Unbreak My Heart
By: Melissa C. Walker
Bloomsbury USA
ISBN-13: 9781599905280
Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life. Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now. Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart? Told in alternating chapters that chronicle the year that broke Clem’s heart and the summer that healed it, Unbreak My Heart is a wonderful dual love story that fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Susane Colasanti will flock to.
Review
Clem should be getting ready to have a pretty good summer, but instead she's miserable. She knows that when she gets back from her family's sailing trip she'll still be in social exile, without any friends. Clem fell in love with her best friend Amanda's boyfriend and even though nothing ever happened, Amanda blamed her. Now Clem is best friend-less and Ethan, the boyfriend, has been taken back like nothing happened. At first she spends her days locked in her tiny room, being snarky and withdrawn. Even her little sister Olive can't draw her out. But then Clem meets James, an intriguing fellow sailor at one of their stops. Can he convince her that what happened isn't the end of the world? Will James be enough to heal Clem's heart - and can she heal his pain too? I honestly liked Clem a lot. She didn't give bullshit excuses and whine. She took responsibility for her actions and the problems that they caused. I honestly felt like Amanda had a right to be mad, but she was unnecessarily harsh toward Clem and not harsh enough toward Ethan (who seemed like a douche to me, I mean if you like someone else BREAK UP WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND BEFORE PURSUING HER!!!). Clem's little sister Olive was so cute and hilarious. I loved how she asked Clem to 'braid' her and all of the ways she attempted to cheer her up, including trying to discuss Huckleberry Finn. Clem's parents were awesome in that humiliating, adult way. You could tell they only wanted the best for her. James was enigmatic and a great character, but I didn't connect much to him personally. By the end of the book I felt like giving Clem a gigantic hug and I loved her family just as much. It was a book worth reading and had all the greatness of a Sarah Dessen or Deb Calletti book. My only real complaint would be the focus of 'cheating' when no actual cheating happened at all! Seriously, they didn't even do anything. GET OVER IT.
VERDICT: 3.85/5 Stars
*I
received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No
money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication
date is May 22nd, 2012.*
Your review made me giggle. Ah teenage drama, right? =P This sounds like an interesting book. I remember seeing it on netgalley and being on the fence about whether or not to read it. Maybe a summer read. :)
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