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Release date: April 30, 2019

Publisher: Inkyard

Genre: YA

Blurb:

Has heartbreak broken her for good?

Dumped by her boyfriend the summer after senior year, teen love and relationship columnist Lu Charles has hit a wall with her writing. The words just won’t come to her like they used to and if she doesn’t find a topic for her column, she’ll lose her gig at hip online magazine Misnomer, and the college scholarship that goes along with it.

Her best friend, Pete, thinks she should write through her own pain, but when Lu overhears another couple planning a precollege breakup just like hers, she becomes convinced that they’re the answer to cracking her writer’s block. And when she meets them—super-practical Iris and cute, sweet Cal—and discovers they’re postponing their breakup until the end of the summer, she has to know more.

Have Cal and Iris prolonged their own misery by staying together, knowing the end is in sight? Or does the secret to figuring out all this love business—and getting over it—lie with them? One thing is certain—if Lu can’t make a breakthrough before summer is over, she can kiss her future goodbye.

From the acclaimed author of Let’s Get Lost and North of Happy comes a touching exploration of love, relationships and the pain of breaking up.

Review:

I used to read a ton of YA and then I just sort of naturally moved away from it over the past few years. I think as I got older I found myself struggling to relate to the characters but when I saw the title of this one I just had to try it, I mean how catchy is it?! I’m really glad I did because even though I still can’t totally relate to a teenager anymore (maybe because I’m old enough to be a parent to a teenager now? 👵🏻) I found myself able to remember how it felt to be a teenager and that worked out well for me.

Lu is the main character and everything is told solely from her POV and man did she frustrate me! This wasn’t a bad thing though, I actually found myself more invested in her story because I was hoping she would wake up and quit being so damn whiny and although she didn’t have this huge, life changing moment where she suddenly matured, she did undergo enough personal growth that I was happy. Also, that’s way more realistic anyway, who all of the sudden grows out of the teenager angsty melodrama overnight? I sure didn’t, maturity (especially emotional maturity) is a gradual process that can’t be rushed.

Besides Lu there were some other really great secondary characters that I really liked and I’m sure that helped with my frustrations with her. My favorite was her best friend, Pete he was a wise and stable presence in her otherwise chaotic and dramatic life and brought some much needed levity to the story. As I mentioned earlier, this one brought me right back to the time when I was a teenager dealing with my first heartbreak and I have to credit the author for that. It’s not always easy to bring me back to older emotional memories while I’m reading and I had no problem remembering how I felt and what that time period in my life truly felt like.

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak in three words: Bittersweet, Cute and Relatable.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.