*~*Unbreakable by Rebecca Shea Blog Tour*~*

Jessica Harper is the epitome of perfection. She’s a good daughter, makes excellent grades, and always strays on the safe side of life. The last thing she thought would ever happen was falling in love with her best friend’s brother. But sometimes fate just has a way of bringing two people together.

Wide receiver for the University of Arizona, Gabe Garcia, seems to have it all. When his feelings for Jessica come to surface, Gabe will give up everything to be with her.

But what happens when a tragedy abruptly changes the course of your life? For Jessica and Gabe, everything they thought they knew about each other will be questioned. Sometimes, there are scars in life that are cut too deep to completely heal.

Will their love prove to be unbreakable, or will it shatter and prove fate is just another lie?

*This book contains mature subject matter and is not intended for those under 17 years of age.*

 

My heart falls to my stomach when I see her slide into the driver’s seat. “Don’t go,” I whisper. “Love me enough to stay.” My head falls, and my chest is constricts. Tears are threatening to spill out of my eyes as I focus on the cement stairs I’m sitting on while the SUV that has my heart is driving away.

Unbreakable by Rebecca Shea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

3.5 ‘Infragilis’ Kisses

Emotionally my heart is a freakin mess right now. My feelings are raw and I’m just all over the place. I was merrily reading Unbreakable when I got bitch slapped/blindsided/knocked on my ass around 50%. That’s fine – I’m cool with that, bring on the emotional turmoil – I love it when books do that to me. But…if only that’s where it stopped. Let’s see if I can make sense of the mess that is my brain + this book.

Jessica Louise Harper…what can I say about Jess. She’s a very well rounded girl given the fact that she grew up without her mother and her best friends family basically raised her. I can’t even imagine having the only other parent left in your life bury himself in work because he can’t cope. It’s hard…emotionally, mentally, all around suckville. Over the course of the book my love for Jess never wavered. My heart broke for her…I may not have agreed with some of the choices she made, but I couldn’t fault her for making them. I think a lot of it was also me remembering she’s very young…she’s just graduated high school/started college, and she has a lot of growing up to do. Regardless, it takes a very strong person to have lived the life that she has lived and I find her very brave.

‘Those lips will be my downfall.’

Gabriel Garcia – oh my dear sweetheart Gabe. This boy has the biggest heart…all he wants to do is love her. That’s all. He’s known her for 14-15 years and he knows this girl is it for him. There is no doubt in his mind and I felt that to my core. Jess has grown up with his little sister, like I said she practically lived with his family, so they don’t have to worry about the ‘getting to know you’ stage – they know each other! So what else is there to love about Gabe? He’s hot and sexy, he wants to be a firefighter and he’s so overly protective over Jess, it’s just melted my heart. He’s also got this caveman thing that comes out…mmmm…it’s good stuff. I don’t know how else to describe him…he says all the right things and aside from being a slight work-aholic, which there is a very good reason for that, he’s pretty freakin perfect IMO.

‘Leaning in, I press my lips to his and taste a slight hint of the beer he had been drinking minutes before.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” he asks.
“For loving me.”
“I’ll never not love you.” Those words melt me a little more every time he says them. I press another kiss to his mouth, this one a bit deeper and more aggressive.’

This book was a pretty emotional read for me. I really loved Jess and Gabe together. At times it was over the top and possibly bordering on a little cheesy, but it was still that give-you-a-big-goofy-grin-while-you-role-your-eyes cheesy. It didn’t bother me enough to stop me from liking the book. What did was how the ‘situation’ was handled, or rather not handled. (For the purposes of not spoiling, I cannot discuss what the ‘situation’ is.) I felt like ‘it’ was brushed over, never really discussed and I didn’t like that. At all. It was traumatic enough and I don’t need all the gory details but I don’t want to be left with questions either. But at the end of the day around 50% my heart was just shattered. And it just kept getting more painful.

‘I allow myself to cry again, not for me but for Jess. For that broken spirit I just left crying in her bathroom, for everything that has happened to her and everything I couldn’t do to protect her.’

I never lie about when books make me cry…I take it as a badge of honor that someone else’s words can evoke that kind of emotion from me. This is an usual type of cry. This is a heartbreaking cry because you’re dealing with the unfixable. No one is really in control of the situation. The people who are breaking had nothing to do with the cause. It’s sad because you cry for the injustice, you cry for the pain, and you cry cause you can’t do a fucking thing about it. I hurt for both of them. I understood both of them. It just hurt all around.

‘She reminds me a lot of myself, not long ago. I want to be spicy again. I want to be fun, and friendly, and eager.’

So…I can’t spoil…but basically Jess has to leave. For herself, for her education and future, and for many other reasons – she needs to leave California. The only good thing that comes out of this is the knowledge that Gabe isn’t the only piece of drool worthy candy in Unbreakable – SURPRISE! Trust me…it’s a happy surprise. At first, I felt like my eyebrows were going to go straight up my forehead and into the sky. You can’t get me invested in a couple like I did with Jess and Gabe and then just flick a switch and try to change the scenery on me. But if anyone can sway me…Landon Christianson…or Officer Christianson, would be the one to convince me to change my mind. First of all…he’s a cop…isn’t that the hottest thing ever? Mmm…handcuff’s, yes please. 😉 So clearly, he had me with the cop thing, but then the blue eyes, blonde hair, gorgeous body, tattoo’s, motorcycle – need I continue? He’s just allllll kinds of yummy. And he doesn’t do relationships…but he wants Jess. Here’s where my other red flag come in.

“What are you afraid of?” he asks me quietly, running his finger over the bandage on the inside of my wrist. Looking back to me, he waits for his answer.
My throat tightens as I form the words. “Everything. I’m afraid of everything. I’m afraid to feel again. Being numb is easy.” Now I’m the one looking out over the water, his grip on my hand tightens.
“Look at me.” I turn back to meet those perfect blue eyes. Were they are normally full of life, they are full of sadness and hurt. His day old stubble sits perfectly along his chiseled jaw line and around his chin and mouth. “Never be afraid to feel. It’s the only way to really live. If you don’t feel, there is no way you can love, heal, or forgive. You’ll never move forward or get past this. You have to forgive, Jess.”
“What if I’m not ready to forgive?”

The first half of the book is very well developed on the side of Gabe and Jess’s relationship – for obvious reasons, but…with Landon and Jess I feel like I got cheated. They spend a whole two months together during which Landon really develops feelings for Jess, this is completely opposite of his character BTW, but we don’t get to see any of it. I had a huge reader’s jump when he makes a statement how he feels – it’s was like Woah! Wait a minute…where did that come from and what did I miss over those two months?!?! Cause…damn, someone needs to fill me in. It seemed rushed to me. It was all logical, but for me it felt like I missed a few steps, if that makes any kind of sense.

‘The most important lessons I took away: it’s okay to hurt and to be broken, but it’s also imperative to forgive and heal. You have to feel to be able to love. But most importantly, every girl needs a tattooed bad boy to teach her to really live. That boy needs to kiss her like she’s never been kissed, to put her on the back of his motorcycle so she can feel the wind on her face and in her hair, take her for her first tattoo— and to let her go when he knows he’s not the man she really needs.’

End of the day…I did enjoy the book, I don’t want that to be mistaken, the characters and story line are completely solid and the emotions are there. It’s a beautiful story and I loved watching the growth that Jess had over the course of the book. And what makes Lisa the happiest book nerd in the world? When books turn into series!!!! Well…it’s not a ‘series’ but…that’s just semantics. Landon is getting his own book!!!! SQUEE!!!! Oh let me tell you how badly I want to read Landon’s book…just the taste of him in Unbreakable was enough to wet my appetite…I have a feeling I might need those handcuff’s to restrain me! 😛 Bring on Undone!

 

 

 

View all my reviews

 

Rebecca is giving away:
5 ebooks
10 signed paperbacks
$25 gift card (Amazon or B&N)
GRANDPRIZE is a Kindle Paperwhite

Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway

Rebecca Shea lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her family and her first “kid” her beagle, Miles. From  the time Rebecca could read she has had a passion for reading and books. Rebecca spends her days working full-time in the financial industry as a marketing manager. Born and raised in Minnesota, Rebecca moved to Arizona in 1999 to escape the bitter winters. When not working or writing, she can be found on the sidelines of her boys football games, or watching her daughter at ballet class. Rebecca is fueled by insane amounts of coffee, margarita’s, Laffy Taffy (except the banana ones), and happily ever after’s.