REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY: BREAKABLE by TAMMARA WEBBER

 

 

I'm so excited to be bringing you a review and giveaway for Breakable by Tammara Webber. Thanks for stopping by! 

 

 

Series: Contours of the Heart #2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Penguin Berkley
Publication Date: 5/6/14
Format: ARC
Pages: 368
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 stars

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He 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.
 

Review

There's a reason Landon Maxfield has such a devoted fan-base of readers. He's one of the good guys, the best guys. He's respectful and brave and so strong in heart. Do you have any idea how amazing and refreshing it is to find a young man like this? He's the kind of guy you want your daughter to find. The kind of man you want your son to be. The book world I know has been anxiously awaiting Lucas's story, Breakable. Nearly crazed, really. And how could a book so highly anticipated possibly live up to expectations? I feel that anyone who's read Tammara Webber's work knows that this is not only probable, it's a given.

Obviously Breakable covers the story of Lucas and Jacqueline. And though I love that story, I also mostly knew it. Would I want to see it again from Lucas's point of view? But it's not exactly the same story told through his eyes. Landon's story is the one we're familiar with. We know the pivotal moments between him and Jacqueline, from the rescue in a frightening moment, to the emails exchanged with a tutor, the sketches, the reassurances in pride during self-defense classes, the revelations. Yes, we get Lucas's take on those pivotal moments, but this is different. Webber didn't just rehash the story from a different angle. We get to see how at first, Jacqueline intrigued Lucas, and that over time, she owned him. He didn't want to want her, but he couldn't stop. I never realized the mysterious guy with the lip ring and tattoos was protecting his heart. Because I didn't know what that heart had been through. I think what makes Breakable so different is learning what Lucas has been through, from his perspective, and how those experiences shaped his thinking, his very existence. The loss that has marked him in every way.

But.

Breakable employs a shifting point-of-view, between Lucas and Landon. And as much as it is Lucas's Breakable is also Landon's story, in the time before. We get the experiences that transformed Landon into Lucas. From the moments following tragedy, and into his teens years. The speculation, isolation, crushing guilt, the unbearable pain that is locked down so tightly. We also get fleeting moments of good times, with Landon's gruff yet loving grandfather, his unlikely best friend, the faith and love from a family that never let him go. We see Landon's slide to the bottom, giving up everything and resigning himself to a half-lived life. We get the choice to turn things around and the redemption.

Breakable was beautiful. Not that anyone had doubts about Webber's ability to bring her talent to the table and create a great story that would make readers fall in love with Lucas all over again. I was very hesitant to open myself to that, and I admit that it did hurt to read Landon's story. But it also made me happy. I knew how it was going to end, but I still felt anxiety, and elation. Breakable was gorgeous, so utterly heartbreaking and in the end, triumphant.

 

Favorite Quotes


  This was what you got, when you became too cocky about how principled you were, walking that straight and narrow. You slammed right into the one thing you couldn't have, just because it crossed your path while you were focused on your almighty integrity. Jacqueline Wallace wasn't mine to take, and her needs weren't mine to uncover and fulfill.

  I had the truck I'd wanted, a thousand-year-old symbol of my heritage, a secret recipe for brownies, a pocketknife, and memories of my grandfather I'd never have without the loss of my mother. I couldn't make sense of these things or their value to me, when every one of them was linked to the loss of something I didn't want to lose.

Contours of the Heart Series

 

 

(covers lead to GoodReads page)

My review of Easy

Giveaway

I have one copy of Breakable to give away, courtesy of the publisher. Must be 18+ years of age; open to US only.
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

About the author

Author of Breakable, Easy, and the Between the Lines series.

I'm a former undergraduate academic advisor, married to my high school sweetheart, mother to three adult children and four very immature cats.

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