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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This really was an uplifting novel about learning to move on after heartbreak.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the main characters of Felicity and Zoe in the beginning. Maybe it was because I haven’t read The Art of Keeping Secrets?
Maybe it was my fascination about Flick’s job as a taxidermist that distracted me a little? However, by the time I was 60 percent through the book I was bawling, and completely understanding of both their journeys.
I have to say, I loved having a mature main character, especially one that has a sex life!
Also, I’ve never been to New Orleans but the description was so vivid I could imagine being there.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#HowtoMendaBrokenHeart #NetGalley
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the main characters of Felicity and Zoe in the beginning. Maybe it was because I haven’t read The Art of Keeping Secrets?
Maybe it was my fascination about Flick’s job as a taxidermist that distracted me a little? However, by the time I was 60 percent through the book I was bawling, and completely understanding of both their journeys.
I have to say, I loved having a mature main character, especially one that has a sex life!
Also, I’ve never been to New Orleans but the description was so vivid I could imagine being there.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#HowtoMendaBrokenHeart #NetGalley
Well now I want to go to New Orleans.
How to Mend a Broken Heart was an extremely delightful read!
This was my first time reading a book by Rachael and it definitely will not be the last! I really really enjoyed her writing style.
I loved Felicity. She has struggled after her divorce, and reading her growth her relationship with Theo is beautiful and I loved it!
Zoe, her daughter, is experiencing a very recent heartbreaking and she doesn’t know how to deal with it/ isn’t dealing with it very well. You sympathise with her a lot. She just blooms in this book and I really kinda hope there’s another book with more of her journey
How to Mend a Broken Heart was an extremely delightful read!
This was my first time reading a book by Rachael and it definitely will not be the last! I really really enjoyed her writing style.
I loved Felicity. She has struggled after her divorce, and reading her growth her relationship with Theo is beautiful and I loved it!
Zoe, her daughter, is experiencing a very recent heartbreaking and she doesn’t know how to deal with it/ isn’t dealing with it very well. You sympathise with her a lot. She just blooms in this book and I really kinda hope there’s another book with more of her journey
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Felicity, on a whim, takes a short term job in New Orleans after finding out her ex has a new partner. Living in Perth, New Orleans seems far enough away to escape and make a new start. She is joined a short time later by her daughter Zoe who is also escaping a marriage breakdown. In this exciting new city full of interesting people, they are forced to confront their fears - particularly of having their hearts broken again.
I absolutely loved this book. It is a follow on from The Art of Keeping Secrets (which I had forgotten I had read at first!) but can be read as a stand alone novel. The characters are really engaging and I loved reading about how they dealt with situations and how they grew through the different challenges they faced. I also loved reading about New Orleans - in this time of not being able to travel, it was the escapism I needed!
This is a really easy read and I highly recommend it to everyone who wants a break from reality and wants to be transported to New Orleans.
Thanks to @harlequinaus @harpercollinsaustralia and @rachaeljohnsauthor for the review copy!
I absolutely loved this book. It is a follow on from The Art of Keeping Secrets (which I had forgotten I had read at first!) but can be read as a stand alone novel. The characters are really engaging and I loved reading about how they dealt with situations and how they grew through the different challenges they faced. I also loved reading about New Orleans - in this time of not being able to travel, it was the escapism I needed!
This is a really easy read and I highly recommend it to everyone who wants a break from reality and wants to be transported to New Orleans.
Thanks to @harlequinaus @harpercollinsaustralia and @rachaeljohnsauthor for the review copy!
This is Rachael Johns at her finest. I think she just keeps getting better.
I’ve only just recently read The Art Of Keeping Secrets so the background to Felicity and Zoe’s stories were still fresh in my mind, and so it was easy to follow along in their lives, although it’s not really necessary to read Tharp one at all.
What I loved most was feeling like a tourist as Felicity was guided around New Orleans by Theo who owned the Jazz bar next door to where she was staying. Even the sounds and smells came through. The relationship between the two felt very authentic despite the speed with which it happened and a few hiccups along the way. I did love the Miss H storyline. She was quite a character. I was hoping for a bit more along the ghost tour line but I’m hoping that given the way it ended there may be another book somewhere down the line. I’ll be first in line to buy if that’s the case.
What about the book itself?
I am a big fan of Rachael Johns. Even when I wasn't really reading, I would still read her books and thoroughly enjoy them. This book is not really a sequel to The Art of Keeping Secrets but it is linked to that book. Where the former was a book about a group of friends, who tell each other everything, travelling together to New York and finding out that actually they do keep lots of really big secrets from each other.
The central characters of How to Mend a Broken Heart are taxidermist Felicity Bell and her daughter Zoe. Felicity, known as Flick, has been divorced for four years. Her loved up friends are trying to convince her to start dating again but she isn't ready. She has tried to stay friends with her ex, supporting her through gender transition, but when she finds out that Sofia is seeing someone new, it is the straw that breaks the camels back.
She answers a cry for help from a taxidermist in New Orleans who needs sometone to look after his shop in the French Quarter. Flick is not normally impulsive, but this is just the chance she needs. It will give her a couple of months away and the space that she needs. And when she meets the delicious barowner next door, she realises that maybe, just maybe, it is time for her to move on from her ex.
What she doesn't expect is that her daughter Zoe will end up joining her after her marriage to her childhood sweetheart breaks down. Zoe is devastated, quits her job in an art gallery, flees to New Orleans and starts out by trying to drink herself into oblivion. And she is a little oblivious to the fact that she is cramping her mother's style.
When Zoe does get back on her feet it is thanks in no small part to her developing relationship with Aurelia Harranibar, an eccentric artist that Zoe literally knocks off her feet. In the end, Miss H, who is clearly inspired by Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, provides Zoe with the opportunities that she needs both to develop personally and in her art.
Head to my blog to read more including memories of my time visiting New Orleans.
http://www.theintrepidreader.com/2021/05/sunday-salon-remembering-new-orleans.html