The time I reviewed a book {7}

Posted May 9, 2014 by Stacee in Reviews | 0 Comments

So, we all know about my undying love and affection for my favorite person ever,  Christina [AKA: my pretty, prancy PA,  AKA: one of the bloggers from The Book Hookup], right?  Well, she got invited to be part of the blog tour for Breakable by Tammara Webber and she invited me to be part of her tour stop for Tammara Webber.  Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly love her more…

We did a dual review [listed below] and interview with Tammara and Lucas [which will be a separate post].

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But before all of that, let’s check out the book, shall we?

17936925He was lost and alone. Then he found her.
And the future seemed more fragile than ever.

As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise — until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.

Sounds good, right? [Hint: it’s amazing]

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Rating & First Reaction:

Christina: 4.5 stars! Of course this had to go on my Top Shelf because… well, it’s Lucas and he obviously wasn’t going on any other one. But in all seriousness, Breakable delivered in ways I hadn’t anticipated. As expected, Tammara Webber still wields the power to manipulate your feels with her characters and fantastic writing.

Stacee: All of the stars! Easy was the first NA book that I read and Tammara set the bar reaaaaally high and she definitely didn’t disappoint with Breakable. Besides, it’s Lucas’s point of view and I’ve always loved boy POV the most. I wasn’t sure what we were going to get, but I know that Tammara + Lucas = pure win, so I was completely in.

Plot & Pacing:

Christina: Breakable is told in alternating POVs from Landon, which is a prequel to the events that happen in Easy, and Lucas, which overlaps everything that unfolded in Easy. I went into this novel with quite a bit of eagerness because I was always wondering what Lucas was thinking the entire time during Easy, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see it all through his eyes. But what surprised me most was how much I loved Landon’s part more. I liked getting to know the disgruntled teen with so much inner turmoil, and how he evolved into the beloved hero we all learned to love in Easy. It was everything I was expecting, yet not at all what I thought I was going to get, simultaneously.

Where my half-star deduction comes into play is where it took me a bit to fall in love with Breakable, where my connection with Easy felt almost instantaneous. Maybe it was simply because my expectations were so high, but I wanted it to grab me more. Additionally, I didn’t feel the connection between Jacqueline and Lucas as much as I did in the first installment either. I’ve thought this over for weeks now, and I think it could be one of two things; either, one, Ms. Webber relied a little too heavily on our previous knowledge of their relationship in Easy or, two, their storyline just felt too familiar to me, and I wasn’t as captivated by it this go around. Or, I don’t know, maybe part of the allure of their chemistry in the previous novel was that Landon/Lucas was such a mystery to me, and it paled in comparison this time because I already knew Jacqueline’s story.

Stacee: Breakable jumps in with both feet, alternating chapters right away and snagging my interest immediately. I mean, my first flag was on page 4. I found myself greedily wanting more of whatever POV I just finished. I wasn’t really prepared for all of the heartfail parts with his mother’s death and the subsequent trigger word aftermath, but Tammara approached it in a way that I think only she could. 

MCs:

Christina: Since I loved Landon’s POV more, I’ll focus on his side of the story in my section of this. Landon is dealing with a lot of issues, and my heart broke for him repeatedly when he had to deal with not only the horrific tragedy of his mom’s death, but also having his life uprooted and taken miles away. It was hard to see him start over. I think Webber did a magnificent job of capturing a teen boy’s perception on life, especially one who had such a monumental shift at such a pivotal age. I really gravitated to his storyline and gobbled up every tidbit. I was also really partial to learning where all the tattoos and piercings came into play, and how exactly he made the shift from using his first name, Landon, to making the decision to change it to his middle name, Lucas, right before college.

Stacee: And I loved Lucas’s POV more.  Not that I didn’t enjoy getting the back story [and I totally did], but Lucas was so so so quiet in Easy.  Like Jacqueline, I wanted to know all of the things.  I absolutely loved seeing his side of Easy [helllllllo, first kiss/sketching scene] and would have loved more of it.  The Landon POV explained why Lucas was withdrawn when he got to college and it was fun to unravel the mystery behind not only his personality quirks, but his tattoos and piercings as well.  And holy hell does this boy have a dirty delicious mind.  

Secondary characters:

Christina: Once again, I loved the secondary characters present in Landon’s part of the story more. For one, his high school enemy turned best friend, Boyce Wynn. Upon meeting him initially, I thought he was a gigantic asshat, but when they became friends, I couldn’t help but love the freaking guy. He was a constant riot that had me chuckling more than a few times. I also really loved Landon’s interactions with his grandpa. Elderly people are my favorites, and he was no exception. Lastly, I loved getting to see Mr. Heller through both POV’s and how he was a constant source of security and fatherliness to both boys. He made my heart happy.

Stacee: I was thrilled to see Mr. Heller as such a prominent person in Landon’s life.  I loved that he loved Landon like his own son.  For Landon, that meant support, but also some rules and stability that he wasn’t really getting with his father or grandfather.  There’s a sort-of confrontational scene towards the end of the Landon chapters that involved a contract and it was easily one of my favorite scenes of the entire book.  On the Lucas side of things, Mr. Heller treated Lucas as an adult.  Sure, they joked about their boy parts, but Mr. Heller was definitely [as Jacqueline put it] Lucas’s guardian angel.

Swoony Teaser:

Christina’s pick:

Exploring her was suddenly all I was meant to do in this life.
~quote taken from the ARC of Breakable, pg. 178

Stacee’s pick:

She was surprised I’d remembered what she’d ordered a week ago. I would happily catalogue her likes and dislikes. Every one of them. From how she took her coffee, to how she liked to be kissed, to what stroke to use to where to make her shiver from head to toe. ~quote taken from the arc of Breakable, page 139

Rec It?

Christina: Absolutely yes! Reading from his POV when he draws Jacqueline for the first time alone is worth reading this book, but both POV’s were well worth the wait and building anticipation. I enjoyed getting to see all my favorite scenes through Lucas’ eyes, as well as learning to fall in love with the boy before he became the man. I’m very much looking forward to reading more of Webber’s words, too.

Stacee: You mean you didn’t go get it on release day?

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Huge thanks to my PA for involving me in this! And of course, huge thanks and hugs to Erin at Berkley for providing an early copy of Breakable to read and review.  Click here to go to the interview with Tammara and Lucas.

Just in case you can’t wait to buy Easy and Breakable.  :)

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