Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills
Release Date: April
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult, grades 9-12
Pages: 256
Alex thought she’d be spending the summer focused on her family’s rafting business, burying the memories of her father’s death last year, and leaving behind all the messes she made in its wake.
But when Sean returns to town, she is forced to reckon with her mixed-up crushy feelings for him—more powerful than ever before. It takes another tragedy to make Alex realize Sean has loved her, and forgiven her, all along.
Heartbreak River swept me away! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I won’t say that I had high expectations going into this novel, because I really didn’t. Not saying that I thought the book was going to be, I just didn’t know what to expect. I’d never read any of Tricia’s other novels, so it was open on that end. From the summary, I wanted to love this book. I just love books about love!
So while we are on the topic of love lets, talk about the things I loved! The writing. Tricia, has an alluring style that sucks you into the story, I can say that it didn’t take me long to read this book as a result. The plot moved along quickly. Which is always nice, there isn’t anything worse than a story that drags on and you feel like the last one hundred pages you read were a waste of rainforest. And lastly, Alex. She was a unique protagonist, not only battling the death of her father( pretty much alone), but also trying to ensue the remains of her first love.
Alex’s cousin Mala... ah, the girl drove me crazy. If she was my cousin, I would probably never talk to her again, although to be fair, she did sort of grow on me toward the end of the novel when she removed her head from her ass.
What I really needed from this story was more of an explanation of what happened with Sean and Alex! Alex periodically would have flashbacks of her and Sean, when they first got together, when they were little kids, but I never got the flashback I wanted! I wanted to know what exactly happened... what did she say! How did they get to this point. It really didn’t matter to be who she ended up with, whether it be Tommy or Sean because I never felt like I got the story of Alex and Sean, the one that would make me want them to get together.
That was really my biggest complaint, I just wanted to know more of their history. Despite that, I thought the story was pretty impressive. I would love to see more YA novels by Mills.