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Heartbroken

Lisa Unger

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Why we're reading this: I love the way Lisa writes about strong, smart women in crazy situations. Her characters feel familiar ev…more
[close] I love the way Lisa writes about strong, smart women in crazy situations. Her characters feel familiar even when they're faced with extraordinary turns of fate. I know I say this every time, but this is my favorite Lisa Unger book yet!

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What Members Thought

May 09, 2012 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012, mystery, arc, vine-program

After being intrigued by Darkness, My Old Friend and captivated by Fragile when the opportunity to get an advanced reader copy of Lisa Unger's new novel Hearbroken arose, I immediately said yes. Unger is slowly making her way to the top of "must read" list of current mystery writers along with Laura Lippman, Michael Connelly and Elizabeth George.

Heartbroken is less a mystery and more a thriller from Unger. It's the story of several generations of women and their connection to Heart Island. There After being intrigued by Darkness, My Old Friend and captivated by Fragile when the opportunity to get an advanced reader copy of Lisa Unger's new novel Hearbroken arose, I immediately said yes. Unger is slowly making her way to the top of "must read" list of current mystery writers along with Laura Lippman, Michael Connelly and Elizabeth George.

Heartbroken is less a mystery and more a thriller from Unger. It's the story of several generations of women and their connection to Heart Island. There's matriarch Birdie Burke, who lives on and owns the island. Coming to visit the island are her daughter Kate, her granddaughter Chelsea and Chelsea's friend Lulu. It's part of an annual family summer visit, though many of those involved aren't necessarily looking forward to the visit and extended family time. The island harbors some old secrets, several of which Kate has included in her upcoming novel.

Meanwhile, Emily is a young woman struggling to get through college and weighed down by a poor romantic choice. Dropping out of her community college, Emily is waitressing while living with her boyfriend who her family doesn't approve of. It's easy to see why when the boyfriend convinces her to help take part in a robbery of the family-owned diner she works for in order to pay off a debt to an old acquaintance. Things don't go exactly according to plan, leaving Emily and the two men on the lam, looking for shelter. That quest leads them to Heart Island.

Like her other crime novels, Unger is more interested in the impact of the various crimes on her characters than she is on keeping readers guessing the culprit behind the crime. At several points during the story, I found myself wanting to reach in and either hug or shake Emily as she makes one bad choice after the other, each time rationalizing why she's making the next in a series of bad choices. The journey of Emily and the rest of the characters is a fascinating one because everyone turns out to be harboring a secret or two and nothing is exactly what it appears.

Heartbroken starts out with a solid hook, builds a world with some compelling characters and wraps it all up in a satisfying bow in the novel's final pages. At times, it's as page-turning as Fragile was, but it falls just short of being as great as that novel was. However, don't let that put you off from trying this book. It's still fresh, entertaining and compelling. It's also firmly put Unger into the realm of mystery writers whose works I'll eagerly pick up and read as soon as they hit the market. ...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Beth rated it did not like it

Shelves: first-reads-and-early-reviews

If HEARTBROKEN had been the first Lisa Unger book I had read, it would be my last. That is because this book is "women's fiction," an insulting name, I think, but I didn't make it up. It implies that this is the type of book women like because it is soap operaish. More than the first half of this book plus the last few chapters are made up of the stories of various women, all silly and/or boring.

The portion of HEARTBROKEN that is good doesn't make this a good book. Yet reviews had me believing t ...more

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May 29, 2012 Jennifer rated it liked it

Family drama with a hint of suspense, Heartbroken by Lisa Unger takes the reader to Heart Island and into the complicated relationships that exist between mothers and daughters. Unger seamlessly weaves together differing mother-daughter relationships to further develop an intricate plot, which slowly builds into a rather well thought out and suspenseful plot. Going into the book I was expecting Heartbroken to be more of in-your-face suspense/thriller, however Unger takes the book into a differen ...more

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May 19, 2012 Rachel rated it it was amazing

This thriller is a great read! There are all these elements (haunted island, affairs, family secrets, criminals on the run...) that combine to make this book suspenseful. But I really loved how the author gave such insights into the characters' feelings and their decision making processes. There's a theme of life being a series of choices that can lead you to places you could not have predicted.
I also enjoyed the element of the journals of the grandmother and the aunt, and I thought that the st ...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Read It Forward rated it it was amazing

I love the way Lisa writes about strong, smart women in crazy situations. Her characters feel familiar even when they're faced with extraordinary turns of fate. I know I say this every time, but this is my favorite Lisa Unger book yet! ...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Debra rated it it was amazing

I Just LOVE this author and this story is amazing! Mothers with secrets, daughters with secrets...a mysterious, beautiful island with secrets of it's own I LOVE the story! Thanks Lisa Unger another winner! ...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Susan rated it really liked it

I enjoyed this suspense novel. I read it in 4 days. I like the fact that she makes characters that I can relate to. And that she has 3 generations of characters in the same family in the story.

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