Title: Paper Hearts
Author: Ali Novak
Series: The Heart Breaker’s Chronicles

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publish Date: July 4, 2017

Blurb: Felicity has her entire future planned. Ever since her older sister ran away, she’s had the full weight of her mother’s expectations on her shoulders. So she works hard to get straight As and save for college.

Except sometimes the best things in life are unplanned-like when Felicity meets a handsome, masked stranger while she is volunteering at a charity masquerade ball. She never thought he’d flirt with her. And she certainly never thought he’d turn out to be a member of the world-famous Heartbreakers band, Alec.

Then Felicity uncovers a shocking family secret. Suddenly, she, Alec, and her two best friends are off on a road trip to find Felicity’s missing sister. And she’s about to discover that unexpected turns have a peculiar way of landing her right where she needs to be…

My Review: Paper Hearts is actually book 2 of the Heart Breaker’s Chronicles.  I didn’t realize that.  Or maybe I did and decided I didn’t care, I can’t remember, but it didn’t reflect in the story at all.  Anyhow, every now and then I can’t resist the whole regular person/celebrity fantasy (um, duh, Cinder & Ella!).  Also road-trip books are another of my favorite tropes.

What I Loved: I always love when I pick up a book and it doesn’t let me put it down.  That is what happened with this book.  I started it Saturday morning, and I stayed up late Saturday evening to finish it (I had other stuff to do in the middle, or else it wouldn’t have taken me over 12 hours to finish it!)

So Alec’s personality was soooooo much swoon-worthy to me.  He lacked all the arrogant famous person thing, but at the same time he seemed to take it in stride.  He was mostly just nonchalant about it – which was nice since it didn’t really take over the entire story. He also stood out as introverted to me (which is opposite of what you would expect from a member of a famous band) but it made him more appealing.  I also LOVE the band and their camaraderie.  It makes me want to go back and read book 1.

I also really enjoyed Felicity when she was with Alec and her friends. She was friendly and fun.  The chemistry between her and Alec is what kept me going for sure.

Not so Much:  So Felicity was a little yo-yo on the personality front.  She would be so awesome and reasonable some moments, and then disappear into herself and her worries. Many times she was doing things she knew she shouldn’t be – and naturally it blows up in her face in a world of misunderstanding.  It was a little frustrating.

The Verdict:  Paper Hearts was a great read – and will make for an awesome book to take to the beach!  It was very older-teen oriented, but not inappropriate.  I do think I’m going to be looking up book 1, and following these Chronicles out.

**This book was an Advanced Reader Copy from Netgalley.com; other than the joy of reading – I was granted no compensation to review this book.**