Heartbroken; Lisa Unger

Title: Heartbroken
Author:  Lisa Unger
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher:  Books on Tape - Crown
Edition: Audio
Reader: Amanda Carlin (very good)
Source: Library
Date Completed: January - 2013 
Rating: 2.5/5 
Recommend: no

Lisa Unger's latest novel, Heartbroken, is part psychological suspense, part ghost story and also multi-generational in nature.  It's a story about (3) flawed women whose lives converge in unexpected ways during one fateful summer.

The women in this story are 75 year old Birdie Burke, a cold, bitter woman who thinks she may be seeing ghosts on Heart Island. Heart Island has been in Birdie's family for years and years.  Birdie lives an isolated life and because of her harshness, some family members no longer visit her each summer on the remote island, a place accessible only by boat in the middle of a lake in the Adirondacks.

Emily, is a young woman with potential who drops out of college. She has always felt something was missing in her life.  Searching for what was missing from her life, she lets her loser boyfriend Dean control her. In the process she finds herself in one bad situation after another and ends up hurting people who cared about her. She retreats to Heart Island where things only get worse.

 Kate, is Birdie's daughter, a woman and mother who was raised to believe she'd never do anything with her life, yet still has a desire to please her miserable mother Birdie. Kate, using the journals left behind by her aunt and grandmother has written a novel that sheds light on buried secrets of the family's past. Secrets which help the reader to understand in part why Birdie is the way she is.  While other family members have stopped their summer retreats to visit Birdie on the island, because they find her unbearable, Kate, in an effort to please her mother, continues to visit more out of sense of duty. This particular summer, she takes her daughter and a friend. They arrive around the same time as Emily turns up there and before long things spiral out of control.

Although I typically enjoy stories with flawed characters and dysfunctional relationships, this novel did not work for me.These women just couldn't get out of their own way and made their own misery. None of the characters, even the minor ones were sympathetic. Although the reader and story initially drew me in, by the 1/2 way point, I could not wait to be done with this one. The audio book reader, Amanda Carlin was very good, but by listening rather than reading, I found parts of the story a bit confusing, but with patience and careful listening, it was easy enough to figure out. I do recommend trying this author's earlier books. Beautiful Lies, Sliver of Truth, Black Out, Die for You. I have read all of them enjoyed them.