The Truth About Heartbreak
By: B. Celeste
Genre:
Forbidden Romance – ✔
Cheating – ✔
Brother’s Best Friend – ✔
Angst – ✔
Release Date: June. 3, 2019
Blurb
I fell in love with him when I was thirteen years old.
He was older, mysterious, and unattainable. The guy I could never touch.
Then one night changed everything for us. But there was one huge problem.
He belonged to her.
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My Review
“The truth about heartbreak is that there is no such thing. It’s your soul that shatters, along with every fiber of your being that screams for another person.”
The Truth About Heartbreak by B. Celeste. My heart literally BROKE while reading this. I mean seriously, ALL THE FEELS! I know that cheating is a HUGE no-go for some readers but I urge you to give this one a chance, it will be worth the displeasure of the cheating aspect. I know that there is nothing I can put into this review to accurately describe how beautifully amazing The Truth About Heartbreak really is, but I’m going to try. Told from dual POV we follow along the decade long journey of River James and Everett Tucker.
Given up for adoption when she was just a baby River has spent her 13 years of life being bounced from foster home to foster home. Some homes were a lot worse than others…
Until finally, the James family comes along and offers to bring her home.
River finally has a chance at a forever home but once she gets there she has a hard time adjusting. She worries that she won’t fit in, the James’s have money and are so put together, and well… she’s not.
“I just hope they’ll let me stay when they realize how deep my scars really go.”
Oliver, A.K.A Ollie, quickly becomes her closest confidant. He is the typical older brother, looking out for River, making sure that she’s OK and helping her to adjust to life in the James family, along with Ollie’s best friend Everett.
Everett Tucker has been through his fair share of tragedy and is a permeant staple around the James house. Everett immediately feels a bond with the quiet, timid girl and seems to be able to understand River in a way that most people don’t, he sees past the walls she has painstakingly erected in order to protect herself and sees the kindred spirit inside of her. But Everett is 17, Ollie’s best friend, and River is the 13-year-old troubled, untouchable little sister.
“River James will always be mine. Even if she doesn’t want to be. Even if she can’t be.”
Over the course of a decade, River and Everett’s friendship grows… but so do their feelings for one another. What started as a friendship evolves into so much more. But a romantic relationship between the two threatens friendships and family ties. So they continue to deny their feelings and spend years fighting their attraction to one another and breaking their own hearts.
Until one night, after 10 years of fighting their true feelings… they don’t.
Gahhhh this book! Forbidden/taboo romance is one of my favorite genres so as soon as I saw the blurb I knew this one was a must for me. There are books that just stick with you, that a year from now something will happen and you’ll remember that one phrase or that one sentence and you’ll smile, or you’ll laugh, or maybe you’ll tear up. This is THAT book.
River, god that girl is the DEFINITION of a survivor. The things that she has suffered and the scars that she still bears, both mentally and physically from people that were supposed to care for her… I just can’t even put it into words. Absolutely heartbreaking. The James’s saved her life. That family, including Everett, through patience and love, broke through River’s walls and showed her what love and family truly is.
Rhett, God that man infuriated me sometimes. There were many, many times that I wanted to shake him but I can also understand why he did what he did and although he did many things that hurt River, I never once doubted his love for her. Ultimately everything he did was for her, even if it didn’t seem like it at the moment.
Watching these characters grow from teens to young adults while trying to figure out their evolving relationship while navigating through the many obstacles that stood in the way was nothing short of amazing. Especially River, going from that shy and timid girl to a woman who voices her own opinions and isn’t scared anymore and who is finally willing to open her heart to love.
It’s been a couple of days now since I’ve finished this one and I haven’t even picked up another book yet (very unlike me!) I am having the WORST case of book hangover ever and nothing is grabbing my interest since I put this one down. I was just so emotionally invested in this one that I *sigh* I just can’t even put it into words and I’m very rarely left speechless, but TTAH left me speechless. There was one single word spoken that brought me to tears, enough that I actually had to set the book down before I continued.. it was… heartbreaking, tragic, just… *sigh* everything.
This is a fairly long read but honestly, I didn’t mind at all. Although there were parts that I could skim, I didn’t want to. For the depth that she has developed in both of these characters and this decade long journey, it was absolutely perfect.
The secondary characters play are all amazing and play a huge role in both River and Rhett’s life and from what I have heard is there is going to be a second book, an interconnected standalone featuring two of the secondary characters that is going to be just as taboo and forbidden as The Truth About Heartbreak.
The Truth About Heartbreak, a tumultuous love story between two people who against all odds found strength and hope in one another, has stolen the top spot for my favorite read of 2019! Thank you so, so much B. Celeste for this amazing, beautiful story.
If you like your romance full of angst, and emotion, that’s both heartwarming and tragic, with a heroine who has beaten all the odds, then I HIGHLY recommend The Truth About Heartbreak.
***So I just had to add this in, this is B. Celeste’s DEBUT BOOK!!!! There is no way?!?! Did she write under another name or something before this?! I just can NOT believe this is her FIRST book!!!! HOLY SHIT! If this is what she’s putting out FIRST then OMG I can not wait to see what comes next! Sign me up for WHATEVER it is, I am a life long fan B. Celeste!***
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Still not convinced?
Check out this excerpt!
PROLOGUE
River / Present / 23
The velvet caress of silk sheets against my bare skin leaves me hyperaware of what I’ve done. Early morning sunlight slips through the cracked blinds and kisses my exposed back, coating the room in soft pinks and yellows.
Steady, rhythmic breathing sounds from behind me. In, out. In, out. It’s a melody that makes my muscles lock, too afraid to reacquaint my eyes with every dip and curve of chiseled muscle displayed inches away.
His natural musky scent wraps around me, overwhelming my senses until my heart thumps wildly in my chest. It doesn’t take away the memories of lingering touches, gentle kisses, and an overpowering sense of belonging. And less than twelve hours ago, I belonged to Everett Tucker in ways I never thought possible in the ten years of knowing him.
His touches scorched me.
His kisses burned me.
And his body…
The mattress dips with the shift of his weight. I hold my breath, waiting to see if he’s awake. When his soft snores echo in the half-empty room, I release the breath and white knuckle the sheets against my breasts. Carefully, I sit up and squeeze my eyes closed like it’ll soften the blow of reality.
I wait for the pounding headache or quake of unavoidable nausea to punish me, but my conscience reminds me of what I already know. I wasn’t drunk last night. What I’ve done can’t be blamed on alcohol.
My hand drags across my bare neck until my heart thunders in pure panic over my missing possession. I swallow my anxiety when I catch the silver chain resting on the night stand and remember the very moment he took it off me.
Nothing but skin. That’s what he said he wanted between us. I’ve only taken this necklace off to shower and sleep. It goes everywhere with me, the silver paint palette and brush charms sweeping over my heartbeat as a reminder that he cares. But in the moment I had him as more than a wish, a hope, a dream, he didn’t want it lingering.
Nothing but skin.
My fingertips touch the newest charm, a cracked heart, and I suck in a short breath when the contact shocks me. Clenching the sheets tighter to me, I turn slightly to peek through my peripheral and see a tussle of dirty blond hair against my starch white pillow case.
Look, my conscience taunts. Look at him.
Slivers of tan skin make their way into my sight as I shift, my gaze drifting up the mountain of hard muscles that form his toned biceps as they wrap around a pillow. Worrying my bottom lip, my heart summersaults in my chest when the curve of his square jaw comes into view. The sharp line of it is coated with early morning shadow that he’ll shave despite preferring a thin layer of stubble.
He looks peaceful when he’s sleeping; the hard edge he normally radiates eased to a laxed slumber. From this angle, I can see the faded white scar that stretches from the bottom of his left ear along the curve of his throat, landing just above his pulse. You wouldn’t know it’s there unless you know the story, and he doesn’t tell just anybody.
But I’m not just anybody.
Especially not now.
My throat tightens from the emotions lodging in the back of it as I scope out his sculpted body. He works hard for every muscle, spends countless hours in the gym or training at the fire department, and it shows. The man sleeping beside me has been a figment of my imagination that I’ve conjured thousands of times, but his body is a masterpiece I never could have perfected unless I saw it in person.
I absorb the memory of his body spread on my mattress, bare to me. Every vulnerability laying in a mess of sheets, open to pull apart and dissect and regret when the sun fully rises.
Less than twelve hours ago I belonged to the minty eyed boy I’ve loved since I was thirteen. But Everett Tucker isn’t mine to love.
He stirs when I rise from bed.
“Everett,” I whisper brokenly, my heart shattering inside my chest. I can feel the pieces splintering apart as I choke out my final words. “We made a mistake.”
About The Author
B. Celeste
B. Celeste is the alter ego of Barbara C. Doyle.
Her obsession with forbidden romance enabled her to pave a path into a new world of love, sex, sin, and angst.
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