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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ever Been Dumped?, December 25, 2005
This review is from: The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
The Breakup Club by Melissa Senate is one of those novels that is told from multiple viewpoints. The interesting and unique thing about this book, however, is that a lot attention and detail is given to each chapter, and each viewpoint is told from a first-person narrative.
The key characters are: Lucy, mother of a preteen who is happily married until she discovers her husband is planning to leave her for New Year's; Roxy, a woman who hops a train to Manhattan after leaving her fiance at the alter; Christopher, a single father who has to deal with the crazy playground-mommies and fighting for custody of his baby; and Miranda, Lucy's younger sister who seems to only get dumped time and time again and can't figure out what she is doing wrong. (And is waiting for her ex-boyfriend to crawl back to her).
The Breakup Club deals with heartbreak, and what happens to the heartbroken ones once they've been dumped. In each of the characters, Melissa Senate explores the various scenarios that can take place. Miranda has to go through pining for her ex-boyfriend who has clearly moved on with another woman. Lucy has to deal with her husband of 10+ years deserting her, while trying to placate her very angry and upset daughter. Roxy must decide if her ex-fiance, who is determined to win her back, is truly the right guy for her since he seems to care so much for her. Christopher has to put his life together being a single father while fending off one of his neighbors.
I loved this novel and how it explored so many angles of heartbreak and moving on. Despite there being four characters and four viewpoints, Melissa Senate managed to give them all enough time so their stories were well-developed. Having a male character in there was also fascinating. This novel was funny, touching and down-to-earth all at once. I really couldn't find a thing in it that I didn't enjoy! There is a touch of both single city-girl lit as well as marriage lit and mom lit.
Overall, I highly recommend The Breakup Club to all Melissa Senate fans, and to anyone who enjoys a truly good novel.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Light and sweet, or thoughtful and insighful?, May 14, 2007
This review is from: The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
I really think that Melissa Senate is one of Red Dress Ink's best writers, so this book was disappointing. On the plus side, I really enjoyed the story and -- real love and real loss, and, as a refreshing change, the longevity of romantic love, as opposed to the theme that tells women that if you can just find your prince, everything else will fall into place. The people in this story are all trying to figure out what it means to be in love and stay in love -- and to fall out of love. In that way, this is perhaps one of the more substantive chick lit love stories out there.
On the other hand, the writing is rushed and sometimes too superficial. The plot has everything necessary to go just a step or two deeper, but does not follow through. Why did Larry really leave his wife? Other than missing his wife, how did Chris feel about her decision to leave him? The real motives and emotions seem to be skipped over. And some parts of the plot seemed to get skipped over too. For example, it just seemed that all of the sudden Roxy was a brunette, and I thought maybe I had skipped a page. I hadn't -- there was no paragraph explaining that she had changed her hair color and her clothes, or why. I actually think that Roxy's conflict could have carried the whole novel -- her family, her search for herself were really compelling, and seemed to steal the show.
Overall, a fun read, and it walks the line between fun, light reading and thoughtful, insightful romance. I'll still read whatver Senate writes next. I think that this will also make a good movie, like See Jane Date.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Big Melissa Senate Fan, January 22, 2006
This review is from: The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink Novels) (Paperback)
I always enjoy Melissa Senate's books, and The Breakup Club was no different. Once again Senate brings us characters and situations you can't help but be drawn in to. Her writing style keeps the story going so you're never bored, and the ending is always worth waiting for.
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