Book Review: Hearts Made For Breaking

Author: Jen Klein

Genre: YA Contemporary

Release Date: 04.30.19

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Source: Purchased

My Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Synopsis: “17-year old Lark knows how to survive high school dating: date boys briefly, let them down gently, remain friends, and move on. Her best friends, Copper and Katie, think that Lark is denying herself the opportunity for true love because she does not want to be hurt. They challenge her to break her pattern by staying in a relationship long enough for Lark — or the boy — to fall in love. Intrigued by the challenge, Lark sets her sights on the mysterious new boy, Ardy, who has been labeled “undateable” by the other girls in school. Lark is curious about, and then completely intrigued by, the enigmatic Ardy — so much so that she finds herself falling for him, only to risk having her own heart completely broken.”

Hello extreme disappointment. After I read Jen Klein’s debut, Shuffle, Repeat, I’ve been eagerly waiting to pick up another story by her…to say that I wasn’t a fan of this one would be a understatement.

Hearts Made for Breaking follows our protagonist Lark in her quest to find a boy and break his heart in order to win a game against her friends. Enter Ardy, the mysterious boy labeled “undateable” by the other girls in school. However, Lark’s game takes a dramatic twist as she finds herself actually falling for Ardy…

But, how do you love someone when you can’t trust them? And no, that’s not part of the synopsis. That’s just me being confused and upset about this book. One of the most frustrating things about this story was Lark and her extreme lack of trust in Ardy. Her determination to discover the truth about his “undateable” reputation made it impossible to root for their relationship; I couldn’t possibly ship them together when most of the book is just Lark trying to figure out if Ardy is some terrible guy… how could I possibly root for that? It was frustrating beyond words. I wanted to like them together so badly but I couldn’t even like Ardy because the entire book makes it seem like you’re supposed to dislike and not trust him.

To make things even better: Lark was not only super judgy about Ardy, but she judged and mistreated everybody in her life. She judges and brings down all the people around her and doesn’t seem to support her supposed friends at all… which is a whole other mess. None of the side characters in this book are developed. Really, truly, none of them. I just read this book recently and I couldn’t tell you a single thing about any of them that really matters. They all lacked personality and character. So, when the author combines these empty side characters with Lark’s constant judgement and rude comments it made the story feel incredibly distant and bland.

As I said, I am so disappointed in this book. I couldn’t connect to the story or characters and therefore, I just didn’t care. It was nothing like I expected it to be and definitely not the author’s best story by a long shot. If you’re interesting in trying anything from Jen Klein do yourself a favor and pick up Shuffle, Repeat which is amazing in every way that this book is not.