The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler

This poignant story will stay with readers long after the book is finished.Įmily Booth Masters reviews from Nashville, Tennessee. When all signs point to heartbreak, can love still be a rule of the road A touching father-daughter story (Kirkus Reviews) from the author of Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer.Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. The Book of Broken Hearts is a story of loves: between father and daughter, between sisters, between a young woman and man finding true love. Her relationship with her sisters is sweet, but their control over her is frustrating. The love between Jude and her father, as he succumbs to the dementia of Alzheimer’s, is moving and painful. With grippingly realistic portrayals of family relationships, Sarah Ockler manages to create vivid characters that jump off of the page and move in with the reader. Her sisters were right about Vargas boys being irresistible, but were they right about them all being heartbreakers? While Jude’s focus may be on doing something wonderful for her father, her attention is also drawn-quite magnetically-to Emilio. In Jude’s attempts to connect with her father, who is fading away by the day, she finds herself drawn to Emilio. To accomplish this, she has to enlist the help of Emilio Vargas, the youngest brother of the two young men who broke her sisters’ hearts. Jude tries to keep her promise, but when her beloved father becomes ill, she wants to refurbish his vintage motorcycle as a way to show him how much she loves him and to help him capture some memories. Two of her sisters were left heartbroken by Vargas boys, so the girls don’t want Jude to fall victim to a boy from that family. One lesson they won’t let her forget is to never get involved with a Vargas brother. She has lived her life in the shadows of her older sisters, but she has also learned a lot of important and wonderful lessons from them.

Jude is the youngest of the four Hernandez sisters.

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler