Sophie Bloom is spending her forty-second birthday with her husband, her two best friends and their spouses. What could go wrong? Well the discovery during dinner that her high school sweetheart/husband has been outed as a serial cheater; that one of his conquests was best friend number one; and finally that best friend number two new about it. Sophie decides to deal with this mess by escaping to Paris where her 19-year-old daughter may be pregnant, and the possible father a forty-some year-old married man! After solving her daughters’ problems, Sophie heads to the artist enclave of Saint-Paul-de-Vence where she decides to embrace her new life. Her first act is to enter into a ménage à trois with two twenty-eight-year-olds and then take a job as the assistant to a world renown sculptor who is dying of cancer.

Does this all seem a little far-fetched? It certainly did to me. I did not find the characters particularly likeable, nor the plot at all believable. The story seemed contrived and the final romance for Sophie seemed to appear out of thin air, with no build up or support. This was a miss for me.

Former sculptor and art gallery owner Sophie Bloom has it all. A perfect husband, close friends, and a daughter following in her footsteps. When Fate's cruel hand intervenes, threatening everything she thought was constant, she must go on a journey of self-described to learn what unbreakable truly means. Full of dazzling descriptive passages and a few steamy love scenes, I really wanted to like this book. Yet, the dialogue was cringe-worthy at times, and the character development was lacking. It was also hard to relate to a woman who could drop everything and book $3000 first-class flights to Europe at a moment's notice. With that said, the story was interesting enough to me reading to the last page. Overall, a fair read-a-like for fans of Eat, Pray, Love.

I was fortunate to receive a free ARC of this book from Netgalley. The above thoughts, insights, or recommendations are my meek musings.

Unfortunately, this is a DNF (Do Not Finish) for me. The writing is poor-- I cannot stand the first-person narration style. The characters are supposed to be in their 40s, but the initial descriptions and dialog make them see more like 22 (ex. the three female friends all buy and wear the same perfume). In the middle of the worst night of our protagonist's life, she waxes poetic about her Restoration Hardware table . . . .There is a lot of bragging about how perfect the protagonist and her friends are, which is hard to swallow because it is coming from the main character's own voice. She describes herself as looking "unintentionally, pretty damn porn" on the very first page of the book. It sounded a lot like a man trying to write from a woman's perspective, but sadly our author is one of us.

Here's some of the dialog that just turns my literary stomach:
"Gabe stares back at me, mute like an Egyptian eunuch, a subservient awaiting his fate. . . . All I can do without falling apart is to focus on the Starbucks Dark Roast at his lips." Eunuch's and Starbucks in the same breath? It sounds ridiculous. I can't suspend my disbelief and focus on the plot, which had the potential to be interesting (guy gets outed for his affairs publicly during Ashley Madison scandal, woman escapes to Paris to find herself again).

Barr suffers from too-many-words syndrome. I can hear her 9th grade English teacher telling her to SHOW and not TELL. I am sorry to say that this is just poor writing and poorly constructed characters.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This book is full of betrayal in brutal and humiliating situations.

I enjoyed the novel and loved the ending.

Sophie Bloom's life was perfect until her husband cheated on her but then she realized that maybe her life wasn't so perfect after all. This was a really nice story about an older finding herself, eliminating toxic influences and then living her best life. Definitely a satisfying read.

This book is a little charmer. Lots of fun to read. Sophie Bloom is a happily married suburbanite. She is married to Gabe, her childhood sweetheart, successful surgeon and revealed to be the winner of the most cheating experiences in their community during the reveal of the Ashley Madison scandal.

Faced with the fact that Gabe has been a serial cheat throughout their marriage, not limited to just the women he met through Ashley Madison, she decides to leave. Her daughter is in France and that becomes the site of her escape and reawakening.

Sophie rediscovers her passions, carnal and, most importantly, artistic. Her career as a sculptor had been put on hold, but through a series of coincidences, she is able to find her identity.

I enjoyed the voyage with Sophie and loved watching her discover that sometimes life gives you second chances. I suspect this book will be an excellent source of discussion and self-reflection for many readers.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending such a fun read.

I have mixed feelings on The Unbreakables. The main character, Sophie is a 42 year old woman who has devoted her life to her child and husband, even to the point of giving up the most important things about herself (such as her art, she was once a sculptor). When she discovers her husband is a cheater, she heads to France to visit her 19 year old daughter and somehow attempt to put herself back together again. On the surface, Sophie should have been a very relatable character yet somehow I had trouble connecting with her. So although the story was enough to keep me invested until the end, there was not necessarily an emotional pay off because I was not truly invested in Sophie. I will say that Lisa Barr took an original and more realistic approach to a story that could have ended up being quite cliche. For example, the sexual experiences Sophie has (post cheating husband) were surprising and certainly not expected, The way she wrote Sophie’s daughter Ava also surprised me. I expected Ava to be sweeter somehow but Ava was a bit self absorbed, made poor choices (which she defended), loved her mother but also wanted independence. Translation: Ava was a very realistic 19 year old. In the end I can’t say that The Unbreakables was a favorite of mine, but there were some significant moments and messages in it that will certainly stay with me.

Wow this was a punch in the gut book! I loved the characters. I loved the bond Sophie had with her family and friends and then how she had to learn how to rethink and relearn her whole life!
Some parts were predictable and I wasn't so keen on the fact that everything was pretty easy for her because she had money to get her everywhere. If this happened to me or one of my close friends we would be SOL and just have to continue at our jobs and daily lives because we wouldn't have the money to run away.
The settings and Sophie's journey were wonderful though and I enjoyed her relationship with her daughter.
It kept me hooked and I was so glad Sophie was able to work through it all and gain the closure she needed.

I could not put this down. I loved the premise and loved the strength of the main character. Seeing strong women pick themselves up and move forward with what is best for them is a theme we should see more of in literature. I enjoyed the interplay between the family and friends. The setting was fabulous and I wish I could have seen it through Sophie's eyes. I certainly want to visit Paris now! It also gave me the creative urge, so maybe I'll pull out my paints this weekend. I can't wait to share this title with my patrons and I can see if becoming a book club favorite!