Review: Unbreak My Heart

Title:  Unbreak My Heart
Author:  Melissa Walker
Genre:  Young Adult
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Children's Books
Release Date:  May 22, 2012
File Size/Pages:  240 pgs
Source:  NetGalley
Challenge(s):  Personal A-Z Challenge; eBook Challenge

My Rating:  3/5

Summary:  You can’t help who you fall in love with. It’s a lesson Clementine Williams knows all too well. She’s headed into the summer with a broken heart and zero social life. So even though her parents’ plan to spend the summer (trapped) on their sailboat should make Clem break out in hives, she doesn’t really mind the chance to float away for a while. Even if it means most of her social interaction will be with her nine-year-old sister. Then she meets James at one of their stops on the Great Loop-a classic sailing track in the US. He and his dad are sailing the same track and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. But will he be able to break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?

Review:  Clementine, the main character, is 15-years-old who is on a family vacation for the summer, sailing the sea with her family, which includes her father, mother, and 10-year-old sister, Olive.  It's obvious that something has happened leading up to this trip which causes Clementine to be so depressed, but since the book is told in alternating chapters (going back and forth from the trip to what really happened) we don't find out what happens until really late in the book.  During this trip, Clem meets a guy around her age, James Townsend, and they really seem to click.  While reading the chapters that described her friendship between her and Amanda and what led to the end of their friendship, it becomes kind of confusing.  I mean, I get why Amanda would be upset, but I just think it might've been a bit overboard.  Overall, I wasn't feeling this book at all and I REALLY wanted to like this book.  I get that Clem is supposed to be a heartbroken 15-year-old, but she was a bit of a Debbie Downer…she was literally depressed throughout a little more than half of the novel.  Also, the ending just seemed unfinished…I don't want to give the ending away, but I was really hoping that it would have an epilogue at the end updating us, but it didn't.  This novel had really good potential and some enjoyable parts, but Clem's depression really took away from that.