Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Book Review: All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen

All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publish Date: December 11, 2012
ebook, 304 pages
Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary
 ISBN: 9780761462750





My Review:
I'm not sure I can do justice to this book and not give anything away.  I loved this.  It enthralled me, I did not want to put it down and when I had to put it down to sleep, go to work, cook, you know do all those mundane things, I could not wait to pick it back up again to find out more about Liv.

Liv is intriguing from the start. She awakes from the coma and does not recognize her Mom or her Dad and has no real memories.  So of course the reader, being me, was intrigued and wanted to know more.  Ms. Madsen then proceeded to give me more in little bits and pieces through dreams and things that Liv remembers at various times, but are they true?  Liv isn't sure, I wasn't sure.  Thankfully to keep her from going crazy Liv has Spencer to lean on.  But of course things aren't that simple.  Liv is also trying to walk the line between being friends (and possibly more) with Spencer and remaining with the popular crowd that seems to have singled her out from the first day.  I like how Ms. Madsen used typical high school situations as a backdrop in this book while Liv is trying to figure out who she is.  It made it all the more powerful to me.  Spencer is also a great character and friend for Liv because he has demons of his own and to find out more about him, you must read the book. But I will tell you I loved Spencer even though I wanted to choke him at times.

The plot speeds along with the memories, and Liv and Spencer's friendship growing against the backdrop of fitting in or not fitting in at high school.  I enjoyed every page of this book.  Though I felt the ending was just a bit rushed, I still felt it was a satisfactory and bombshell conclusion that was fitting of how the book was paced and plotted.  When I walked away from this I was kind of sad it was over, but happy with the conclusion of the book.

All the Broken Pieces was a stellar contemporary Young Adult novel to me.  It was suspenseful, it had romance (and not a love triangle) and an interesting premise.  It's an interesting novel about finding yourself even beyond the amnesia angle and that's one of the reasons I loved it.  The amnesia just added to it to make it suspenseful.  If I read books for a second time, this would quickly go on my list to read again, it was just that good to me.  So check it out if the premise interests you, I don't think you will find your time wasted while reading this one and I think you will find a new author to add to you shelf when you are done like I have.


My Rating: 4.75/5.0


About the Book:
What if your life wasn’t your own?

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?


About the Author (from Goodreads.com): 
Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they’re sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children.

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FTC Information: I received this book from Entangled Publishing for an honest review.