Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend Author: Katie Finn
Series: Broken Hearts & Revenge, Book 1
Release date: May 13, 2014
Published by: Feiwel & Friends/MacMillan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This story kind of broke me...and, unfortunately, not in the heartrendingly good way.
This breakage is mainly connected to Finn’s ultimate revenge plotline.
At first, Finn’s plotline pulled me in with the opening break-up with a long term boyfriend and an emotionally ravaged main character, Gemma. I liked Gemma. I liked her personality and her insecurities and her quirky friend, Sophie.
And when she goes to stay with her dad for the summer in the Hamptons, I was like, awesome, that will be a beautiful setting. Then Gemma reveals the really awful lie she told that ruined many relationships five years earlier, including her father’s relationship with a woman and Gemma’s relationship with her former best friend. After I got over how absolutely life alteringly horrible her past actions were, I got into the story of Gemma trying to make amends to Hallie, the old best friend she’d wronged.
I admit to cringing a little at her decision to use a lie (pretending to be Sophie) to try and fix the past lies that ruined lives. And I really did get emotionally attached to Gemma because of her desire to fix the past. Plus, Gemma has a great falling-in-love storyline with Hallie’s brother, Josh, which, as you can imagine, exponentially increases the odds of disaster. Finn is a great writer in that respect--which is probably why I disliked the ending.
Now, I get that this is supposed to be a three book series, and I admit to being unaware of that until I hit the end of the book and went “What?!?” But I think I would have preferred an ending...and not even a happy ending. I expected Gemma to learn a lesson, lose out on a friend and potential boyfriend. But instead the revenge plotline slapped me in the face. I’m just not into that kind of thing (you know, the eye-for-an-eye thing), so I probably won’t be reading the next book; even though, I will admit that I enjoyed Finn’s writing style and character building.
I will say that if you like revenge or are into that Revenge show on ABC, this book might be for you. And you can enjoy Finn’s fabulous characters while you’re at it ;)
I'm not in love with this book either, I liked it well enough though. My problem is that I suspected shenanigans very early on, and I don't understand why Gemma didn't. Like why isn't she paranoid and suspecting, especially in the situation. But still, I think I'm in for rest of the series. I experienced the same reaction as you to the ending! Great review.
ReplyDeleteI too was very suspicious of Hallie. Finn shared a couple clues early on. That might be part of why I struggled with the ending as well. Gemma comes across as more naive than the ending seems to hint at with her new plan of revenge.
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