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outro_ddaeng's review against another edition
3.0
I had very mix feelings on this book. I really liked the writing and Gemma as a person as she is trying to right the wrongs that she has committed. However, while I know that the lies were essential to the plot of the book, lies of this magnitude make me feel very awkward and I had to stop reading and take breaks throughout the book to get rid of the feeling.
That being said, I wasn't planning on continuing on in the series but the ending has me intrigued to see where the story will go so I think I may pick up the next book and give it a try.
That being said, I wasn't planning on continuing on in the series but the ending has me intrigued to see where the story will go so I think I may pick up the next book and give it a try.
golden_lily's review against another edition
2.0
Review added 4/18/14:
Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews
I can’t stand novels where nothing is resolved and the end is really a “to be continued”. I’ll admit, I missed the reference in the blurb to Broken Hearts… being the first in a series, so I was operating under the assumption that we’d get a neat stand-alone climax, but that still doesn’t excuse the non-ending. The only resolution is confirmation of the plot “twist” that I think everyone guessed by chapter 9. And it’s a real shame, because I enjoyed a lot about this book.
Gemma’s recent breakup has her summering with her dad in the Hamptons. She hasn’t been back since she somewhat-accidentally ruined his, his girlfriend, and her kid’s lives five years ago, and she’s nervous that she might run into their family. My big problem with this plot point is it requires an eleven year old to be both insanely savvy and manipulative, and it requires us, (and someone she knows,) to hold that against a child. I almost wish this was a new adult title, so the age gap would be more like fifteen to twenty instead of eleven to sixteen. I don’t care how badly you messed up at eleven when your parents were divorcing but not actually telling you that so you got upset and wrecked your future-step-mom’s stuff. YOU’RE A KID.
The book wouldn’t really work as a NA, though, because Gemma’s naivety and innocence are her main character traits. When things start to go sideways in a way that would make any other person say, “hmm…”, Gemma blindly continues her plot, confident in her non-existent espionage skills and the general goodness of humanity. You see, through a series of coincidences, Gemma ends up sitting with her dad’s ex’s son, Josh on the train in. He sees a coffee cup with her best friend’s name on it and assumes she’s Sophie. Seeing a chance to make things right, Gemma adopts the nom de plume and sets about re-becoming best friends with him and Hallie.
Despite sometimes being as dense as fruitcake, I found Gemma to be sweet and she seemed to really try to make the charade work, not so she wouldn’t be found out, but from a desire to make things right. She was endearing. Josh, the eventual love interest, was also endearing, but in a bit of a bland, stock-trope kind of way. I liked him best suffering food poisoning and watching the Princess Bride.
There were some loose plot threads, like the fact that her dad was supposed to be back with his business partner and his son, the inevitable second leg to a love triangle, on the night of the climax, but then just...wasn’t. Or the super duper important statue that was broken and sent out for repairs that was never noticed as missing. But I would have forgiven the book those and told you all this was a sweet, not overly deep beach book about redemption and mistaken identity and silly, but ultimately harmless, revenge plots. But I can’t.
The end made me feel so cheated. It’s not that there wasn’t enough resolution, it’s that nothing Gemma did mattered. Someone holds a five year old grudge over her in a way over the top way, especially considering dad’s ex is not worse for the wear. I ended the book actually angry that we’re getting another novel that will be filled with more petty revenge shenanigans instead of the end that was being set up. I felt swerved in the last dozen pages; instead of feeling like I needed book two, I just felt like I’d wasted my time caring for these people.
4/10/14: Fuck that bullshit ending. What a rotten cop-out. I called the twist, but even if I hadn't, I can't imagine anything less satisfying than that end. Seriously I'm actually angry.
Review to come, probably.
Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews
I can’t stand novels where nothing is resolved and the end is really a “to be continued”. I’ll admit, I missed the reference in the blurb to Broken Hearts… being the first in a series, so I was operating under the assumption that we’d get a neat stand-alone climax, but that still doesn’t excuse the non-ending. The only resolution is confirmation of the plot “twist” that I think everyone guessed by chapter 9. And it’s a real shame, because I enjoyed a lot about this book.
Gemma’s recent breakup has her summering with her dad in the Hamptons. She hasn’t been back since she somewhat-accidentally ruined his, his girlfriend, and her kid’s lives five years ago, and she’s nervous that she might run into their family. My big problem with this plot point is it requires an eleven year old to be both insanely savvy and manipulative, and it requires us, (and someone she knows,) to hold that against a child. I almost wish this was a new adult title, so the age gap would be more like fifteen to twenty instead of eleven to sixteen. I don’t care how badly you messed up at eleven when your parents were divorcing but not actually telling you that so you got upset and wrecked your future-step-mom’s stuff. YOU’RE A KID.
The book wouldn’t really work as a NA, though, because Gemma’s naivety and innocence are her main character traits. When things start to go sideways in a way that would make any other person say, “hmm…”, Gemma blindly continues her plot, confident in her non-existent espionage skills and the general goodness of humanity. You see, through a series of coincidences, Gemma ends up sitting with her dad’s ex’s son, Josh on the train in. He sees a coffee cup with her best friend’s name on it and assumes she’s Sophie. Seeing a chance to make things right, Gemma adopts the nom de plume and sets about re-becoming best friends with him and Hallie.
Despite sometimes being as dense as fruitcake, I found Gemma to be sweet and she seemed to really try to make the charade work, not so she wouldn’t be found out, but from a desire to make things right. She was endearing. Josh, the eventual love interest, was also endearing, but in a bit of a bland, stock-trope kind of way. I liked him best suffering food poisoning and watching the Princess Bride.
There were some loose plot threads, like the fact that her dad was supposed to be back with his business partner and his son, the inevitable second leg to a love triangle, on the night of the climax, but then just...wasn’t. Or the super duper important statue that was broken and sent out for repairs that was never noticed as missing. But I would have forgiven the book those and told you all this was a sweet, not overly deep beach book about redemption and mistaken identity and silly, but ultimately harmless, revenge plots. But I can’t.
The end made me feel so cheated. It’s not that there wasn’t enough resolution, it’s that nothing Gemma did mattered. Someone holds a five year old grudge over her in a way over the top way, especially considering dad’s ex is not worse for the wear.
Spoiler
She’s pretty obviously this universe’s E.L. James and ungodly rich, so…4/10/14: Fuck that bullshit ending. What a rotten cop-out. I called the twist, but even if I hadn't, I can't imagine anything less satisfying than that end. Seriously I'm actually angry.
Review to come, probably.
aylea's review against another edition
3.0
Gemma’s summer plans are turned upside-down when her boyfriend unexpectedly dumps her and she has to spend the summer with her father in the Hamptons. On the train, she meets a cute boy named Josh, but she finds out that he is the brother of Hallie Bridges, the girl whose life Gemma purposely tried to ruin five years ago. When Josh thinks her name is something else, Gemma goes along with it, telling them that her name is Sophie instead. Gemma wants to use this opportunity to repair her friendship with Hallie, but Gemma's growing feelings for Josh make things more complicated. She keeps telling them lies about who she is, and unfortunate things keep happening that make it difficult for her to rebuild her lost friendship with Hallie. In the end, her lies catch up with her and the Bridges finds out who she is, ending the book with losing the friendships of both Josh and Hallie.
In many ways this is a light, fun book that feels just right for summer. However, in other ways it has unfortunate flaws. The entire plot is based around Gemma’s previous mistake and the lies she tells to cover up what she’s done. The "mean girl" aspect also doesn’t feel quite believable in that they pretend to be such good friends without discovering the truth behind the intentions of one of the characters. The book doesn’t end with much of a resolution, just the truth coming out about the lies that Gemma has told all summer, leaving room for the next books in the series but not quite ending the first one in a good way. It’s predictable and the characters are sometimes hard to like or to root for because of how they can be terrible people sometimes. It’s still a fun, entertaining read for those looking for a little bit of romance and a light read.
In many ways this is a light, fun book that feels just right for summer. However, in other ways it has unfortunate flaws. The entire plot is based around Gemma’s previous mistake and the lies she tells to cover up what she’s done. The "mean girl" aspect also doesn’t feel quite believable in that they pretend to be such good friends without discovering the truth behind the intentions of one of the characters. The book doesn’t end with much of a resolution, just the truth coming out about the lies that Gemma has told all summer, leaving room for the next books in the series but not quite ending the first one in a good way. It’s predictable and the characters are sometimes hard to like or to root for because of how they can be terrible people sometimes. It’s still a fun, entertaining read for those looking for a little bit of romance and a light read.
ia_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I love how easy it is to read. It took me some time to finish it because of the second hand embarrassment that I get for Gemma. My 16 year old self will be so happy about this.
heather4994's review against another edition
5.0
Okay, first I want to protest that there is an entire year before the sequel to this comes out and there is another sequel after that! I wish I had been aware there was a sequel going into this one. I am sure I have read a review that said there was one, but I let it slip my mind. So beware, there will be sequels and you will want to read them tomorrow!
Characters- Gemma/Sophie- Gemma who tells everyone she is Sophie to keep from getting into a messy situation from the past is actually trying to make up for some past mistakes. At 11 she did something really awful, damaging her father emotionally, as well as another family, practically ruining a woman's career and all for nothing, the inevitable happened anyway. She has been ashamed of it for years and never told anyone. Had she told, she probably would have needed therapy. Since she didn't, she's lived her life trying to make up for her mistakes. Her intentions are in the right place, but she is a bit blind to the fact of what is actually happening with all her mishaps.
Hallie- The girl that Gemma/Sophie hurt all those years ago. They were best friends. And then Gemma did the unforgivable things and left Hallie standing there crying. Hallie is .....complicated.
Josh- The innocent bystander in all of this. He is Hallie's brother and the guy that Gemma/Sophie falls for during the summer. He falls for her. He is so sweet. SO SWEET! Any girl would love a boy like him.
The setting/world- The Hamptons- Okay, it's the beach, it's summer, very little parental supervision, and THE HAMPTONS! I haven't been there, but I have heard enough to know I'd love to go!! So what's not to love about the place? Gemma/Sophie has a choice of all kinds of fancy cars because she is staying with her father who is staying with his friend a famous movie director who has a mansion right on the beach. Life is good!
The Story- As the title suggests, it's about mending fences and broken hearts and other things. But that is always easier said than done. Certainly mending a broken heart takes time, and Gemma's and Hallie's have been broken in different ways. Fence mending, well truth should be told first, Gemma has to fess up that she isn't Sophie. And both Hallie and Gemma need to do minimum damage to Josh's heart.
My Take- I thought this was a fun beach read going in and that's exactly what I got. There are a lot of mishaps and yes, I could see through almost every "accident" and who was behind it and even who Hallie's boyfriend was. It didn't take much to figure that out. But this was a fun book. Yes, what Gemma did when she was 11 was bad. And I feel like there will be a confession involved somewhere along the line, but she was 11 and in a panic about her parents divorcing. I think kids do anything to keep their parents together. And they blame themselves. I laughed at Gemma/Sophie's naivety. I laughed at how far she went to keep the charade up. At how far she went to try to be a good friend. But I did sober up at a few points in the story. I have even already figured out how Hallie and Josh's mom made her money. (This is not revealed in the story so far). But it was all just a fun read to me. And I can't wait for the next book!
The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't realize it was a series!!
Great for a summery, beach read. YA contemporary, very PG read. I read this one in record time.
Thanks to Feiwel and Friends for the E-ARC for review. This in no way influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Characters- Gemma/Sophie- Gemma who tells everyone she is Sophie to keep from getting into a messy situation from the past is actually trying to make up for some past mistakes. At 11 she did something really awful, damaging her father emotionally, as well as another family, practically ruining a woman's career and all for nothing, the inevitable happened anyway. She has been ashamed of it for years and never told anyone. Had she told, she probably would have needed therapy. Since she didn't, she's lived her life trying to make up for her mistakes. Her intentions are in the right place, but she is a bit blind to the fact of what is actually happening with all her mishaps.
Hallie- The girl that Gemma/Sophie hurt all those years ago. They were best friends. And then Gemma did the unforgivable things and left Hallie standing there crying. Hallie is .....complicated.
Josh- The innocent bystander in all of this. He is Hallie's brother and the guy that Gemma/Sophie falls for during the summer. He falls for her. He is so sweet. SO SWEET! Any girl would love a boy like him.
The setting/world- The Hamptons- Okay, it's the beach, it's summer, very little parental supervision, and THE HAMPTONS! I haven't been there, but I have heard enough to know I'd love to go!! So what's not to love about the place? Gemma/Sophie has a choice of all kinds of fancy cars because she is staying with her father who is staying with his friend a famous movie director who has a mansion right on the beach. Life is good!
The Story- As the title suggests, it's about mending fences and broken hearts and other things. But that is always easier said than done. Certainly mending a broken heart takes time, and Gemma's and Hallie's have been broken in different ways. Fence mending, well truth should be told first, Gemma has to fess up that she isn't Sophie. And both Hallie and Gemma need to do minimum damage to Josh's heart.
My Take- I thought this was a fun beach read going in and that's exactly what I got. There are a lot of mishaps and yes, I could see through almost every "accident" and who was behind it and even who Hallie's boyfriend was. It didn't take much to figure that out. But this was a fun book. Yes, what Gemma did when she was 11 was bad. And I feel like there will be a confession involved somewhere along the line, but she was 11 and in a panic about her parents divorcing. I think kids do anything to keep their parents together. And they blame themselves. I laughed at Gemma/Sophie's naivety. I laughed at how far she went to keep the charade up. At how far she went to try to be a good friend. But I did sober up at a few points in the story. I have even already figured out how Hallie and Josh's mom made her money. (This is not revealed in the story so far). But it was all just a fun read to me. And I can't wait for the next book!
The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't realize it was a series!!
Great for a summery, beach read. YA contemporary, very PG read. I read this one in record time.
Thanks to Feiwel and Friends for the E-ARC for review. This in no way influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
forsakenfates's review against another edition
4.0
An enjoyable quick summer read. While I did figure out what was going one and found it predictable, I still really enjoyed it overall.
maggiemaggio's review against another edition
2.0
First, let’s talk about why I read Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend a few months before its pub date. This book takes place in “the Hamptons,” an area I know well, I grew up there and I’m back living there before I start grad school. I had such an amazing experience reading Rules of Summer, another YA book that takes place in “the Hamptons,” I hoped I could read this one and do some kind of teaser post with a tour of Hamptons’ spots from the book. Pretty much from the moment I started reading I realized that was not going to be the case. I tried to keep my negative feelings about this to a minimum because I realize that anyone not from here will be happily oblivious to these things, but this book provides a terribly inaccurate description of “the Hamptons.” (I was originally going to type all my points about that here, but it got kind of long so I’ve moved it to the end of the review so it’s easier to skip over my rambling.)
When the book first started I actually had really high hopes for it. Gemma, the main character, had a great voice, I liked the writing, and I was frequently laughing out loud. Gemma gets dumped by her do-gooder boyfriend (in a Target, it was really funny) and, because she was supposed to build houses in Central America with him during the summer, she now has to find alternate plans. Enter “the Hamptons,” where her dad, who normally lives in Los Angeles, will be spending the summer working on a screenplay with his producer. Gemma spent the summer there once before, but is hesitant to go back because of something terrible that happened there with someone she used to be friends with.
This whole storyline was my first inkling that I might not be blown away by this story. For those who doesn’t know Katie Finn is a pen name for Morgan Matson, author of Second Chance Summer. In that book a girl returns to somewhere she used to spend her summer vacation and is nervous about seeing former friends she feels she wronged. If this storyline came up in any other author’s book I probably never would have thought twice about it being similar to Second Chance Summer, it’s not like it’s a totally unique thing, but in books by the same author? It seems strange to me.
Sadly, my positive feelings towards Gemma quickly dissolved when I learned about the terrible thing that ruined her friendship with Hallie, her former friend. (I’m not going to spoil it, but I’m going to give some background.) The summer that Gemma was 11-years-old she also went to the Hamptons with her dad during her parents’ initial separation. Gemma is positive her parents will get back together so she doesn’t think anything of it when her dad starts spending time with a woman, she’s actually happy because the woman has a daughter, Hallie, who’s Gemma’s age. Gemma eventually finds out that her dad is dating this woman and she becomes determined to break them up and she decides the best way to do that is to make her friend Hallie’s life a living hell so that Hallie makes her mom leave early. Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, but oh my god I was horrified by this. Like mouth hanging open, horrified. I guess because Gemma regrets what she did that means she’s not a sociopath, but really, the things she did and the deliberate, premeditated manner in which she did them, were insane and just beyond anything I would imagine an 11-year-old, who isn’t going to grow up to be the Unabomber, doing.
On the train to “the Hamptons” Gemma meets this cute boy, Josh, and when they get off the train she discovers that Josh is Hallie’s brother. Even worse Hallie is at the train station to pick Josh up. Thinking on her feet (like the little sociopath she is) Gemma lies and says she’s Sophie Curtis (her best friend back in CT) and then decides this is actually a good thing because by lying to Hallie she can become her friend and be nice to her, thereby showing Hallie what a good person she is and making Hallie forgive her. Seriously? I get why someone who’s not fully matured might think this, but wow, and she continues to think it for the rest of the book. At one point she even says how she better tell Hallie the truth soon because otherwise it might turn into her lying (I’m paraphrasing). Turn into lying? I’m pretty sure it was lying from the moment she gave someone else’s name.
The second worst part about this book (first: what a sociopath Gemma is) is how much I had to suspend disbelief. First, that Gemma would meet Josh on the train (the imaginary train mind you, see my Hamptons ranting below). Second, that she could really carry off this whole “Sophie” thing (she’s not even a good liar, for someone who created such an elaborate plan at 11-years-old, she’s constantly almost slipping up and hasn’t really seemed to put any forethought into this plan (like change your friend’s name in your phone to something else so it doesn’t look like you’re always calling or texting yourself!)). Third, I wish I had counted the number of times people’s cell phones went off and interrupted an important moment; I would guess the number is somewhere between 30 and 50 in a 350ish page book, it was crazy. Fourth, where was Hallie and Josh’s mother? They build this enormous house in “the Hamptons” and then she’s never there? Although their mother is maybe the only reason I would read the sequel to this, I think she’s the author of the vampire erotica book that’s constantly referred to throughout the story and I’m curious to know if I’m right.
If I thought it couldn’t get any worse than all of that, somehow the end managed to do it. I had suspected part of what came out at the end, but definitely not all of it. Suddenly crazypants Gemma is turned into the victim and there’s this Mean Girls/horror film moment (I saw someone on Goodreads refer to it as Cruel Intentions-like) that left me shaking my head. Seriously, these people deserve each other.
Bottom Line: I can say, with almost 100% certainty, that is has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. I feel like this is one of the most bizarre reviews I’ve ever written, but I just didn’t know what to say, the whole thing was dumbfounding. To recap: writing good and it had its funny moments (throughout, not just at the beginning), but the main character is a future serial killer and I had to suspend disbelief a lot.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley (thanks?). All opinions are my own.
Here are my thoughts on how the Hamptons are portrayed:
1. Gemma gets on a train in Connecticut and magically arrives in the Hamptons. What type of train is this? Why didn’t I know about this train when I was in college in Massachusetts? Gemma is from Putnam, Connecticut, which is in the northwest part of the state. She could, in theory, get on an Amtrak train, take that to Penn Station in NYC, and then transfer to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), but that’s not what happened here. Also, after reading more, Finn claims that Putnam is on the coast by the Long Island Sound. If you’re going to make up a town wouldn’t you want to pick a name that wasn’t already a town? If she did live in a coastal town she could still take Amtrak, but it would be more likely that she would take MetroNorth to Grand Central and then need to get to Penn Station to get on the LIRR.
2. I’m still on the train stuff, Gemma talks about how a family with lots of beach stuff gets on at the stop before the Hamptons stop. That is not how the LIRR to the Hamptons works. This is how it works: you get on a train in Penn Station, you get off that train to change at Jamaica (a train station in Queens) to get on a double-decker diesel train (only diesel trains run past about the middle of Long Island), in the process of switching trains, during the summer, you fight very large crowds of people to get a seat and not have to stand on the two (to the farthest west Hampton) to three hour (all the way to Montauk). No one gets on the train after Jamaica (ok, a small handful of people do, but not summer people).
3. (Yep, still trains), Gemma talks about how the train she took to the Hamptons has three seats across, nope, those don’t exist, seats are in pairs and the overhead racks are about six inches tall (seriously, it’s the worst design in train history).
4. Gemma is staying in a made up area (I Googled it just in case it was some super rich people area I’d never heard of, it doesn’t exist) and Finn builds a whole town around the area. The towns in the Hamptons are so interesting and special, why not use what already exists? Also, the movie producer, her dad’s boss, whose house she is staying in, refers to the area as “the next Montauk,” what does that mean? Montauk is nice, absolutely, but it’s not really hip or cool. It doesn’t have fancy bars or restaurants or shopping, I wouldn’t say it’s the blue collar town of the Hamptons, because it’s not, but it’s not fancy or the place to be seen.
5. Hallie and Josh’s mother has just built an enormous house on the water front in the Hamptons. That would never happen that quickly or maybe at all. The house is new, so let’s so it’s been built recently, at most there was six years to build it, between the summer Gemma was 11 and the summer she’s 17. Waterfront property in the Hamptons isn’t easy to come by, especially undeveloped land so she’d need to find that, but more importantly she’d need permits. Building permits, especially to build on the beach, are not easy to get here. There would be hearings and environmental impact studies and lots and lots of inspections, I would say, to build a house like the one that’s described in the book would take at least ten years, probably more, to get approved and then built. For example, my parents wanted to put a larger deck on their house, they submitted plans three times, using three different contractors and the plans were still never approved (and someone came a year later to make sure they hadn’t just built one anyway). Or the bakery down the street from my office, one of the biggest draws on Main Street, wanted to expand by adding onto the back of his building, which was just unused space behind Main Street. It took him 15 (FIFTEEN!) years to get his plans approved by the Village and Town.
So basically the town/area portrayed in the book could be any beach town anywhere and bears no resemblance to the Hamptons whatsoever. If you want to read a remarkably accurate portrayal of the Hamptons give Rules of Summer a read.
This review first appeared on my blog.
When the book first started I actually had really high hopes for it. Gemma, the main character, had a great voice, I liked the writing, and I was frequently laughing out loud. Gemma gets dumped by her do-gooder boyfriend (in a Target, it was really funny) and, because she was supposed to build houses in Central America with him during the summer, she now has to find alternate plans. Enter “the Hamptons,” where her dad, who normally lives in Los Angeles, will be spending the summer working on a screenplay with his producer. Gemma spent the summer there once before, but is hesitant to go back because of something terrible that happened there with someone she used to be friends with.
This whole storyline was my first inkling that I might not be blown away by this story. For those who doesn’t know Katie Finn is a pen name for Morgan Matson, author of Second Chance Summer. In that book a girl returns to somewhere she used to spend her summer vacation and is nervous about seeing former friends she feels she wronged. If this storyline came up in any other author’s book I probably never would have thought twice about it being similar to Second Chance Summer, it’s not like it’s a totally unique thing, but in books by the same author? It seems strange to me.
Sadly, my positive feelings towards Gemma quickly dissolved when I learned about the terrible thing that ruined her friendship with Hallie, her former friend. (I’m not going to spoil it, but I’m going to give some background.) The summer that Gemma was 11-years-old she also went to the Hamptons with her dad during her parents’ initial separation. Gemma is positive her parents will get back together so she doesn’t think anything of it when her dad starts spending time with a woman, she’s actually happy because the woman has a daughter, Hallie, who’s Gemma’s age. Gemma eventually finds out that her dad is dating this woman and she becomes determined to break them up and she decides the best way to do that is to make her friend Hallie’s life a living hell so that Hallie makes her mom leave early. Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, but oh my god I was horrified by this. Like mouth hanging open, horrified. I guess because Gemma regrets what she did that means she’s not a sociopath, but really, the things she did and the deliberate, premeditated manner in which she did them, were insane and just beyond anything I would imagine an 11-year-old, who isn’t going to grow up to be the Unabomber, doing.
On the train to “the Hamptons” Gemma meets this cute boy, Josh, and when they get off the train she discovers that Josh is Hallie’s brother. Even worse Hallie is at the train station to pick Josh up. Thinking on her feet (like the little sociopath she is) Gemma lies and says she’s Sophie Curtis (her best friend back in CT) and then decides this is actually a good thing because by lying to Hallie she can become her friend and be nice to her, thereby showing Hallie what a good person she is and making Hallie forgive her. Seriously? I get why someone who’s not fully matured might think this, but wow, and she continues to think it for the rest of the book. At one point she even says how she better tell Hallie the truth soon because otherwise it might turn into her lying (I’m paraphrasing). Turn into lying? I’m pretty sure it was lying from the moment she gave someone else’s name.
The second worst part about this book (first: what a sociopath Gemma is) is how much I had to suspend disbelief. First, that Gemma would meet Josh on the train (the imaginary train mind you, see my Hamptons ranting below). Second, that she could really carry off this whole “Sophie” thing (she’s not even a good liar, for someone who created such an elaborate plan at 11-years-old, she’s constantly almost slipping up and hasn’t really seemed to put any forethought into this plan (like change your friend’s name in your phone to something else so it doesn’t look like you’re always calling or texting yourself!)). Third, I wish I had counted the number of times people’s cell phones went off and interrupted an important moment; I would guess the number is somewhere between 30 and 50 in a 350ish page book, it was crazy. Fourth, where was Hallie and Josh’s mother? They build this enormous house in “the Hamptons” and then she’s never there? Although their mother is maybe the only reason I would read the sequel to this, I think she’s the author of the vampire erotica book that’s constantly referred to throughout the story and I’m curious to know if I’m right.
If I thought it couldn’t get any worse than all of that, somehow the end managed to do it. I had suspected part of what came out at the end, but definitely not all of it. Suddenly crazypants Gemma is turned into the victim and there’s this Mean Girls/horror film moment (I saw someone on Goodreads refer to it as Cruel Intentions-like) that left me shaking my head. Seriously, these people deserve each other.
Bottom Line: I can say, with almost 100% certainty, that is has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. I feel like this is one of the most bizarre reviews I’ve ever written, but I just didn’t know what to say, the whole thing was dumbfounding. To recap: writing good and it had its funny moments (throughout, not just at the beginning), but the main character is a future serial killer and I had to suspend disbelief a lot.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley (thanks?). All opinions are my own.
Here are my thoughts on how the Hamptons are portrayed:
1. Gemma gets on a train in Connecticut and magically arrives in the Hamptons. What type of train is this? Why didn’t I know about this train when I was in college in Massachusetts? Gemma is from Putnam, Connecticut, which is in the northwest part of the state. She could, in theory, get on an Amtrak train, take that to Penn Station in NYC, and then transfer to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), but that’s not what happened here. Also, after reading more, Finn claims that Putnam is on the coast by the Long Island Sound. If you’re going to make up a town wouldn’t you want to pick a name that wasn’t already a town? If she did live in a coastal town she could still take Amtrak, but it would be more likely that she would take MetroNorth to Grand Central and then need to get to Penn Station to get on the LIRR.
2. I’m still on the train stuff, Gemma talks about how a family with lots of beach stuff gets on at the stop before the Hamptons stop. That is not how the LIRR to the Hamptons works. This is how it works: you get on a train in Penn Station, you get off that train to change at Jamaica (a train station in Queens) to get on a double-decker diesel train (only diesel trains run past about the middle of Long Island), in the process of switching trains, during the summer, you fight very large crowds of people to get a seat and not have to stand on the two (to the farthest west Hampton) to three hour (all the way to Montauk). No one gets on the train after Jamaica (ok, a small handful of people do, but not summer people).
3. (Yep, still trains), Gemma talks about how the train she took to the Hamptons has three seats across, nope, those don’t exist, seats are in pairs and the overhead racks are about six inches tall (seriously, it’s the worst design in train history).
4. Gemma is staying in a made up area (I Googled it just in case it was some super rich people area I’d never heard of, it doesn’t exist) and Finn builds a whole town around the area. The towns in the Hamptons are so interesting and special, why not use what already exists? Also, the movie producer, her dad’s boss, whose house she is staying in, refers to the area as “the next Montauk,” what does that mean? Montauk is nice, absolutely, but it’s not really hip or cool. It doesn’t have fancy bars or restaurants or shopping, I wouldn’t say it’s the blue collar town of the Hamptons, because it’s not, but it’s not fancy or the place to be seen.
5. Hallie and Josh’s mother has just built an enormous house on the water front in the Hamptons. That would never happen that quickly or maybe at all. The house is new, so let’s so it’s been built recently, at most there was six years to build it, between the summer Gemma was 11 and the summer she’s 17. Waterfront property in the Hamptons isn’t easy to come by, especially undeveloped land so she’d need to find that, but more importantly she’d need permits. Building permits, especially to build on the beach, are not easy to get here. There would be hearings and environmental impact studies and lots and lots of inspections, I would say, to build a house like the one that’s described in the book would take at least ten years, probably more, to get approved and then built. For example, my parents wanted to put a larger deck on their house, they submitted plans three times, using three different contractors and the plans were still never approved (and someone came a year later to make sure they hadn’t just built one anyway). Or the bakery down the street from my office, one of the biggest draws on Main Street, wanted to expand by adding onto the back of his building, which was just unused space behind Main Street. It took him 15 (FIFTEEN!) years to get his plans approved by the Village and Town.
So basically the town/area portrayed in the book could be any beach town anywhere and bears no resemblance to the Hamptons whatsoever. If you want to read a remarkably accurate portrayal of the Hamptons give Rules of Summer a read.
This review first appeared on my blog.
whatanerdgirlsays's review against another edition
5.0
WHAT THE HECK! This is not even...ohmygod right now. Its 3 am and I just finished this and what kind of cliffhanger is that? I need to know what is going to happen next. This is insanity! I have to wait a year. OHMYGOD. I can't wait to promote this on my blog, I am so glad I got assigned this book. OHMYGOD.
I need sleep.
Full Review To Come Later.
THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WHAT A NERD GIRL SAYS
I had no idea Katie Finn was Morgan Matson when I first got this book. I was SO excited, and am still VERY excited to be a part of the Fierce Reads Tour. Fierce Reads has a ton of amazing authors like Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo and Ava Dellaira and all kinds of authors. Being a part of their team has been awesome so far, and I was glad to be a part of it. When I became part of Katie Finn’s team, I was like, okay, I don’t know her, but that’s okay because I’m always up for learning about new authors.
I felt sort of silly when I went to go download my review copy and realized that she was Morgan Matson, one of my favorite authors ever. I urged my computer to download faster, and then cuddled up with my Nook to read this book.
I read it in about 2 hours. I sped through it so fast, because it was so much fun! It was really awesome to see a different writing side to Morgan. As Morgan, she writes sort of serious, dramatic YA, and as Katie Finn, it was a lot of fun, laughs, sort of unbelievable hijinks and I really truly enjoyed it. Whenever summer hits, I’m always looking for some good contemporary books to read, something involving road trips or trips to the beach and Broken Hearts is absolutely perfect in that.
Gemma is a real relatable character. She makes a mistake when she is younger, and she’s constantly feeling guilty about it. When she arrives to spend the summer with her father, and runs into the best friend she had so many years ago, the one she wronged, she genuinely wants to make things better. Of course, she goes about the wrong way, but she really is a genuine person and I think she’s hurt by her ex-boyfriend and just kind of making the mistakes that people make sometimes when they don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Plus, she makes some silly mistakes along the way too, and it makes me laugh. She gets herself into some of the craziest situations and I found myself laughing out loud at many of the parts.
I also love Josh. Josh is the brother of the girl Hallie that Gemma had wronged so many years before, and she has a vague memory of him, but when she returns, of course he’s totally cute and totally sweet, and crush-worthy. I totally developed a crush on him. Despite the train wreck of silliness that Gemma can sometimes be, he obviously cares a lot about her, and they are very cute together. Its a fun, summer romance and I love being along for that ride.
Getting down to it, without spoiling the book…its just fun. Its a really fun book. This is a perfect summer time read because its got the pool parties and the ice cream and the summer dates and all of that, the summer fun and, of course, the summer drama. I wanted to be a part of that world, and it reminded me of the summers I used to have before having jobs and responsibilities. It was juicy and racy and just straight up fun. I found myself laughing over and over and over again.
I will say this too, I wasn’t aware that it was a trilogy at first, because normally with contemporary, there is very little times, a sequel. So when the book ended, I was like “WHAT!” I never knew a contemporary book could leave me with such a delicious and infuriating cliffhanger. I wanted to throw the book across the room because I HAD to know what happened next. I turned the page and saw that there would be more books and felt a slight sense of relief that I would eventually find out what happened next, but I’m not a patient girl and I’m already ready for it!
All in all, fun book, full of everything you’d want in a perfect summer book…or even a book that you’re reading in winter, while dreaming of summer. It has the friendship and romance and pool parties and delicious treats and the rule breaking and all of that. Its a feel good, fun book and its one that I so HIGHLY recommend.
I need sleep.
Full Review To Come Later.
THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WHAT A NERD GIRL SAYS
I had no idea Katie Finn was Morgan Matson when I first got this book. I was SO excited, and am still VERY excited to be a part of the Fierce Reads Tour. Fierce Reads has a ton of amazing authors like Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo and Ava Dellaira and all kinds of authors. Being a part of their team has been awesome so far, and I was glad to be a part of it. When I became part of Katie Finn’s team, I was like, okay, I don’t know her, but that’s okay because I’m always up for learning about new authors.
I felt sort of silly when I went to go download my review copy and realized that she was Morgan Matson, one of my favorite authors ever. I urged my computer to download faster, and then cuddled up with my Nook to read this book.
I read it in about 2 hours. I sped through it so fast, because it was so much fun! It was really awesome to see a different writing side to Morgan. As Morgan, she writes sort of serious, dramatic YA, and as Katie Finn, it was a lot of fun, laughs, sort of unbelievable hijinks and I really truly enjoyed it. Whenever summer hits, I’m always looking for some good contemporary books to read, something involving road trips or trips to the beach and Broken Hearts is absolutely perfect in that.
Gemma is a real relatable character. She makes a mistake when she is younger, and she’s constantly feeling guilty about it. When she arrives to spend the summer with her father, and runs into the best friend she had so many years ago, the one she wronged, she genuinely wants to make things better. Of course, she goes about the wrong way, but she really is a genuine person and I think she’s hurt by her ex-boyfriend and just kind of making the mistakes that people make sometimes when they don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Plus, she makes some silly mistakes along the way too, and it makes me laugh. She gets herself into some of the craziest situations and I found myself laughing out loud at many of the parts.
I also love Josh. Josh is the brother of the girl Hallie that Gemma had wronged so many years before, and she has a vague memory of him, but when she returns, of course he’s totally cute and totally sweet, and crush-worthy. I totally developed a crush on him. Despite the train wreck of silliness that Gemma can sometimes be, he obviously cares a lot about her, and they are very cute together. Its a fun, summer romance and I love being along for that ride.
Getting down to it, without spoiling the book…its just fun. Its a really fun book. This is a perfect summer time read because its got the pool parties and the ice cream and the summer dates and all of that, the summer fun and, of course, the summer drama. I wanted to be a part of that world, and it reminded me of the summers I used to have before having jobs and responsibilities. It was juicy and racy and just straight up fun. I found myself laughing over and over and over again.
I will say this too, I wasn’t aware that it was a trilogy at first, because normally with contemporary, there is very little times, a sequel. So when the book ended, I was like “WHAT!” I never knew a contemporary book could leave me with such a delicious and infuriating cliffhanger. I wanted to throw the book across the room because I HAD to know what happened next. I turned the page and saw that there would be more books and felt a slight sense of relief that I would eventually find out what happened next, but I’m not a patient girl and I’m already ready for it!
All in all, fun book, full of everything you’d want in a perfect summer book…or even a book that you’re reading in winter, while dreaming of summer. It has the friendship and romance and pool parties and delicious treats and the rule breaking and all of that. Its a feel good, fun book and its one that I so HIGHLY recommend.