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Heartbroken
Heartbroken
Author: Lisa Unger
Long after anyone expected Kate to do anything with her life, she did. Using the journals left behind by her aunt and grandmother, she wrote a novel based on a very real generation-old love story that ended in tragedy. On the other side of town, Emily is about to set fire to her life. She's in a dead-end job and is involved with the wrong ma...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780307465207
ISBN-10: 0307465209
Publication Date: 6/26/2012
Pages: 384
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 19

3.4 stars, based on 19 ratings
Publisher: Crown
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

njmom3 avatar reviewed Heartbroken on + 1359 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/heartbroken.html

Heartbroken is part thriller and mostly a family story, particularly focusing on the relationships between mothers and daughters. There is Birdie - the family matriarch - who is still dealing with the childhood memories of her mother and who is driving her family away with her own actions. There is Kate - the "good" daughter and mother - who attempts to understand her own mother based on the journals of her aunt and her grandmother and then writes a book based on those journals. There is Emily - a daughter seeking to find her place in the world.

The place is Heart Island - what should be a beautiful sanctuary in the Adirondacks. It's been owned by the family for generations. To some, it represents a safe harbor and home. To some, it is a harsh place to be escaped.

The intrigue in the book comes from two places. First is a long ago love affair and the brooding main character of that love. A love that continues to impact people now long after the lovers are gone. Second is the men brought low by drugs and crime who are seeking money and jewels and who will use anyone and any means to get it. It all comes to a dramatic conclusion one night on Heart Island.

The mix of family story and thriller was an interesting one to read. The relationships between mothers and daughters were developed as the book progressed. Details emerged allowing the reader greater understanding of each of the characters. The "bad guys" stayed the bad guys and moved through the book bringing with them drama and a climax.

This is the first book I have read by Lisa Unger. I am not sure what her readers expect. More thriller and suspense or more character and family? Overall, I found it an enjoyable book.

***Honestly reviewed based on an advance uncorrected proof received from the publisher ***
reviewed Heartbroken on + 3083 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Let's get down to what you want in a book--I don't want pages and pages of descriptions and this one is full of that--the main story is so broken up throughout because Unger has inserted a backstory for each and every character, that in my opinion doesn't matter, just get on with this story! So by half way I was skipping and skimming to find the main story pages so I could move on and even that didn't help me to like this book. As for the family part?--another run of the mill family torn apart by snobbishness, enough said!
MELNELYNN avatar reviewed Heartbroken on + 669 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
In this unique melding of psychological drama, ghost story and thriller, three women are on a collision path and bound to meet eventually on an isolated island. Each has secrets, regrets and yearnings, which are explored in depth, giving readers the feeling that we know them, even though we may not find each one to be a purely sympathetic character.

Heart Island belongs to 75-year-old Birdie Burke, who has enjoyed vacations there her entire life. Now she prepares to welcome her family for a reunion, although "welcome" is not the way her daughter Kate would describe her mother's usual chilly attitude. Birdie's husband, Joe, has decided to return to the city while Birdie gets the place ready for guests. Birdie is swimming the perimeter of the lake and thinking of all the things she must accomplish --- shopping, cleaning, cooking --- before her children and grandkids gather. She is disheartened that she can't manage to swim the entire distance, the way she did when she was younger. Old age is an inconvenience to someone who once believed herself to be unbeatable.

As she wearily slips into her robe, Birdie realizes that someone is standing on the edge of the trees near her house. She can't make out the figure since she doesn't have her glasses on, but can tell it's a tall, narrow man (definitely not Joe). When she calls to the stranger, asking him who he is and chastising him for trespassing, he doesn't answer and vanishes. Birdie can't decide if she fantasized the figure or if it really appeared. The incident makes her unsettled and nibbles away at her, rousing mysterious memories from her childhood.

Birdie's daughter, Kate, is miffed that brother Theo is not going to be at the family gathering. He claims he just cannot handle his parents anymore. Sadly, Kate knows just how he feels. She dislikes being with her mother but just cannot bring herself to disappoint Birdie. During this trip, Kate has big news but dreads telling her mother, who is sure to belittle her triumph. Kate not only has written a novel (somewhat based on her Aunt Caroline's journals, which reveal startling family secrets), she has also sold it at auction. Birdie is bound to point out that Kate is quite old to be "finally doing something" after spending most of her adult life as a devoted mother to young teen Chelsea and Chelsea's younger half-brother, Brendan.

Kate knows her rock-solid second husband, Sean, will help her tolerate the visit with her mother. However, after their son injures an ankle and Sean has to work, they decide that father and son will travel to Heart Island later on. Meanwhile, in an action all three will eventually regret, Kate, Chelsea and Chelsea's friend leave alone.

Emily is a waitress at a restaurant called the Blue Hen, where she enjoys the job and her coworkers. Her boyfriend, Dean, can't understand why she would want to work so hard. Of course, Dean is unemployed and struggles with a drug problem. He has caused a rift between Emily and her mother, Martha, who has told Emily repeatedly that Dean is no good and that he will ruin Emily's life. When Emily meets Dean's friend, Brad, looking into his dead eyes, the downward path of her life accelerates, hurtling her toward the worst imaginable nightmare that will eventually lead her to Heart Island.

This page-turner is multi-layered and intriguing, as master storyteller Lisa Unger weaves a compelling plotline from the disparate threads of these women's lives. Characters are fully fleshed out and three-dimensional, making them people readers care about. A leisurely paced buildup instills a dark and terrible dread, fully realized in the last urgent chapters. Ominous sightings of a ghostly figure and a more corporeal menace lend even more foreboding to a nail-biting good read.
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renegadespiritcat avatar reviewed Heartbroken on + 197 more book reviews
A mystery and thriller combined, a detailed plot and scheming characters intertwined with honest salt of the earth people seemingly mesh and combine in a complex climax and finally. I read it in a day.
bdlynn123 avatar reviewed Heartbroken on + 6 more book reviews
This book was more of a drama then a suspense. I did enjoy getting to know each character. I was glad to find in the end why Birdie was they way she was. I did enjoy the book, it kept me intrigued.


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