Member Reviews
Dee, Rosa, Liv and Katy, are four friends who met at university.
Each girl has found love, lost love but what they have more than anything is a deep friendship.
This is a wonderful read. It has humour, lots of emotion and I felt part of the gang.
It is beautifully written and is a book I will recommend and re read..
Bravo..
This was a beautifully written novel. I loved the characters and found them relatable and relevant to 20 and 30-something readers.
I was expecting it to be a bit more plot-driven as, to me, the cover and marketing made me expect something a bit more similar to Dolly Alderton's 'Everything I know about love'. I think more could also be done to make it clear that throughout the novel, the Instructions/handbook will form the ending to each chapter - this was a lovely device.
Overall this was an easy read and a touching story of friendship and the many forms love can take. I would recommend to a friend.
Instructions for Heartbreak is a wonderfully nuanced, emotionally intelligent and insightful story of female friendships, relationships, growing up and finding your family. I just wish I had half the emotional intelligence and way with language that these four women do.
Its the story of four university friends, Dee, Rosa, Liv and Katy; they found each other at university and never looked back -partners have come and gone but their friendship has survived and is as strong as ever.
When Katy's long term partner Chris breaks up with her, this amazing group of friends envelop her with love and support, holding her up when she needs it but also letting her crumble when its all too much. Between them, they start writing a handbook for surviving heartbreak, from the power of going outside to the dangers of stalking the ex on social media, what it might feel like when you meet someone else, and everything inbetween. The stories they share are raw and real, they don't keep anything from one another, keen to help someone else through their bleakest spot.
All of the other women have had their hearts broken before; part of the story's power and beauty is seeing how they too navigate their worlds, whether its through shying away from relationships completely, or through sharing their innermost thoughts in a national newspaper, they each have to work out what they want from life and how to get there. There are fallings out between the group as well, as they address conflicts about each others' choices, but even the arguments are resolved with emotional insight and understanding.
Powerful clever writing that doesnt shy away from the multitudes and layers inside all of us.
This novel was fantastic - I love a novel filled with amazing female friendships. This is exactly the type of novel I was looking for and I thought the characters were fantastic.
I flew through this book and I absolutely loved it, I will share my full review closer to the time but this is a MUST read.
There is nothing better than the power of female friendships and women coming together to help one another! This book delivers that message and more! I loved every minute. The characters were great and diverse and I loved their interactions with each other. Reminded me a bit of The Bold Type. Great book if your looking for a book with strong healthy female friendships as well as a side of heartbreak which we’ve all been through at some point in our lives