Wow, this was quite the book. I wanted to bawl my eyes out at the end, but at the same time I knew the book had to end the way it did. Sigh. Skipping a Beat had me thinking all through my sleep and into the next day. A wonderful read and I'd recommend this to anyone!

I don't get all the good reviews. I hate the protagonist and just couldn't sympathize. at. all.

I've been reading books that are making me bawl my eyes out lately, and this one did the job exceedingly well. Sarah Pekkanen fleshed out real people in an effortlessly convincing way, and has a fierce heart-tugging story line to go along with them.Julia and Michael are high school sweethearts from West Virginia. They grew up with dysfunctional families and as soon as they graduate, they move to Washington, DC to begin a new life. Incredibly smart and always antsy, it's Michael who takes them co...

A couple's not-very-happy marriage gets completely shaken up when the husband has a cardiac arrest and awakens with a resolve to give away all his money and rebuild their relationship. The wife likes the money and is horrified by this idea, and yet... is drawn to it.Wow, I got suckered into reading some serious chick lit (not that I have anything against GOOD chick lit... Bridget Jones is one of my favorite books). I must have read some biased reviews somewhere, thinking this was a little more s...

High-school sweethearts Julie & Michael have left behind their small town and are in pursuit of living a life better than their modest upbringings and achieving the American dream. When Michael decides to start a sports drink company, neither of them could ever expect how quickly his business would takeoff or what it would be like to be millionaires. As money is introduced into their life, their marriage begins to crumble as Michael is increasingly unavailable due to the success of his company a...

I have a secret. I was not a fan of Ms. Pekkanen's first novel. It wasn't that it was a horrible novel; I just felt that it was lighter, simplistic chick lit that is perfectly fine and is acceptable but not my typical fare. Yet, when Jen from Devourer of Books insisted I would love her newest novel, that she cried for the last 25 pages, and that I would love it, I had to trust her judgment and give Skipping a Beat a chance.It was with a huge amount of skepticism and doubt I approached the first

The publisher's summary of Skipping a Beat doesn't begin to tell the depth and passion that this story unfolds and wraps the reader in. The first line in the book begins"When my husband Michael died for the first time,".....a reader should know this is going to be a great journey. Julia and Michael have been married for many years, and they are successful and wealthy to most people looking into their lives, but a brush with death, a sudden heart attack changes everything. Their relationship is a...

Self-absorbed and shallow characters - had to give it up one-quarter of the way through so that I could stop wishing them dead.

What happens when life gives you an opportunity to fall in love all over again with your first love? Do you take it? Or do years of resentment and distance make it too painful to go back? These are the exact questions Julia faces when her multi-million dollar husband suddenly dies in the middle of a board meeting. After regaining consciousness Michael is completely changed, wanting to leave his life of success behind and focus on what he's rediscovered. His love for Julia. Will it be enough? Onl...

I have been having an inauspicious 2020 book start :(I’m half way in and cannot read another word about these self-absorbed characters. On to better reads!

Julia has learned to live indifferent to her husband, Michael, but not indifferent to his wealthy lifestyle. A life altering event changes him. He vows to lay aside his wealth and woo her all over again. During this time Julia reviews their life together - from childhood sweetheart to the present. Can she forgive him?Did not expect this book to be so moving. Have we all been in a place of indifference with someone in our life? Once we have all but closed that door, how easy is it to reopen? I lo...

Reviewed for A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews [http://acozyreaderscorner.blogspot.com]On the outside Julia seems to have it all, on the inside Julia is broken; her marriage has seemingly dissolved into a façade though Julia tries to convince herself it will pass. Once married to her best friend, Julia now looks at her husband and sees a stranger. When her world as she knows it changes in an instant, the four minutes and eight seconds following her husband collapse from cardiac arrest solidifies th...

This is the most emotional book I have read in a long time. I actually had to take breaks while reading this since I was so drawn into the story and how real the whole thing seemed. Within pages, I felt like I had known Julia my whole life. I could feel her fear and how much she loved Michael, yet realize they had grown apart. Like most marriages they had forgotten those moments that create the relationship. The ending was exactly how it had to be, although I never saw it coming. I ended up in t...

I won a copy of SKIPPING A BEAT in a goodreads giveaway. I was thrilled. Having been completely intrigued by Sarah Pekkanen's first novel, THE OPPOSITE OF ME, I was eager to start reading SKIPPING A BEAT, and I have to say, I became involved in the story, which is filtered through the perceptions of the main character, Julia, very quickly. However, as I read this emotional story of a marriage falling apart and coming together, and falling apart, I became frustrated because as much as I liked the...

There are books that draw us in further and further as we glide through the pages, their messages slowly intertwining themselves with each sentence. There are books that end with a bang, pulling us in with a startling, all-encompassing conclusion. And then there are the books that resonate from the first page, the words jumping out like little sprinkles of magic. Sarah Pekkanen’s Skipping a Beat is one of those. It’s more than that, so much more. It’s wisdom, grace, humor, inspiration, reflectio...