Author: Phoebe Fox
Publisher: Henery Press
Publication Date: June 10th 2014
Genre: Romance, Contemporary Adult
Rating: Three Stars
Summary: Call Brook Ogden a
matchmaker-in-reverse. Let others bring people together; Brook, licensed
mental health counselor, picks up the pieces after things come apart.
When her own therapy practice collapses, she maintains perfect control:
landing on her feet with a weekly advice-to-the-lovelorn column and a
successful consulting service as the Breakup Doctor: on call to help you
shape up after you breakup.
But when her own relationship suddenly crumbles, Brook finds herself engaging in almost every bad-breakup behavior she preaches against. And worse, she starts a rebound relationship with the most inappropriate of men: a dangerously sexy bartender with anger-management issues—who also happens to be a former patient.
As her increasingly out-of-control behavior lands her at rock-bottom, Brook realizes you can’t always handle a messy breakup neatly—and that sometimes you can’t pull yourself together until you let yourself fall apart.
But when her own relationship suddenly crumbles, Brook finds herself engaging in almost every bad-breakup behavior she preaches against. And worse, she starts a rebound relationship with the most inappropriate of men: a dangerously sexy bartender with anger-management issues—who also happens to be a former patient.
As her increasingly out-of-control behavior lands her at rock-bottom, Brook realizes you can’t always handle a messy breakup neatly—and that sometimes you can’t pull yourself together until you let yourself fall apart.
Review: 3.5 stars.
I've always thought that the most powerful sort of books are the
ones that you self identify with. The ones that kind of hit that chord
within you and make you stop and think that you really understand the
character that you're reading about.
That's the sort of book that The Breakup Doctor is.
When we start off the book and meet Brook for the first time, she's
trying to get her feet back underneath her. She's had a bad breakup and
then she abruptly loses her practice where she's been counselling, and
because of said bad breakup, her finances aren't so good, either. Her
new relationship is a bit tenuous and things just feel a little bit
wobbly.
It seems like things are looking up, though! She's the sort of
person who's smooth and steady on the outside, who always seems to know
what she's doing. Other people have referred to her as cold, but in
spite of that many turn to her for advice - maybe that's why she's so
good at her job. She might not be an official psychologist but she's
good at counselling others. That's what her best friend Sasha tells her -
someone who she has gotten through many a breakup - and it's through
the help of her friend that she lands a weekly article, and starts
picking up a client list, too.
Suddenly it looks like things are turning around. We all know that life just isn't that easy, though... Unfortunately.
Things only go smoothly for awhile before Brook's life is thrown
into chaos again, though - family problems and relationship problems...
Suddenly she's not so cool and levelheaded, and in spite of her repeated
protestations, maybe she's not so 'fine' after all.
I'm going to be honest, this book is the sort that may just make
you cringe out of secondhand embarrassment. Brook's always felt as
though she has it all together, as though she's the calm, sensible
levelheaded one, but her story is very much one of what it's like to
lose your grip on all of that - to fall apart completely, and then have
to put yourself back together. It's a bumpy ride through emotions and
stormy situations, bad decisions, and I don't know about other readers,
but it felt all too familiar for me. It's a story about those judgements
we make without really thinking about it, even if the person we're
thinking about is a best friend, or family member. It's about the way we
think about ourselves when we screw up and do something we regret
because emotions have got the best of us.
The book is definitely a journey, and it takes us through denial,
self recrimination and shame. But it also touches on laughter,
friendship, love and healing. It did make me uncomfortable a couple of
times, mostly because it struck too close to home - Brook made me wince
with the way she thought and acted sometimes, and I wouln't be surprised
if some readers have trouble with that. Second hand embarrassment can
be a powerful thing!
I can't decide what to think about the structure - part of me would
have liked to feel as though the arc of the plot was a bit more even,
with a more gradual denouement, but a part of me also recognises that
stories don't always need to have neat and tidy endings.
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided through Netgalley in return for an honest review.