Title: Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things
Author: Jacqueline Firkins
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 17, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
In this charming debut about first love and second chances, a young girl gets caught between the boy next door and a playboy. Perfect for fans of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Mansfield, Massachusetts is the last place seventeen-year-old Edie Price wants to spend her final summer before college. It’s the home of wealthy suburbanites and prima donnas like Edie’s cousins, who are determined to distract her from her mother’s death with cute boys and Cinderella-style makeovers. Edie has her own plans, and they don’t include a prince charming.
But as Edie dives into schoolwork and applying for college scholarships, she finds herself drawn to two Mansfield boys who start vying for her attention. First there’s Sebastian, Edie’s childhood friend and first love. He’s sweet and smart and . . . already has a girlfriend. Then there’s Henry, the local bad boy and all-around player. He’s totally off limits, even if his kisses are chemically addictive.
Both boys are trouble. Edie can’t help but get caught between them. Someone’s heart is going to break. Now she just has to make sure it isn’t hers.
Review:
I just started reading Mansfield Park for the first time a couple of weeks ago, so I was so excited when I discovered that this book was a retelling. I’ve only read the first couple chapters of Mansfield Park so far, so I didn’t know how the story ends. I’m even more excited to read the whole story now, to see how this story was adapted from the original. There were many things in this one, such as high school, teen parties, and sex, which I know weren’t in the original story by Jane Austen.
I loved this story! The romance was great. There was lots of drama in the many relationships, between all the different characters. I didn’t really agree with Edie’s final decision, but that was just my personal choice.
I wished there was more of Edie’s aunt, Norah, in the story. The aunt, Mrs. Norris, in Mansfield Park was hilarious. She was very opinionated. Her aunt Norah was in this story a little bit, but she seemed more cruel by denying Edie from money, rather than exaggerated like in the original novel.
This was a great story!
Thank you HMH Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
Author Info:
Jacqueline’s a writer, costume designer, and lover of beautiful things. She’s on the fulltime faculty in the Department of Theatre & Film at the University of British Columbia where she also takes any writing class they’ll let her into. When not obsessing about where to put the buttons or the commas, she can be found running by the ocean, eating excessive amounts of gluten, listening to earnest love songs, and pretending her dog understands every word she says.
Giveaway:
Have you read Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things? What did you think of it?
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