Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf

Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Walker Children’s
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 368

Summary:Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness

My Thoughts: When I first saw this book, I knew it was one that I just had to read. And to read as soon as it was released!

Breaking Beautiful was a great novel, even though it had its sad moments.
We are introduced to Allie who has been dating Trip. They have been the perfect couple, at least on the outside. Trip is popular, everyone likes him, and his family is very influential. Allie is pretty average and hasn’t lived in their town her whole life. She also has a twin brother named Andrew. He has cerebral palsy.

Allie and Trip are the couple everyone wants to be. Because of his popularity, he always has people talking to him and wanting to hang out with him, which Allie thinks is great at first.

One dreadful night, Trip and Allie get into an accident and Trip is killed. Allie can’t remember much of anything, or at least so she says. All throughout the novel, we get flashbacks of the night of the accident. I was never really 100% sure what happened until the end of the novel.

Allie is in mourning and everyone expects her to stay that way. She has a friend who is a boy named Blake, and everyone gets the wrong idea about them. Nobody thinks she should be moving on, so when they get closer, everyone starts to really shun her more.
Allie and Blake’s relationship progress, but not without complications. Blake has a past of his own that he can’t live down.

Breaking Beautiful was an intense novel. I knew from the first few chapters in what was going on. I knew that Trip wasn’t such a great guy like everyone thought. The clues were there. Her blaming herself is a classical sign of abuse, and I just wanted to tell her it was ok and things would be ok.

I really liked all the characters. I could understand how Allie was handling everything and I liked her brother and how strong he really was. He was very supportive and caring. I also liked Blake and who he really was.

Overall: I really loved reading this one. Breaking Beautiful is a great contemporary novel, even though it isn’t all rainbows. It was a very emotional debut book. I was happy to read it because I wanted to know the whole story behind the accident and how everyone was involved. 


I can't wait to see what Jennifer Shaw Wolf has up her sleeve for us next.

Cover: Its neat. I like the red high heals and how it shows the side of the road.

What I'd Give It: