Breakable (Contours of the Heart #2) by Tammara Webber-Review, Interview and Giveaway 

Breakable
Contours of the Heart #2
by Tammara Webber
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, romance

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About the book: Release Date May 6, 2014

He was lost and alone. Then he found her.
And the future seemed more fragile than ever.

As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise — until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.

•••••••••••••••

REVIEW: BREAKABLE is the second instalment in Tammara Webber’s contemporary, new adult Contours of the Heart romance series. The storyline is told from alternating first person POVs –Lucas and Landon-using present day, flashbacks, memories and dream sequences. The story told from Lucas’s POV parallels the timeline in EASY (Book 1) and beyond; the story told from Landon’s POV covers the early years with Landon’s (Lucas) family, friends, school and the tragedy that destroyed it all.

Part of the premise follows Landon (Lucas) in the aftermath of the tragedy. We get up close and personal with a young boy/young man whose family has been destroyed; whose father is unable to cope; and a life that begins to spiral out of control. Landon struggles to survive in a world believing himself responsible for everything that happened.

Lucas’s POV follows the EASY timeline where our hero wars with his attraction to Jacqueline and his need to protect her from everyone including himself. The reader is pulled into the mind of a quiet, reserved genius who pushes away the memories and demons of the past by getting lost in his studies, his jobs, his volunteer programs and his need for the one woman he cannot have.

The world building follows several intersecting timelines that crossover between EASY and BREAKABLE. The secondary characters, especially in Landon’s (Lucas) early years are colorful, abrasive and dramatic. The reader will begin to understand the mind of a young boy as he battles the guilt that eats away at his heart and his soul; how the people in his life formed the building blocks of anger, revenge and temptation; and how a family friend would come to the rescue of a young man on a destructive path of violence and failure.

Tammara Webber writes a remarkable story that will captivate your mind; a story that is emotional, passionate and dramatic about a troubled boy who would grow up to be a responsible man but in between faces a life time of heartache and pain. BREAKABLE takes a closer look into the thoughts and emotions of Landon Lucas Maxfield as he endeavors to survive in a world of guilt and shame and, the one woman who will make it easier to acknowledge that a thirteen year old boy is not responsible for the sins of the past.

Reading Order
1. Easy
2. Breakable

Copy supplied by the publisher (Penguin)

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC: Hi Tammara and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of BREAKABLE, book two in your New Adult Contours of the Heart series.

Tammara: Thank you. ☺

TRC: We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Tammara: I wrote my first romance novel at 19 (and threw it away after deciding it wasn’t good enough – without showing it to a single other person!). I went back to school in my thirties and went to work as an undergrad advisor after I graduated. I wrote two more “shelf novels” before writing the first book I published, making Easy the seventh novel I wrote. I’ve been married more than half my life, have three “new adults” of my own, and recently – my first grandcat.

TRC: Who or what influenced your foray into writing?

Tammara: I’ve always written. You could say that Go Dog Go was the most influential book of my life. It was the first one I tried to imitate by writing/coloring a story of my own.

TRC: BREAKABLE is the second storyline in your Contours of the Heart series. Is BREAKABLE a combination of a prequel storyline and a parallel version of EASY told from Lucas’s POV?

Tammara: Yes.

TRC: What was the factor(s) behind writing the storyline from Lucas’s POV?

Tammara: When I wrote EASY, Lucas didn’t “speak” to me very much. I knew his deception, but I didn’t know his past. I literally got halfway through writing the first draft before I knew what happened to him. I had a vague idea – but nothing concrete until I woke up with it. My husband was getting ready for work, and I opened the bathroom door and blurted it out to him. We were both horrified. I thought Lucas would open up to me more after that, but nope. He was quiet until nearly a year after I published EASY. Once he finally started telling me his story, I had to write it.

TRC: EASY is the first storyline in the series. What or who was your inspiration for the premise? Is the story based in reality or a combination of factors?

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Tammara: All my stories are a combination of many factors – some real, some pure imagination. I was sexually assaulted in my early twenties by a friend/classmate; there was no Lucas for me. I didn’t tell anyone for 12 years, at which point I told my best friend. That telling was an important turning point for me – the point where I consciously realized, fully, what had happened to me. The point where I realized that misjudging that guy’s character didn’t mean I was at fault for the rape. It meant I was unlucky. It also meant I was a survivor.

TRC: How has your life changed with the success of EASY?

Tammara: It’s turned upside down – in positive but sometimes unsettling ways. I was always the supporter of my husband’s career. I had no desire to go to college after high school, but I worked at the university as a secretary to put him through. He never objected to anything I wanted to do, however, even when I did a 180 (like deciding I wanted to go to school after all). If I wanted to stay home with the kids, or work, or take classes, it was all good. By the time I wrote EASY, I’d completed a degree in English and was working for the university. Our oldest child had completed a theatre degree from NYU, the middle one was about to graduate with a BS in biology, and the youngest was finishing high school. Having a financially successful career as an author was sudden and unexpected for me (and him!), but came alongside other transformative life shifts. Maybe it was a good thing that at the time, I didn’t know how to separate all the crazy, lol.

TRC: When writing, how do you keep the plot of your novels unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?

Tammara: I actually don’t worry at all about keeping the plot unpredictable. I go straight for believability. Life is unpredictable. If I write realistically, I’ve got the problem of predictability covered as well as can be expected. ☺

TRC: When writing a novel, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Tammara: The characters direct the writing.

TRC: The mark of a good writer is ability to pull the reader into the story so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writers fail in this endeavor?

Tammara: I can only go by the emotions I feel when I write. If a character is supposed to be sad or grieving, and I’m not tearing up or outright crying, I’m doing something wrong. My favorite scene of EASY is the sorority meeting. I had chills running all over my body when I wrote that scene. I cried when I finished it. I knew I’d hit the emotion I meant to hit, as close as my ability could take it, because I felt it. As writers, we’re sometimes deadline-rushed or too focused on making something happen in a scene. I sometimes skip scenes and come back when I’m in the right mindset to write them.

TRC: Writer’s Block is a very real phenomenon. How do you handle the pressures and anxiety of writer’s block?

Tammara: I quit writing – take a walk, or read, or grab my husband and go get coffee, lunch or a drink. I bring a pad and pencil and we discuss where I’m stuck. Usually, stuck means it’s time to back up and go a different direction, even if it’s a small change. I make notes and come at it with fresh eyes later or the next day.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors or friends and family. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Tammara: My husband is my brainstorming partner and my first reader. If something doesn’t work or doesn’t sound authentic, he says so. I have critique partners (other authors) to work with once I’ve got the words down.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Tammara: I tend to think about what I plan to write for several weeks, brainstorming story ideas and making notes, before I begin writing. Sometimes I toss ideas out and start over. Once BREAKABLE is launched, I’ll be able to begin concentrating on the next project.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food – TexMex

Favorite Dessert – chocolate cake

Favorite TV Show – Walking Dead

Favorite Entertainer – my son, Zachary ☺

Last Movie You Saw – Divergent

Dark or Milk Chocolate – dark

Secret Celebrity Crush – Robert Downey, Jr.

Last Vacation Destination – Texas Gulf coast

Pet Peeve – people who cut in line

TRC: Thank you, Tammara for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the success of EASY and the release of BREAKABLE.

Tammara: Thanks so much for having me.

Tammara Webber is author of the New York Times bestselling New Adult novel Easy, the first novel in her Contours of the Heart series, and the Between the Lines series.  She is a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life.  Before writing full-time, she was an undergraduate academic advisor, economics tutor, planetarium office manager, radiology call center rep, and the palest person to ever work at a tanning salon.  She married her high school sweetheart, and is a mom to three adult kids and four very immature cats.  Connect with her online at tammarawebber.blogspot.com,  twitter.com/tammarawebber, and www.facebook.com/TammaraWebberAuthor.

BREAKABLE Buy Link:

http://widgets.penguin.com/Pages/affiliateLanding/index.aspx?isbn=9780425266861

EASY Buy Link:

http://widgets.penguin.com/Pages/affiliateLanding/index.aspx?isbn=9780425266748

Tammara and her publisher are offering a paper copy of BREAKABLE to one (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

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6. The giveaway is open to USA only

7. The giveaway runs from May 13 to May 18, 2014