An utterly delightful, darkly humorous romp through Hell and back.

Mica - short for Micaela - feels smothered by her three best friends, her small town in Vermont, but most of all, by her abuela. When she has a meet-cute with hot newcomer Sam in a bookstore, where he borrows a book from her, Mica quickly feels like Sam's the only one who supports her dreams.

The only problem is - ever since Sam and his sister moved to town - strange things have been happening. Mica and her best friend, Zee, have been having visions of literal hellfire, and seeing creatures that shouldn't exist in the shadows. Plus, all four friends seem to be developing magical abilities. Mica's sure it has something to do with the death of her mother, yet another thing her abuela won't talk to her about.

This paranormal fantasy borrows heavily from Biblical, Catholic tradition, including starting chapters with verses from the book of Revelations. The first half of the book builds characters and chemistry, while the second half dives into nonstop action as Mica tries to save her town from whatever's come their way.

Mica's dark humor made me think of another recent phenomenon: Wednesday Addams from the Netflix series. I loved seeing the events through Mica's eyes. Plus, Mica has smoldering chemistry with two different boys - hottie bad boy Sam and loyal best friend Rage. She says: "What startles me most is the realization that when I'm with Sam, it's like there's a tunnel and everything blurs so all I can see is him. But in that moment with Rage, nothing faded away, but the only person I wanted to see was him." Mica will have to decide which boy - and which future - is right for her.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read. I found myself slogging through the second half of the book but I did love the characters. I just hoped the story would have been a bit more exciting. But that's a personal preference. I know a lot of people
that will enjoy this book.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Breakup From Hell was entertaining, fast-paced, and fun to read. When you break up with the son of Satan, it might literally mean the end of the world. It is a YA fantasy, mixed with elements of Catholic Lore, horror, and the paranormal. There were also many moments with lots of humor. Fans for Lucifer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural will enjoy this.

However, I did find the writing a little choppy, the pacing was often uneven. Parts of the book were slow, others were fast. It took me a while to get into the story, and I wasn’t hooked until the last quarter of the book.

I requested Breakup from Hell because I run a book club at school for my students and I like to preview books before we read them together as a group. I do think this is one they would love!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for this ARC!

I really wanted to love Breakup from Hell, but it just wasn't for me. It skewed more to the younger side of YA, and I just never really connected with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for ARC!

This book was such great fun to read! I wasn't really expecting too much going in, but I was in for a surprise. Ann Davila Cardinal creates super strong characters. I loved the infusion of Puerto Rican culture with Mica and her abuela. Her friends were so feisty and funny.

It was a great pace, and the romance was realistic. I great journey of a book.

This one ended up being a lot different than I expected. It’s definitely on the younger side of the YA genre. I thought this was a really fun and interesting premise, but I just wanted more. I feel like it could have been a bit longer and more detailed to really envelope you in the story and the world. I never really felt completely drawn in, it almost felt like a few “somethings” were missing. I didn’t really feel Mica and Sam’s chemistry at all. I think part of it was everything happened so fast that one second, they were falling for each other and the next fighting. The pacing was a bit off for me. I did really enjoy Zee, Barry and Abuela. All three were really enjoyable characters. Mica herself, I went back and forth on. One minute, she was badass and the next super whiny. There were some enjoyable moments (demon possessed cows), but overall, this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mica is interested in the new boy in town, until she discovers that he's not who she thinks he is. But then, she's not who she always thought she was either...

Breakup From Hell never quite hit its stride. The premise was good, but the characters were quite flat and uninteresting. The plot was fast paced - but a bit too fast, and there was no time to care about what was going on. It didn't resonate with me, but the idea was still good and I hope others enjoy it more!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for this ARC.

I wanted to love this book so bad. It just wasn’t for me. Something seemed off or to be missing.

Please read and form your own opinion!

Breakup from Hell by Ann Davila Cardinal is a really good Young Adult romantic comedy that YA readers will absolutely love! I read this book in one night and I couldn't put it down.

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

"Breakup from Hell" was a little dumb, but I had a good time reading it. Our MC, Mica, lives in Stowe, VT, and goes to a Catholic school with her three equally weirdly named best friends. She's ready to get the eff out of her small town and escape the clutches of her overly protective grandmother when a hot new guy moves in. All Hell breaks loose from there.

For the most part, BfH is a pretty fun read. For a YA book, it was pretty light on the nearly-genre-ubiquitous social commentary, which was a really nice change of pace. There is a love triangle, but it wasn't too annoying, and the insta-love that was present made sense given the plot. I genuinely enjoyed that BfH was a pretty classic story of good vs. evil - they don't really try to justify or philosophize away any demonic misdeeds, and the MCs have a pretty healthy relationship with their religion, which was also nice to see. I'm personally an atheist, but many people benefit from having religion in their lives and it's kind of rare to see a positive portrayal of that subject lately. Don't get me wrong - I want to see some negative portrayals too! But balance in all things, yada yada.

The writing was pretty juvenile, and I definitely think this leans toward the younger side of YA, despite some semi-graphic imagery. The tone was pretty light despite the subject matter, which I didn't personally care for but makes sense given the intended audience.

*ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review*
Oh 2.5 star ratings... where do you fall? No big dealio, just keep it realio.

Let me start off by saying, the plotline for the book was absolutely spectacular, and it's great to see more diversity in YA literature. The story was absolutely enthralling and worth the money alone.

However, where my interest fell off was the execution of the novel. The novel read much more akin to books like the Percy Jackson series, or titles that you'd typically see written for tweens. The first two chapters alone had me cringing from the very copy-paste like conversation about books (Parental disagreement about said reading material, connecting to new person over books and discussion of needing a ton of books on vacation, etc.). Additionally, the romance/break up was incredibly fast-paced, which I get is kind of hard to flesh out in a shorter novel. But it would have been nice to see more there.

Not to mention, my personal disinterest in the way religion was encapsulated in this novel (I kind of get why religion needed to be involved, but it just created a lot of unnecessary friction in my opinion).

Thusly, 2.5 stars mostly for the plot.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I rate a 3.5

This was a fun read. Who knew that breaking up with your kinda-boyfriend could bring the end of the world? Literally.

Not many books nowadays have religious undertones in them, much less BEING religious altogether. As a religious person myself, this book was a breath of fresh air with laughs and biblical drama.

This concept could have definitely been added to, stretched, and developed into multiple novels. It felt too short and too much "skimming the surface" to be a 4.

I loved this book so much! It reminded me of Supernatural and will have appeal for a wide variety of YA readers. Highly recommend.

I didnt love this book but i didnt hate it. Some parts of the story were corny and felt off. But it didn't ruin the story. i think that everyone should give it a chance.

This book had the potential to be really good but ended up being one-dimensional. Mika is a bit too much "not like other girls," and insta-love is the catalyst for the whole plot. If the author had taken time to build Sam and Mika's relationship, I would have been more connected to the characters and what was happening to them. The pacing was super inconsistent. At times, the book dragged, only to throw a ton of information in for ten pages, then slow down again.

Breakup from Hell will also rub certain people the wrong way, when it comes to the religious aspect. It bordered on being sacrilegious and almost flippant to religion. I could not tell if the book was trying to mock Catholicism or not. This is super important for readers to know before picking up this book; it has a very specific demographic, and if you are a practicing religious person, I would advise you to just find another book.

What would happen if we took Lucifer, made it YA, and also got inspired by cheesy (not in a bad way) early 2000s TV shows? This book.

This story follows Mica who is a high school student. She lives with her grandmother and has a seemingly normal life. One day, she meets Sam (albeit in weird situations, like a church) - this radiant and fun guy who seems to have her heart from the first second they meet. They start hanging out and dating. But his influence is bad on Mica - she starts lying to her family and friends and these weird visions of Hell on Earth won't leave her alone. This leads to Mica discovering the truth about Sam, herself, her friends, and the town.

I will not be going into spoilers but not only does the author mention Netflix's hit show "Lucifer", but so many plot points/mythology is also taken from it. I don't think the author anticipated a truly unhinged Lucifer fan to read this but here I am. There's one thing that is only mentioned in s1 of the show once or twice but here it's mentioned a lot. That's among other stuff I will not be mentioning - because of spoilers!

I thought this was the younger age range of YA literature and since I'm in my 20s, I found it quite cheesy and sometimes even cringy. It felt very naive to me but I think it's not a bad thing, it's just targeted toward a different audience/age range.

I also didn't see the connection between Mica and Sam, so their inevitable breakup did not hit me at all.

Overall, this book was not for me (which is sad) but I am utterly obsessed with the cover - it is stunning.

3/5 😈

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was invested from the first page. This was an interesting topic for a book I definitely liked the supernatural aspects of the story. I would totally read more and want to learn more about the other characters, if the author writes a sequel.

I received a copy of Breakup From Hell via NetGalley to read and review.


I’ll be honest, around halfway I almost did not finish. I felt Breakup From Hell was being pulled in too many directions. Was this paranormal? Romance? Horror? There were elements of each going on with no real direction and I had no idea what the real story was. Around 60% we finally get some answers and things start coming together. I would have liked a short scene of Mica’s mom to start the book- like the vision Mica has later. Then at least as a reader there’s a backstory as an anchor.

Where Buffy meets Lucifer meets Twilight, this fun, campy YA book exists. I was sold based on the blurb alone, but as I read it I realized it really had the perfect blend of paranormal romance, teen angst, horror & comedy. I really felt like I was in the middle of a Buffy episode rooting for her to take down the Big Bad of the week, and I really hope this author turns this story into a series because it has the potential to be an awesome world for more stories!

This book was really marketed perfectly and was exactly as it was described, which is so hard to find lately! I’m really excited to read more from this author soon.