I found this to be a really fun title to pick up, it was super fast paced and entertaining. I do love a paranormal romance, so I thought this was a good concept for a YA paranormal romance.

I did want things to be developed a little more than they were, while the fast pacing was great, there were moments when it was too fast paced and things were a little too instant. That being said I did enjoy the characters overall, especially Mica, but wanted a little bit more.

Overall it was an enjoyable read that was a lot of fun and I found it super easy to read, but I would have liked a little more depth to make it even better.

Breakup From Hell by Ann Davila Cardinal, 304 pages. HarperTeen (HarperCollins Publishers), 2023. $19. lgbtqia
Language: R (183 swears, 0 “f” + Spanish swears); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
When Mica sees a new boy pop up three times in the same day, she takes notice. This boy, Sam, seems to really get her and she feels drawn to him in a way she never has before. Mica also starts having weird visions of fires, gains unexplainable strength, and notices that the weather has been getting warmer. The more time Mica spends with Sam, the more convinced she is that he is the source of these changes.
If you want a ridiculous and entertaining story, look no further. Cardinal throws together descendants of Satan and archangels, family secrets, and a new truck named Pegasus – readers never know what the next page will bring. Don’t let the handful of inconsistencies trip you up and just enjoy the ride.
Mica and her abuela are Puerto Rican, and most of the other characters are described as or are implied White. The mature content rating is for mentions of alcohol and underage drinking, innuendo, and mention of sex. The violence is for gun use and fantasy violence.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

However, I am currently withholding my review due to the HarperCollins strike.

This book was a campy and fun supernatural love/breakup story full of friendship, family and community. There are plenty of bad breakup stories out there, but I doubt there are many where the progeny of Satan himself threatens to bring the end of the world. Talk about pressure! Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will appreciate the humor and tongue in cheek dialogue. I will recommend this book to both female and male students who are anywhere in the reading spectrum (from the reluctant to the prolific reader). In fact, my library just ordered two copies.

It started out great, but felt very similar to Supernatural, didn’t know how or when it was going to end. Very interesting to see how everything came together. The Mica & Sam’s storyline, didn’t add up well for me. There was a lot of gaps and parts never mentioned again or left out. They left me confused. Loved the diversity of the characters and the side characters thought they added charm to the story. How it ended it seemed like it was built to be a series. Surprised there wasn’t an epilogue.
Overall, this wasn’t for me but you’re into YA supernatural with a twist w/ a La Croix taste of light romance this might be for you.

Would love to write a review once HarperCollins decides to come to the table and negotiate with the HC Union.

I really liked this book. It had semi-quick pacing, and a unique premise, but something didn’t quite hit home for me. I think it was a mixture of the “insta-love”, and characters I didn’t quite click with. I was good, and I enjoyed reading it, but felt a little immature compared to my usual YA reads. I

This is a YA supernatural Rom-com that will have you on your toes to find out what happens. It was so good. I devoured it.
I just reviewed Breakup from Hell by Ann Davila Cardinal. #BreakupfromHell #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]Edit

Well, that relationship didn’t end well.

It’s Mica’s senior year, and she is ready for a change. Tired of what feels like a small life in a small Vermont town, she feels drawn to stranger Sam. He’s only supposed to be in town for a couple weeks, but something is growing between the two of them. The more time that she spends with Sam, the more Mica starts to change and the more Mica starts to see.

Maybe her small life in a small Vermont town isn’t so small after all.

This one is definitely a ride. Complete with chapter inscriptions from the Book of Revelation and a breakup resulting in a blowup of biblical proportions, this one is good for fans of the Scooby Gang found family and teenagers taking on the ultimate evil aspects of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or similar aspects in newer iterations of that narrative). Breakup from Hell would make a fun campy movie or teen dramedy series.

I received an advance copy of the book from HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperTeen, and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

Fast start to this book, which I really appreciated, since lately, I seem to have a ten minute concentration time.

Some other things to adore about this book is friendship, When you are young and in school you have friends and it doesn't seem like that big a deal, but when you get older, well, it's hard to find again. I love that this book really leans into friendship and as it turns out; when the going gets tough ..

Mica finds herself in a near instaneous High School romance, like the kind you only read about or in this case, the kind that is too perfect, like in a horror story. Her smalltown Vermont lifestyle is instantly more interesting and after a while she starts to realize that something is off, seriously crazy dangerously off about Sam, the perfect boyfriend.

Mica loves horror, but it does take her a while to figure out that she is living in horror movie and that she might not be the main character that makes it to the end.

I got some really fun Dracula vibes and a little bit of the creepiness of Rosemary's baby along with the more modern shades of Buffy and Angel and Buffy and Spike.

I do kinda wish the story was longer.

I loved the paranormal aspect of this, I thought it was super cool. I'm not the biggest fan of "insta love" so that threw me off and I feel like made the pacing feel... fast but at times slow? It was very weird. I loved the main character and I feel like she had a lot of representation in her which is so needed.

This book was very surprising to me it subverted many of my expectations the story started maybe like what I was thinking of but it quickly went a completely different direction that direction was really interesting though. It was a great good vs evil story the romance was different than expected I still loved everything about this book. I really loved the characters I especially loved Mica she was different than what I expected from the lead in a paranormal romance. I also loved her friends and the other romantic interest Rage he was much better for her I really liked how they got together by the end. The story was really interesting it started out like your typical paranormal romance with Maci meeting a new and interesting guy that she likes really quickly faster than she should of. After than weird things happen and things just go wrong often so after that other things happen and the new and interesting guy becomes something that Mica would not of expected at first. After that the romance of her and Rage starts with many bumps in the road other not so nice things happen and Mica and her friends find something out and set out to save the day after a while all is well and the also has a great ending to a great romance with her and Rage.

This book was fun. Mica was a strong character and her take no bs personality was fun to read.
I would've enjoyed a bit more explanation as to how the friends are related to their angelic ancestors. The ending felt a bit abrupt.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this book.

What a fun, easy read! Great for fans of Wednesday or Buffy, and with a cast as uproarious as their odd (yet symbolic) names, Mica and crew are a delight. There’s some relatable teen drama/rebellion and angst, along with flutterings of (super shallow) “love.” And having a MC who is an avid fantasy/horror reader was fun!

This book was RIDICULOUS. But not entirely in a bad way 😂. It’s like a mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Twilight meets Lucifer the TV show meets Riverdale? Like the CW would LOVE this for a show 😂.

The story is fun, it seems to sort of poke fun at itself, I mean there are Buffy, Twilight, and Lucifer jokes, a random Indiana Jones joke, other weird references that I’m not sure teenagers in high school in current day would actually say?

But the writing was just a mess. The descriptions were repetitive and cliched. It was a lot of “the page was kissed with gold” or “the sun kissed the sky” or “he wore old fashioned clothing”. The dialogue had so much cheesy name calling, calling someone a goth-ho or devil-ho or a biatch (LOL - do teens still say that?!) and everything was “so badass”.

And the ending was also very messy, and it was supposed to be all about Mica having a support system except her friends just sort of disappeared from the novel at 85%-ish and we regroup with them at the end and get a paragraph recap of what they were up to, but it was in dialogue written like no one actually talks, like it had been part of the book earlier on but instead they copied and pasted it into dialogue in a later draft?

Overall, this had a lot of potential, but just didn’t meet expectations. There’s a scene where Mica knocks Sam’s (the devil’s son) phone off a throne or something and he’s legit like “NOT MY PHONE!” And I died 😂😂😂.

If you’re looking for a super fast, supernatural, CW-teen cheesy read, with okay-ish writing this is for YOU. 😂📚

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This was a cute paranormal romance, that I finished in one sitting. It was a cute Ya book and I enjoyed it a lot.

3 - 3.5 Stars for Breakup from Hell

One thing that's important to know is that you CANT go in to this book taking it very seriously. This book is campy/silly/very YA and reads like an episode of Supernatural combined with The Vampire Diaries.

It has a lot of moments where its fun and other comedic moments where its funny but overall I found it to be extremely predictable and the plot points that were most important to this book were very rushed. There wasn't much of a love triangle as there was just our MC bouncing back and forth between the new handsome guy and the childhood best friend which is a pretty common trope. When you're reminded though that this book all takes place over the course of two weeks though the timing of everything feels extremely rushed in just about every way.

If youre wanting a quick and easy read thats got a bit of charm and (again) feels like an episode from an early 2000s CW show then this is the book for you (I dont mean that in a bad way lol).

I’m sorry this one just wasn’t for me. I read the first fifty pages and couldn’t get into it. It was giving me rip-off Twilight vibes.

I won’t be mentioning it in any social media outlets, as it was a DNF for me.

I liked this book. This was a fun and intriguing read. I thought the characters were likable and the story held my attention well. There's plenty of twists to keep you on your toes and eager to keep reading.

Unfortunately I won’t be giving. Feedback due to Harper Collins strike. Once the strike is over I will edit on goodreads.