Hello friends! Today I have a review of “Seven Rules For Breaking Hearts” by Kristyn J. Miller, which came out in May this year.
A digital ARC of “Seven Rules For Breaking Hearts” was provided to me by St. Martin’s Press/SMP Romance via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Read on to check out the official synopsis of the book, my review, and a bit about the author.
Synopsis
Love breaks all the rules.
Margo Anderson is sworn off commitment. Alongside her best friend, Jo, she runs a viral podcast featuring rules for hooking up without catching feelings. So when Jo surprises her by deciding to get married and taking up a sponsor’s offer to host an all-expenses-paid wedding trip on Catalina Island, they have the whole internet to answer to.
In a scramble for content to appease their disappointed listeners, Margo cooks up a social experiment: Break all her own dating rules, just to prove that it’s a bad idea. And she’s found the best man for the job in the groom’s best friend and her old high school nemesis, Declan Walsh. He may be easier on the eyes than Margo remembered, but he’s sure to be as smug and annoying as he was before—there is no chance Margo will ever catch feelings for him . . . until she does.
The more time they spend together through cake tastings and wedding party activities, the more Margo can’t ignore their obvious spark, and she may actually be enjoying getting to know Declan. But can she let go of the rules to let him in?
My Thoughts
“Seven Rules For Breaking Hearts” was a quick and angsty summer vacation romance. I loved quite a lot about it, but in the same breath there were some situations that had me giving some bombastic side eye.
I was excited to find that this book mostly took place in Catalina/California. The California coast takes me back to my childhood and I loved reading about it. Catalina Island has been a place I’ve wanted to visit my entire life and this furthered that want.
Something I loved from the start of the book was the influencer/podcast/social media discourse. Being that our main character, Margo, is a podcaster, I was really unsure how that would play out because some authors get that world, and some don’t. This author definitely does. It was refreshing to read and accurate. I loved that we got to see that the way some influencers act is wrong, but equally so is the way some are treated by disgruntled people for simply being influencers.
Speaking of Margo, I thought she was likable, even in the moments where she was supposed to be unlikable. Even when she is given a rundown of how stupid her Seven Rules are and is forced to see that certain things are completely her fault, I still sort of rooted for her.
And our male love interest, Declan? Swoooooon. I love a good “he falls first” romance. Declan was nice and sweet and funny. I loved that he was extremely shy, but still brave enough to be upfront about his feelings and communicated them most of the time. I liked the whole opposites attract thing too–Margo being an outgoing influencer, and Declan being a shy engineer who likes his privacy.
Now, the few things I didn’t really enjoy about the book. Keeping on the topic of Margo and Declan, I found it super weird how Margo first reacted when Declan said that he didn’t want to hook up with her. It’s totally valid for Margo to feel embarrassed and rejected, that’s understandable. But to get angry and be mean? If the roles were reversed, Declan would be crucified for having this reaction. I was so surprised and annoyed by this that I’m not even completely sure if this was even resolved or brought back up later on in the book. I know for sure it wasn’t immediately discussed. It was sort of a downer and I found my interest dwindling after that.
I also really didn’t like the relationship with Margo and her best friend Jo. They do the podcast together, live together, and we are meant to believe that they are best friends. But throughout the book they are rarely honest with each other. How does that work in a best friendship? I also found it weird how Margo didn’t even really know Peter, Jo’s fiancé. There’s a point in the book where Margo says it was the first time she had ever been alone in a room with Peter. For childhood best friends, that’s weird.
Speaking of Jo, I wanted to a bit more about her and Peter and how they came to date. Peter is sort of passed off as an airhead and I genuinely don’t believe them as a couple nor do I see that marriage lasting from what we are given as readers.
And lastly, some things that left me wanting something more. I would have loved to see what happened with Margo’s mom and Tony. They captured my attention way more than Jo and Peter. I also was bummed that we didn’t get to see the consequences for who turns about to be the minor villain of the story. They sort of committed a crime and then nothing came of it?
Overall, I really, really liked the romance between Margo and Declan. The main couple’s romance was absolutely the highlight of this one for me as was the incorporation of social media.
★★★☆☆ = 3/5 stars
About The Author
KRISTYN J. MILLER is the author of Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts and other novels. A lifelong history nerd with a background in museum work, she finally earned her M.A. in history and museum studies at University of New Hampshire in 2023. In between novels, she spends her free time wandering peat bogs, sampling craft beers, and restoring her old colonial house in rural Maine with her husband.
Selina Falcon 