Book Review: What's Broken Between Us by Alexis Bass

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What's Broken Between Us
Author: Alexis Bass
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: December 29 2015
Review Source: HarperCollins

Alexis Bass’s heartbreakingly beautiful second novel is a tale of love, loss, and learning to forgive.

Look to the left, look to the right. We’re all going to die. But someone has to do it first. So who’s it going to be?

Tragedy struck Amanda Tart’s town a year and a half ago when a sophomore girl was killed in a car accident on graduation night. Amanda’s brother, Jonathan, was behind the wheel and too drunk to drive. He’s spent the past year in prison and has cut off all ties. But now Jonathan is coming home. Just as Amanda’s trying to figure out what that means for her family and herself, she’s paired up for a school project with Henry Crane—a former crush, and brother of Jonathan’s ex-girlfriend, who survived the crash with horrible injuries.

Everyone is still incredibly damaged by the events of that night. Can Amanda and Henry finally begin to heal what’s broken and find some peace?

Amanda has lived in the shadow of her brother - as she puts it; it has been warm there - until one fateful night when he decides to drive drunk. A stupid decision that one might make most of the times when drunk. But there are those few times when driving drunk ends in disaster. That is what happened to Jonathan. Trying to live life while making sure that everyone doesn't think she's feeling sorry for her brother becomes difficult, and a friend from her past, Henry, is there to bring up the most difficult questions she has for herself.

I have been waiting for this book since I finished Love & Other Theories last year. I didn't know she was writing a second book yet, but I knew that whatever Bass wrote I would read. And yet again, I am already awaiting her third book. Last night when I finished this book there was part of me that wondered; Am I giving this book 5 trees just because I love the author, or is it because the book was that good? As a reviewer I'm worried that my ratings may be a little biased. But when I thought about it I realized: yes, I do love Alexis - I am a loyal reader of her work now - but yes, this book deserves 5 trees.

One of my favorite things about Alexis as a writer is that she is honest. Not in a brutal way, because I'm not sure I would enjoy her writing if she were brutally honest. But each time you finish one of her books, Love & Other Theories or What's Broken Between Us, you are left so happy yet you are also a little disheartened. She doesn't give the perfect ending that most books give to readers. She gives the realistic endings. The endings that will most likely happen when it comes to our own stories.
What makes her stories almost heart breaking is the fact that her characters are ALL LOVABLE! Meaning the characters who we should hate? There's redeeming qualities. Jonathan - yes he killed a fellow classmate, but he's Amanda's big brother. The minute he says baby sister you just want to give him a big hug. Which is partially what Amanda has a hard time with throughout the book. Everyone hates her brother, but to her - he's still her brother.

There were so many great quotes from this book, and so many great musings. One of my favorite things that I took from the story is how even if the blame isn't our own we always find a way to make it ours. My little cousin spills the milk, I could've stopped it by putting it into a sippy cup - I'm sorry. In actuality the kid should've just not spilled the milk. But we will always find ways to make the blame ours. It's human nature. And I feel like this is a story that revolves around how Amanda lets her own blame dictate her life, dictate how she lives.

It's A Muggle Monday Recommendation!

We are not wizards or witches, but muggles. We don't live in a magical world... Hogwarts is not home. But don't let this put you down. We don't need magic to transform our world. We have thousands lives to explore and dystopian worlds to travels. From the words of JK Rowling, "The stories we love the best live in us forever".

It's a Muggle Monday Recommendation is a new weekly meme hosted by Once Upon a Twilight in hope that this story will cast a spell over you and live with you forever.

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Alexis Bass is one of my favorites, and I will always show her books some love! So this week I'm recommending What's Broken Between Us!

It doesn't come out until December 29th, but everyone - this is a MUST read!

Cover Reveal: What's Broken Between Us by Alexis Bass

We are excited to share the cover of What's Broken Between Us

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Check out MTV's coverage of the cover reveal!

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Alexis Bass grew up in Washington, went to college in Arizona, and spent her early twenties in Seattle. She currently lives in Northern California with Dylan McKay, her gorgeous and rambunctious golden retriever. She loves good fashion and good TV as much as a good book, and is a huge advocate of the three C’s: coffee, chocolate, and cheese. LOVE AND OTHER THEORIES is her first novel.

Friday Author Spotlight: Alexis Bass

Friday Author SPOTLIGHT! We will feature a Young Adult, New Adult or Adult Author. These post will contain interviews, author posts, book blasts, fill in the blanks, etc... This is just our way to get authors noticed and out there as much as possible. So we hope you enjoy and stay tuned Fridays to see who we have on and what they shared. To see previous posts click here.

Today OUaT is in awe to feature Author Alexis Bass. She is the author of Love and Other Theories, released December 30th 2014 by HarperTeen and available to order.

Author Alexis Bass 

Alexis Bass grew up in Washington, went to college in Arizona, and spent her early twenties in Seattle. She currently lives in Northern California with Dylan McKay, her gorgeous and rambunctious golden retriever. She loves good fashion and good TV as much as a good book, and is a huge advocate of the three C’s: coffee, chocolate, and cheese. LOVE AND OTHER THEORIES is her first novel.

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If you want more, you have to give less.

That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.

So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love.

 

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Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I have been telling stories ever since I was old enough to talk, and had my first writing partner when I was six (my best friend who lived down the street—we wrote and illustrated picture books). My next writing partner was my best friend in middle school and we wrote what is probably best described as Jurassic Park fan-fiction. I have three critique partners now that I highly depend on for support and feedback, and friendship.

I recently moved to Northern California—I’m a Seattle transplant—and I’m still getting used to sixty-degree winters.

2. What inspired this story?
About a year before I started writing Love and Other Theories, I was in a small coffee shop and the four teenage girls in front of me in line were discussing the television show The Bachelor, listing off everything Contestant A did wrong, and brainstorming how they would’ve handled a certain over-night situation if they were Contestant B—theorizing, really, and comparing the situations to their own lives. It reminded me of the way my friends and I used to talk about Joey Potter, from Dawson’s Creek, when we were in high school, judging her for choosing Dawson over Paris. I wanted to tell a story about trying to figure love at that time in life when you’re exposed to so many ‘it could go this way, and turn out awful,’ situations, and about girls who tried to take control of this the best they could, even if they maybe took it much too far.

3. As a reader the ending is almost heartbreaking to read. What was it like for you to write it? Were you just as heartbroken as I was or were you settled knowing that was how it had to end?
It was completely heartbreaking to write, but I did know how the story would end—what the characters would go through, and what the fallout would be for them. It was most important to me to write and honest and realistic ending, even if it wasn’t a happy ending.

4. In what ways do you relate to Aubrey?
I relate to the way she’s naturally skeptical, but mostly Aubrey and I are very different.

5. Were you like Aubrey's friends Shelby clique or the nerdy clique in high school?
We were not very much like Shelby and her friends at all—aside from sequestering ourselves at parties (but that a because we were shy), and we would sometimes meet up during the week to each junk food and watch our favorite shows (and we were always invested enough in the story to yell at the screen).

6. Is there a part of you that wanted Aubrey to just cut herself out of Shelby's group and theories?
Yes, and while I think Aubrey does let the theories go, I knew she wouldn’t be so quick to cut off Shelby.  She’s known Shelby her entire life, and at the end of the book she is finally seeing things about Shelby that she never knew—she was finally understanding that Shelby was in pain and very confused, and that Shelby wanted to believe in the theories because she needed to believe something could protect her.

7. Was there ever a draft where Aubrey told Nathan about the theories? The whole time I was reading I just wanted her so badly to explain why she didn't stop him from going back home for a week, or why she seemed to not care.
There wasn’t! But I definitely see what you mean. And I think Nathan was sort of able to piece together that there were “theories,” or at least he figured out (too late) that there were things the girls were doing only because they thought they were supposed to be acting and feeling a certain way.

8. If Aubrey told Nathan about the theories would he still have become the boy the theories were made for?
That is such a great question! On one hand, he might’ve told Aubrey he thought the theories were insane and asked her to be honest with him; but on the other hand, he might’ve felt like he had to accept it instead of fight it Aubrey when she told him what she thought about high school relationships being temporary. It’s hard to say. (I’d love to know what you think, too! ;))

Check out Bri'sreview on Love and Other Theories

Top Ten YA Author Debuts of 2014

So many awesome YA authors made debuts in 2014 and it was so hard to keep up with them!! If the writing was this good in 2014, I can't wait to see what 2015 has to offer!!

I've also had the privilege of meeting quite a few of these authors at book signings, conferences, and chance meetings!! Plus, I'm excited to share that several of these authors are from TEXAS where I live too!!

Here are my TOP TEN 2014 YA AUTHOR DEBUTS:

Tuesday Teaser: Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading

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Love And Other Theories
Author: Alexis Bass
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: December 31 2014
Review Source: Harper Teen

If you want more, you have to give less.

That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.

So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love.