Book Review: How To Get Your Heart Broken by Rose Fall

How To Get Your Heart Broken by Rose Fall

 

Title: How To Get Your Heart Broken
Author: Rose Fall
Paperback: 398 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Platform (March 21st 2016)
Genre: Young Adult, New Adult
Read: eBook
Stars: ★★☆☆☆
Buy On: Amazon India | Amazon US

 

Summary:

(Goodreads)

A self-proclaimed cynic, Eli is unsurprised by her boyfriend’s betrayal. Yet, its impact goes beyond what she realizes; a cruel bet, an array of secrets, and a thousand lessons not yet learned teach her how to trust again as an unlikely boy shows her a kind of love she never knew existed.

After Eli finds her boyfriend cheating on her, she seeks an escape. She heads to the beach to spend the summer before college with her two best friends. When Eli is unable to move past the betrayal, the girls devise a distraction; a bet about their handsome neighbor. Yet their thoughtless competition goes too far and their friendships are tested as they began to wonder how much they really know about each other and themselves. In the chaos, they manage to learn the truth about love, self-acceptance, and the journey back from rock bottom.

 

My Review:

Note: Thanks to Rose Fall and YA Bound Book Tours for offering me this book to read and review :)

Cover: Soothing...

Paper and font: Easy on the eyes!

Readability, language: Easy on the mind.

Why did I choose this book: It was the cover that first attracted me, and the premise also seemed promising, so I thought, why not...

Eli who has just broken up with her boyfriend (who she caught cheating) is nursing a broken heart and wants to take revenge on all men out there. Rachel her best friend finds a way to do just that, only it’s one man - their good looking neighbour… Well, the books about that, but its also about 3 best friends, coming of age and finding oneself.

The title 'How To Get Your Heart Broken’ makes sense but only in a round about manner. The cover is lovely, the mellow colours, the girl with her head on a boys chest, it all makes for a feel good cover, pleasing to the eye. The blurb is promising.

The plot was a new one for me, I never read something like this before. It's clear quite early in the book that Eli is out to take revenge and break a heart like hers was broken. But, there are sub-plots, twists and surprises as the story goes along, some adding to the story and some adding pages to the story.

The story is set on a beach someplace (I just can’t remember if it was mentioned), the 3 girls are taking summer break before heading off to college and their separate ways. Rose Fall's descriptions of the houses along the beach and the little beach town have stuck in my mind, the little blue house Eli, Rachel and Ash live in, with Ash’s grandfathers relics, felt so real.

Eli, Rachel and Ash are the main characters and each one’s life is explored as the story rolls along. Each one of them has a troubled past that they have to make peace with before they move on. This to me was the interesting part of the story, more relevant than the broken-heart-revenge bit and I felt Rose Fall did not do justice to the girls and their story.

Jessie the boy who is the target of the revenge, seems like an interesting character but here again Rose Fall falls short as the depth his character would have had is missing.

The story is structured well, I really liked how each chapter has a title that is linked in someway to the story of that chapter. Rose Fall also does not leave any loose ends and ties up the story she is telling well.

For me the story was slow paced (may not be for others), but I think that was because the story didn’t grip me at any point, I didn’t get sucked in and start to turn the pages waiting for what was going to happen next. It all didn’t build up to the climax, and when the climax did come, it felt disconnected. (There is a letter Eli writes at the end, that seems so unlike the girl I’d got to know through the book.)

'How To Get Your Heart Broken’ is written from the POV of Eli, except for some parts where Ash’s perspective is shown through her diary. Rose Fall uses simple language and sentence structure that makes the book an easy read. I did find a lot of missing words though, mostly prepositions and some grammar errors. But these may not be there in the final book published as I think I read an ARC.

I liked reading the book but I do wish Rose Fall had given it more depth and explored more. I did like her writing style though and would like to see what she comes up with next.

Overall a good book but for the right age or person I think. I would recommend 'How To Get Your Heart Broken’ to those younger than and in their early twenties.

Buy On: Amazon India | Amazon US

About the Author:

 
 
Rose Fall was born in New York City to Senegalese immigrant parents. She is currently studying Communication and Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill.
'How to Get Your Heart Broken' is her debut novel.

Author Links:
Website │ Goodreads │ Twitter

 

Giveaway:

 
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