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Saturday, April 26, 2014

ARC Review: The Break-Up Artist - Philip Siegel

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Title: The Break-Up Artist
Author:
Philip Siegel
Pub Date: April 29th, 2014
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Page Count: 329

Some sixteen-year-olds babysit for extra cash. Some work at the Gap. Becca Williamson breaks up couples. 



After watching her sister get left at the altar, Becca knows the true damage that comes when people utter the dreaded L-word. For just $100 via paypal, she can trick and manipulate any couple into smithereens. With relationship zombies overrunning her school, and treating single girls like second class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even her best friend Val has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend.

One night, she receives a mysterious offer to break up the homecoming king and queen, the one zombie couple to rule them all: Steve and Huxley. They are a JFK and Jackie O in training, masters of sweeping faux-mantic gestures, but if Becca can split them up, then school will be safe again for singletons. To succeed, she'll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date and wiggle her way back into her former BFF Huxley’s life – not to mention start a few rumors, sabotage some cell phones, break into a car, and fend off the inappropriate feelings she’s having about Val’s new boyfriend. All while avoiding a past victim out to expose her true identity.

No one said being the Break-Up Artist was easy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17684323-the-break-up-artist

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Chapters Indigo




[Siegel] delivers with a promising story with teenagers finding out what love really means. - Nova @ Out of Time

I sped through this one - and I knew I was most-likely going to love it. The concepts used it in and how pessimistic this MC seemed called out to me. I enjoyed reading this one a lot and I definitely recommend it.

Mainly, I liked the concept that was used throughout the story. When a person first falls in love, whether it's love or not can actually be hard to tell. You may not actually love the person; you only love the feeling of finally having a significant other; and that's how relationships fail. Or at least, that's what I gathered from reading this book.

Introducing a girl named Becca who strongly believes in this. And after seeing people she loved get hurt because of the very idea, she becomes a person who breaks-up couples. What I think about her is actually a little interesting.
I think it's a little funny that Becca isn't a conniving [insert bad word here] who just wants to ruin others' lives. That was my first idea of her, I mean, it is a little sick to ruin other peoples' relationships, especially when you yourself has never felt that kind of relationship. Me, I thought she was just jealous of the people who found love or their perception of it. But I felt like she developed and grew as a person throughout this book in ways that were quite surprising. Even the way she talked seemed a little less angry and more accepting by the end of this standalone.

My main favorite about this, is how it isn't straight-up cliche. While it's about the MC having a fallout with the wicked popular girl, the popular girl wasn't the straight-up evil person I expected. And that taught me that we can't always listen to the MC's perception of the character because after all, she/he's a perspective, not the author.
I saw something in Huxley and made me like the book. While she had her own agenda and probably wasn't the best person to Becca, she wasn't heartless and did have things she cared about. I love seeing more than one side to a story. That's really what happens if these events were to happen in real life.

This book was very "feel good" but still had interesting concepts with substance. Including a controversial MC, The Break-Up Artist is sure to please teen readers who have or haven't yet experienced what love really is.


Philip's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Philip Siegel grew up in New Jersey, which he insists is much nicer than certain TV shows would have you believe. He graduated from Northwestern University and promptly moved out to Los Angeles, where he became an NBC page. He likes to think that the character of Kenneth on 30 Rock is loosely based on his life rights. Currently, he works in downtown Chicago by day while he writes novels at night and during his commute sandwiched in between colorful characters on the El.
 
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Labels: ARC, Book Review, Four and a Half Stars
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