Unbreak My Heart

Last year, when Unbreak My Heart came out I didn't want to read it. I can't remember why. I just didn't. but a couple of days ago I was browsing Goodreads and stumbled upon this book I decided to try it out because I was craving a story about redemption and I'm so glad I picked it up. It was just what I needed.

Unbreak My Heart is a story about Clementine, who's in love with her best friend's boyfriend. She is forced to go sailing with her family after her friends turn their backs on her. Clem spends the first half of the book being mean to her parents and sister. They forgave her cause she's dealing with a lot of this. Every thing changes when she meets James who's sailing with his dad.

I think I've never read a book with a red-head love interest so this book already gained some points. James is so freaking cute. He loves to draw, talks a lot and smiles all the time which helps Clementine stop thinking about her problems. Well, she finally deals with them after seeing some people aren't so lucky, like her.

Aside from cute love interest I would like to mention Clem's parents. They're an awesome example of busy parents doing a great job raising their kids. They still find the time to talk to their daughters and even take 3 months of work to go sailing. They let Clem blow out her steam, even though she was being rude. I don't think I can remember more than 3 examples of great parenting in YA novels so I was really pleased Melissa Walker gave us a loving and supporting family.

I feel like maybe there’s something wrong with me. When I turned the last page of Unbreak My Heart I wanted to cry despite the fact that it ended on a pretty hopeful note. See what I mean? I should be happy, right? Maybe part of it is that I’m a tad jealous of Clem’s fantastic summer. Being on a boat all summer sounds like pure torture to me (at least, the sixteen-year-old me) but after reading Clem’s story I almost feel as if I was robbed of something since I didn’t get a boating trip of my own. Unless you count the two-week-long road trip in the van with my 4 other family members, but I don’t :P

Let me just say that Walker certainly knows how to write a good teen character. Though I’ve never been through anything like Clem went through I could completely relate to a lot of her thoughts. In the first 1/3 of the book when all she wants to do is sulk and feels as if she deserves the self-punishment? So been there. When she snaps at her parents and sister because they won’t just give her some room? Been there too. When she has those happy moments with her family that make it seem like they aren’t so bad? Definitely been there. Clem is a character that I could completely relate to despite the fact that we had very little in common which I loved.

Of course, there’s a romance aspect. It’s nowhere near the focal point of the story, though. It’s more like the nice the sprinkles on top of your cupcake, though. It’s pretty and fun, but it isn’t what’s at the heart of the story. When you get right down to it, this is a story of a girl whose completely broken inside and spends the summer picking up all the pieces and putting herself together again. It’s a story about loss and friendship and family. And it’s a story about the magic of summer.

The Nutshell: Unbreak My Heart is more than just a story about summer love. If you’re looking for a good summer read, you’ll definitely find it here. You’ll also find a story about a girl learning to forgive and love herself again, a story about families, and a story about what happens when black and white seem to blur.

This book gave me a lot of The Feels.

So, first my schpeal on cheating. It's really not okay and I hate when characters do it. It's never ago and it frustrates me. However, in this book? It made a good point. Technically, Clem was never REALLY cheating with her best friend's boyfriend. Of course, it was still wrong, but was it as bad as I thought at first? Nope. And this book also raised the good point: Why is she the only one at fault? This wasn't a one-sided thing, the boyfriend was just as much at fault as Clem. Yet he's forgiven and still dating Clem's best friend, but Clem can't even get her best friend to talk to her. Why is this fair? Why do we treat the two so differently? They both did an equally bad thing, so how can we punish them differently? It was a good question, and I'm glad Melissa Walker looked at it.

At first Clem bothered me. Yeah, I got that she was upset and needed to be brought out of it. She was just so horrible to her family and they only wanted to help. But she developed a lot. She grew up a lot. She started to move on and then I really liked her. She was nice and fun and just a good person. I liked meeting this Clem a whole lot more.

And James? James was freaking awesome. He was a genuinely good guy. He was goofy and happy and lovely and I just wanted to hug this kid so badly. Also, I want to see his hair color. Because it sounded interesting. The romance was fun and adorable and just so cute. I didn't want it to end. James and Clem are simply fantastic, guys.

One of my favorite things about this book, beside the romance and the characters, was the fact that there was so much more. Clem and James both had family issues and that was a big part of the plot. Probably a bigger portion than the romance. I liked seeing the different problems and how they were dealt with. And I really appreciated the fact that Unbreak My Heart had a lot of layers.

Overall, Unbreak My Heart was pretty freaking amazing. It had romance, awesome characters, development, family issues, friend issues, good questions...a ton of aspects that make a great novel. Sometimes it was light and fun, but sometimes it was a bit deeper. Definitely one to pick up this summer!