Book Review: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

Title: The Book of Broken Hearts
Author: Sarah Ockler (twitter | web)
Genre: Contemporary YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release date: May 21, 2013
Source: Borrowed ARC

Summary: Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.

Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas?

Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong?

Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.

THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS by Sarah Ockler is amazing. BOOM. Not pulling any punches today. As someone who, up until this book, had never read ANYTHING by Sarah Ockler, I can tell you that I’m incredibly glad this one was my first, and I can promise you that it won’t be my last. ANY book that in any way features a story about a daughter and her relationship with her dad will instantly go to very top of my TBR pile, and Sarah Ockler does this—and other relationships, let’s be serious—REALLY well. I felt so many emotions while reading THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS, friends, and I would feel them all over again with these characters. I can’t believe I waited this long to read one of Sarah Ockler’s books. Amy fail.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’re dealing with in THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS: So, the Hernandez family is from Argentina (can I shout out this ethnicity, please? I’m not Argentinian, but it was SO NICE to read about a Latino culture that is unfamiliar to me), and Jude is the youngest of four sisters. Her mom and dad came to Colorado from Argentina, where her father was a biker badass. Now, though, the oldest three sisters have moved away from home, leaving Jude and her mother to care for her father, who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. It’s rough. So rough, in fact, that Jude’s sisters and mom are trying to plan for the future when they won’t be able to care for their father and husband by themselves anymore (he has several really heartbreaking episodes in the book), but Jude is hopeful that repairing his old motorcycle will help reinvigorate his memory and hold the deterioration of his memory at bay a little longer. Enter Emilio Vargas, youngest of the hated (by the Hernandez sisters, anyway) Vargas brothers. Two elder Vargas brothers so horrifically wronged two of Jude’s older sisters that it prompted the creation of a real-life Book of Broken Hearts, and the sisters all swore to never be involved with a Vargas ever again. WHOOPS because Emilio is kind of knee-weakening. As Jude struggles with her feelings for Emilio and her sadness and fear over her father’s worsening Alzheimer’s, Sarah Ockler tells an excellent story about family, loyalty, love, and acceptance. YAY!

Maybe you noticed that in my little synopsis, I focused a little bit more on the dad storyline than the Emilio storyline—the opposite of Goodreads. This should tell you two things: One, while I LOVED the relationship between Emilio and Jude (I’ll get to that business in a second), what really touched me about THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS was the time we get to spend with Jude and her dad. I’ve been brought low by these kinds of stories before, and this time was more of the same. Alzheimer’s is just so devastating, friends, and seeing Jude cope with her father’s episodes and trying to come to grips with the inevitability of his forgetting her and her family entirely was heartbreaking. I CRIED SO MUCH.

But I loved Jude’s stubbornness about repairing her dad’s motorcycle. I loved how she had so much hope for it and its effect on her father’s memory. And I loved that it brought her into almost daily contact with Emilio Vargas, the boy who makes her question everything her older sisters told her about the Vargas brothers and love in general.

To be honest, I felt bad for Jude that she felt so hemmed in by this oath she took when she was 12, and that after years, LITERALLY, her sisters still totally abided by it hard-core. But it was serious to them and Jude respected her sisters’ heartbreak at the hands of other Vargas boys. I’m glad that she defied it, though, because that’s what her heart told her.

Which brings me to the other excellent thing about THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS: Jude and Emilio. First of all, their banter is great, and I LOVE banter. Jude is feisty, guys, and she struggles with her loyalty to her sisters (and the “no Vargas boys forever” pledge) and her slowly growing feelings for the charming mechanic, Emilio. But second of all, there’s some pretty sweet, tingly, butterfly moments with them and I also LOVE those. Mostly, though, what made me an instant fan of these two is the way Emilio encourages Jude, the way she challenges him, the way he doesn’t steer clear of Jude or her father when he has an episode, and the way Jude sees the good in Emilio even when her sisters only see his last name.

Friends, THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS kept me emotionally engaged from start to finish. I swooned, I cried, and I empathized. The way Sarah Ockler made this a story not just about the romance but about the family was awesome. I love reading about families that are close, even when they make each other crazy, and I always appreciate reading about young people dealing with difficult things–in this case, Jude and her family trying to cope with a horrible disease like Alzheimer’s. Bring your tissues, friends, because if you haven’t read THE BOOK OF BROKEN HEARTS already, I urge to do it soonish, and you’ll need them.

Check out some other reviews of The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler!

Angie @ Angieville: “There was very little in the way of something new here, the realizations she came to lessened for lack of a deeper treatment.”

Molli @ Once Upon a Prologue: “Ockler’s characters strike me as memorable because like Anna or Frankie in Twenty Boy Summer, and Jude or Emilio in The Book of Broken Hearts, they’re REAL.”

Asheley @ Into the Hall of Books: “I always love it when I’m pleasantly surprised and I think that happened here as I got way more than I anticipated.”

Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide: “Of course I expected to like this book, but I seriously had a book hangover when I finished.”