Book Review: The Home for Broken Hearts

By Melissa Amster

This past spring, I found Rowan Coleman's personal and fan pages on Facebook and saw the cover of her latest book, "The Happy Home for Broken Hearts." I was immediately intrigued. The cover looked adorable and the concept sounded very interesting. I've read a lot of amazing books about widows and had a feeling this would be just as amazing, especially knowing Ms. Coleman and how much I already enjoy her books. It is now being released in the US as "The Home for Broken Hearts" with a different, but equally attractive cover design. However, this is quite a change from her previous books about motherhood.

"The Home for Broken Hearts" is about Ellen, a woman recently widowed and left to fend for herself (and her 11 year-old son) financially. She lives in a beautiful Victorian home and doesn't want to let it go so easily. Her sister suggests that she should take in boarders and charge rent. The result of this suggestion creates huge changes in Ellen's life and causes her to reassess her marriage and everything she thought she knew about herself.

While this book had a different feel from her previous books, I thought it was beautifully written and carried some important messages. It touched on a topic that I've never read about in any other chick lit novel. I don't want to give anything away though! I loved how she created such interesting and contrasting characters and how they all interacted with Ellen in different ways. She even stepped outside of Ellen's world a few times to get into the heads of some of these other characters. Throughout the novel, Ms. Coleman took Ellen on an emotional roller coaster and has invited her readers along for the ride.

Overall, "The Home..." had a similar feel to a Marian Keyes novel. (Seeing as I'm a huge Marian Keyes fan, I am not complaining one bit!) I feel that Ms. Coleman has taken her writing to new heights this time around and she has even inspired me to write more, as a result. I really don't have anything to criticize, other than sometimes the introspectiveness of the characters could be repetitive. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, as I still can't stop thinking of this story and definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a refreshing and thought-provoking novel.