Title: The Break-Up Artist
Author: Philip Siegel
Published: May, 2014 by Harlequin Teen
Thanks: Harlequin Teen, AU
Pages: 308
Rating: 
Purchase: The Book Depository
Some sixteen-year-olds babysit for extra cash. Some work at the Gap. Becca Williamson breaks up couples…
After watching her sister get left at the altar, Becca knows the true damage that comes when people utter the dreaded L-word. For just $100 via paypal, she can trick and manipulate any couple into smithereens. With relationship zombies overrunning her school, and treating single girls like second class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even her best friend Val has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend.
One night, she receives a mysterious offer to break up the homecoming king and queen, the one zombie couple to rule them all: Steve and Huxley. They are a JFK and Jackie O in training, masters of sweeping faux-mantic gestures, but if Becca can split them up, then school will be safe again for singletons. To succeed, she’ll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date and wiggle her way back into her former BFF Huxley’s life – not to mention start a few rumors, sabotage some cell phones, break into a car, and fend off the inappropriate feelings she’s having about Val’s new boyfriend. All while avoiding a past victim out to expose her true identity.
No one said being the Break-Up Artist was easy.
Final Thoughts:
This book had me from the start. Perhaps it’s my current contemporary fixation, but I found this so easy to get into. I love it when I pick up a book and it just clicks with me. You’re not counting how many pages left until it ends, you’re counting them, wishing there were more. Becca was such a loveable anti-hero, championing the destruction of relationships. The way she saw the world was refreshing, albeit, cynical—but I loved that. Her occasional outbursts had me grinning. She’s that little voice in your head whenever you read something corny that everyone else swoons over.
