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capesandcovers's review against another edition
2.0
dnfing at page 175 (almost 52% in). this book wasn't what i thought it was going to be and while i adore revenge stories, this one just felt shallow and easily predictable. i literally went to go read the blurbs from books 2 and 3 and could guess what it was going to be beforehand. tweens might have fun with this one, but honestly i'm kind of surprised to see the number of people who gave it high ratings. i could've finished reading it if i really wanted to, but i don't so
merlin_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know if this book was supposed to be as predictable as it was, but...
I called everything. Even the "big twist" at the end. Now, this doesn't mean that I disliked the book because I didn't. It just means that either I have super sleuth powers when it comes to unearthing plots or the author wasn't as sly as she thought she was.
Gemma Hart is...well, she's kind of a horrible person and kind of dumb. When she was eleven, she was convinced that her parents separation was a passing thing and that by the end of summer they would be back to being one big happy family. Realizing this wasn't going to happen, she plots to to remove the one thing standing in her way: her fathers new girlfriend and her daughter. Now, five years later, Gemma is returning to the Hamptons to spend the summer with her father. She figures there's no way she'll run into Hallie (the daughter she hurt) and things even start looking up when she meets a cute boy on the train. But as fate would have it, the cute boy aka Josh is Hallie's older brother and she suddenly finds herself face to face with the friend she hurt. So what does she do? She lies. She pretends to be someone else. She figures that she'll get Hallie to like her again and then apologize, thus revealing who she really is.
I honestly don't understand how a girl this old doesn't get how wrong this is. You're going to lie to someone to get them to like you only to reveal your lie and hope for the best? Nope. That's not how life works. On top of that, what she did to Hallie's mom in the past was something that even an eleven year old would know was wrong. And how she didn't get caught, I'll never know.
Now, I know that it seems like I didn't like the book. And I did. It wasn't amazing, but it kept me reading - even if it was just to find out if I was correct about my suspicions. But honestly, I was interested in what would happen with Josh. Gemma didn't really have any interactions with him back in the day but I was sure that he knew everything that happened and once he found out who she was, shit was going to hit the fan. I felt for Josh. He was dealing with a break up and was having trust issues, and along comes Gemma who he clicks with instantly but she's lying to him and it's a pretty big lie. I spent the whole book just waiting for this to blow up in her face. And there were a lot of near misses, let me tell you.
Aside from the my issues with the story, I really enjoyed Finn's writing. It felt like I was watching a high school drama series and I just couldn't look away. The book definitely ends on a cliff hanger that sets up the next installment and color me curious, I want to know what happens. And I believe T Swift said it best:
I called everything. Even the "big twist" at the end. Now, this doesn't mean that I disliked the book because I didn't. It just means that either I have super sleuth powers when it comes to unearthing plots or the author wasn't as sly as she thought she was.
Gemma Hart is...well, she's kind of a horrible person and kind of dumb. When she was eleven, she was convinced that her parents separation was a passing thing and that by the end of summer they would be back to being one big happy family. Realizing this wasn't going to happen, she plots to to remove the one thing standing in her way: her fathers new girlfriend and her daughter. Now, five years later, Gemma is returning to the Hamptons to spend the summer with her father. She figures there's no way she'll run into Hallie (the daughter she hurt) and things even start looking up when she meets a cute boy on the train. But as fate would have it, the cute boy aka Josh is Hallie's older brother and she suddenly finds herself face to face with the friend she hurt. So what does she do? She lies. She pretends to be someone else. She figures that she'll get Hallie to like her again and then apologize, thus revealing who she really is.
I honestly don't understand how a girl this old doesn't get how wrong this is. You're going to lie to someone to get them to like you only to reveal your lie and hope for the best? Nope. That's not how life works. On top of that, what she did to Hallie's mom in the past was something that even an eleven year old would know was wrong. And how she didn't get caught, I'll never know.
Now, I know that it seems like I didn't like the book. And I did. It wasn't amazing, but it kept me reading - even if it was just to find out if I was correct about my suspicions. But honestly, I was interested in what would happen with Josh. Gemma didn't really have any interactions with him back in the day but I was sure that he knew everything that happened and once he found out who she was, shit was going to hit the fan. I felt for Josh. He was dealing with a break up and was having trust issues, and along comes Gemma who he clicks with instantly but she's lying to him and it's a pretty big lie. I spent the whole book just waiting for this to blow up in her face. And there were a lot of near misses, let me tell you.
Aside from the my issues with the story, I really enjoyed Finn's writing. It felt like I was watching a high school drama series and I just couldn't look away. The book definitely ends on a cliff hanger that sets up the next installment and color me curious, I want to know what happens. And I believe T Swift said it best:
jherrick_'s review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars. I never thought I'd give a Morgan Matson book a rating so low, but I really didn't like this book. SUPER predictable, and I honestly don't know how it's going to make two more books. literally skimmed the last couple chapters, because I knew exactly what was going to happen - and it did. definitely won't be reading any more of these.
daniele_quinn's review against another edition
4.0
Yo idk why this book isn't more hyped up or talked about because it's so good! All the plotting and crazy stuff that is done is insane and maybe a little unethical but it's still a really good read
Funny story: reading it I didn't even know there was more than one book so I went to look up the next one to buy it and it turns out I had already bought it thinking it was just another stand alone by Katie Finn π
Funny story: reading it I didn't even know there was more than one book so I went to look up the next one to buy it and it turns out I had already bought it thinking it was just another stand alone by Katie Finn π
izthereader's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
3.0
Finished reading: July 9th 2020
βIt seems that thinking 'things can't get worse' is an invitation for things to get much, much worse.β
Spoiler
I confess that I have been meaning to read this one for years, and even my TBR jar ended up thinking it was long overdue. I was in the mood for a cute contemporary, and really thought Broken Hearts, Fences And Other Things To Mend was going to be a perfect fit... But I guess things weren't ment to be. Things started out well as Katie Finn has a very readable and engaging writing style that makes it easy to fly through the pages. I initially really enjoyed this story, and was looking forward to see what would happen that summer in the Hamptoms... BUT. Things started to get really frustrating, as it was so clear what was really going on and I really just can't believe Gemma didn't realize what was happening right under her nose. Being able to see this 'twist' from a mile away as a reader was a huge disappointment, and I really didn't like how the story and characters developed after that. I had problems with the credibility of certain aspects of the plot and the supposed 'twists', and that open ending was kind of a letdown too. I know this is part of a trilogy and the story will continue in the sequels, but still I wasn't impressed when I saw the story was left hanging like that. And as I didn't enjoy the first book enough, I don't see myself reading the sequels and I guess I will never find out how things end between them. Oh well... Fans of the YA contemporary romance genre who don't mind a cliche or two and a predictable plot will probably have a better time with this story though.
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
abbruzzese's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying and Toxic friendship
sexiilikeacow's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed very little about this book, I think the real Sophie and Josh we're the only characters I liked.. The story was predictable, I knew what was going to happen not even half way through the book. Gemmas character was naive, and pretty frustrating, and both her and Hallie were vindictive and conniving bitches. Despite all the bad in this book I felt the story flowed really well and i couldn't put it down even though it was frustrating.
siobhan27's review against another edition
3.0
One thing i do not like to read in YA is when the main character is solely focused on having a boyfriend, and not having one is the end of the world. So when I opened Broken Hearts, and saw that Gemma, the main character was talking about having the best boyfriend, and not having one would be a disaster, i knew I was not going to enjoy this book as much as i wanted to.
The one thing about contemporary YA that I love so much is the fact that you can do anything. There are many different stories you can tell with very different characters. But with this book i found that the story was one I had read many times, and honestly I was a bit bored by it. It did not help that I figured out the entire story from the very beginning because I knew that everything that was happening was going to lead to the reveal at the end. And since I pretty much knew what the reveal was, it wasn't that great an ending for me. There was one aspect of the end that did shock me, but honestly it wasn't enough for me to enjoy the beginning and middle of the book any more.
The one thing I did like during the story was the love story between Gemma and Josh. It was very sweet and innocent at the beginning, but it was very slow moving. And i thought that was great to read because I hate the insta-love that seems to happen often and I really liked their story.
Character are very important to any novel and connecting with the main character is crucial for me, and honestly I did not connect with Gemma as much as I wanted to. I didn't get why she was so keen on keeping up with the facade of who she is, she knew it would blow up in her face at some point, so keeping it up for as long as she did made no sense to me. I also didn't understand the reason for some of the secondary characters. Although they were fun to read at times, i found that most of them were 2-dimentional and had very little purpose to the story.
Overall this book has so much potential and i enjoyed parts of its story, but ultimately i struggled to connect with the characters and the story itself. I found that the end was cliched and predictable. This book was just not for me.
The one thing about contemporary YA that I love so much is the fact that you can do anything. There are many different stories you can tell with very different characters. But with this book i found that the story was one I had read many times, and honestly I was a bit bored by it. It did not help that I figured out the entire story from the very beginning because I knew that everything that was happening was going to lead to the reveal at the end. And since I pretty much knew what the reveal was, it wasn't that great an ending for me. There was one aspect of the end that did shock me, but honestly it wasn't enough for me to enjoy the beginning and middle of the book any more.
The one thing I did like during the story was the love story between Gemma and Josh. It was very sweet and innocent at the beginning, but it was very slow moving. And i thought that was great to read because I hate the insta-love that seems to happen often and I really liked their story.
Character are very important to any novel and connecting with the main character is crucial for me, and honestly I did not connect with Gemma as much as I wanted to. I didn't get why she was so keen on keeping up with the facade of who she is, she knew it would blow up in her face at some point, so keeping it up for as long as she did made no sense to me. I also didn't understand the reason for some of the secondary characters. Although they were fun to read at times, i found that most of them were 2-dimentional and had very little purpose to the story.
Overall this book has so much potential and i enjoyed parts of its story, but ultimately i struggled to connect with the characters and the story itself. I found that the end was cliched and predictable. This book was just not for me.