Elizabeth Scott is one of my favorite authors and she writes great YA contemporary novels. However, her latest book, Heart Beat, was not the one for me. I think Elizabeth Scott writes better "light" novels, as opposed to the heavy and dramatic ones. Heart Beat was a tough read because it's so sad - Emma's mother is brain dead and would not be alive except for the life support keeping her heart beating. Meanwhile, Emma is in a downward spiral and doesn't care about school, her grades or her relationships. What I disliked about the book was that there was no plot. The entire novel was Emma being angry at her stepfather for keeping her mother on life-support. They literally have the same argument four or five times which was redundant. The only part of the plot that progressed was her relationship with Caleb and I still thought it could have been developed more. Overall, I'm disappointed in the lack of both character and plot development - both would have made this novel much better.