The Art of Breaking Up is a fun YA Romance that hits on some hard topics. This book is set in Australia (I am from the US) so some of the slang and terms were not familiar to me.

This book is about a senior in high school realizing that she is in love her with best friends ex-boyfriend, all while juggling her parents getting a divorce and juggling what goes along with moving on to the next stage of life after high school.

The male main character talks openly about his suicide attempts, depression, and therapy. I think this component of the book is very well done and it was nice having the male character be the one that was open about his mental health and not the female.

This a semi-bully romance due to the two main love interest always being at each others throats verbally. They have a lot of back and forth, along with witty banter which I thoroughly enjoyed.

While it did have the typical happy ending I really enjoyed the plot, character development, and the overall story. The only thing I would have like to have seen was the characters be a bit older because it was hard for me to envision 17 year olds having a friends with benefits relationship.

I went back and forth between giving this 4 and 5 stars, but when it came down to it my heart told me this is a 5 star book, because of three main factors: 1) I didn't want to put it down; 2) I finished it in less than 24 hours; and 3) it brought back so many emotions and memories from my own high school experience - both good and bad - in a way that I hadn't experienced before.

Norah and Wade's story resonated with me because of how many events paralleled my own life, maybe not in exact detail but in emotion and emotional reaction. Their love story & path to finding each other isn't clean but it happens in the way that is necessary for them, which is something that I think is lacking in many YA books at times. Relationships aren't always pretty & perfect, it takes breaking up with situations to find the way to be together, and this book resonated with me on those counts. Plus, it is always fun to read books about other parts of the real world - in this case Australia - when 99% of the books I read are either based in the United States of America or in fantasy worlds. This book also touches on some mental health issues, but it does so in a way that I found really respectful. Overall, as long as you go into this book keeping in mind location (i.e. if you are from the U.S. you aren't upset that they are drinking at 18 because that is legal in Australia) and context (these are high schoolers trying to find their way in life) this is truly a great book.

This book comes out in early June of 2021 and I highly recommend that you pick it up.

Received an early copy of this book from net galley and it was a pleasure to read. This book has so many feels and real life situations. I love it when books have meaning to then and brings you into lives of people you may not have had a chance to experience before.

We meet the main characters as they are trying to navigate through their last year in high school. Two best friends and am ex, really what could go wrong, or in their case what could be really right? Wade and Norah love sparring with one another, after all wade is the one who broke her best friend heart. But things start to get serious at home and Norah feels lost until she finds a distraction in wade.

This book not only went through their relationship growths but also talked about some serious issues. Norah's parents were going through with getting a divorce even though they hadn't said it to them and she didn't know how to handle it well, until wade helped her see the light at the end of the tunnel. This book talked about breaking up, getting back together and the very serious tropic of depression.

You could be what seems like the most put together person in the world but when very strong feelings take over and depression settles in it's how you handle them that shows the kind of person you are. Coping mechanisms are a real thing, but healthy ones are always the way to go.

I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the rollercoaster that was Wade's and Norah's relationship. I was rooting for them until the very end. This book shed light into some serious conversation starting experiences while bringing light into budding romances. This is a must read to take a glimpse into people's lives. Depression is real.

On another note the story flowed very organically and the setting was appropriate. I can really imagine these characters with their Australian accents throughout the book. Also made me want some Maccas. Great read and I will definitely read another by this author.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I typically have a hit-or-miss relationship with Elizabeth Stevens' writing. She has books that I absolutely adore ("Keeping up Appearances" and "Being Not Good") and she has books that I have DNF'd after the first chapter. I am thrilled to report that "The Art of Breaking Up" falls firmly in the former category! Like, for real - I read this in a day. And it's not short.

A bit deeper than her typical work, this novel follows our MC Norah who overhears her parents discussing their plans to divorce and is unable to talk to anyone about it except Wade, her best friend's ex-boyfriend with whom she has an incredibly antagonistic relationship.

I don't want to dive super deep into my thoughts because I run the risk of completely fangirling and spoiling everything, but the characters in this were so well written. Norah and Wade had a dynamic that felt incredibly real and their chemistry practically jumped off the page. Their relationship is also incredibly healthy, with both of them respecting and supporting the other's struggles without venturing into co-dependent territory. I particularly loved that Wade wasn't your typical romantic lead, having his own personal struggles that don't get magically "fixed" over the course of the novel. Obviously, he's hot too, cause romance.

The secondary characters, particularly Lisa, were also so well-fleshed out. One of the things I loved most was how Stevens wrote a YA Romance where no one falls into a stereotype. Even Lisa, the "jilted ex-girlfriend" is a strong, independent female living her best life.

Stevens - I need more of this in my life!

I am a sucker for YA/NA and this book was such a fun read. The banter is great. It is hard to get the flirty and witty tone just right in the written word and Elizabeth Stevens does this well. The chemistry of the characters sparks off the page and the emotions of the characters feel real. I loved the friendship between Lisa and Norah. Friendships are often under represented or outright discarded for the advancement of the romance and the author kept the friendship relevant throughout. As an FYI, the author is from Australian so there is a few small Aussie-isms that poke through, but done so in such a cute way. This is not my first book by the author. I have read several of hers and have loved all the YA romances she has written. This book has a lot of feels like Keeping Up Appearances and Accidentally Perfect, so if you loved those, give this one a shot and vice versa.

Elizabeth Stevens never fails to make me feel all the squishy feelings. The Art of Breaking Up is no exception—her ability to make the characters’ connection feel palpable breathes new life into old tropes. Norah is realistic, flawed, and likable, even when she is burying her head in the sand. Wade was charming, and I appreciated the depth brought to his character. Their relationship built gradually on the foundation of just being their for each other, which I thought was a nice change of pace.

I also thought the treatment of mental health was stellar—I feel like the “troubled bad boy” character is rarely shown receiving therapy, so I really appreciated that this book normalized treatment and talked about depression, anxiety, and self-harm as they featured in the characters’ lives in a way that was without shame but not romanticized. Stevens also validated Norah’s feelings about the divorce without losing perspective.

All in all, this was a very cute and surprisingly complex book, up there for me with Accidentally Perfect, The Trouble with Hate Is, Keeping Up Appearances, and Being Not Good.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Releasing on June 8th is this wonderfully delightful New Adult Romance that takes you down a walk through memory lane. This story brought back all kinds of emotions that I experienced during High School and even college.

The friendship that we get to experience between Lisa and Norah reminded me of my own best friend through High School. We would at times have the same crush, but I never experienced it to the degree of Lisa and Norah during this novel. I loved the dynamic between Lisa and Norah other than the biggest secret Norah kept from her best friend.

Wade.

Wade is Lisa's ex-boyfriend and someone with who Norah finds herself going head to head and falling for him in the process. . So often, friendships are discarded for the romance in books. So I loved that this book laid such a strong emphasis on friendship and loyalty.

I also really loved the relationship between Norah and Wade. It began with them bashing head and Norah constantly being wicked towards him but throwing comments. The banter was very addictive because I used to act like that in High School. I saw a lot of myself in Norah as we go through the actions of denying herself happiness at the cost of her friendship with Lisa. Although the relationship between Norah and Wade quickly transforms from enemies to lovers, it was addictive to read. I loved how it wasn't all fluff, they discussed and worked through their problems both apart and together.

I'd definitely recommend this to romance fans! It was a quick read filled with some kissing, laughter, jokes, and everyday life problems. I found this book very relatable and the characters were well done.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this YA read as it dealt with real life issues that many teenagers experience but often don't know how to talk about. While the book surrounds the love/hate relationship of Norah and Wade, I was more drawn to their experiences with depression and anxiety. The author did a great job of making the characters relatable through a great story of personal growth and love.

This has one of my absolute favourite story lines! Misunderstood friends to enemies to lovers!
The art of breaking up is more than just a story about a boy and a girl. It is a story of family, first loves, friendships. It is a story of growing up, of finding yourself, and looking past the surface. It deals with real life issues and doesn't skirt around them.

Norah finds put her life is about to change forever and, in addiction, she might have a crush on her best friend’s previously hateful ex-boyfriend. Now, Norah mist come to terms with what is about to turn her life upside down and the feelings she might have for the guy who broke her best friend’s heart.

The Art of Breaking Up touches on important subjects such as family, depression and friendship. It is a cute read but a little slow paced for my tasting. I felt like the climax was a little too late but I also get time was needed so Norah could come to terms with what was happening, However, I liked the characters and the way the story was cliché but realistic. Overall, a 3.5 stars for me.

**This is an ARC. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this title. All opinions are honest and my own.*

I read this book in one sitting. A quick easy read. It flowed well and I actually am a bit of a sucker for an enemy to lover theme!
The banter between the the 2 characters is funny without being silly and the slow romantic build up was great. It had other issues thrown in and although set at high school I felt it had different layers to it.

This book was a great feel good book about love and overcoming obstacles. Elizabeth Stevens has done a great job developing the characters in this book. She really made me feel them and everything they were going through.

Wade and Norah start out as enemies. Their chemistry was off the chart. They are always picking and annoying each other for one reason or another. They see and sense something in one another that ends up bringing them closer together. They are able to bond over this and overtime feelings start to develop. Norah and Wade are both suffering from depression and that only strengthens their bond which is developing into something more.

I absolutely love the way the author has confronted mental illness and showed us that it can affect everyone. She really knew how to write about this and showed how we may not know what is going on in someone’s life even though we are close to that person.

This was a great read. Everyone should read this book, not just YA readers.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review; all opinions reflected below are my own!

It’s been a while since I last read a YA book that caught and held my attention like “The Art of Breaking Up” – a book which was remarkably honest and which often made me pause and re-read certain passages so as to re-experience them again. Family, friendship, love, second chances, taking risks, opening up; this book brings all these elements together and more. And it does it well.

I have a soft spot for the characters in this book. They come face-to-face with situations that aren’t pleasant and they do their best to work their way out. Sometimes it’s sad, others there is a bright spot somewhere but I found the progress of events very realistic. These are accurate issues a teenager can experience. Norah and Wade had a wonderful dynamic – dare I say, a swoon-worthy and heart-wrenching dynamic depending on the occasion. It worked so well with the development of the story and the chemistry was amazing to read about. If you are keen on stories with an ‘enemies to lovers’ element or undertone, then this book will do wonders for you. The witty banter and the comebacks had me laughing at various moments. The friendship and family elements hold significance for this book as well and so, you will find them discussed and brought up often in the book. I especially favoured the emphasis on family as we, sadly, do not get that often in YA for some reason.

The pacing was alright – it might feel a bit slow after the middle of the book but I also do think what Norah has to come to terms with requires time. Without spoiling anything, the topics of this book resonated with me a lot and I appreciated the openness and frankness in the discussions about family issues and mental health. Also the acknowledgement of how complex and scary it is to let someone in your life and your mind and how utterly terrifying life changes can be was extremely appreciated.

A refreshing YA contemporary with important messages to relay without making the story extremely heavy or difficult to read. Interesting characters and amazing dynamic. I would 100% recommend this book so make sure to pick it up when it comes out!

Being the only one who knows her parents secret is killing Norah. Being in her final year of high school is stressful enough, now pretending she knows nothing is killing her. The only person she can trust to talk about it with is the boy who broke her best friends heart. Now she seems to be falling for him too, breaking the best friend code, this is one too many secrets for Norah to keep.

This was a great Australian YA book.

Before I start, I did enjoy this book. I was able to finish it in one sitting and found the characters and their dynamics extremely intriguing. I was able to feel what the characters felt, and overall truly enjoyed the book. The friendships, the banter, the relationships between all of the characters, is what made this book as good as it was.
However, I found the writing to be a bit slow at times and I struggled to keep with it. It wasn’t the easiest to stick with, but it was worth it for the characters. Particularly, it was worth it for Wade, but I’m a bit biased as he was my favourite character. .
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend people read it. It’s an easy, light hearted, and fluffy type of read. Perfect for those who are character motivated.

This was such a fun but emotional read, it even made me cry, though in fairness I cry easily. And I cried more at the friendship stuff than the big emotional stuff, but I just really loved Norah's and Lisa's connection and I loved that the author spent time on that.

First things first, though. I really appreciated that the author clarified that this book was in Aussie English, which may seem like either a small or obvious thing to some, but I found it helpful. Then I was prepared to Google things like "Matric jumper" and I could heartily laugh at a debate between the characters whether it should be called a "twiggy stick" or a "bierstick" because I had no idea what they were talking about and the discussion tickled me (I've since looked it up and for my lingual preference, sorry Norah and Wade - and Elizabeth Stevens -, but I'll have to go with bierstick).

Secondly, the scathing banter is great. It is difficult to write something that must balance attraction and argument and I've read plenty of books where this failed miserably. Here I was drawn into the arguments and often felt the chemistry in the air and really *felt* what the characters were going through.

I loved the "SOILED" thing the auhtor came up with, very clever and I may have to steal this line for whatever future arguments I may have; "There is ALL the bullshit, Norah. So much that your arse has to be jealous over the amount of shit coming out of your mouth." LOL:

In general though, as someone who volunteers as a youth counselor in my spare time, there were parts of this book that I felt very important from a YA perspective. As in, as an adult there were some issues that I didn't relate to in the sense that I didn't think they were such "a big deal", and I had to remind myself that I was coming at it from a very adult perspective and that there are a lot of problems younger people hesitate to talk about because they don't feel it is "big" enough to warrant attention. And as a result a lot of them feel really bad but don't have a healthy outlet for their feelings because their problems can't compare to someone who maybe has it worse...
Hence, for me this book is important in the way that it doesn't minimize anyone's problems or feelings, there is perspective to be had for sure and the characters interactions reveal that, but there is still an underlying acknowledgement that the thing that is causing you distress matters and you have a right to feel that it matters. I can definitely see myself recommending this title.

Overall, much like Wade has his comfort movies that he re-watches over and over, I have comfort books that I re-read over and over when I feel a certain way and this one may qualify for that list. There were a few rough edges to the text, some repetitious word use e.g., but as I was lucky enough to get to read an advanced copy those are probably kinks that will be hammered out before publication. I look forward to getting the paperback edition and putting it on my bookshelf for those days when I need a pick-me-up.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Sleeping Dragon Books for letting me read this advanced copy and helping me find a new author to love.

The Art of Breaking Up is the story of Norah, a high school senior with a sharp tongue that is fiercely loyal to her best friend, Lisa. That is, until a life-changing event finds her in the arms of her best friend's ex-boyfriend (and recipient of Norah's strong opinions), Wade. Torn between her heart and her best friend, The Art of Breaking Up follows Norah's between a rock and a hard place situation with a lot of funny banter along the way.

The Art of Breaking Up is a fun and mostly lighthearted book, and one that took me very little time to finish reading. Norah is an engaging main character, and her friendship with Lisa is interesting to read about throughout the book. While the plot wasn't always the most original, I want to give this book extra praise for bluntly and appropriately addressing male mental health issues. This theme is not highlighted enough in fiction, and I was thoroughly impressed reading about Wade's struggles and how they shaped his actions. A quick read with well thought out relationships, I would recommend this book to any YA fan.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sleeping Dragon Books for this ARC; this is my honest and voluntary review.

This book is all about first love, mental health, best friends, and being a high school senior. In this story, our teenagers live in Australia and it's not that different from American high school seniors. I loved Lisa and Norah's relationship. Their friendship is mature and honest despite the big secret between them. The hate banter/arguing between Wade and Norah was surprisingly enjoyable and full of fun banter. I honestly wasn't expecting them to have such a deep connection or for Wade to be such a complex character. I hate everything he went through, but he was so self-aware and that is all too rare in YA books. I enjoyed reading The Art of Breaking Up, and need to check out more of Elizabeth Stevens books.

This was exactly what I needed after reading some much heavier books. The Art of Breaking Up wasn't a heavy read by any means, but it was super easy to sit and binge, and every page left me wanting more. I loved Norah and Wade, even though the speed at which they fell in love and fell into a relationship seemed to move pretty quickly. However, they didn't seem like teen lovers or naive in their feelings and maturely work through some tough issues. Overall, I definitely recommend this book to anybody looking for an "upper" and light read.

What Makes This Book A Good Book ??
Nothing Really
This Is Just A Cute And Fluffy Quick Novel To Pick Up