Review of Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker

Title/Author: Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker
Publisher/Date published: Bloomsbury Children's Books, May 22nd 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life.
Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now.
Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?"

So you guys, books dealing with subjects like cheating and having the actual main character cheat with someone always makes me a bit hesitant. Because there are things that are sure to get my hackles up and one of them is cheating.
I loved that someone in the book mentioned he had an issue with cheating and Clem said 'a lot of people do'. It's true, I get all ragey and seriously had my night ruined a couple of weeks ago when someone I was with that night told everyone she wanted to seduce a guy who had a girlfriend and daughter. I was SO pissed.

So yeah, the possibility of me being very much pissed of at the main character made me a bit wary of Unbreak My Heart. But I'd been hearing really good things about it everywhere and even from people who have similar thought on the subject of cheating that I felt ok going in.

And you guys, I shouldn't have worried so much, cause the book is just wonderful!! I mean, sure I got annoyed with Clem at times when she related everything that happened with her and her best friend's boyfriend, but she felt so bad about it and she knew she had done a really bad thing that I didn't have a red haze cloud over my vision. Clem is a good person who did an awful thing. And I loved that slowly over the course of the summer she started realising just where what it was that was so wrong about what she did and why her best friend wouldn't speak to her anymore. Her slowly getting to this conclusion and realising the reason she was so sad showed such character growth! It was amazing!

Also, I loved the dynamics in Clem's family! They were trying to give her space, but were also ready to support her when she needed it. It was just such a warm, loving family and sometimes I think we don't get enough of that in YA novels, so it made me appreciate it even more. I really loved Olive, Clem's little sister, she was so cute!

And you guys, I just absolutely loved James, the boy who helps unbreak Clem's heart. I loved his happy personality and just that he was such a good guy. And he and Clem had great chemistry, I had a smile on my face the whole time I was reading about them together.

But what I most loved is that although James helps unbreak Clem's heart, she mostly does this herself, with help from her family. She realises that the breaking of her heart wasn't just about the boy and so it's not up to a boy to fix it.

This was such a wonderful summer read! It would be perfect for those nice days sitting by the pool or in your backyard, just relaxing and getting lost in this story, cause believe me, you will get sucked in by the writing, it's SO good! I am definitely going to check out more books by Melissa C. Walker!

My rating: 5 stars