Breaking Beautiful [Hardcover]

Jennifer Shaw Wolf (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2012

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

 

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Part romance, part mystery, this solid outing offers a persuasive portrait of guilt and recovery."
- Publishers Weekly

"Teens will be consumed by the mystery, and romantics will hope that Allie and Blake can make it even though it seems the town is against them." -School Library Journal

"Teenage girls, especially, will find this novel an illuminating story, but it is more than 'chick lit.'  Any young person can identify with Allie's struggle." - VOYA

From the Inside Flap

Allie can't remember the night her boyfriend, Trip, died.
She knows they were driving on the cliff road.
That Trip lost control.   
That she woke up later broken and bruised.
That somehow, she survived.
All Allie has left are the scars, a constant reminder of Trip. Not ready to face the truth, she tries to ignore a nagging feeling that the crash wasn't an accident. Her best friend, Blake, and her brother, Andrew, will do anything to help Allie move on but when the police reopen the investigation into the crash, suspicions in their small town intensify. Soon Allie's memories collide with a dark secret about Trip she's kept for too long. Caught somewhere between her past and her future, can Allie find the truth so she can finally break free?

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Walker Childrens; 1 edition (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802723527
• ISBN-13: 978-0802723529
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Shaw Wolf's hobbies include video production, skiing, and running. She grew up on a farm in the tiny town of Wilford, Idaho where she milked cows, rode horses, and went bridge jumping. In college she was a DJ for a small campus radio station and graduated with a degree in Broadcast Communications. She lives amid the peaceful forests near Olympia, Washington.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Introspective August 2, 2012

By HD

Format:Hardcover

This book really blew me away. It was a really moving premise. Is it okay to be relieved when your boyfriend dies? In any normal case you'd say, "No, of course not! That's horrifying!" But then what if he was abusive? What if it was the only way that she was ultimately able to escape him? Does that change things?

From the first page, I was totally invested in Allie's story - and just as confused as she was as to what could have happened the night that her abusive boyfriend Trip died. It drove me crazy as I read it, trying to piece together little clues and such - but I loved it!

At the start, Allie can't remember a single thing about the night that her boyfriend Trip's truck went off a cliff resulting in his death, and her mysteriously being discovered on the side of the road, instead of in the water with Trip and his truck. The fact that she remembers nothing scares her, in a way that I found totally believable. She worries that maybe she did something to him - how had she gotten out of the truck? Why had they been there in the first place?

The characters were written very well. I appreciated the way that Allie remembers her relationship with Trip in pieces. Nothing can throw a wrench into a great flowing story like a sudden and long flashback scene stuck right in the middle of the action. Ms. Wolf has an amazing way of revealing the past through small lines of flashback - the way flashbacks actually do feel in real life. The flashbacks gradually grow longer and slowly begin to offer more background information into how their relationship really functioned and how trapped she truly felt. It made me feel like I was truly living through the memories once again with Allie.

I can't remember there being a single dull moment in this book. I was captivated from the first page, and while it didn't necessarily have my heart racing - it definitely kept my curiosity piqued. It took me quite a while to form my own theory about what might have happened that night, and the mystery around whether my theory was correct or not definitely had me staying up til 4 am while my in-laws were visiting this week just so I could find out a little more.

I'd recommend to anyone interested in a more reflective read - one that will make you think and wonder. Definitely not a beach-y, curl up with a cup of hot cocoa kind of read. Be ready to be emotionally invested and totally along for the ride.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Debut Author With Some Serious Talent April 24, 2012

By Melanie McCullough

Format:Hardcover

So far this year I've read two books about girls, car crashes, memory loss, and a night they would rather forget. This is definitely the better of the two. Not that the other was bad. It wasn't. It was great. I gave it four stars.

But Breaking Beautiful falls into the category of books that remind me what literature could be and should be. It made me remember why I love to read and busted me out of a slump that was threatening my ever-growing TBR pile. I didn't want to read before I picked up Breaking Beautiful. I was tired of being disappointed or just feeling meh about a book. Now, I'm excited. I know that somewhere in that large stack of books is another story that I don't want to miss out on. I'll continue to read the blah of the book world if it means I might find another gem like Breaking Beautiful.

We're told early on that Allie's boyfriend Trip was an abuser. Through pieces of her scattered memory we see the kind of pain he inflicted upon her and we see how each incident breaks her spirit--her sense of self-worth--a little bit more. To say that I was glad Trip was dead at the onset would be an understatement. I was thrilled. But just because the abuser is out of the picture does not mean that the affects of his abuse disappear. Allie still flinches when someone touches her and wears sweaters to cover the bruises.

She still has trouble trusting, well, anyone. Even her parents. Even her childhood best friend Blake, who, it's clear, would do just about anything for her. I absolutely adored Blake. I wanted so much for he and Allie to be together. Allie wants it too. At first, she's afraid of what people will think. That perhaps they'll think she moved on from Trip too quickly. What she gets is a town full of people who come to believe that she and Blake are somehow responsible for Trip's death.

It's fear of losing or hurting Blake, more than anything else, that finally convinces Allie that she has to face what happened the night Trip died and finally tell the whole truth about their relationship.

Breaking Beautiful is absolutely incredible. It will hook you from the first paragraph and it just gets better from there. When this book was anywhere near me, I was reading it. And when it wasn't, I was thinking about it. Jennifer Shaw Wolf does an incredible job of injecting suspense and mystery, giving us tiny snippets of Allie's relationship with Trip and the night of the accident. Just enough to keep the reader guessing and tearing through the pages. Jennifer Shaw Wolf is a debut author with some serious talent. I've been stalking her blog and I know that she has another book in the works called Shards of Glass. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf May 7, 2012

By Amber @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Format:Hardcover

Breaking Beautiful is the perfect blend of heartbreak and triumph told through the eyes of a girl trying to find the pieces of her life to pick up. Sprinkling details of an abusive relationship between the stitches of what is left of Allie's normal life brings just the right amount of drama to this beautifully crafted story.

Allie is one of those narrators that isn't easy to forget. What she has been through leaves both physical and internal scars that color the ways she sees everything. At the beginning, we find Allie trying to cope with the loss of her boyfriend from a tragic car accident and to recover from her physical injuries. Living in a small town means she is under a microscope and one tiny wrinkle in her mourning causes a wave in the town. I was afraid Allie was going to be too mopey for me to like but as she starts to make herself go through the motions of her day, the reader begins to see who Allie actually is and not what grief and guilt wants her to be. We find out that she was involved in an abusive relationship with the boy who died and is so broken and conflicted by what they appeared to have on the outside that she can't get over the death. I loved how even though Allie was hurting, she could still find the good people. I was a little frustrated that she wouldn't stand up for herself and wanted to shake some sense into her for always succumbing to what people expected instead of what she wanted. But because she was so broken and timid, it made the moment she started fighting back so very satisfying.

Blake was literally the perfect guy for Allie. He understood that she needed to heal, though he didn't know how much, and he never stopped trying. After some of the stunts Allie pulled, I'm not sure I would have kept trying to be her friend but he was unrelentless. Blake's reputation as a bad boy made him appealing but his soft edges and kindness made him irresistible. I loved their relationship because I believed in it. Their attraction was undeniable but the fact that they took their time and started to realize how wonderful the other was made watching them fall in love addictive. Blake was pretty much the perfect opposite of Trip and I liked watching him win everyone over despite his reputation.

Besides Blake, I also fell in love with Allie's twin brother Andrew. Born several minutes after Allie and with little oxygen he has celebral palsy that confines him to a wheelchair. Even though he has trouble speaking and using his limbs, he is incredibly smart and can often see things that other can't. I loved that Allie respected him and their bond really warmed my heart. That the author worked to make Andrew a complete character instead of a stereotype turned this book from awesome to incredible and truly delighted me. I found myself understanding Andrew like Allie and it felt like a secret that we all three shared.

I think abusive relationships are really hard to write about because it's easy to get preachy or to go for the shock factor. Though Trip was incredibly abusive, I felt the author did a tremendous job of broaching the subject. We get snatches of Trip and Allie's relationship during the good times mixed in with the bad. As Allie fights to remember the night of the accident, she uncovers more details of abuse and a disturbing pattern of Trip's behavior that forces the reader to understand why she is so timid. Wrapping those good and bad relationship scenes in with the narration of the current time worked to move the pace forward and build anticipation as to what actually happened on the night of Trip's death. Since Allie truly doesn't remember it turns the book into a mystery about halfway through. Allie even questions herself as a suspect.

I also liked how the author portrayed small town living. As a girl that moved around a lot, Allie was always longing for a home. But when they finally settle down, she beings to realize that in a small town nothing can be hidden unless people don't want to see. Trip comes from a rich family and is loved by most of the town so no one wants to see him as an abuser even if it is right in front of their face. Allie is still the new girl and is far more susceptible to the town's whispers. She feels pressure not to start a new relationship--though she realizes early on that Blake is a good guy-- and to act like the normal widow. She can't move on from Trip because the town she lives in won't let her. Even if I didn't always agree with Allie's choices, the author did an awesome job making us feel the suffocation that small town living can offer.

Breaking Beautiful is perfectly named as we see what Allie could be through Blake and Andrew's eyes and it is beautiful but we also see how broken Allie is. Deeply emotional with a satisfying slow relationship that burns hot like embers, Breaking Beautiful is damn near perfect. Dealing with such a tough issue could allow this book to be swallowed in grief but it chooses to show that even the broken can heal into something beautiful once again.