Review: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers

By Lynn Weingarten
Available now from HarperTeen
Review copy
Read my interview with Lynn Weingarten

Lynn Weingarten made a splash with her terrific debut WHEREVER NINA LIES. Weingarten explores some of the same themes in THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS, but she does so in a different genre and with plenty of twists.

Lucy Wrenn just got dumped. She spent all summer pining after Alex and first day of school . . . dumped. But popular classmates Olivia, Gil, and Liza come to her with an offer. If she can make a guy fall in love with her in a week and then break his heart, then she can have magic. She can be a Heartbreaker like them.

At first, I was very suspicious of Olivia, Gil, and Liza. Their more sinister moments had me yelling at Lucy, "Haven't you seen The Craft?" And it took me awhile to connect to Lucy, who beings THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS as a very clingy, needy young woman. I feared where the book was going.

But YA is a genre of bildungsroman. At the core of THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS is Lucy's growth as a person. She needs to recognize her positive qualities, her talents, and appreciate herself. She must love herself to have any power.

By the time I finished THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS, I felt bad for ever doubting Weingarten. It does not end how I expected, at all, but it's a perfect ending. THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS is magical story and even, at times, heartbreaking.