BOOK REVIEW: The Breakup Doctor by Phoebe Fox

The Breakup Doctor (The Breakup Doctor #1)

by Phoebe Fox (Goodreads Author)

Paperback, 310 pages

Published June 10th 2014 by Henery Press (first published June 6th 2014)

Goodreads synopsis: Call Brook Ogden a matchmaker-in-reverse. Let others bring people together; Brook, licensed mental health counselor, picks up the pieces after things come apart. When her own therapy practice collapses, she maintains perfect control: landing on her feet with a weekly advice-to-the-lovelorn column and a successful consulting service as the Breakup Doctor: on call to help you shape up after you breakup.

   But when her own relationship suddenly crumbles, Brook finds herself engaging in almost every bad-breakup behavior she preaches against. And worse, she starts a rebound relationship with the most inappropriate of men: a dangerously sexy bartender with anger-management issues—who also happens to be a former patient.

    As her increasingly out-of-control behavior lands her at rock-bottom, Brook realizes you can’t always handle a messy breakup neatly—and that sometimes you can’t pull yourself together until you let yourself fall apart.

Brook Lyn has her own practice along with two other friends. Then one day she comes to work and her office is being demolished with all her records and client files inside. I thought that was an awful way to get a first glimpse into Brook's life. Why would people she worked with for years and had a so called good relationship with not allow her to take all her files to a new business if the other two had decided to give up their own practices. It made me question the type of person Brook was and the type of people her partners were. Did she deserve this pain they were inflicting on her? Hum. I wondered.

Then her best friend, Sacha, gets her a gig with a local newspaper to write a column. Sacha has had a string of ex boy friends a mile long which gave Brook a lot of practice in that department. She becomes an instant success as the Breakup Doctor but when she breaks up with her own boyfriend, her life spirals out of control. She breaks every Breakup Doctor rule in the book and then some.

I was a bit disappointed that the man she meets at the ER didn't figure more prominently in the book, but I guess I can't have everything I want. 

I was nearly to the end of the book before I realized that a murder hadn't occurred which was unusual in a Henery Press book. Henery Press is all about the cozy mystery. Maybe the Breakup doc can stumble over a dead body in a future book. That would be da bomb.

This was probably one of the first books I'd read in awhile that didn't contain a murder at the beginning. I enjoyed Brook Lyn's relationship with her best friend Sacha and how knowing her helped her come to some life changing conclusions. I hated Kendall and rooted for Ben. Hope to see more of Brook Lyn in the future. I mean, she did just finish renovating her office. Great book. Good flow.

Anyway, it was a great book. I recommend it to anyone who likes romance and who likes to shout at books when characters do dumb things. This is one you will definitely want to check out.

4 Stars

I purchased this book with  my own money.