Jessa is an over achiever, involved in all sorts of sports clubs and activities including drama. Her boyfriend, Sean, is also into drama, but when she catches him making out with the girl everyone refers to as 'boob job' in the costume trailer, her life feels like it's collapsing. Even worse, the three of them are about to depart on a drama club trip to Italy, something Jessa has been wanting to do forever. Watching Sean and his new girlfriend making out on the plane is sheer agony for her. Little does she know that Carissa, her best friend and fellow drama lover, who couldn't come, has prepared twenty tasks for her to do on the trip as a way to get over her broken heart.
Jessa isn't pretty or even smooth about handling heartbreak and the tasks assigned to her. There are moments when you want to wring her neck and she's pretty stubborn about doing some of the assignments, but ever so slowly, some interesting things happen to her. The hurt starts to fade, aided by the new crush dumping Sean and taking up with a boy from the other school that joins them on the tour once they reach Italy. Jessa starts to evaluate herself and begins to question whether she's as together as she's always believed. Italy opens her up to some new ways of looking at herself as well as accepting that she might need to own part of the breakup. It takes her a while, but she starts moving past Sean as she re-evaluates her life. When she gets to task #18, 'define the instructions for a broken heart', what she writes and reads to the group during the last creative session before they come home, is as good a piece of prose as I've read in years and is something every teen should have available to read when they're experiencing a breakup.
This isn't a perfect book, but it's a good read and one I'd suggest to teens who like drama, Italy or who have been through a breakup recently. ( )

I started this book and BAM! I was hooked and heart broken. Written exceptionally well, Ms. Culberston captures her readers with a great story line that we all experience.

What I liked most about this book is the great plot line. Getting over a breakup/cheating significant others is hard. And it even harder when you have to watch them on a school trip! How messed up is that?? I like that through out the plot line the main character, Jessa, grows so much and learns so much. I like how she saw things differently. Some of the things she said made sense. I adored that she stood strong and got some revenge. Though she learn some of those thing did not make her feel better.

The characters of this book are very well develop. I adored the Jessa's friends who help her along the way. There were some other nasty secrets that were revealed that made me gasp so much. I am not sure how Jessa is able to handle everything but really this girl got her some back bone. I think I would have had a break down if that were me.

The love interest in this book isn't all developed but I like it like that. It left hope for the reader and hope for Jessa that their could be another love. Not all is lost, but that Jessa gain knowledge and experience. I can say that the ending of this book did leave me smiling. I adore that Jessa grew up. She never thought she see the light at the end of the tunnel but she made it.

This is a great book a love that is once had but lost. A love that she thought would stand the test of times and didn't. A great coming of age story about love and it's experiences. What is true love anyway? As Jessa begins her new life, she answers many questions she never thought she get. ( )

I hate when I read a book and feel really dense for not getting it. I feel like I should have felt sympathetic towards Jessa and relate to her heart break after having her heart crushed by a slime ball boyfriend but I really couldn't and found it hard to figure out why I should like her at all. If you know why please let me know. I know she's a teenager and just caught her boyfriend rolling around in a tongue lock with another girl but from what we begin to see maybe she did bring it upon herself. She gets so caught up in herself and what's going on in her life that she's oblivious to what's going on around her even with those who are her supposed best friends. Then she obsesses so much over the break up she can't even enjoy herself the tiniest bit even though she is traveling to all these amazing destinations, seeing places I can only dream of and meeting wonderful people like Dylan Thomas, a funny, nice guy, from another school. She even has the nerve at one point to accuse one of her best friends of being distant because he meets someone else on the trip and stops paying her attention 24/7. Then there are all these little things she finds out about her relationship with her boyfriend and best friend that gives you the impression that she was pretty self-absorbed even before the break up.

The other part that wierded me out was her relationship with one of the chaperones Mr. Campbell. Maybe it's the way I read it but some of their interactions seemed totally inappropriate for a teacher/student relationship even if the teacher is young and cool. It would not have been so bad if amidst all of her misery and confusion Jessa acts rashly and does something she knows is totally inappropriate but I got the impression that even though the teacher knows it's wrong he wishes he could pursue it.

The only part that I found fun in reading this book was the wife of one of the chaperones from the school that joins Jessa's school on the tour. The comments that come out of her mouth are so unbelievable that you just have to laugh. She's the epitome of the ugly American tourist and you can't help but feel sorry for everyone that has to travel with her. Other than that this book was quite the let down for me. There are several other things that bothered me but I don't want to get into as it would start giving away bits and pieces of the story but they just did not flow well in my opinion and never came together in the end. ( )

Instructions for a broken heart by Kim Culbertson
Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews

Three days before her drama club's trip to Italy, Jessa Gardner discovers her boyfriend in the costume barn with another girl. Jessa is left with a care package from her best friend titled "Top Twenty Reasons He's a Slimy Jerk Bastard," instructing her to do one un-Jessa-like thing each day of the trip. At turns hilarious and heartwrenching, Instructions for a Broken Heart paints a magical Italy in which Jessa learns she must figure out life-and romance-for herself. (Synopsis provided by goodreads)

I first heard about this book on another book blog, it sounded like a lot of fun. I found Jessa to be a very fun and very believable character. The different instructions that her friend had her do ranged from the simple to the outrageous. However they were all fun.
This book was a very fast light fun read a good beach read. The interactions between all of the characters felt real and the dialog was witty.
I loved the conversation towards the end of the book that Jessa has with Natalie. The book had a wonderful ending and I enjoyed the whole thing.
I had an issue with an inappropriate interaction with Jessa and one of her teachers. But Culbertson never made it seem okay, she made it very clear that it was inappropriate, so that made me feel a little bit better about it.
The images of Italy were very vivid and made me want to visit. I'd read this one again.

* Paperback: 304 pages
* Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2011)
* Author: Kim Culbertson
* Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars
* Cover art: I love the cover art.
* Obtained: My personal bookshelf. ( )

Warning: If you loved/liked this book or if you don’t like to read spoilers, please don’t continue with my review. I’ve got lots of spew and spoilers to share, and I feel I’ve earned the right to do so seeing as this craptastic story threw me into a book slump for close to two weeks! I actually hissed at my beloved Nook… HISSED!!... every time I picked it up trying to finish Instructions for a Broken Heart it was that bad IMO!

I usually reserve the One Star Honor Rating for books I simply can’t finish, but I’m breaking my book rating rule for this sucktastic book. The writing was contrived, the characters were annoying, and the plot was poorly executed. I’m surprised I even finished it considering how many times I fell asleep trying to read it or how often I almost threw my Nook against the wall because of my irritation over the characters and the writing.

So let me start off with the characters.

I could not come to like Jessa Gardner the MC… AT.ALL!! She had no qualities I found likeable. She’s such a whiny, constant crier that for the love of GAWD wasted a dream trip to Italy by angsting over her ex-boyfriend who was nothing but a cheater and a nasty jerk. This annoying girl really wasn’t a strong enough character to carry the story and how she made her break up with her boyfriend a public part of the school’s trip to Italy had me rolling my eyes so often that I might have suffered from permanent eye-ball damage. Boo!!! Seriously, she traveled Florence, Venice, Sorrento and Capri… some of the most beautiful places in the world and she wasted it over a BOY! I wanted to yell at her… “GROW UP!” Then during the trip, she attacked her teacher’s face and tried to choke him with her tongue. I think she was out to ruin the trip for absolutely everyone, not just herself. Poke my eyes out… PLEASE!

Next, Dylan THOMAS. First off, let me say, drop the THOMAS. Dylan is a nice, stand-alone name. Adding the THOMAS makes him sound pretentious, and it just reminds me of Justin ENOS. Not necessary. Okay, he was such a minor character in this entire story and … spoiler alert…. Jessa ends up with him!?! Really?!? I missed the catch there. I could not understand why he even hung around with Jessa, and he fell for her as she cried over her ex-boyfriend and angsted over how unfair life was that Sean cheated on her and Natalie had bigger b00bs than her. I would buy it if they had known eachother for a while, but Dylan THOMAS met Jessa during the school trip, and the only exposure he had with her was watching her throw orange soda on Sean’s face and dispairing over his cheating ways. Yeah, that came off a bit contrived.

Also, Tyler and Carrissa… yeah, I wouldn’t call them quality friend material. They both lied to Jessa about Carrissa making out with Sean. I don’t think I could easily forgive or forget that. Maybe with time, but she let that go too easily IMO. So what I’m trying to say is that even the secondary characters sucked arse.

Now on to the writing. I was choking on the similes, metaphors, and comparisons used throughout this book. It actually became a game to see how many I can spot. So pretty much, the only motivation I had continuing with this book was finding another distracting comparison. That’s how disconnected I was with the storyline. Some of the comparisons were so contrived I have to point them out:
“…her own voice sticky, thick, sounding like she’d swallowed cotton.”
“Last thing she needed was a reflection like that right now, like a Smurf with the stomach flu.”
“Jessa shook her head as if she could clear the image of Sean and Natalie like the Etch A Sketch app on her dad’s iPhone.”
“Being around Jade was always a bit like being glazed with fairy dust.”
“The red head had a laugh like a howler monkey.”
“The dawn spread across the Italian countryside like syrup.”
“…their relationskhip, not even fully formed, like a bubble emerging from a wand…”
“…his calloused hands, like a butterfly on my arm…”
“She ran her hands through her hair, the red like blood in the torchlight.”

Ugh! See what I mean?!?

Lastly, there were little mysteries that were thrown in here and there and when their big reveals occurred, they were so poorly executed and so contrived that I’d practically lose it!! For example, the mystery of Jessa’s scar on her arm. She’d keep making up stories about how she got the scar and at the end we find out she got it when she was five and cut her arm climbing under a fence. Okay, that was a waste! Then we find out that the only reason Giacomo joined the trip was not because he got kicked out of school… REBEL! BUT, because his mother kept the key to his lockbox and all he wanted to do was meet his boyfriend in San Franscico. Ugh! Another waste! Then, we find out Natalie didn’t really get a b00b job but it’s a “condition” that runs through her family, where the women grow big b00bs in a matter of months. GAG! Lastely, we find out Dylan THOMAS has a thing for Jessa, for what reason, I have no clue and she suddenly decides she’s over Sean and texts Dylan THOMAS to get a thing going. I’m done! This book sucked!

There was a part of me that wanted to add a Song Choice at the end of my review, but I’m not going to waste a song on this book. It just wasn’t for me and I’m really surpised I finished it. It should come with a serious Book Slump Candidate Warning. I can’t recommend this to... well... anyone. ^^ ( )