The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (review)

The Vargas boys are trouble with a capital T, a fact that Jude Hernandez knows all too well. Six years ago, Johnny Vargas broke off his engagement with Jude's older sister, and all four of the Hernandez girls swore off Vargas men for good, a serious oath sealed with sisterly blood. Now Jude's sisters are out of the house leading glamorous grownup lives, and she's stuck the summer after her senior year watching their father slowly succumb to el Demonio—early onset Alzheimer's. Jude is certain that if she can help her dad restore his old motorcycle, she can restore his memories as well; the only mechanic that can help them in their price range, however, is Emilio Vargas, one of the dread Vargas boys, who's a whiz with the wrench and a heartbreaker with his eyes set on Jude. Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer, BCCB 9/09, Bittersweet, BCCB 4/12) has proven herself to be an expert with witty, romantic banter, and the chemistry between Jude and Emilio doesn't disappoint. Their relationship, however, is just one of many that Jude is trying to figure out, and her struggles to renegotiate her connection to her ailing father, reimagine the family dynamics among her bossy, overprotective sisters, and determine who she is amidst all the chaos gives emotional nuance to what would otherwise be a pretty standard romance. It also helps that Emilio is neither a bad boy nor a sensitive poet disguised in oil-stained jeans, but an average (if incredibly good-looking) guy struggling to stand outside of his own siblings' shadows and dealing with a different type of loss. With its dimensional treatment of human dynamics, the book effectively reminds readers that heartbreak doesn't fall solely in the realm of romantic love and that love, in any form, may always be a risk, but it is often one worth taking.