ARC Review: Unbreak My Heart by Nicole Jacquelyn

Book Title: Unbreak My Heart

Author: Nicole Jacquelyn
Series: Standalone
Release Date: June 7th, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance

What do you do when your soul mate marries your best friend?

If you're Kate Evans, you keep your friend Rachel, bond with her kids, and bury your feelings for her husband. The fact that Shane's in the military and away for long periods helps-but when tragedy strikes, everything changes.

After Rachel, pregnant with her fourth child, dies in a car accident and the baby miraculously survives, Kate upends her entire life to share parenting duties. Then on the first anniversary of Rachel's death, Kate and Shane take comfort in each other in a night that they both soon regret.

Shane's been angry for a year, and now he feels guilty too - for sleeping with his wife's best friend and liking it . . . liking her. Kate's ability to read him like a book may have once sent Shane running, but their lives are forever entwined and they are growing closer.

Now with Shane deployed for seven months, Kate is on her own and struggling with being a single parent. Shane is loving and supportive from thousands of miles away, but his homecoming brings a betrayal Kate never saw coming. So Kate's only choice is to fight for the future she deserves - with or without Shane.

Unbreak My Heart is a first experience for me with Nicole Jacquelyn. It's one of those push and pull, angsty-type reads that kept me turning the pages, desperately searching for a happy resolution to a unconventional romance between a man and his deceased wife's best friend.

Shane is a married father of three when his wife tragically dies in a car accident. Her best friend has always been a pivotal part of their family, scooping in to help Rachel out when he gets deployed for his armed services job. So it's not that unusual that Kate would jump in to fill the hole Rachel created with her tragic passing. Shane and Kate have a long history since childhood but things between them cooled when Kate introduced him to Rachel all those years ago. Kate's always been there for Rachel in Shane's deployments but she and Shane struggle with an awkward riff from years past.

On the one-year anniversary of Rachel's death, in a drunken stupor, Kate and Shane make a huge mistake. One night of passion- commence the angsty push and pull love story of Unbreak My Heart.

Lemme say this- Shane is NOT one of my favorite MCs. In fact, he was a Grade-A dick for the bulk of this story and he couldn't grovel enough to win me back. Kate gives up her life to care for his children and I understand he's hurting and confused, but he deserved a junk-punch in multiple occasions. His jerky behavior added the angst that I crave in my books so it wasn't all bad. I just knew he had his work cut out for him to make me believe he deserved Kate.

Unbreak My Heart is a slow-burn type read and doesn't feel especially LOVESTORY-ish for the big part of the book, but more so two people trying to keep a happy home going amidst deployment, grief and trying, busy, young children. It's about respect (or sometimes lack of) and teamwork in maintaining a healthy happy home. Shane is slow to realize the pivotal part Kate plays not only in his kids' lives but HIS life. But is it too late to win her heart back?

Shane grew on me towards the end to the point I forgave him his douchery, no worries. In a lot of ways, his flaws made him more realistic to a real man and not a true super hero type MC.

My only issue with the book is the cussing. Constant cussing between both MCs and it just made them feel cheap and doing it in front of the kids constantly was just not cool. I've got myself a potty mouth but reading the constant shits, f*cks, etc was just off-putting and distracting. Regardless, Unbreak My Heart was an all-around enjoyable angsty unconventional romance by Nicole Jacquelyn.

Advanced copy received by Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Nicole Jacquelyn is the mom of two little girls and a full time college student. She hasn’t watched television in well over a year, she still does things that drive her mother crazy, and she loves to read. At eight years old, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she told people she wanted to be a mom. When she was twelve her answer changed- to author. By the time she was eighteen, when people asked her what she wanted to do with her life, she told them she really wanted to be a writer- but the odds of that happening were so slim that she’d get her business degree “just to be safe”. Her dreams stayed constant. First she became a mom, then she went to college, and during her senior year- with one daughter in first grade and the other in preschool, she sat down and wrote a story.