Title: Instructions for a Broken Heart
Author: Kim Culbertson [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: sex, drugs, alcohol, language, criminal activity, peer pressure
Teachable Moments: independence, tolerance, patience, empowerment

“As much as she wanted to, Jessa didn’t always like gray.  She liked things to make sense.  Have reasons, closure.  It’s why she loved musicals, well at least the older ones.  She knew stuff was darker now, but she liked her musicals hopeful.  In her favorites, even with all the conflict, all the pain, she was always left with hope at the end. Always left reaching for something.  She could count on that.  That hopeful future.  Hillary’s words scratched at her brain, batted the word future like a cat with a ball of yarn, rolling it to front of her mind.”

Summary (from the publisher):
When Jessa catches her boyfriend, Sean, making out with Natalie “the Boob Job” Stone three days before her drama club’s departure to Italy, she completely freaks.

Stuck with a front — row view of Sean and Natalie making out against the backdrop of a country that oozes romance, Jessa promises to follow all of the outrageous instructions in her best friend’s care package and open her heart to new experiences.

Enter cute Italian boy stage left.

Jess had prepared to play the role of humiliated ex-girlfriend but with Carissa direct her life from afar it’s finally time to take a shot at being a star.

Opinion:
Instructions for a Broken Heart is a different kind of road trip book.  It’s not the happy go lucky friends barreling down the road and partaking of the requisite highjinx.  Nope, this is a trip that follows Jessa as she travels through Italy in a torturous mending of her broken heart.

See, just prior to departure Jessa walks in on her long time boyfriend Sean getting busy with another girl at school.  Caught completely off guard she’s justifiably stunned, so much so she contemplates forgoing the big trip they’d been planning to go on together with their fellow drama students.  Enter, girl power!  Jessa decides (with some not so gentle nudging from her BFF Carissa) that the only way to get over it is to forge ahead as planned and experience Italy.  Hoping to mend her broken heart, though armed with a healthy dose of speculation about doing so, she boards the plane with her other bestie Tyler to prove that not only can she get over Sean but she can enjoy Europe at the same time.  But wait, not only does she have Tyler as support but she is also in possession of a series of daily tasks (via sealed envelopes) set for her by Carissa.

Chaos ensues!

So, the plot is pretty simple.  Let me set the scene…

Girl walks in on boy in compromising position with questionably moraled female classmate.  Immediate breakup occurs.  Girl #1 decides that despite the happy new couple’s attendance she will go on previously planned school trip.  In doing so Girl #1 is forced to watch them paw all over each other across Italy.  Wait, Girl #1 is also expected to do all these strange tasks she would never undertake under normal circumstances all in an effort to make boy feel like (a) crap and (b) he’s missing out on the best thing since sliced bread.  Add in a bunch of rich snobby kids, an emo boy who can’t stand them and a hot Italian dude and what have you got?

Ugh, recipe for disaster, thank you very much!

Honestly, this was not the most unpredictable read.  I knew within a couple of chapters how the story would play out and I wasn’t surprised to find out that I was right.  Thankfully, though, it wasn’t so entirely predictable that the details and subtle nuances were foreseen.  I was glad that the characters personalities and a few of the plot elements were fresh enough to keep my interest going.  This made it an enjoyable read despite the lack of surprises in the plot.

The best part of the book was without a doubt Jessa.  i found her realistically portrayed as a teen who is hurt by first love.  Enduring a great deal of torment and mockery she showed great strength and restraint.  Though not an adult she maintained relative poise throughout her trip despite Sean and Nicole throwing their new coupledom in her face left and right.  This isn’t to say she didn’t have moments of weakness.  She was vengeful and showed some spite here and there which humanized her and went to show some vulnerability.

Outside of that, the rest of the characters were a bit more peripheral.  Tyler was entertaining (especially when he and Dylan Thomas were bantering) but turned a bit selfish and harder edged as the story went on.  His reasons for doing so were understandable so it wasn’t jarring behavior or surprising but I found it a bit off.  I suppose it opened the door to allow for Jessa to have the opportunity to interact with others so it achieved it’s purpose but it still seemed off.  For his part Dylan Thomas was just this kid who randomly popped up here and there.  I couldn’t quite latch on to him as any kind of romantic lead.

As for the plot, again much of what happened wasn’t entirely unforeseen.  Didn’t make the ride less enjoyable just unsurprising.  The plot element of the daily tasks sent from Carissa was interesting in some respects.  It certainly went a long way in moving the story along and added some fun and funny moments.  Definitely kept Jessa from curling up into the fetal position in the corner. So for that I’m happy.  Had this not been part of the story I think she would have been too introspective and depressed.  It would have become a much different slightly darker story.  Having said that there were parts of it that were extremely childish (which were appropriate for the story) but also hurtful.  Revelations are made and I for one felt like one of the revelations wasn’t needed.  I wasn’t surprised by it but I think the story had enough conflict without it.

So, can you tell I’m a bit conflicted on this book?  It literally fell right in the middle for me.  I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it.  The weakness was the predictability and the believability of a few of the plot elements.  The strength was definitely Jessa — she’s realistic as all get out and a character you’ll definitely root for.