The Breakup Club by Melissa Senate

The Breakup Club Reviews

• 
  Tin

  Having gone through a break-up recently, i have spent endless hours listening to sad, sappy love songs, watching romantic comedies while berating both male and female leads for being such fools in love, and drowning all my sorrows in food. And while organizing my ebooks folders, in one of several attempts to distract myself from thinking about another failed relationship, i came across The Breakup Club. I say to myself, okay fine, let's make moving on harder for me.
  
  Surprise surprise! I expected bitterness from the characters, but no. There was an almost positive-like approach to a break-up, but it doesn't get to a point where it's annoying how accepting Lucy, Miranda, Christopher, and Roxy are with their situations. Four unlikely friends, two of whom are sisters, bonded over a common fate that befell them - heartbreak.
  
  On Thanksgiving Day, Lucy found a note, a belated/advanced New Year's resolution, in her husband's jacket. It said, "Leave Lucy." Her husband was planning to divorce her. And Lucy not only had to deal with the separation, but she also has twelve year-old Amelia to worry about. Not only does she have to contain her emotions, but she needed to be strong for their daughter too. Of course she questioned what went wrong with their marriage, wondered if there was something she could have done to prevent it from happening, but ultimately, she came to an understanding with herself that it wasn't all her fault that Larry left. It wasn't the paper plates and plastic cups on the dinner table. Her frumpy sweaters and uncool office get-ups have nothing to do with it either. She has done all she could, yet Larry simply didn't love her anymore, no longer wanted to be with her.
  
  Christopher, Lucy's boss, navigated the tricky path of single fatherhood. Playdates with know-it-all moms, an overly-friendly neighbor, and an ex-wife whose lifelong mission is, i'm assuming, making his life hell. He also has to suffer from common misconceptions -- getting promoted over Lucy because he's a guy, and getting divorced because he left his family. Yet, Christopher manages to rise above it all, being a competent boss to his colleagues, a dependable friend, an admirable ex-husband, and a doting father to Ava.
  
  Pining over Gabriel, an ex, is Miranda's deal. They broke up because unlike her, he's not on a fast track to the altar. Not just yet. And despite that, Miranda is holding on to hope that Gabriel will finally come around and finally share her dream of marriage. But that doesn't happen. The stunt she pulls at a cafe not only severs the chance of a reconciliation with Gabriel, but it pushes him to propose to the woman he's now dating. You'd think Miranda will go all Julia Roberts as in My Bestfriend's Wedding, doing everything in her power to stop the wedding. Instead, she tries, no matter how hard, moving on, going as far as placing a personal ad on the papers.
  
  Two hours before her wedding, Roxy, in full-blown heavy make-up and a veil on her head, crossed the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan to start her life over. She's a runaway bride (and yes, that's another Julia Roberts movie reference). All her life, she has lived rather predictably. At twenty-five, she's expected to marry her boyfriend of nineteen years (yes, nineteen, they've been together since they were six). Everyone expects her to get pregnant and have her and Robbie's baby within a year of their wedding. Her mother and mother-in-law believes she'll follow in their footsteps of being a devoted wife, serving three-course meals every night and spending time with family every Sunday. But Roxy wants none of that. She knows she loves Robbie, but she's not sure if she loves the idea of marrying him and living the lifestyle she's expected to settle with.
  
  The Breakup Club is free of too much drama. There's a right dose of emotions that elicit compassion and sympathy (empathy, even) for the characters, without sacrificing the realistic approach that the book wants to achieve. We get a glimpse of everyone's sorrow, and the balanced negative and positive effects of their heartbreaks give the reader an opportunity to relate more with them.
  
  They say grief has five stages. I think the same applies to heartbreak. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. And we go through these stages with them. Though not heavily elaborated, we understand and feel what they feel -- the pain, the hardships, the challenges -- and when they finally start to let go and move on, we cheer for them.
  
  At the end of the book, out of the four of them, only Roxy ends up with someone (spoiler: it's Robbie). But it doesn't mean that there's no happily-ever-after situation for Lucy, Christopher and Miranda. This just goes to show that we don't need to be in a romantic relationship to be happy. Lucy has Amelia. Christopher has Ava. And Miranda, aside from having Lucy and Amelia on her side, realizes that whoever she's meant to end up with will eventually find his way to her.
  
  Never have i felt so empowered by a book who's grim title should have been just that, grim. And when every piece of their life begin to fall in the right places, Lucy, Christopher, Miranda and Roxy toast the name-change of their little group, from The Breakup Club to The Wake-up Club, and honestly, i really wish that Melissa Senate is now busy writing a sequel with that exact title. :)
  
  For me, The Breakup Club deserves 4 out of 5 stars.
• 
  Sarah Hadd

  I think I have this figured out now. I was thinking like 2 years ago that I was over Red Dress Ink style chick books and I just couldn't do it anymore. But I liked the one I read last year. And I really liked this one. Do I think my secret to continuing to enjoy these books that got me back into reading as an adult is to read one per year. 😉👍🏼
• 
  Heather

  Ok, I keep switching my star rating on this book, mostly because I couldn't decide where I stood. So I did what needed to be done, and I read the book again (thankfully it is a quick read).
  
  I switched the rating back to three stars and am now confident this is where is belongs (Possibly a two, but I am being generous).
  
  The first half of the book built things up and I was really enjoying where it was going. However, right about the middle of the book the author kind of dropped the ball. The characters (some) were wrapped up in like a paragraph; which I suppose was to show their epiphany. However, it was crap. Four characters in the book and only one got a half-decent ending.
  
  
  Definitely not the best book written by Senate; however I liked her other work and will write this one off as a slip.
• 
  Jen

  I'm sad it's over. Couldn't believe it when I noticed how few pages I had left. I realize it's not a book about happy endings, but rather one about learning to accept the shit that happens in life, get over it and move on. Still... I want to know more about what happened to everyone else AFTER!
• 
  Dawn

  Great characters! Fun story (given the topic) Really liked it!!
• 
  Cat Gray

  Entertaining. A super fast read.
• 
  Jules

  Easy, breezy read. I read this book in about a day, which is fast for me. The characters were endearing and varied enough to keep the book interesting and the story moving along.
• 
  Kelly

  Cute, quick read. I liked how everything didn’t end up perfect at the end.
• 
  Carol Ann

  Meet the Members of the Breakup Club…
  
  Lucy Miller-Masterson: Superstar editor of bestselling books, supermom to a precocious preteen and superwife of a hot doctor…until she learns her husband's New Year's resolution is "Leave Lucy."
  
  Miranda Miller: Stuck under her big sister's shadow, this twentysomething editorial assistant hopes her perfect ex-boyfriend will come crawling back…with a diamond ring.
  
  Christopher Levy: The women at the office think he stole Lucy's promotion. The moms at the playground think he broke up his family. But this weekend dad can think only about figuring out fatherhood.
  
  Roxy Marone: This Brooklynite shocks her traditional family when she skips her own wedding to hop a train to Manhattan for a life-changing job interview.
• 
  Elusive

  ‘The Breakup Club’ is about four characters who go through a painful break-up and bond due to this similarity. In the process, they become friends, learn from their experience and find ways to overcome their problems.
  
  Initially, the chapters alternate from one character to another. I’d expected to feel uninterested in at least one storyline since it’s not easy to make all the characters appealing or to make their situations compelling. However, it was a pleasant surprise to find that each character is distinctive both in personality and voice. Plus, their situations were all very believable and one thing that I really liked was how there was a balance of the good and bad. Instead of painting break-up as something completely awful, the author found ways to show how it can help some to discover what they really want or to make better decisions.
  
  Lucy is a senior editor at Bold Books. As she juggles between spending time with her family and working hard to get the promotion that she’s been coveting, she finds a note written by her husband Larry and discovers that his New Year’s resolution is to leave her. Therefore, she begins wondering why he’d made that resolution, resulting in her blaming herself for not trying hard enough despite knowing that it really isn’t her fault. This impending disaster was handled very realistically especially as it involved her consideration for their daughter Amelia in terms of how she’d react to Larry’s decision.
  
  Meanwhile, Lucy’s sister Miranda works as an editorial assistant at the same company and is still obsessed with her ex, Gabriel. Although it has been six months since he’d left her, she still hangs on to their memories (literally and figuratively). She tries to move on by dating other guys but deep down she keeps hoping he’d come back to her. It was frustrating to read about her not giving up even when evidently it’s the best thing to do but simultaneously it’s easy to feel sorry for Miranda. I liked that even though she was pining for a guy who’s never coming back, she never came across as pathetic due to her personality.
  
  Christopher is the guy who gets the promotion Lucy’s been longing for. After his wife Jodie cheated on him and subsequently left him for another richer guy, he still does his best to be a great father to his daughter Ava. He also realizes that many women tend to be patronizing towards him as if his gender means that he wouldn’t know how to be a good parent. Christopher was really likeable as he was extremely patient with the nasty Jodie and completely devoted to Ava.
  
  Roxy comes from a uber-traditional family, thus shocking everyone by running away from her own wedding. She ends up getting the job she’d wanted at Bold Books. However, her former fiancé Robbie refuses to give up on her. It was fun to read about Roxy as she made such a bold decision and had the guts as well as the determination to stick to it until she figured out why she didn’t want to marry Robbie despite her feelings for him.
  
  The ending was somewhat abrupt and it would have been better if an epilogue had been included. Anyhow, it���s a surprisingly good book with a blend of realism, humor and melancholy.
• 
  Margaret

  Having been disappointed with Senate's The Secret of Joy, I almost just passed this one over. I'm glad i didn't.
  
  The Breakup Club is pretty much what you expect from the title and yet it had a fresh twist. No angst, not a lot of drama and self-pity, and embarrassing pleas for the ex to please, please come back. (Well, not so much, anyway.)
  
  Each of the characters was in a different breakup situation and yet the four of them came together to form a friendship based on personality rather than on just the fact that they were all in a broken relationship.
  
  Lucy found her husband's New Year's resolution to leave her...but, come on, he never kept his resolutions before, right? Turns out it's not a Happy New Year for Lucy.
  
  Miranda, Lucy's younger sister is still trying to believe that her one and only will return unlike her many other "love 'em and leave 'em" guys. He really has to come back. She has a wedding dress!
  
  Roxy is ready to walk down the aisle with her first and only boyfriend. They grew up together and now the day has come that they will seal their fate just as they always knew they would. But, wait! Does Roxy really want to marry the only guy she's ever dated, kissed, uhm...had sex with???
  
  Christopher's wife left him but anyone who finds out that he is a single father of a one year old can only conclude that he walked out on his family, probably for another woman. I loved the fact that a guy was included in the "club" and that he was totally devoted to doing the best for his daughter. For once, a guy was not the "bad guy".
  
  The reader learns of each character's story in individual chapters in which they are the narrators, and yet the four interact together to tell a story of friendship, support, and encouragement. The characters were not over-the-top, desperate, weepy or full of bitterness. They were each trying to just figure out where they go next in their lives. The seemed real and so did their stories. The ending was a happy ending and I closed the book believing that these characters were all going to be ok.
  
  
• 
  Lisa

  Fun, fluffy and definitely a quick read, I typically enjoy Melissa Senate's stuff as the more intelligent of chick-lit authors whose heroes and heroines tend to have depth and character and are interested in other things other than finding the right guy or landing the right job. Senate's books already remind me that what you think is right for you, may be right for someone else and vice versa; which I think is definitely a very good thing to address. But this time around, in The Break-up Club, the introduction of the four characers, each told their story from first person narrative wasn't as complete as I know Senate's work can and has been. Sentate is usually excellent with character development but I felt like this was a rush job. I liked the premise but I wanted more of the "break-up club" to get their crap together, well, together than having each story told out and repeated. It feels like Senate started out with a great story and the break-up club became a second point much later on -- when in fact they don't actually meet and schmooze each other until more than half-way through the book. Perhaps I'm being overly picky, but I've seen Senate do much better than this and I expected more from her.
• 
  Janel

  This easy flowing story follows four New Yorkers, 3 girls and 1 guy after recent break-ups in their lives. After the reader gets to know them individually, the characters eventually intersect during the story through a common work place and form their "Break-Up Club". This was a wise book full of truths about life and love. It gave me a lot to think about, and I ended up really caring about these people and what happened to them. Many reviewers here seem bummed about the ending, that things were left up in the air, but I really didn't feel like that when it was over. It was good to see these characters come out on the other side of their heartbreak and get strong.....although maybe a "One year later" epilogue would have been fun. I'd recommend it. A very smart book!
• 
  Arjaye Nitro

  oh well.. was a member but now no more... not because i have someone, but because im not broken anymore.. i woke up! from all the pains and miseries and heartaches life brought me. they are right.. so i prefer to call this book my wake-up club! haha there are points in my life which i can relate with the characters esp. roxy and miranda.. but be reminded of these points just made me stronger and much thankful i chose the right decisions in life. im glad ive experienced bad things so as to appreciate good ones. thats the lesson of the book. way to go for my first book of 2014. #positivevibes
• 
  Charity

  This novel is told from all four main characters' perspectives. Lucy, Miranda, Christopher, and Roxy are all in different personal situations, but they all have something in common...they can't be with the ones they love. This was a wonderful read and I was really sucked into their lives. It could have used an epilogue, but perhaps there will be a sequel.
• 
  M

  Love Melissa senate, she has engaging characters and her books are fun to read. This book intertwines the stories of a man and three women who work together in a publishing house and are all going through different types of break ups. I didnt want it to end! I would love to see a spin off book of any of the characters..the stories never really ended.
• 
  Brandy Y

  I picked this up as fluff for an airplane ride, and actually rather enjoyed it. It's about a group of editors, and has a cutting comment about "irregardless". Overall, a great way to blow four hours. :)
• 
  Dawn

  I didn't have high hopes for this book when I got it on sale at the B&N Bargain Bin, but it turned out to be really good! I was hooked from the first chapter, and finished the book off in about a day. My favorite and most relatable character in this book was Roxy.
• 
  Jennifer

  Cute chick lit about 4 different characters dealing with various relationship problems. I enjoyed it but felt like it ended a bit abruptly, in that really only 2 of the characters had their plot arcs wrapped up.
• 
  Melissa

  This isn't a bad book, for what it is--fluffy chic lit. I read it in a few days while on the bus to work. However, there is no ending! The book just...stops without wrapping up the story lines. I felt cheated and will think twice about reading another one of this author's titles.
• 
  Shannan

  I liked how this book was organized. The stories of each character were told in the first person, so the chapters alternated voice. The characters were all well developed and interesting. I still miss Roxy.
• 
  BookOfCinz

  First book by Melissa Senate, she did a really great job until the end. It was as if she didnt finish writing it, the story just ended, no wrap up nothing. The reader is left to form their own opinion. Otherwise a well written book, just a major disappointing finish.
• 
  Barbara Elsborg

  It passed a few hours in the sun but I didn't like the way it ended. I DID like the different perspectives on love and losing love. The characters complemented each other well and it was easy to read. But I expected more somehow.
• 
  Elizabeth

  This was a really nice book. Just four people trying to figure things out. There weren't happy endings wrapped in elaborate ribbon and wedding preparations but there were people bewildered and confused getting a little less bewildered and confused. Easy and quick to read.
• 
  Amanda

  This book needed more of an ending. I wish the author would have written one more chapter to kind of wrap everything up.
• 
  Synova

  I liked the way this story was told, the end was just a bit anti-climactic for me. I would like to see where all the characters are at now though!
• 
  Sarah

  This book will make you laugh out loud. It is highly entertaining, albeit very light, reading.
• 
  Melissa Imhoff

  Cute and fast read.