Book Review: The Broken Hearts Book Club



4 stars (I really liked it) for The Broken Hearts Book Club by Lynsey James

Secrets never stay buried for long... 
Lucy Harper has always been good at one thing: running from her past. But when her beloved Nana Lily passes away she has no choice except to return to the one place in the world she most wants to avoid... 
Luna Bay hasn't changed much in the eight years she has spent in London. The little Yorkshire village is still just as beautiful, but the new pub landlord is a gorgeous addition to the scenery! 
Lucy only intended to stay for a day, yet when she discovers that Nana Lily has not only left her a cottage but also 'The Broken Hearts Book Club', Lucy is intrigued. Her Nana never have mentioned the club and Lucy can't wait to get started, but walking into her first meeting she is more aware than ever that her past is finally catching up with her. 
One way or another, Lucy must finally face the secrets she's kept buried for so long - or spend the rest of her life on the run... 
Source: Goodreads






I was kindly given a review copy through Netgalley, with many thanks to the publisher and Jenny Marston for hosting the tour.

This was my first encounter with Lynsey James her books and oh it was an absolute delight!
Her writing is so easy to read and had an easy flow to the words.
Jake is, unsurprisingly, my kind of hero. He's everything you want in your fictional man. A little goofy, charming, protective, and with a gorgeous bum ;)

And then there's Lucy, who is absolutely lovely and the perfect main character to read about. I did find her a little bit too 'moany' at times but in general she was an absolute delight to read about and I was routing for her to find her own happiness.

Aside from the two main characters, there's a bunch of other people you get to meet in this small village. You're on an adventure with every single character in this book and by the end of it they'll feel like your friends. It was lovely to read about their stories and backgrounds and how they would grow throughout the story.

I do have a few remarks that came up in the end and some of those what kept this from being a twinkling 5 star book.
One of them was at how unreasonable these characters could act sometimes. For example when Lucy's advice to some members of the book club had backfired, due to reasons that were completely out of her hands and in no way her fault, everyone was so keen on blaming her and making her out as the most evil person in the world, including Lucy herself! No one seemed to be reasoning that they were being absolutely unreasonable. And I think that if only one person had piped up about it then I probably wouldn't feel so strongly about this scene.
And the other thing was that Lucy sometimes really got lost in her self pity a little bit too much. I understood Lucy's character a lot and I really, really did like her, but she tended to become irrational, she started to feel so much self pity at some point that I wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to snap out of it.

However those two hiccups, didn't change the fact that I completely devoured this story and absolutely loved my time in Luna Bay. Because as some of the characters so perfectly explained: this place gets under your skin and it's impossible to leave afterwards.

Lynsey's writing reminded me a little bit about another one of my fave authors out there, and I do think that says a lot about her charming way of creating this story ^^



Author Bio

Lynsey James was born in Fife in 1991 and has been telling people how to spell her name ever since. She's an incurable bookworm who loves nothing more than getting lost in a good story with memorable characters. She started writing when she was really young and credits her lovely Grandad- and possibly a bump on the head from a Mr Frosty machine- with her love of telling stories. She used to write her own episodes of Friends and act them out in front of her family (in fact she's sure she put Ross and Rachel together first!)
A careers adviser at school once told Lynsey writing wasn't a "good option" and for a few years, she believed her. She tried a little bit of everything, including make-up artistry, teaching and doing admin for a chocolate fountain company. The free chocolate was brilliant. When Lynsey left her job a couple of years ago, she started writing full-time while she looked for another one. As soon as she started working on her story, Lynsey fell in love and decided to finally pursue her dream. She haven't looked back since.
When Lynsey's not writing, eating cake or drinking tea, she's daydreaming about the day Dylan O'Brien FINALLY realises they're meant to be together. It'll happen one day…

Links:
Website: https://lynseyjames.wordpress.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lynsey1991
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynseyjamesauthor

Book Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1MWkC3a
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1H6HS9y
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1IudxHo


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