ARC Review: Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen

Breaking Nova

Author: Jessica Sorensen

Series: Breaking Nova

Pages: 384

Genre: New Adults

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Release date: 3^rd September 2013

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

Nova Reed used to have dreams-of becoming a famous drummer, of marrying her true love. But all of that was taken away in an instant. Now she's getting by as best she can, though sometimes that means doing things the old Nova would never do. Things that are slowly eating away at her spirit. Every day blends into the next . . . until she meets Quinton Carter. His intense, honey brown eyes instantly draw her in, and he looks just about as broken as she feels inside.

Quinton once got a second chance at life-but he doesn't want it. The tattoos on his chest are a constant reminder of what he's done, what he's lost. He's sworn to never allow happiness into his life . . . but then beautiful, sweet Nova makes him smile. He knows he's too damaged to get close to her, yet she's the only one who can make him feel alive again. Quinton will have to decide: does he deserve to start over? Or should he pay for his past forever?

Review: 2 out of 5 stars

This is a book which I think just wasn’t for me at this time, the subject matter, excessive drug use, characters and morose feel didn’t endear me to the overall story and I didn’t feel enough of the emotions I think the author was trying to convey.

It started off well enough, I was intrigued by Nova Reed, her life on film and her painful story which was heart-breaking, she feels alone since her best-friend and boyfriend Landon committed suicide, she has suffered a terrible loss and as a result is grieving, seeks to find answers and suffers from anxiety. As I got to know Nova, I just found myself shaking my head for the many mistakes she was making; it wasn’t as if she didn’t have a support network in her parents, she just wasn’t willing to use it or continue to seek the professional help she obviously needed, she could have been a great character and I did like her during certain scenes but once she mixed in with the wrong crowd my opinion of her seriously dwindled.

Quinton Carter’s story is just as heart wrenching, he has experienced terrible loss because of a big mistake (I won’t reveal what has happened to avoid spoilers) which caused him to be cast aside and blamed, even though we get his POV and know he wasn’t truly at fault he takes full responsibility and is on a path of self-destruction. There were no qualities I liked about him unfortunately, yes I felt sorry for him and his loss but he didn’t appear at all to want to help himself, in saying this I did like the snippets we get about the way he was.

Both characters were broken and to ease the pain they turned to drugs and people who weren’t right for them, from the tidbits we read about who they were prior to the big events they did a complete 360 – they had goals and dreams but they were shattered. I didn’t connect with any of the characters – at all; I didn’t think much of the romance which definitely wasn’t at the forefront of the story and even though I think Nova’s attraction to Quinton was based on the comparisons she would make to Landon, besides loss, I felt this was their only link and there were no knee wobbling gushy moments for me or the want to see them together besides to support one another.

As for the secondary characters – eek! Delilah was a horrible friend who seemed to be on a downward spiral herself because of who she was mixing with and we see at the end of the book how her lifestyle changes had affected her and her boyfriend Dylan was unbelievable! The only person I though was just ok was Tristan, Quinton’s cousin who was the only person willing to give him a chance and a roof over his head, but to be honest he was no better himself. I also wished we got to see more of Nova’s family dynamic.

I liked the writing style but for some reason the dialogue felt unnatural and didn’t flow, it was also repetitive. I also think the subject matters such as suicide, death and drugs weren’t really dealt with appropriately but it is the first book in the series so it may be explored later on.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. I believe it is the first book in a three part series; Breaking Nova seemed to focus more on Nova and her healing and from the ending I think the next book may be more about Quinton because he is definitely on the path of self-destruction and although I am curious to read the next book to learn more about him, I think I’d need to be in the right frame of mind.

Overall, it pains me to rate this book 2 stars as it has received a number of 5 star Goodreads reviews and as I mentioned it may have just been that this book just wasn’t for me at this time. Jessica Sorensen’s writing is great but the subject matter/s and characters just left me feeling quite underwhelmed.

Thank-you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with a copy of Breaking Nova in exchange for my honest review.

About the author: The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Jessica Sorensen, lives in the snowy mountains of Wyoming. When she's not writing, she spends her time reading and hanging out with her family.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica...