Customer Reviews

The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink Novels)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Meet Christopher, Lucy, Lucy's sister Miranda and Roxy. Each has experienced some type of breakup in their relationship. They form the Breakup Club as a way to help each other cope. I liked that the author allowed each character to have his or her own chapter. What disappointed me was the ending. It was to open-ended and I wasn't sure where the characters were in their lives after the breakup. I immediately thought the author purposely did that as a way to continue the stories of this group of friends.

Pros: I read other reviews and I was amazed that anybody could possibly NOT like this book. I thought it was fabulous! The only Red Ink books I'd read were by Lynn Messina and from that alone, I realized that I might like this publishing line a lot. It's always interesting to read about people my age who are trying to figure out their career, their future, their family, etc. so I connected with Roxy the most, who absolutely did not want to fall into the normal "marriage/kids/cooking/gossiping with female relatives." It entertained me that she was the "guy" in the relationship, because I'm usually accused of the same thing. I thought Christopher's character was interesting because it is so rare to read a story about a single dad whose wife left HIM behind, and who is turning women down instead of humping everybody. I thought Lucy was a realistic portrayal of how a married woman acts when her husband is a lunatic, without being stereotypically desperate. Miranda couldn't have been more different from me, but she reminded me of friends I've had over the years, who are constantly chasing love. Basically the book is about four people who have either been the broker-upper or the brokee-upper, and how they deal with each of their situations. I liked how the story was told from different perspectives so we got the chance to learn more about each characters

Cons: It seemed like everybody in this book looked alike, minus Roxy when she died her hair. Blonde hair and blue eyes throughout the whole novel--no variation. With all of these different characters, I'd have been content if the characters had more stand-out features.

I thought the book was pretty good. I like how the characters had different situations when it came to their break-ups. It gives us insight on how to deal and what to expect in most cases of being the one who are dumped or doing the dumping. Its humorous, I liked it, lol.

I liked this book. It's one of those books where each chapter is dedicated to a different character in the book... so you are constantly switching back and forth between each person's life, and then from time to time, their paths cross and you see how they relate to one another. I liked it. I was entertained by all of the characters' stories. I probably liked Roxy's and Chris's storylines the best.

I am usually a fan of this author. However, I am giving this book three stars because it is not up to par with her last book, at all.

The premise of The Breakup Club is fairly standard chick lit stuff. While the story is midly entertaining, I felt as though some pages just dragged and dragged. For example, the opening chapter in which the author sets up the entire premise (yes, I agree it is important) but she just went on and on describing in minute details the Thanksgiving scene.

There were too many exchanges describing "lifted eyebrows" and "food being removed from clothing".

So, basically, this is not a horrible book, but it is way too slow.

I have mentioned this in the past. RED DRESS INK has become hugely hit or miss with me - with lately more misses than hits.

Melissa Senate's "The Breakup Club" centered around four individuals who were basically in the midst of a breakup. Lucy, a successful editor of a major publishing company was shocked when her seemingly normal husband, Larry, shoved the the tray of their Thanksgiving turkey off the table in front of their family members. She was even more shocked when she realized Larry's one New Year's resolution was to leave her. Lucy's sister, Miranda was dumped by her boyfriend Gabriel after she suggested that they might get married someday. Unable to accept Gabriel's decision, Miranda hoped that he will changed his mind. Christopher, Lucy's colleague, was recently dumped by his wife who left him for an older, richer man. Not to mention, Christopher had to share their only child, Ava, with his former wife's beau. The last individual, Roxy, left her husband to be on their wedding day and went to Manhattan (from Brooklyn) as she decided that she could not be the person her husband, family and friends wanted her to be; a suburban wife. All four decided to form the "Breakup Club" to share their problems and woes.

This was an okay book as the individual stories were somewhat interesting. I think the whole idea of the "breakup club" was kind of lame and the author did not really expand on that. As this is not the author's first attempt at a novel, the writing was quite good and the pace of the book was fast, so there aren't many slow, and uninteresting moments. This is not the best book in this genre but it is certainly better than the average.

At a New York publishing firm, the quartet work on a complex project, but realize they share in common that each has been involved in a recent breakup. They start to lend an ear to one another.

Thirtyish Lucy Miller-Masterson is stunned that her handsome spouse, a doctor, is apparently dumping her by New Year's. She is not sure whether she wants Larry to leave now or plead with him to stay, but is most concerned for her twelve year old daughter Amelia.

Lucy's depressed younger sister Miranda Miller is in denial that her beloved Gabriel Anders dumped her instead of marrying her. She will do anything to get him back but as six months have passed and Gabriel has a new lover, Miranda musty face reality.

Christopher Levy feels real good now that he and his wife Jodie have becomes the parents of Ava. Thus he is stunned when his spouse moves in with another man taking Ava with her.

Finally the youngest Roxy Marone jilted her best friend Robbie Roberts on the day of their wedding. Still, in spite of being the dumper she feels like the dumpee as she wonders if she made a mistake.

Rotating the point of view between the foursome, fans receive a deep look at the aftermath of a relationship when it falls apart. Contemporary readers will appreciate the interesting cast including solid support players working to overcome depression to get their lives back in motion.

Harriet Klausner