The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Pages:320 (Kindle)
Publish date: May 21st 2013
Publisher:Simon Pulse
ASIN: B008J4N5GA
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU
Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.
Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas?
Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong?
Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.
The Book of Broken Hearts:
I received a copy of The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler for review, in celebration of all her books now being available in all English-speaking countries digitally. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.
I have wanted to read a Sarah Ockler book for such a long time, years in fact and I just never had the chance to pick them up, so I took this as an opportunity to finally read her books and wow, I am so angry with myself for not picking them up sooner.
The Book of Broken Hearts is such a beautiful novel about family, friendship, love and that sometimes you do have to think about yourself.
The Book of Broken Hearts follows Jude and her journey of self-discovery, love and what it means to be family.
Jude has been told all her life to stay away from the Vargas brothers, that all they would do is break your heart. she has seen firsthand what these brothers can do, and she swore that she would never fall.
I adored Jude as the protagonist, we just clicked with each other. She has this presence about her that alone kept me reading. Her need to look after her family is powerful throughout the novel, and it was great to see. Her sheer determination to look after her father was incredible to see in a YA novel.
Jude’s father is suffering from Alzheimer’s and while trying to keep her father from hurting himself, she tries to rejig his memories with rebuilding his old motorcycle. But to do that she needs someone who knows what they are doing and is cheap. Guess who it turns out to be…Emilio Vargas.
If it wasn’t for her father, she would have steered the other way, but if it will help him she will do it.
I loved the relationship between Jude and her father, even though at times he does forget who she is, she is so determined to not let him go. She also tries to hide all this from her friends and anyone actually. I don’t think she did this because she was ashamed, but more like she didn’t know how to explain it to people.
Even though I liked her father, that is pretty much where it stopped with family. Throughout The Book of Broken Hearts I wanted to scream at her mother and sisters. Jude was looking after her father so much and at times I felt that she didn’t care in a way. And her sisters were too concerned about what happened in the past. I understand that they don’t want their little sister to go through what they did – they didn’t care how Jude felt. By the end of the novel, I liked them – but that was about it.
Can Emilio be mine? Please. He was a smart ass, but not a horrible one that I wanted to kill. It was just enough that had me smiling and loving the banter that he had with other characters.
The romance was so slow burning, that I loved it. Jude and Emilio were so adorable together. I loved how it did start off as something that wasn’t even a friendship, however, as The Book of Broken Hearts went on, we get to see it form into something more.
The ending of this book killed me. I was crying so hard. It doesn’t take much for me to cry, but I was sobbing.
Sarah Ocular’s writing is beautiful, it was simple but so strong. She knows how to captivate an audience and keep them close until the end.
With beautiful writing, captivating characters and an intriguing storyline, The Book of Broken Hearts is a beautiful novel that needs to be read by anyone, but more importantly teens growing up and having to make choices for themselves.
Have you read The Book of Broken Hearts? Did you love it? Are you going to read it? Let’s Chat.
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