Title: The Broken Hearts Club
Author: Susan Bishop Crispell
Publication: June 6, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Teens, YA Fiction, Romance, Fantasy Realism
Pages: 363
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
When the perpetually single daughter of a magical matchmaker reconnects with the boy she’s pretended to be in a relationship with for over a year, she may finally have met her match. Imogen Finch has never been in love… despite being the daughter of a matchmaker. Her only relationship to date was a fake one with a near stranger named August Tate that she made up to stop people from asking about her love life. To fill the void, she’s channeled her obsession with love into her passion for photography, using her ability to literally see the rose-gold glow of a person in love to capture stunning portraits. But when her adviser says her photography portfolio is “one note”, she’s desperate to diversify. After hearing her forever crush, Ren, was recently dumped, she decides to photograph the broken-hearted, starting with him. Imogen is hopeful she’ll finally find love and get the right photos. So, the last thing she expects is for the real-life version of her fake boyfriend to show up in town asking why they “broke up”. Before she knows it she’s juggling August and Ren and falling in love for the first time in her life.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I have just recently finished The Holloway Girls and really liked it, but it was released a while back. However, I had The Broken Hearts Club by Susan Bishop Crispell on my list to read for its release this week and I thought I’d jump right in. I was not disappointed and this book kept me glued to it.
The Broken Hearts Club followed Imogen, who I really enjoyed. She was quirky and different, and had this really cool ability to read people’s love and heartbreak. How cool would it be to see aura’s? Probably way cooler if they didn’t know and constantly try and use you for said ability, which is what happens to Imogen to make her a little jaded for her own love life. I loved the characters that Crispell wrote and their quirky personalities. Everyone had something about them that kind of made them stand out. One thing I really liked is most of the characters in this book were kind. It’s usually some huge drama having to do with some villain, but this one was not like that. August’s character was written so well that I instantly liked him. He was by far my favorite, although I loved everyone honestly.
The story had teenage dramatics in it to make it believable, but the little touch of magic gives it just enough to push it above. Crispell was able to make me feel what Imogen was feeling. I’m not sure it was intentional because a lot of the time the focus was on the feelings of others, but I felt Imogen’s feelings so deeply. That takes a good writer to make you read one emotion and feel for another. I also liked when I disagreed with Imogen. I felt like I was taking the roll of her best friend scolding her for her poor decision making.
The story flows really smoothly and while you may feel like you know what is going to happen, you will never guess how it all ends up playing out. There were some shocking twists at the end that kept me extremely interested and flipping pages. My only complaint is I really, really, really wanted to see her finished project photos. Alas, maybe they will make it a movie!
I loved this book and the characters and just everything about it. I even liked it just a bit more the The Holloway Girls. I will definitely be checking out all other work by Susan Bishop Crispell.
