Book: Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills

Rating: 5 Stars

Release Date: April 16

Summary:

Hailey Abbott’s “Summer Boys” takes a weepy turn in this story of one girl’s attempt to tell her childhood friend how she really feels about him.

Alex thought she’d be spending the summer focused on her family’s rafting business, burying the memories of her father’s death last year, and leaving behind all the messes she made in its wake.

But when Sean returns to town, she is forced to reckon with her mixed-up crushy feelings for him – more powerful than ever before. It takes another tragedy to make Alex realize Sean has loved her, and forgiven her, all along.

Overall:

Alex never thought that she would be spending her summer working with Sean. In fact, she never even expected to see him. When he walks into the door of her family’s rafting business, she is completely shocked. As it turns out, her grandparents hired him on for the summer, without ever mentioning it to Alex.

Alex already has enough on her plate trying to get over her father’s drowning of the year before and living with her grandparents while her mom is in Florida. Now she not only has all that to deal with, she also has her feelings for Sean and the flirtations of one of the other guys from the rafting business, Tommy.

Tommy has always been a flirt but now he seems to be focusing all his flirting on Alex and to Alex’s delight and confusion, it seems to be making Sean a little jealous. Even if Alex and Sean can never be the way they once were, she still wants to be friends with him and he begins to show some of the same feelings. The only time they seem to be able to connect is when Sean takes on the task of helping Alex get over her fear of the river. Sean’s attentions don’t only affect Alex, though. Alex’s cousin Mala seems to be changing right along with everyone else.

Mala is the pretty one and always the center of attention with the guys but lately Alex is getting all of the attention. Mala begins to act out and get herself into more trouble and always manages to drag Alex into it with her. When Mala can’t seem to take anymore she breaks and makes some accusations that Alex may never be able to forgive her for.

Heartbreak River was such an amazing debut YA novel. There were very few things I disliked about this book. In fact, I don’t think I could name one. The characters were all very likable, even at their worst moments. They all seemed to have real personalities and little quirks that made them original.

The ending was also one of my favorite parts. It was such a shock to me. I never would have seen it coming. I do think it was a very sad ending but I really think it helped make the story even better.

The writing style and the story were just so original. I read this book so quickly because I just couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened next. This is another one of those books that I think deserves all 5 stars.

You can order this book here.

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