Book Review: Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker

Clem and Amanda have been best friends since the first day of kindergarten.  Until Clem destroyed everything by breaking the cardinal rule of best friendship - she fell in love with Amanda's boyfriend, Ethan.  Now no one's talking to Clem, especially Amanda, and the worst part is, she knows she's a horrible person who deserves every second of her misery.

So instead of spending the summer working at the candy store in the mall, lounging at the beach, and pulling all-nighters watching movies and laughing with Amanda, Clem's stuck on a 42-foot sailboat with her parents and 10-year-old little sister, Olive, sailing the Great Loop.  Clem would really like to spend some quality time plugged in to her iPod, wallowing in guilt in her own self-imposed exile, which is really hard to do when your family is only about 3 feet away all the time.  Especially when that family is bouncy, irrepressibly cheerful and fun Olive.

So when Clem literally runs into cute, happy, sweet and funny James at the dock deli over a basket of bananas ( a LOT of bananas), who is also sailing the Great Loop with his dad, she tells herself that she doesn't deserve to make new friends.  Especially not with cute boys who make her smile, however reluctantly.  But there's something about James that makes Clem feel like maybe, just maybe, she's not as horrible as she thinks she is - and just maybe, everything that happened wasn't exactly all the way her fault.

I loved this story of a girl's healing summer on the water with her family.  Clem's parents are rocking awesome - I love how they know to just let Clem soak in her black mood in her cabin while the rest of the fam plays cards up on deck - and little sis Olive is great, especially when she's yelling at Clem to snap out of it and be normal and fun again (which, I'll be honest, I was totally cheering her on!  Though it is hard to just eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's and get over it when you're stuck on a boat with no freezer...).  James is a cutie, and his dad is pretty cool too, even though he's dealing with a broken heart of his own.  This sun-soaked summer sparkler of a read is for fans of Sarah Dessen and Deb Caletti, so tuck it in your sail bag with your life jacket and your suncreen for when your parents' boat is moored, docked or anchored for the night!

Megan
(who can't wait to start My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick!)

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