I can see the value in a book like this. I'm clearly not the intended audience for this book, but I think having authors that teens admire give them advice is a great idea. It reminds me of old newspaper columns of the sort. I would definitely recommend for a teen who is possibly struggle through their own personal relationships.

I grabbed this book on gut instinct from the names Becky Albertalli, Gayle Forman, Libby Bray, etc. But I'm glad I did. As a bitter old thirty-something year old mother, I had to view this book through the lens of what I would want my fourteen year-old son to hear, what he might feel. In that scope, these letters are all valuable and genuine (and echo some of my more "motherly" gems). Stuff about learning to love yourself before you try to love another person, about fully accepting who you are how you are and not trying to be something else because you fell like you have to keep up with others.

For what it was, it was a sweet, heartfelt book.

When I picked up Dear Heartbreak I was expecting that the YA authors had written essays on love and relationships in this anthology, but I am pleasantly surprised by the format. Each chapter begins with letters from real teens addressing their insecurities, fears, and vulnerabilities surrounding love and relationships followed by the author's or in one particular case author and her husband. The teenage writers of the letters share their stories—some in great detail, some in only a few words—and the responses are equally varied in terms of how deeply the authors reopen their old wounds. Becky Albertalli, Libba Bray, Corey Ann Haydu, and Kim Liggett reflect back on their teenage experiences, while Kekla Magoon talks about a flaw that he is presently working on herself in order to share wisdom. The authors do not sugar coat their answers and offer empathy to the teens. Topics such as mental health, unhealthy and abusive relations, survivor's of sexual assault, and the universal question of how we can be our authentic self while we are constantly bombarded by societal expectations of how we should live our lives. Some of the letters get repetitive by the alarming theme of not loving yourself and how you should complete yourself. One downside to this collection is that it only includes a few male perspectives, however, the range of emotional experiences covered is vast.

Dear Heartbreak is a collection of letters from anonymous teens to Heartbreak and responses from some of today’s most popular YA authors.

When I first started reading this novel, I was really enjoying it, but by the 6th response it seemed redundant and almost like the authors were repeating the same thing time after time. The 6th response especially made me uncomfortable due to the graphic account of rape that just doesn’t seem like something you would want to reveal to a teen that is trying to recover from sexual assault. Another major annoyance for me was the overuse of endearments like, “my sweet”, “love”, and “my darling”. It comes off as placating and I’ve yet to meet a teenager that wants to be talked down to like that. I will say I truly enjoyed a lot of the personal anecdotes, but there were two that stood out to me the best: Becky Albertalli and Sandhya Menon. I connected deeply with Becky’s to the point that I thought that if the rest of the book made me feel that deeply, I would be rating it a five star. As for Sandhya’s, it just felt tailored to that teen and she acknowledged facets of that teen that weren’t revealed overtly.

Overall I think I’m going to settle at 3 stars but this is still something that I would like to put in my classroom library because there is a lot of good advice encapsulated in this book; I just think it could have been shorter in order to eliminate some of the redundancy. I think adults forget what it is like to be a teenager and now teens are more stressed than ever, yet we trivialize what teens go through and call them dramatic, myself included. We need to stop downplaying their very real emotions and try connecting with them on a deeper level, which is something I enjoy about this book.

This is the kind of book that I definitely would have been interested in reading as a teen. To have YA authors giving advice to you directly is an interesting angle. These authors routinely put themselves into the minds of young people to tell amazing stories so they have a lot to pull from when responding to Dear Heartbreak letters. I do think the book could have used a bit of levity to cut through some of the heaviness, but at its heart it is an earnest attempt to connect on a new level with their readers.

Dear Heartbreak by Heather Demetrios is a great set of stories that deal with the hard and bittersweet side of romatic relationships that can happen between two people.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

I really enjoyed this more than I thought that I would. This book was very thought-provoking. I really enjoyed it.

I wanted to love this book, I did. I set out reading it, hoping it was going to be one of those books that gutted me in the way The Chicken Soup series did for me as a teenager. The letters to heartbreak felt (for the most part) a little vague. Nondescript letters, that while mostly relatable, didn't dive into the bigger pictures with teenagers and love that I wanted to see.

The advice was good enough, heartwarming instead of heartbreaking, which was perfect. But what I really wanted were specific, hard hitting questions, that gave me something to really feel warmed by when the authors gave their advice and feedback.

I really enjoy this book I thought the authors have good advice and answered the teens questions honestly. The downside was after a while I felt like the advice was the same. Even though I am not the target audience I think this idea is wonderful and I will definitely get this book for my niece.

DNF (did not finish)... Struggled to get to 57% of the book and gave up at 65%. Maybe it was reading all of the responses back-to-back. Maybe it was recognizing that my teenage me would have liked it, but my adult me felt it was repetitious. Maybe it was when I finally read something I couldn't fathom saying to any teen and not believing someone had been sanctioned to do so. Granted, I found many good pieces of advice, and repetition is how one learns, but I wasn't entertained or soothed by the responses written to teens. Frankly, some of the responses were inappropriate (like telling teens to go to couchsurfing.com).

I have mixed feelings about Dear Heartbreak. I loved the premise and I think there really is a place for more books like these in YA. These were actual letters from real people, not vague questions answered. This book will help a lot of people across the board, whether it's to grieve a relationship, change your outlook on life, or get the hope you need. I think we need more exploration of real life situations. Teens need more guidance and reinforcement. Parents may not be willing to discuss these sorts of things with their children or maybe the children don't feel comfortable confiding in their parents about these sorts of ideas. I want more direct contact between authors and readers.

It was hard to digest though. I wasn't excited to pick it up again and it was kind of like trudging through a marsh. It was heavy and I felt like I was forcing myself to get through it.

A great compilation from some of today's most talented YA authors. The plethora of advice, humor, and heartfelt anecdotes available here will suit a variety of young readers.