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Unbreak My Heart by Lauren Blakely

Unbreak My Heart - Lauren Blakely

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was really good! I usually try to go into books as blindly as possible and I don't think that I beyond Lauren Blakely's name and the shirtless guy on the cover when I made the decision to read this book. I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what kind of book this would be and expected a fun little romance. I did get a romance but to me this book was really all about Andrew. I am so glad that I had the chance to listen to this audiobook.

When we meet Andrew at the start of this book, he is at a very low point. He is deep in grief after losing his brother who was the person he was closest to. He is not handling things well at all. I felt so bad for Andrew but I completely understood some of the things he was feeling. I thought that his thoughts during this time were very well done and felt very authentic.

Holland and Andrew have known each other for a very long time. Their parents were friends and they dated for a while. Their relationship ended largely because Holland was living in Tokyo while Andrew needed to be in the United States. I love a good second chance romance and these two were really great together. They never stopping caring about each other and the chemistry between them was great. Holland seemed to understand exactly what Andrew needed and was very clear with her expectations.

Both of the narrators really nailed this performance. I had never listened to any of Joe Arden's work before a few months ago but I think that this is the third time that I have listened to him in just a few weeks. I am really impressed by his work and I thought that this was an exceptional performance. He does such a good job with the wide range of emotions that Andrew goes through in this story. Since this was Andrew's story more than anything, I think that Joe Arden read a bit more of the book than the female narrator, Erin Mallon. This was my first time listening to Erin Mallon and I really liked her narration. I thought she did a great job with Holland and really helped to bring the story to life. These two worked really well together and I wouldn't hesitate to listen to either narrator again in the future.

I would recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance. I love second chance romances and books that deal with grief are also a favorite so this was a great pick for me. This audiobook does include a short story, The Story of Us, that takes up the last hour or so of the total running time. I cannot wait to read more of Lauren Blakely's work.

I received a review copy of this audiobook from Lauren Blakely Books via Inkslinger PR.

Initial Thoughts
This was good! I will be honest that I picked this up because when I saw the shirtless guy on the cover and Lauren Blakely's name I had a pretty good idea what would be waiting for me. But this book was different. This is really a story about grief and moving on. Yes, Andrew and Holland do find love in this story but it was really more about getting over loss. Both of the narrators completely nailed their delivery of this story. This audiobook also contains the short story, The Start of Us, which accounts for around the last hour of the audiobook.