Breakable by Tammara WebberSeries: Contours of the Heart #2
Published by: Berkley Trade on May 6, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 368
Source: Purchased
Book Details
Rating: Did Not Finish
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.
I bought Breakable thinking it would be a “sure thing”… you know, a guaranteed 5-star book. I ADORED Easy so combining that with the fact that Breakable is loaded with 5 star reviews, I thought this was a slam dunk. I wanted Breakable to rock my world. I WAS READY!
Well, I’m devastated to say that Breakable went the same way for me as Walking Disaster. In other words, it tanked.
Lucas was not sweet or charming—he was CREEPY. Like full on stalker creepy. He thought about Jacqueline, stared at her, had dreams about her, drew her, FOLLOWED her… all before he ever spoke to her. I was reading the book and literally turning my nose up. It just seemed so sketchy!!
And to make matters worse, from Lucas’s point of view I didn’t understand his obsession with Jacqueline. At least until I stopped reading (maybe it changes after that), she was a blank slate. Maybe it’s because Lucas never spoke to her, but the girl had no personality. She just existed.. and that’s it.
When we weren’t watching Lucas stalk Jacqueline, we were reading about Lucas’s life before and directly after his mother’s death (so, high school years). Although his mother’s death was sad, that part of the book was soooo dull. It read like an autobiography. I got very little emotion from those chapters and nothing made me want to care. It was just a sequence of events—like a history textbook. I was reading it and found myself thinking:
“Am I supposed to be caring about this? Should I be interested? Because I don’t give a shit.”
The ONLY thing that evoked any emotion in me was this line:
“You’re the man of the house while I’m gone. Take care of your mother.”
Then.. his mother dies. Yeaaah, major guilt trip there. 🙁
But other than that, I felt nothing. I had no reason to care about this guy’s teenage life. I think it just wasn’t presented well. It was like one big, huge, monologue that spanned over the entire book. Booooring.
By the time I got to 23% and realized that I just wasn’t enjoying Breakable, I decided to stop reading. Next.
Update: After some reflection, I completely realized the problem! Lucas has no friends. He’s an outcast in present day and in his high school years. Look, I get it, not everyone has friends or is super social. But no friends meant no dialogue. NO DIALOGUE. Since he had no friends and was stalking Jacqueline instead of talking to her, there were no conversations in the book. That made it extremely dull and monologue-y.
The Verdict
You are breaking my heart, but I totally get it. Lucas does sound creepy and the no dialogue was a pretty stupid move.
Yeah, like I get not everyone has a ton of friends and not everyone likes to go out and party or whatever.. but ugh! Surely this could have been done a better way. >_<
The beginning was very slow. Lucas does end up with friends, in the past and in the present. The flashbacks from the past were my favorite part. It was worth the slower read to me but it wasn’t as good as Easy for sure.
I’m glad you liked it a bit more than I did!
This doesn’t sound like my cup of tea… I haven’t read any of Tammara Webber’s books, so maybe I shouldn’t have read this review haha. Nah, I think I’ll pick up the other books you mentioned and I’m pretty sure I’ll let this one slide (the guy does sound pretty creepy…)
Well I don’t think I spoiled anything from Easy. 😛
Too bad! I really hate it when a book I was looking forward to and am expecting a slam dunk goes sour. But I can totally see why – no interaction is DULL. And the stalker thing is creepy, especially since it’s not augmented at all by some deep insight he has about her character. If she’s a blank slate to him, then he really is just a creepy stalker. :/
Exactly! There’s no deep insight at all. He’s just like:
X_X
First of all, I also hate books with nearly no dialogue and then you mentioned also Walking Disaster. I was so frustrated with this book, it was so boring and didn’t add anything significant to the story.
Now, I was so in love with Lucas in Easy, so I wouldn’t risk this love by reading this book, similar to what happened with Travis.
I think this trend there with writing the same book from the Boys POV sucks more than it adds. Oh I remember when we all screamed for Edwards POV in Twilight – maybe it was a good thing after all that SM got so pissy and never wrote it.
It’s so refreshing to hear that someone else agrees!!
I adored Lucas in Easy too… I can’t understand how he can go from being so great to so creepy! Grrr.