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{ about the book }

Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia
standalone novel

publishes February 6, 2018 by Imprint
e-ARC provided via netgalley

goodreads

Before, Peyton was a star soccer player with the perfect boyfriend, Reed. Now, she has a torn knee ligament, a scholarship on the line, and a shattered sense of self. No one believes Reed pushed her, causing her injury, and Peyton just wants to leave the trauma behind. Living with her uncle and twin cousins in their small, football-obsessed town seems like a great escape plan.

There, Peyton meets Owen—high school classmate and local MMA fighter. Though Owen is charming and gentle, Peyton is determined to repress her growing attraction. But when her old and new life collide, Peyton must reclaim the truth of her past in order to save her future.

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{ my review }

♫

This just in: Kami Garcia’s books are not for me, sadly.

I was so looking forward to Broken Beautiful Hearts. I’d enjoyed her first solo contemporary novel to a point, so I was hoping that this would be better. But it… actually ended up being worse? It was actually painful to get through this one and, gosh, it was such a disappointment.

The first thing that ruined the book for me was the writing. It just was not good. Throughout the entire novel, nothing really gets better. There are some moments, but overall, everything is pretty much childish. The dialogue was embarrassing for me to read and I genuinely find it hard to believe that’s how teens speak. I’m 19. I went to high school. I’ve heard my fair share of cringey shit throughout.

There were also a few underhanded comments about women in the book and I’m sure Peyton was supposed to combat a lot of them, but… didn’t. There’s also girl-girl hate here and there are scenes where they just go against each other and uuuuuugh. Like, seriously, that’s the last thing I want to read. I appreciate that Peyton helped out one girl from the bullies, but it got real tiring real fast having them fighting over some petty shit.

I hate hate hate how a lot of the romance was focused on how great Owen’s body is. I don’t care about him shirtless and sweater whatsoever. I do not, okay? It felt like that half the time that was all Peyton could focus on and fine, if that catches her fancy, great! Cool, I don’t need it brought up all the time, thanks.

I can’t speak for abusive relationships or being on the receiving end of a serious injury like the one Peyton faced. Whether or not it was well done isn’t up to me to determine. But I appreciated that this book sort of focussed on that. I did like that Peyton kept her distance from her ex-boyfriend.

That wasn’t enough for everything else in the book though. A lot of it felt aimless and trying not to crush on the first guy she sees. I was hoping for a bit more focus on her healing, but there wasn’t really much of that save for like one or two scenes.

Overall, I’d pass on this one.