Beyond the Break

De: Heather Buchta

Narrado por: Victoria Villarreal

For fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, Beyond the Break is a funny and gorgeous debut about a girl experiencing her first love. Well, second, if you count her faith . . . and that's where things may get complicated.

Manhattan Beach native Lovette has two rules in life. One: no surfing. Not after her brother's accident. Two: absolutely, no dating. And going into her junior year of high school, she's pretty happy with that arrangement. She has friends, her church youth group, and God to fall back on when things get dicey. But after Jake Evans walks into her life, following these two simple rules gets a lot more complicated.

Jake is the boy from Lovette's childhood who grew up. Handsome and sweet, he unlocks the part of Lovette that wants nothing more than to surf the waves again. And as their relationship grows, she begins to question what it means to be faithful: to her family, to God, but mostly, to herself.

Told with humor and heart, Heather Buchta delivers a sparkling debut that asks the question: Can you fall in love, be a teenager, and also be a good Christian?

©2020 Heather Buchta (P)2022 Tantor

Heartfelt.

This book is quite lovely. I haven't read too many books that really lean in to the kind of conservative Christian upbringing I had (and later moved away from) but this one really touches on that well--and not in a mean way, but an honest one. This story works as an honest deconstruction of purity culture, if not a radical one, the main character learning to understand God in a more complex way, beyond the black and white that we're told when we're young.

The romance arc ends on a bit of a bittersweet note, but it's rather sweet and tender during the arc of the story--and realistic to a fault. But the character's relationship with her parents, that comes out so well.

This is a really touching story, one that I'm sure I'll revisit.

One of the best books I have ever heard

I loved the storyline of 2 teens that bond over surfing and come together and my favorite character was Lydia because she is really fun and funny and I am happy to read about someone that is doing their passion

FINALLY a Good Christian book that is Realistic!

I absolutely love this book. As a Christian woman who has grown up in the church and has had a lot of church hurt this book was written very well. I loved it so much I bought the physical copy to have on my bookshelf.

NOW, I do need to warn those of you who are SO again any sex or alcohol or drugs or anything of that matter that this book is not for you. Just move on. But if you are like me and and got hit hard with purity culture and told as a woman that sex is nasty and wrong and you can’t really talk about it. Then this book will be so refreshing. You will feel seen. You will roll your eyes, you will laugh, you will be reminded of some of the fun memories from youth group. You will get mad, and you will feel so glad that there is actually a christian book that is talking about real things and isn’t afraid to talk about them.

Here is my ONE and only Negative Comment: this is 100% a ripe off of “To all the boys I’ve loved before.” Like literally I could pull out a number of things that happened in this book that were verbatim from that other book/movie. I actually did some research to see which book came out first and this one was written later than the “to all the boys…” book. I was SO disappointed to learn this. It really put a bad taste in my mouth. I was so angry that I finally found a decent Christian book and author only to be disappointed that this was cut and pasted from another story. Now to be far, the story IS different. But there are a number of big points that are hard to ignore.

SPOILER ALERT:
1) the list of what they can and can’t do as bf/gf
2) being embarrassed at school - especially how this happened was almost exactly like the other book.

— I know there was a few more that I noticed but those two were exactly the same as the “to all the boys…” book. So because of that I want to give this book 3 stars for not being original, however, I know what it is so hard to find any realistic and raw Christian books out there that don’t suck. So I want this book to be recognized and get traction but PLEASE HEATHER, please come up with your own story and don’t copy and paste themes from other books. Make your own stories. Stay on the subject of church purity culture and how that really isn’t realistic and it is actually harmful. Keep talking about how the church doesn’t do a great job helping teens know how to manage their feelings and their bodies. Keep talking about real issues but don’t borrow themes from other big names books.

With that all being said, I still do love this book and I’m glad I got a physical copy. I am excited to let my kids read this one day and I think it will be a great book to talk to them about sex and sexuality and how teens grow up and struggle with so many issues. This is such a great book and I would recommend it to anyone…except those of you who think you are a better Christian than the rest of us.