Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn Series: Broken Hearts & Revenge #1
Published by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group on 13 May 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?
When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.
Gemma's plan is working (she's finding it hard to resist Josh), but she's finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?
Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.
*I received a free ARC of Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend really did not hit my fancy in any way. I’m sure a lot of readers will enjoy the story, though, as it has revenge, deceit and some romance going on. To me, it was pretty juvenile, more than a little predictable and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. The one reason why I didn’t stop reading was that I wanted to find out if I was right about everything or not.
Gemma didn’t seem all that heartbroken to me, even when her boyfriend broke up with here – a little shocked, maybe, but not really all that sad. And I never connected to her, the way she was trying to make up for something she did when she was eleven and very confused is one thing, but actually pretending to be someone other than herself just didn’t make sense to me. And there were so many clues she left everywhere I don’t understand how she never thought she’d be found out.
There were also several tropes I don’t really care for but that appear to be quite popular in many contemporary YA novels, the absent parents – which made less sense here, because Gemma’s mom sent Gemma to her dad’s for the summer so she wouldn’t be alone while the mom went to Scotland. Then, the dad left her alone in the Hamptons a couple of times, instead of taking her with him. I also don’t enjoy it too much when it feels like a girl thinks she needs a guy in her life to feel fulfilled, that only makes me sad. And of course, the sort-of romance really felt like insta-love. At least, there weren’t any love triangles.
The story was not believable to me at all, the characters not likable, and the plot on the light side. I guess younger readers might feel differently as I am quite a mature YA reader, I think I often need more character development, and a story that makes at least a little sense to me. The writing itself is good, though, but that couldn’t make up for the story and the characters for me. If you enjoy reading about revenge plots, though, you should definitely pick Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend up. For a positive review, you should check out Alison Can Read’s 4-star review.
If I wasn’t baking, I found that I kept reaching for my phone, either to check if Teddy had called or to start to call him and try to find out what he’d been thinking.
I really thought that things couldn’t get worse. They did. In fact, it seems that thinking “things can’t get worse” is an invitation for things to get much worse.
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Goodness, this one just didn’t work for you on any level, Lexxie! I’m sorry you spent time on it.
Here’s to a better read!! I hope you have a lovely weekend. I’m going to enjoy my first weekend in ages that I don’t have rehearsals or competitions to attend! Yay!! **BIG HUGS**
Nah, I wasn’t really impressed, Brandee. I’m pretty lucky because this doesn’t happen to me often…
I’m glad your b-day weekend will be nice and lazy! You deserve a little pampering, you know. *BIG HUGS*
Yuck, Lexxie. This sounds terrible. And this was one of the few YA contemporaries that I thought might be worth taking a look at. I admit it–it was the cover and title that drew me in (SO cute!), but if the MC doesn’t even come across as feeling much of anything when she gets dumped . . . just blah. Thanks for the heads-up, and as always–great review!
I was so disappointed, Jessica, because I was really looking forward to it as well. And the premise sounds so promising, it just didn’t follow through in my opinion.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
eak sorry you didn’t like this one, from the blurb it had a bit of promising but I guess if you cannot connect with the characters then yup understandable. I am confused about the main characters behavior from reading the review as well.
Other readers really enjoyed it, though, so I really may be in a minority here.
Thanks for stopping by, Lily.
Great honest review Lexxie. It’s a shame ou didn’t enjoy this one and couldn’t connect with Gemma. Thanks for sharing the link to a positive review too.
Naomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
Thank you Naomi 🙂 Well, I think that just giving my negative view wasn’t fair, especially when I saw how much Allison enjoyed the story 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for linking to my review 🙂 I agree that this was pretty predictable, but it was an occasion where I didn’t really mind it. Not sure why. It’s funny how books work for one person and not for another.
Yeah, it is funny, and sometimes, it also happens that with a re-read that I have a completely different opinion of a book than I did the first time.