In the tradition of Jenny Han and Emma Lord, Jennifer Chen’s Artifacts of an Ex is a story of love, art, and finding your way when everything you know has changed completely.

When Chloe Chang gets dumped via USPS after moving across the county from NYC to LA, her first instinct is to throw her box of memories in the garbage. Instead, she starts buying other teenagers’ break-up boxes to create an art exhibit, Heartifacts. Opening night is going great, until she spots Daniel Kwak illicitly filming his best friend’s reaction to his ex’s box. When she tries to stop him, an intense discussion ends up launching a creative partnership and friendship… and a major crush for Chloe.

There’s just one problem: Daniel is dead set on not being another rebound.

Five times he’s been the guy who makes the girls he’s dating realize they want to get back with their ex. And he refuses for there to be a sixth. She insists she’s over her ex, but when he shows up unexpectedly with his new girlfriend, it turns out Daniel was right. She isn’t ready for a new relationship.

She throws herself into making Heartifacts successful, but flashy influencers threaten her original vision of the exhibit. To create the exhibit she’s always wanted, Chloe needs to go back to basics, learn to work with artists in a more collaborative way, and discover what love can be. Only then will she convince Daniel she’s truly ready for everything they could be to one another.

Broken up with through mail?? Yes please.

At least it wasn’t a text 😖 the mail actually requires work, right? 😅

But anyway. Chloe and Daniel are very likable. This is a quick, fluff YA story that I’ll definitely recommend to students. I enjoyed it. It was cute.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

I found the story to be sweet but this book reminded me of other books I had read before with similar plots. I still enjoyed it but for me it wasn’t anything to rave about which is why I’m only giving it 3 stars.

3 stars

Artifacts of An Ex is a touching and introspective read that will resonate with anyone who has navigated the tumultuous waters of heartbreak and self-reinvention. Jennifer Chen's ability to capture raw emotions and the complexities of moving on is commendable. Despite its flaws in pacing and character development, the book offers a genuine and relatable look at the aftermath of a significant relationship. It's a worthwhile read for those seeking a contemplative and emotionally honest narrative, even if it doesn't fully stand out in the crowded genre of contemporary romance and self-discovery tales.

Artifacts 0of an Ex was a rom com type story that just left me wanting. Overall it was a good story but I don't know if it was our MC just kind of acting like she over her ex when she not or that nothing felt real to me it just wasn't a story for me personally. With that I'm sad to say it was a 2 star read for me but I'm sure this book has an a reader out there for it.

I tried this book during two different reading attempts. Unfortunately, it is not for me, even though I love the book cover. I may not be the right audience for this book. I will not be reviewing this book on my social media accounts.

This was a great friends to lovers story. I loved how the characters grew throughout the book. There were some parts where I was on the verge of tears and there other parts where I was laughing my head off. The only real problem I had with this story was that towards the end it felt like it was dragging in a way. I would recommend this to those that love a good emotional story about love.

Thanks netgalley for the e-arc!

This book was super cute. I love the approach they had to art and making heartifacts a whole immersive project & such a successful exhibit.

I feel like the romantically aspect wasn’t as heavy and left me as meh (which could be due to it being YA) so more of my preference than a fault of the book. Chloe was so focused on her ex it started to become blahhh and the repetitiveness of “not wanting to be a rebound”… we get it

I think the main focus was showcasing friendship and relationships through the art exhibit & honestly think it could have been explored even more since it was such a great concept.

Solid cute read def recommend for a light fluffy read

While this sounded cute and the cover drew me in, unfortunately this book was a miss for me. I really couldn't connect with the FMC and found her really intolerable. I wanted to like this, but even though it was fairly short, it just never really captured my interest and I struggled to get through it.

Chloe is an aspiring art curator who recently moved with her parents from New York to LA. As if the transition isn’t hard enough, her boyfriend, Jake, breaks up with her through the mail by sending her a box of their items. This sparks her best idea yet: an art exhibit titled “Heartifacts” that displays items from other teens’ break ups. At opening night she meets Daniel, an up and coming filmmaker, and they begin a friendship and creative partnership that turns into more. Chloe makes her feelings known, but Daniel doesn’t believe Chloe is over her ex yet. Chloe has to prove that she is completely over Jake, but when he makes an unannounced trip to LA, Chloe isn’t so sure that she is.

I love the art storyline and settings of galleries and museums. It’s a different concept for a YA romance that makes the friends to lovers trope a bit more interesting. As a main character I found Chloe insanely cringey at times, but I liked Daniel and the supporting characters. All of the characters seem more like twenty somethings traipsing around LA than high school students, though, which is a minor complaint and doesn’t at all impact the plot, but it stood out to me as strange. Thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Jennifer Chen for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Artifacts of an Ex was the fun-loving book I needed this week. The characters and romance were fun and each had their emotional arc to follow. I like that the story has many layers, so it doesn't feel formulaic. Overall, it was a very entertaining book and I recommend it.

Cute, lighthearted YA novel. Going into this. I thought it was a romcom, but to me it read more contemporary fiction.

Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Would recommend if you’re looking for an easy read.

This was a very cute book and I really liked Chloe as the main character. I loved how diverse the characters were without it feeling like the author was just trying to check boxes.

The only problem I had with this book was that all the Happy Planner product placement seemed very odd. Whenever the products were mentioned it felt like a commercial for them & it pulled me out of the book.

When Chloe Chang gets dumped via USPS after moving across the county from NYC to LA, her first instinct is to throw her box of memories in the garbage. Instead, she starts buying other teenagers’ break-up boxes to create an art exhibit, Heartifacts. 💔 I thought this one was really sweet. It's a perfect lighthearted read for those who enjoy young adult stories with high school characters. I lived both Daniel and Chloe and they had a lot of great banter.

Read if you enjoy:
• ya love
• sweet stories
• high school

Artifacts of an Ex by Jennifer Chen
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When Chloe gets dumped via the mail, she gets an idea for an art exhibit. People contribute their memories from failed relationships and Chloe turns them into “Heartifacts”. When Daniel visits the exhibit with a friend, Chloe and Daniel strike up a friendship and work to build up the exhibit.
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What I liked:
-This was such an interesting idea for a story! I loved the idea for this exhibit and I think it would be so interesting to see something like it in real life.
-Chloe and Daniel’s friendship was so sweet, I was really rooting for them to get closer and closer.
-The collaboration towards the end was fantastic and I loved every minute of it.
-Chloe’s family were really awesome, and I also loved this friend group that got together.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A really fun read and I thought the audio was great.

This story is sweet, and I can see why it has such great reviews.
I did think it read pretty young YA, except for one part discussing virginity, and, therefore, this one really wasn't for me.

Alright, this book was really sweet! I think that it read a bit young YA, minus the references by the main character to losing her virginity.

I think that it was a fun plot to follow the creation of an art exhibit and feel like I would want to go see this exhibit if it were real life! The conflict of the book felt like it came up and passed a bit early in the story? I think the overall pacing just threw me off a bit.

Overall, a fun Young Adult romance book that is a very quick and easy read for the summer time!

Chloe gets dumped when her boyfriend just sends her stuff to her without talking.
She makes an art exhibit out of hers and other people she finds breakup box.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.


This book was really cute! I thought that idea with the exhibit was very clever. This is a good YA novel but I found myself suspending my disbelief with the timeline of the series of events. I thought the overall concept was cute and I appreciate the MC’s growth through the book but felt myself wanting a little bit of a slowed down pace at times. I definitely enjoyed the book!

*I received an e-arc for review via Netgalley. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity. All thoughts are my own*

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Artifacts of an Ex was my first book by Jennifer Chen. This was a cute YA romance, and good for a debut!

I really enjoyed the art aspect of the story and found that really unique! Chloe and Daniel made a great team, and I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop. I think Daniel was my favorite character, as Chloe kind of annoyed me sometimes. I also liked how the importance of family was talked about in the book. Chloe has a great relationship with her grandmother and her parents.

I would recommend to those that enjoy YA!