Synopsis:
My story isn’t a love story … not the typical kind anyway.
As a lawyer, I’m used to discovery, but I never saw this one coming.
Every day, River gives me ten reasons to stay away, and then eleven reasons why I can't. Our relationship was to remain strictly business, or at least I tried.
Four years of marriage, and everything with Cole has changed. I never knew two people who lived together could be so distant. But I’m not ready to give up on him.
One man wants to break me.
The other is just trying to get even.
Both are lying to me.
My thoughts after reading...
I was so stoked to get my hands on an advanced reader's copy of this book! I'm a huge fan of Lisa's! When It Rains is one of my most memorable reads ever! I mean, how could it not? It only made me ugly cry soooo bad. I looked like a friggin troll the morning after! It took me days to get over the book hungover... thats days people!
Okay...so Break Even. According to Dictionary.com, it's an adjective—having income exactly equal to expenditure, thus showing neither profit nor loss... And according to Merriam Webster, it means— having equal costs and income.
I was trying to connect the title in accordance with the story... I was warned beforehand about the "twists" and "turns", but man...I did not expect those—AT.ALL. Like AT.ALL...
It left me feeling... puzzled? stunned? crazy? frustrated? angry? conflicted? tossed into the industrial wringer? like the rug have been pulled from under me? Yeah, well. I guess all of the above.
Let me just say, for the record... I don't condone cheating. Cheating is a conscious decision. I've been cheated on before and it sucks big time. It does permanent damage to your self-esteem and to your whole person... As a reader and for simply just being human, I kept my mind open and see things through each character's viewpoint... to empathize and sympathize... to reserve judgment until the last page was turned.
I was so prepared to start a diatribe but in doing so, I wasn't sure how to avoid giving away spoilers... this right here is tricky so I'll try my very best not to give any...
In a way, I can relate to Marley...all of it... the resentment... feeling insignificant...a person who's trying hard to hold it together when deep inside you're crumbling into pieces... someone who puts on a mask because pride or self-preservation is still important despite the circumstances... But sooner or later something's just gotta give. We're only human afterall. Like what was written in the synopsis, one wanted to break her and the other just wants to get even...she's pulled in two different directions.
It's human nature to take happiness however they can. It doesn't sound so nice, but it's the honest truth. I mean I'm all for selflessness and martyrdom but hypocrisy aside, I think deep down everybody just wants to be happy—and each character definitely took their own slice of happiness regardless.
I tell you... honestly I felt that, that conspiracy thing in there was a bit farfetched. No person in their right mind would do that to another, especially to someone they claim to have loved. It was just so malicious and so heartless. Ugh! I can't even!
I felt like pulling my hair off because it was that friggin frustrating! I dont know why people couldn't just say, "I don't like you as much anymore" or "this isn't working for us anymore"... that they would just rather go through an elaborate and deliberate way of being a shitty human being... I know there's no easy way to break someone's heart, but that was just so...so evil. But then again, greed can do that to a person.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to get rich or powerful but when we lose sight of what's really important in life...when we deliberately hurt others just to rise to the top, then we can conservatively conclude that money is the root of all evil.
I guess we could say the book is aptly titled because the characters got what they deserved...both the good and bad. But if there's a future novella in the making, I hope the male antagonist will have it real bad... like hell-on-earth life bad. I gotta tell you, I have yet to get over his actions! Lol
The story was definitely engaging...completely riveting. I finished reading the entire thing overnight. The feelings that the author put into words were so raw, so uncontrived and guileless, it made you one with the characters...
There is a lot I want to say but I'm afraid to give more away.
This story will teach you how to place your trust on someone with utmost care... that not everything—good or bad—is usually what it seems... that something good can come out of something bad... that there is no stigma in failure. We all have failed in our lifetime at one point or another, but what matters is how we rebuild ourselves after that.
To the fans of Covet by Tracey Garvis-Graves, Tainted Black by Shanora Williams and Collide by Gail McHugh, this is definitely the next book to read.
Book will be out December 27th, 2015.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Preorder on the link below:
Break Even
by Lisa De Jong
Link: http://amzn.com/B019A7GNNG