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A review by hippolyta_vi
The Breakup Tour by Emily Wibberley, Austin Siegemund-Broka
3.0
I'm about to compile a list of faults, but this book was by no means a bad book. It was written exceptionally well (seriously there are some banger lines in here) and has excellent commentary about pop stardom and what it's like to put your emotions and heartbreak out there for all to see. That being said, I agree with most of the other reviews.
This book falls victim to the second-chance-romance tendency to not show the readers how the characters love each other, but instead just tell us that they do because they did 10 years ago so obviously there is unresolved feelings! Because of this, we didn't actually see Max and Riley fall in love but just...sorta...restart a relationship that happened off the page. For this reason, I wasn't rooting for them.
Most of this book is just the characters' thoughts instead of action so we're just stuck inside their heads. Max was so infuriating to read. If you tell Max to jump off a bridge, he'll ask "to what conclusion?" BECAUSE THE MAN JUST ASSUMES SO MUCH ABOUT RILEY AND JUMPS TO ANY POSSIBLE CONCLUSION THAT ISN'T WHAT SHE'S ACTUALLY THINKING OR DOING! You've heard of the miscommunication trope? Now get ready for the NO communication trope.
I fault the publishers for packaging and marketing this book as a fun Taylor Swift inspired romance. It has so much more depth than that and did the book a disservice. I found the resolution lackluster because of this. It felt like the typical romance ending (everything tied up in a neat bow) for a book that dealt with some complex emotions.
a much better ending would've been for Max and Riley to reconnect again in the future. To me, it seemed that their lives were still not equipped for the other person. Max wanted Harcourt Homes and Riley was meant for pop stardom. Their lives weren't aligned. It would've been interesting and different for the main couple to NOT end up together. Or idk, maybe people would've hated that.
This book falls victim to the second-chance-romance tendency to not show the readers how the characters love each other, but instead just tell us that they do because they did 10 years ago so obviously there is unresolved feelings! Because of this, we didn't actually see Max and Riley fall in love but just...sorta...restart a relationship that happened off the page. For this reason, I wasn't rooting for them.
Most of this book is just the characters' thoughts instead of action so we're just stuck inside their heads. Max was so infuriating to read. If you tell Max to jump off a bridge, he'll ask "to what conclusion?" BECAUSE THE MAN JUST ASSUMES SO MUCH ABOUT RILEY AND JUMPS TO ANY POSSIBLE CONCLUSION THAT ISN'T WHAT SHE'S ACTUALLY THINKING OR DOING! You've heard of the miscommunication trope? Now get ready for the NO communication trope.
I fault the publishers for packaging and marketing this book as a fun Taylor Swift inspired romance. It has so much more depth than that and did the book a disservice. I found the resolution lackluster because of this. It felt like the typical romance ending (everything tied up in a neat bow) for a book that dealt with some complex emotions.