Tuesday 7 June 2016

Release Day Review ~ Unbreak My Heart by Nicole Jacquelyn


Book Description:

What do you do when your soul mate marries your best friend?

If you're Kate Evans, you keep your friend Rachel, bond with her kids, and bury your feelings for her husband. The fact that Shane's in the military and away for long periods helps-but when tragedy strikes, everything changes.

After Rachel, pregnant with her fourth child, dies in a car accident and the baby miraculously survives, Kate upends her entire life to share parenting duties. Then on the first anniversary of Rachel's death, Kate and Shane take comfort in each other in a night that they both soon regret.

Shane's been angry for a year, and now he feels guilty too - for sleeping with his wife's best friend and liking it . . . liking her. Kate's ability to read him like a book may have once sent Shane running, but their lives are forever entwined and they are growing closer.

Now with Shane deployed for seven months, Kate is on her own and struggling with being a single parent. Shane is loving and supportive from thousands of miles away, but his homecoming brings a betrayal Kate never saw coming. So Kate's only choice is to fight for the future she deserves - with or without Shane...

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Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***


“I don’t need you to save me. I never needed you to fucking save me.”


Nicole Jacquelyn is a new to me author and this book was sold to me because of “angst.” Yes, this is an angst fest, unrequited love, childhood frenemies, this book had it all. But, I love angst, I crave those reads that make you feel, that make you cry, a story where you get so involved you can’t help but be affected by what you are reading and that was certainly the case with Unbreak My Heart. These characters hit me hard, the kids even more so, all the above and kids…heaven.

This book is emotional…gut wrenchingly emotional, with a selfless heroine that you cannot help but love and a hero who you would love to throttle and then will desperately fall in love with too. This was a book I couldn’t put down, I was totally engrossed from start to finish with my heart aching and breaking, time and time again. Those flip flopping emotions, the back and forth, the drama, the pain, I felt it all, I lived and breathed it, it was heart breaking but most of all, I loved it. I’m an emotional sadist…sue me!


“I didn’t know how to be with someone like Kate. She’d demand more from me than anyone ever had before, and that was terrifying. Because even though the history between us had proven that she wasn’t going anywhere, I’d learned over the course of my life that people left.”


Shane is a hard to love hero, he didn’t have the best start in life and that kind of defined his attitude in the very beginning. Shane and Kate met when they were kids, Kate had always loved him but Shane always kept Kate at arms-length and then he went in for the kill, he fell for her best friend Rachel, her only friend. Shane gets married, has four kids all the while being in the military. Rachel struggles to cope and so Kate ups sticks and moves to be near them so she can help, even if that only brings with it more emotional torture. She makes the ultimate sacrifice, her heart and her happiness.


“I’d pushed her aside for so long that there was no foundation to build on. Just a mess of shattered pieces that I’d crushed with a sledgehammer every time she’d grown closer than I was comfortable with.”


Kate was far from a doormat though, so please don’t think that she is one of those spineless heroines that will irritate you. She was just a kind, considerate and selfless person that stood by her friend and put her own heart and life on the back burner. Kate adored those kids and when Rachel passes, she steps in, Kate becomes mum.


“It was time to step into shoes that were not my own.”


Kate takes an emotional battering throughout the majority of this book. My heart broke for her time and time again and every tear that fell belonged to her pain and her hurt but you cannot help but become invested in her story. Her strength and determination and her love for those kids are what keeps her going and she really needs to pull on every single reserve she has to keep herself together and to keep the family a cohesive unit. But one thing that Nicole Jacquelyn really gets across is Kate’s growth in character throughout. As each page turns, Kate gets stronger and stronger and the stronger she gets the more you love her. She really was a character that was extremely hard not to love and you will be fighting in her corner throughout this book.


“I took your shit like I was thankful for the fertilizer! I took care of everything so you wouldn’t worry. Even when you were gone, even when you acted like you’d never known me. What the hell else could you want from me at this point?”


I am not going to go into plot details, you really do need to experience this as the author intended and live each bone crushing blow as and when it happens. This is far from doom and gloom though, there is light at the end of the tunnel but it is just an incredible journey to get there. Nicole Jacquelyn seemingly takes great pleasure in wringing out every single emotion from your heart and soul, you will laugh, you will cry…a lot, but most of all you will experience the mother of all emotional highs and lows. By the end you will be emotionally exhausted, but you will know that you have read a great book. One that you will be thinking about for days after, these characters still haven’t left me, weeks later. It is great testament to Nicole Jacquelyn’s writing that she has delivered two characters that have left an indelible mark on my heart and soul. Yes, it was a tough read, but a fantastic read none the less…now…where is the vodka?


“Easy? You’re the least convenient person I’ve ever fucking met.”

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