almost solely by her force of will. Charlie appears to be as passive as Tesla, but clearly loves his wife enough to make this change in his life to please her. But as Charlie and Tesla grow closer, it remains to be seen if Meredith will be content with their new arrangement.

As I said before, I’m a big Megan Hart fangirl. So it pains me to say that “The Space Between Us” was not one that I enjoyed as much as usual. A big part of this was her decision to include a prologue that I considered tantamount to a spoiler. When the author tells me upfront where the plot is going to go, it alters my ability to fully immerse myself in the story. Thanks to that prologue, I had a nagging thought the whole time, wondering when we would get to that part. This type of early reveal may not be a problem for others, but if I had the ability to read this again for the first time, I would go right to Chapter One and skip the prologue. The good news is that aside from that one concern, this was another beautifully written Megan Hart story and I enjoyed being back in her world.(less)

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Sep 07, 2012 Nea Barabea rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I saw this title on NetGalley I was totally into it! I loved the title, I loved the cover and I loved the promise of good romance and great hot scenes.

What I haven't anticipated was a story of a girl, Tesla, who will get herself in a quite interesting situation. My feelings toward different kind of sexual stuff are cool. I don't judge and definitely I find a lot of things interesting. But, a married couple decides to have a girlfriend? Holy cow. Never thought about it. Because really, as a...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Darcy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, erotica, e-book, menage, net-galley-books

I loved Tesla right from the start, she seems to be a free spirit, one who marches to the beat of her own drummer. I liked how she was there for her friends and family, how she has built a new family for herself when her blood one imploded.

At first I started out liking that Tesla found a new friend in Meredith, and how she was able to pull out stories of Tesla's past. It was in those stories that we get to know her better and you realize how those past events have had such a big impact on her l...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

FANGS, WANDS & FAIRY DUST Original Review Post: IS IS HOT IN HERE?

THE SPACE BETWEEN US
Megan Hart
Harlequin/Harlequin Mira
Paperback (400 pages 9/18/2012)
E-Book (Kindle 412KB 9/1/2012)

Everyone has a story…

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 t

...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Risbee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley-read

I liked this one...a lot. Like, really a lot - but I can't really tell you why. It isn't one of those books that leaves you with the warm and fuzzies. Quite the opposite, in fact.

When I first saw this book and the blurb on Netgalley, I wanted it. Badly. I mean, threesomes and bisexuality...hello! And I was so excited when I got a galley to read -- but it wasn't the quick-read tingly erotica that I thought I was going to get.

There was so much more to the story than I could have possibly imagine...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, erotica, netgalley

3.5 stars.

Huh. This was the first erotica book that I read. I found it thought-provoking and sad, both of which I didn't expect to find in an erotica story.

I'm not sure why I picked this one up. Maybe it's because it discusses menage and female bisexuality. Maybe because I'm so sick of YA books where the heroine falls in love instantly after a few electric touches with the hero and gazing into his beautiful eyes. Maybe it's because I'm older now and I know that love is messy and difficult and...more 3.5 stars.

Huh. This was the first erotica book that I read. I found it thought-provoking and sad, both of which I didn't expect to find in an erotica story.

I'm not sure why I picked this one up. Maybe it's because it discusses menage and female bisexuality. Maybe because I'm so sick of YA books where the heroine falls in love instantly after a few electric touches with the hero and gazing into his beautiful eyes. Maybe it's because I'm older now and I know that love is messy and difficult and certainly not easy. Or maybe it's because falling in love is easy and staying in love, that's a different story, and it's not a story that people want to read about.

Tesla is the narrator of this story, and although she tells the story in first person, I found myself being strangely detached from her. The book is told through a series of stories about her previous sexual experiences as well as the present day of how she came into the relationship with Meredith and Charlie as a third. I think the problem was that she tells these stories without dealing with the emotional aftermath. We never figure out what happened between her and the twins afterwards or how her and Vic got over what happened. Even at the climax of the story when the three of them fall to pieces, I didn't really feel for Tesla and her loss of the relationship with Meredith.

Meredith was a troublesome character, but I believed her more than I did with Tesla. I actually sympathized with her, because she was so emotional and flighty and manipulative, but unable to talk about what she wants and unable to be reasonable about her desires. She wasn't honest with the people she was closest to and she wasn't honest with herself, which happens more often than not I believe.

I'm also not sure how I felt about Charlie as a character either. I know he's portrayed as sensitive and gentle and loving, but I thought there were problems with his relationship with Meredith at the start, where they simply did not communicate about the boundaries of the threesome relationship. I don't like how Tesla and Charlie's developing feelings for each other was viewed with "wrongness" as well as (view spoiler). It's not that I believe only in relationships where people do not get hurt and hearts don't get broken. I understand that sometimes the right person comes along even though you're with someone else. It's that the ending of the book bothered me so much because I feel that it came at the expense of something else that might have been worth salvaging, I don't know. It was bittersweet all around. I have this feeling that someone is going to get hurt again.

My feelings about this book are so conflicted, yet I think that's why I gave this book a high rating because it provoked me to think about relationships and whether a relationship can exist with three people. It's also so, so wonderful to read about a girl whose sexuality is fully explored but nobody ever sees it in a negative or a positive light. It just is a part of life, as simple as that. She never apologizes for her sexuality, and yet she experiences the same uncertainty about her feelings as everybody else. (less)

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Sep 18, 2012 Mireya Sauer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have not read many books in this genre which is Erotica, I suppose, but I have to say that it was a well written book. The reason why I gave this book a chance was because I was interested to see how the writer would develop the relationship in a ménage. Tesla, our protagonist, is not gay but not straight either and is both attracted to the husband and wife. And said couple is attracted to Tesla...At first is just an attraction and sexual thing, but as always, things start getting emotional an...more

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Oct 06, 2012 July rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, erotic, tbr-pile-challenge

I loved this book as evidenced by the fact that I finished it in one day. I couldn't stop reading.

Liked:
* As with other Megan Hart erotica, this book is very emotionally intense. The last 20 or so pages were a complete roller coaster ride. The Space Between Us (SBU hereafter) had less bittersweet than Broken but the emotional punch was no less.
* The sex scenes are definitely hot and not gratuitous.
* I loved the cameos of characters from other books coming into the coffee shop where Tesla works....more

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Oct 01, 2012 Monique rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my very first Megan Hart book and honestly it was too much for me emotionally, beautifully written, but, tough to read becaus of the emotions involved, the book made me extremly uncomfortable and feeling ill everytime I read another chunk of it. I liked Tesla very much, liked Vic, like most have said really was angry with the self-centerness and shallowness of Meredith. She made me think of some females I know who are gorgeous and seem to have the perfect life, but, there's nothing behi...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Iamme rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is just so much that I love about Megan Hart's style of writing, she manages to convey such emotion in every book that I have read. I rarely feel an emotional connection to characters, however, Tesla was endearing to me, I kept waiting for her to find happiness even if it wasn't in the most conventional sense. I don't know in the back of my head I kind of wanted her to get with Vic but that really would have been wrong. I'm glad she had him there growing up she needed him

Meredith was a sel...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fantastically unique and emotional book about love, relationships, and choices. Meredith is a charming, attractive woman who likes to hear stories. Tesla is a sweet, pretty, "unconventional" girl with a story to tell. What Meredith doesn't realize, while she's trying to get Tesla to tell her stories, is that Tesla is not as unconventional as she may seem. Tesla wants love, happiness, contentment, and safety.

Tesla and her brother Cap grew up with swinger parents who spent their summers at a co...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Ni_kii rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really 4.5 Stars

Full review over at Scorching Book Reviews.

This is not a romance. This is not a book filled with unicorns and sunshine. This is a book about a ménage set up on a whim and lasting far longer than it was supposed to. It shows the real dilemmas that exist in a relationship such as this. From questions about relationship to broaching the topic of their unorthodox relationship to loved ones, this book covers it all and I loved the realism of the situation. Yes, this means that the hig...more Really 4.5 Stars

Full review over at Scorching Book Reviews.

This is not a romance. This is not a book filled with unicorns and sunshine. This is a book about a ménage set up on a whim and lasting far longer than it was supposed to. It shows the real dilemmas that exist in a relationship such as this. From questions about relationship to broaching the topic of their unorthodox relationship to loved ones, this book covers it all and I loved the realism of the situation. Yes, this means that the highly romanticised view of ménage is not present in this book. The sex is hot; the other bits of the relationship are fraught with tension.

It took me a while to get into this book. Written in first person, it’s quite difficult to relate to a character such as Telsa. She is a woman who seems to have absolutely no foresight skills and seems to get herself into situations because of her impulsivity. Her living situation drove me batty. She lives with the man who she had her first sexual experience with who is also the undercover cop who was sent into the religious compound where she grew up to investigate them for drugs. Oh yeah, and he’s married with two kids now. Head explodingly weird. Aside from that she is a very flighty character but I did like her. There are some scenes from Telsa’s past told throughout the tale in the form of flashbacks. They gave me a massive clue towards where this book was going and I really enjoyed them and her. Then she meets Meredith.

Meredith is a woman who I never got. She was so concerned with making her life “wild”, I didn’t really think we ever really saw the real her. She wanted everyone else’s wild stories, wanted Telsa in her marital bed, took them to strip clubs.... she never had an off switch which just showed how fake it all was. She also wanted the wildness, but didn’t want the ramifications on their relationship. She went mad at Telsa when she invited her brother to the house where they had invited her to live, wouldn’t take her anywhere as a three and didn’t want to actually touch Telsa during sex, even though she was perfectly aware that Tulsa’s attraction to her was the only reason she agreed to the situation. I didn’t like her. By the middle of the book I actively detested her and by the end of the book I flat out hated her and her blasé attitude towards others feelings in the pursuit of her own pleasure.

As for them as a three? The sex really worked (even with the obvious reluctance of Meredith to touch Telsa at first) but the rest of the relationship was a hot mess that didn’t work at all for me. I liked Telsa and Charlie together and liked Meredith and Charlie together, but I wasn’t sure how the hell they were going to work. I haven’t mentioned Charlie as an individual character because he wasn’t introduced as an individual character; he was simply part of the relationship but I really enjoyed every scene he was in.

This isn’t an easy book to read. It will tear into your emotions and make you actually feel for these characters. Whether it is love, hate or just general distrust, these are characters that live inside a realistic world where a ménage is a messy place to be. With hot sex and believable characters, this is a book that I would recommend to fans of gritty romance tales. And you won’t believe what the ending is......
(less)

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Sep 03, 2012 Paula (Romantic Book Affairs Blogspot) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: erotica, ng-edel-arc

Rating: B+

This story is about a menage trois relationship and bisexuality but it's also so much more. It's about feeling connected, companionship, respect, trust, love, and family.

Tesla works in a coffee house called Mocha where she meets Meredith. Meredith is an exciting woman that gets the regulars in the coffee house to tell her their craziest stories where Meredith seems to want to live vicariously through these people's lives. Tesla finds herself attracted and enthralled by this blue-eyed...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Darci rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, lgbt, modern-contemporary, netgalley, oh-the-angst, steamy

Hmmm. I'm not sure how to review this one. I finished it so obviously it wasn't bad, just frustrating. I liked Tesla and the story line with just about everyone but Meredith and Charlie. I felt like Tesla was incredibly naive and looking way too hard for acceptance from the wrong people. Maybe not so much Charlie, but he was too much of a doormat. I don't think I was supposed to like Meredith, and I didn't at all. She was manipulative from the beginning. The characters were hard to connect with,...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Kathy Davie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: erotica, romance

An erotic romance with a woman willing to be seduced into a threesome.

My Take
This was a bittersweet tale of the reality of threesomes. As much as I enjoy the idea of the Happily Ever After for a threesome, I don't think the human species is hardwired for it to work. It's hard enough for two people to make a relationship work, but when you add in a third. Hoo-boy. Of course, Meredith isn't exactly playing fair in this one.

The story follows one woman with flashbacks to her childhood growing up bet...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Laury rated it 5 of 5 stars

It was hard at first to get into the story, this complex interacted story about a non conventional girl in a non conventional relationship...I couldn't relate but once I found it..the "it" that makes you love a story, makes you feel the characters as real people and suffer and enjoy them, well I was a gonner.
Tesla, Meredith, Charlie, Vic and everyone else in this story where Charcters full of flaws, and I think that's what hook me in.
It started at the innocence of telling your story to a strang...more

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