Book Review: How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns

 How to Mend a Broken Heart

by

Rachael Johns

There are a million ways to break a heart.....

but is there only one way to mend it?

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

 

Imprint: HQ Fiction

 

Publication date: 5th May 2021

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 448

 

RRP: $32.99 AUD

 

Format read: Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

Felicity Bell has struggled to move on after her marriage broke down. Her ex has found love again, her children have their own lives, and it’s beginning to feel like her only comfort comes from her dog and her job as a taxidermist. So when Flick gets an offer to work in New Orleans for a few months, she’s drawn to the chance to make a fresh start.

Zoe is ready to start a family with her husband, but when he betrays her, she’s left shattered and desperate for a change of scenery. Joining her mother on the other side of the world to drown her sorrows seems the perfect solution.

Although both mother and daughter are wary of risking their hearts to love again, Theo, a jazz bar owner, and Jack, a local ghost hunter, offer fun, friendship and distraction. But all is not as it seems in New Orleans…

A chance meeting with Aurelia, a reclusive artist who surprises them with lessons from her life, prompts Flick and Zoe to reassess what they want too. Can all three women learn from the past in order to embrace their future?

 

My review

 

I'm so glad I read The Art of Keeping Secrets first. I now have a real feel for Felicity and her reason for fleeing to New Orleans grabbing at a chance to move away from the trauma of her marriage breakdown.

You know when you finish a book and you want more....well this is the more!

 

Whereas the first book The Art of Keeping Secrets is all about the three friends Felicity, Emma and Neve, this book is Felicity and her daughter Zoe's story.

 

How to Mend a Broken Heart is, as the title suggests, about healing, moving on and opening up to new relationships.

As much as I loved Flick and Zoe's stories and growth the real hero of this book is New Orleans. I absolutely loved all the descriptions of the buildings, the music, the people and the food that makes New Orleans so fabulous and unique. Rachael Johns brought it all to life on the page. Now overseas travel has been closed for what feels like forever this is the perfect novel to armchair travel across the ocean and experience the delights of New Orleans.

 

The sights are introduced through bar owner Theo, who also adds a little romance to the story, and ghost hunter/tour guide Jack. I particularly liked Jack's morals and good humour. Zoe was a broken woman when he met her and he didn't take advantage of that. An element of mystery was added by the elderly and eccentric Miss H who befriends Zoe and I enjoyed their cross-generational friendship.

 

With How to Mend a Broken Heart Rachael Johns takes her readers on a heartwarming story from Australia to the streets of New Orleans with its jazz bars, street parades and ghostly happenings. It's a story of letting go of the past and embracing new beginnings.

 

My rating  4 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

  Rachael Johns is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a diet Coke addict, a cat lover and chronic arachnophobe. She is also the bestselling, ABIA-winning author of The Patterson Girls and a number of other romance and women's fiction books including The Art of Keeping Secrets.

Rachael rarely sleeps, never irons and loves nothing more than sitting in bed with her laptop and imagining her own stories. She is currently Australia's leading writer of contemporary relationship stories around women's issues, a genre she has coined 'life-lit'.

Rachael lives in the Swan Valley with her hyperactive husband, three mostly gorgeous heroes-in-training, two ravenous cats, a cantankerous bird and a badly behaved dog.

Rachael loves to hear from her readers.

 
 
 

 Challenges Entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge AWW2021

 

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