Blog Tour and Giveaway: Breakable: Tammara Webber
Breakable (Contours of the Heart #2)
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He was lost and alone. Then he found her.
And the future seemed more fragile than ever.
As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise — until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.
All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…
As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.
graphics from Author's FB page and website
Breakable is Lucas’s chance to tell the story we read in Easy from his eyes. But it is so much more than a rehashing of Easy’s plot. Because mixed in with his experiences during his senior year of college, are scenes from his adolescence - scenes from before, from later in his 8th grade year, and from his high school days. Lucas becomes so much more than Jacqueline’s savior, tutor, and would-be boyfriend in these pages. Yes, we learned the scope of those 5 years before college in brief as he told Jacqueline of his past, but to see it through his eyes changes everything about what I thought I knew about Lucas.
In Easy, it seemed as if Lucas came out of nowhere and was suddenly everywhere Jacqueline went. In Breakable, we see how Lucas saw her long before she saw him. He makes a comment about feeling a little like a stalker, but it didn’t feel so creepy because for the most part, their meetings were not overly planned by Lucas, with the exception of the party. That took a little more finagling on Lucas’s part, but again, he didn’t seek the invitation, only accepted when he realized there was a good chance she would be there. And after reading that night from both perspectives, it was a fortuitous acceptance.
While many of the present day scenes were retellings of the events in Easy, the flashbacks (nearly half the book) were filled with entirely new details that were heartbreaking, even knowing the cause and outcome. But while they often hurt to read, the were priceless in the information they show about Lucas and that’s really what this book is about. His background with the Dr. Heller and his family, the events in 8th grade before and after, high school, Lucas’s grandfather, his father.
This was a fantastic companion to Easy. Because so much of their initial interaction and the storyline happens before Lucas and Jacqueline speak face to face, there are plenty of opportunities to show what was going on in Lucas’s head and the rest of his world. The present day scenes were a little light on rounded characters, besides Jacqueline, but part of that is simply the result of how Lucas was living his life during this time period: apart from the action, working multiple jobs, but holding everyone at arms length. The characters that appear as part of his past make up for the less developed characters in his present. The dynamic between Lucas and Wynn, Lucas and Melody, and Lucas and his father and grandfather made for interesting insight to the way Lucas viewed his present situation.
Breakable is an aching tale of the power of grief and starting over. It is a great character study of a character almost at full manhood holding on to blame for actions from his childhood that he didn’t cause, all while trying to prevent history from repeating itself.
Thanks to Tammara Webber and Penguin/Berkley/NAL for providing me with a complimentary paperback copy in exchange for an honest review
Lucas was such a hard working good guy who had been dealt a bad hand early in life. I felt so bad for him since his past was so hard to overcome and deal with. He suffered so much loss, guilt, pain, and feelings of unworthiness. In his teen years he really became lost and drifting and kept trying to find something to anchor him. His life spiraled out of control and we see how he had to fight to find his way.
In the present, we see more of how Lucas noticed Jacqueline before she knew he did. And how all of the Landon/Lucas deception started and continued. He saved her, but was also a reminder of that horrible night for her so Lucas at least allowed himself to safely get to know her as Landon in email. He had a conscience, he knew he should resist, but was powerless to do so. And she was clueless about so much of it.
We get to see his guilt, sadness, longing, pain and emerging feelings. He was broken, but he knew he found the missing piece to make him whole, but it was forbidden and full of complications. And this caused him anxiety and fear since he knew he could be hurt and lose any chance with her.
Seeing it from his POV made it so much clearer as to how things evolved, why he made the decisions he did., and how it all just snowballed out of control. And how when it was all out in the open, there were still consequences, choices to make and demons to face.
I liked his relationship with his unfiltered, bad boy best friend Boyce in High School and seeing how his younger years transpired. And getting to see more of his relationships with his grandfather, father, The Hellers, and even his mother and how they affected him. Some of the other side characters past and present angered me and were easy to dislike. And some scenes seen again through Lucas' eyes made my blood boil, while others made me sigh and swoon as I read his interpretation and feelings.
I have to say that even though I liked getting both of Landon's (younger) and Lucas' (present) points of view, at times it was distracting as it flipped back and forth especially when in a crucial part of the present then it flipped back to the past. But I will admit that the past info was very important because it completely shaped Lucas' choices, outlook fears, and insecurities. Not only the loss and pain he suffered, but also how his history with girls had been. In a lot of ways his past mirrored his present and it just enforced his insecurities and fears of unworthiness. And even though loving Jacqueline was easy for him, he also knew that he was breakable and opening himself up to heartbreak was difficult for him. He guarded his heart as much as he could and he had his reasons.
I enjoyed getting his perspective, and I think it was a good companion to Easy. It says it can be read as a stand alone, but I really think Easy should be read first (or even after) to get the full experience and more of the details through Jacqueline's eyes. The author did a good job giving us new info and filling in lots of blanks and giving us a whole pre-quel to Landon's story, but I still think Easy conveyed more of their relationship and feelings for some reason. In Easy, Jacqueline and Lucas/Landon both felt like multi-faceted characters and we got to see all of Jacqueline's issues, but still understand enough of Lucas to connect with him and feel for him. But in Lucas' point of view, I felt like Jacqueline was more of a one dimensional character and I did not connect with her as much. But since I already knew her story from Easy, I still understood her pain and issues and what was not being recounted in this one. Even though much of it does take place during the timeline of Easy, she does not rehash scenes too much. For example, the fun emails that Landon and Jacqueline exchanged are not quoted again in this one, but just kind of described. And scenes with Jacqueline that Lucas was not privy too are not recounted unless she describes them to him later. And Easy was an emotional journey for her as well as Lucas. So that is why I encourage reading Easy as well, because I would have missed some of those parts if I had not read it. But with that being said, it has been a while since I read Easy, and I was able to pick the story back up and did not have to do a re-read first. I will admit that I did go back and re-read some parts in her point of view afterwards just to see the difference though. And both books do have a different feel and vibe in their respective points of view, but they are both well written, engaging, and emotional reads.
But Breakable really does provide a lot of new info and history...both from his early years and of how he was enthralled with Jacqueline early on before she ever noticed him. And it helps us understand even more what made Lucas tick and what he was feeling. So this is not the same story told again in the male point of view, it is really his full story that we only had glimpses of before. This was truly not just about a romance for him, it was a journey to move forward from past loss, guilt, and pain, and find direction, love, and healing. It was sad, emotional, heart felt, and hopeful. And it really gave us the full story of Landon/Lucas that we did not know before...how a broken boy found his way towards a new life and love. And it made me fall for Landon/Lucas all over again...
Thanks to Tammara Webber and Penguin/Berkley/NAL for providing me with a complimentary paperback copy in exchange for an honest review
Easy (Contours of the Heart #1)
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Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…
He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…
The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.
Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.
A groundbreaking novel in the New Adult genre, Easy faces one girl's struggle to regain the trust she's lost, find the inner strength to fight back against an attacker, and accept the peace she finds in the arms of a secretive boy.
I write New Adult Romance. Easy is my New York Times bestselling NA contemporary novel, the first in the CONTOURS OF THE HEART series. Coming soon: Breakable - Lucas's story! BETWEEN THE LINES is my contemporary Hollywood YA/NA series. All books are available from select booksellers and online from: Amazon, Amazon UK, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Books-a-Million, IndieBound, and the Book Depository.
I'm a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life. Before writing full-time, I was an undergraduate academic advisor, economics tutor, planetarium office manager, radiology call center rep, and the palest person to ever work at a tanning salon. I married my high school sweetheart, and I'm Mom to three adult kids and four very immature cats.
I'm a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life. Before writing full-time, I was an undergraduate academic advisor, economics tutor, planetarium office manager, radiology call center rep, and the palest person to ever work at a tanning salon. I married my high school sweetheart, and I'm Mom to three adult kids and four very immature cats.
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