Blog Tour: What’s Broken Between Us by Alexis Bass Review+Giveaway

What’s Broken Between Us
by Alexis BassPublisher: HarperCollinsRelease Date: December 29th 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction

Rate: 3.5 Stars

 

Synopsis:

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?

What’s Broken Between Us is a very emotionally charged story. On one hand, you have a sister who loves her big brother and is trying to get back what they once had. On the other hand, you have said sister who doesn’t want to be defined as the girl with the brother who killed his best friend and injured his girlfriend. And all the while, being in a relationship with one boy, while loving another. Of course the love is still there. You only broke up because you felt that it was the right thing to do. Your brother seriously injured his sister in the accident, so tension between families was imminent. ACCIDENT, being the key word. He was drunk, so that made it vehicular manslaughter.

 

Amanda: She came off as this timid character that was somehow still able to brave the whispers surrounding her. I liked that she was conflicted about the situation with her brother – it made her human. And why shouldn’t she feel bad about a girl that she knew who died in an accident her brother was responsible for. Then there’s her relationship to deal with. It was very clear to me that Amanda wasn’t really feeling Graham. Henry was in the picture more than anybody. 

 

Jonathon: I think that him slipping back into his old ways made this story more realistic. There aren’t always happily ever afters for people in this situation. Yes, he got behind the wheel of a car while drunk. He paid the ultimate price by killing his best friend Grace, and severely injuring his girlfriend Sutton. His behavior didn’t surprise me one bit.

 

Henry: His demand for Amanda to keep him in the loop was uncalled for. I understand he wants to protect his sister, Sutton, but he has to learn that people need to make their own choices and mistakes. It was pretty clear that he just didn’t want to let Amanda go from the start. I liked the romance part of this story more than anything. I just felt that Amanda and Henry shouldn’t have broken up in the first place. Granted, they’re both in relationships with other people, so the whole cheating thing isn’t something that I condone, but I got it.

 

Everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows in this story, but I love most of it. The ending wasn’t what I expected, but I still enjoyed the story as a whole. I think this is a different take on young-adult contemporary; and if you love the genre, then I recommend this book.

 

Follow the What’s Broken Between Us Blog Tour and don’t miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

 

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.

Win a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway