The Heartbreakers (Ali Novak)

“When I met Oliver Perry, I had no clue he was the lead singer for The Heartbreakers. And he had no idea that I was the only girl in the world who hated his music.”

Stella will do anything for her sick sister, Cara—even stand in line for an autographed Heartbreakers CD…for four hours. She’s totally winning best birthday gift this year. At least she met a cute boy with soft brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes while getting her caffeine fix. Too bad she’ll never see him again.

Except, Stella’s life has suddenly turned into a cheesy love song. Because Starbucks Boy is Oliver Perry – lead singer for the Heartbreakers. And even after she calls his music crap, Oliver still gives Stella his phone number. And whispers quotes from her favorite Disney movie in her ear. OMG, what is her life?

But how can Stella even think about being with Oliver — dating and laughing and pulling pranks with the band — when her sister could be dying of cancer?

Ali Novak wrote her debut novel My Life with the Walter Boys when she was just 15 years old, and has since penned her next book, The Heartbreakers. First a hit on the online community Wattpad, her second novel has over 38 million reads and is loved by readers around the world.

Pub Date: August 4th 2015 by Sourcebooks Fire

I received an eArc from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

---

This book kind of surprised me. I had seen it around some blogs here on WordPress, and when I saw that it was available for request at Netgalley, I requested it and then it was approved! (it still kind of amazes me, this whole process of requesting and getting approved for books on Netgalley)

I started reading a couple of nights ago and I really enjoyed it. Actually, I stayed up reading until 3:30 in the morning on Friday, which is unusual – mostly because I know that next day I have to get up early.

On to some important stuff… The writing is quite nice, it flows mostly well and is easy and fast to read. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My only problem with it was how sometimes, in the middle of a dialogue, Stella would go into her own thoughts, and she sometimes stayed there quite a long time. Sometimes it was nice, because it showed her state of mind about something, but sometimes it didn’t need to be so lengthy. I understand that the Cancer was a big important part of this book, but I don’t think that some of the most technical terms actually needed to be explained in detail.

On to the characters!

I could somehow relate to Stella, which is always nice while reading a book, her fear of facing life and finding excuses not to live it is familiar. I liked that she got over it – eventually – though I could have slapped her a couple of times. I really liked the triplets thing, it’s so unusual to read about, but I found that each of them had a different relationship with the other, and while Cara was great to read, my favorite relationship within the siblings was Stella and Drew’s relationship – mainly because I really liked Drew and could have read more about him.

Now The Heartbreakers, which by the way sounded a bit like 5 Seconds of Summer meets One Direction kind of thing, but that was (surprisingly) OK – I like 5SoS… I liked the overall plot that they wanted to do their own thing. Oliver was great, I liked that the acted all flirty and stuff but in reality he was just a scared little kid, with really understandable fears. The rest of the band was awesome, and I really liked that the book didn’t focused mainly on Oliver, instead we get to meet all of the guys and I just really liked their relationship with Stella. I liked all of the 4, but maybe because of the name, Alec was my favorite. I really want to read the next books because I want more of the guys.

The plot. Ok, so the plot was a bit cliché, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I actually thought it was somewhat plausible how Stella got hired to be their photographer, given the parameters of her “job” – she was suppose to run a blog with photos within a family/friend environment, that is something only a friend, really, could do. So I was ok with the whole Boy Band Star falls in love with a random girl kind of thing. It was cute and sweet.

Overall, I really liked it! And I really want to read the rest, I’m assuming that each book will focus on one different guy, and I so want JJ and Xander and Alec to find someone and be happy! 😀 (Also, Alec somehow reminds me so much of Alec from The Mortal Instruments, that right now, in my head, the guy is gay, and I want him to have his own Magnus Bane!)

Rating: 3.4 Stars