Rowena’s review of Broken Hearts, Fences & Other Things to Mend (Broken Hearts & Revenge #1) by Katie Finn.

Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma’s plan is working (she’s finding it hard to resist Josh), but she’s finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

I’m a huge fan of Morgan Matson’s books so when I found out that she had pseudonym and a book coming out, I was all about reading it.  I was excited to read this one, really looking forward to it and it starts off pretty good but then Gemma gets to the Hamptons and the story just kind of took a nosedive right off my happy meter.

I couldn’t get behind the fact that Gemma thought it was a good idea to start her summer, making up for past wrongs but digging herself into a deeper hole by LYING.  And let’s talk about the wrong that has Gemma feeling heaps of guilt about.  I don’t even care that she was 11 years old when everything went down. Everything that happened that summer, Gemma planned.  Gemma plotted and she brought about the ruin of a woman.  I’m sorry but that’s just not something that I can get over quickly…especially when Gemma introduces herself into Josh and Hallie’s life again by saying she’s someone else.

Gemma’s actions had consequences.  Consequences for her father and for her father’s friend and family.  She knew what she was doing when she did and she didn’t care…and because of that, I just couldn’t like her. Oh sure, she felt plenty of guilt following her actions that got a perfectly nice woman fired from her job with a reputation that she didn’t deserve.

So now it’s years later and she’s back in the Hamptons.  Back to the scene of the crime and Hallie is back as well.  Gemma thinks that she can attain absolution if she could somehow make things right but she starts her project make things right with the Hallie and her family by lying about who she is.  And then the story just keeps kind of spiraling out of control for me…because Hallie has been waiting years for this moment, to exact her revenge and all of the revenge and the hate going on just didn’t do a thing for me.  What surprised me was that Gemma was completely blind to what Hallie was doing.  A blind person could see what the hell Hallie was up to but not smart Gemma.

I did enjoy Josh though.  He was a great character but meh, I just couldn’t like Gemma so I felt like he deserved far better.  This book also has one of those cliff hanger endings that I’m not a fan of so yeah, I didn’t enjoy this book at all.  Bummer.

Grade: 1 out of 5

This book is available from Feiwel & Friends. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.