Breaking Nova (Breaking Nova, #1)

by Jessica Sorensen

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Breaking Nova is another intense, New Adult romance from the awesome Jessica Sorensen. It's not my favorite, but I definitely like it a lot better than the first two books of her The Coincidence series. Breaking Nova follows nineteen year old Nova on her first summer break from college. She's returned home, but what should be a happy reunion with family and friends is bogged down with awful memories. Her boyfriend committed suicide the year prior and Nova was the one to find him. Now she's moving through her days in a mental fog, at least until she meets Quinton, another damaged soul. Then she's moving through her days in a literal fog, since she gets into smoking weed with him and his cousin. Quinton also lost his girlfriend the previous year, but to a car accident, where he was driving, and now he doesn't think he deserves happiness or any kind of fulfillment in his life. I'd like to say he meets Nova and is healed by the power of love, but that doesn't happen.

Breaking Nova and I got off to a bit of a rough start. While I was thankful that the main issue wasn't sexual abuse, like just about every New Adult novel out there, I wasn't really sure how I felt about it being the aftermath of death. Nova's story is quite tragic, since she not only found her boyfriend hanging, but also witnessed her father die when she was young. She wasn't directly involved with either, but it understandably hits her hard. I get that. Quinton on the other hand, I had more trouble understanding. Yes, he was driving, but his girlfriend was the idiot who climbed out of the car window while he was driving down a windy road (this is in the prologue, so not a spoiler!). He wasn't drunk, he wasn't high, he was only driving (albeit too fast). It was her drunk, stupid self who got herself thrown from the car. And I really do not understand this whole "I promised my dead significant other that I'd be alone and miserable for the rest of my life" thing. Why would they want that for you? Why would you even think that they'd want that for you?! I kind of get the guilt thing, since he was driving, but his so called promise? No!

Luckily around the halfway mark, I finally settled into Nova and Quinton's story and enjoyed it more. Breaking Nova deals very heavily with drugs. Like I said, Nova gets into weed when she starts hanging out with Quinton and friends. They all use it as a way to escape their lives for awhile, however, for some it turns them onto harder stuff. I actually found Nova's friend Delilah and her boyfriend much more interesting than Nova and Quinton. There's something very not right with their relationship and it's tainting everything around them. I wish we had gotten more of them. Perhaps in the next book? Although based on that epilogue it seems like the sequel will focus primarily on Nova helping Quinton with his addiction and emotional damage.

I liked Breaking Nova, but it started off really boring and kind of annoying. It does pick up, and I liked the direction it was going. At the end Nova is in a better place, and I was proud of her for not throwing her life away for a boy. Especially a boy who chooses drugs over her. While I am interested in what happens with Quinton, I almost wish that this had been a standalone of Nova's progress. It would have been refreshing to see the two love interests not end up together, because one of them can't get their life together. Love doesn't magically fix all problems, while depressing, would have been a nice change from the NA formula.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.