What our educators thought

“YA Romance is not a genre I would naturally gravitate towards. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Anika Hussain’s ‘Heart Breaker’ and I have extended my reading to other YA romance titles since finishing it. Heart Breaker instantly attracted the attention of pupils, especially girls in Year 10-11. They were drawn to both the eye-catching front cover and the diversity of the characters.

For me, Heart Breaker is warm, sharp and pacy, with themes of family dynamics as well as friendships and romantic relationships. Saachi is a very headstrong and independent main character, with fierce edgy banter (I loved her conversations with Fahim) and a strong friendship group. She is hugely loyal and protective towards her friends and family but struggles hugely with her relationship with her mother. This aspect of the storyline gives the book a huge amount of depth and covers themes of betrayal, abandonment, mental health and forgiveness.

Fahim, the male love interest who starts out as a ‘handsome, rich and up himself’ stereotype, is also given room to blossom on the page. Over the course of the story he develops in both warmth, depth and humour and also struggles with parental issues – his mum has passed away and his dad is barely present. I loved that both characters also explore their heritage in the novel through food, family and language. This again gave the story depth and a genuine authenticity.

As mentioned by one of my student librarians, the fact that Saachi begins dating her best friend’s ex, albeit for revenge, does feel morally awkward and creates some great opportunities for discussion within a book club, friendship group or within the PSHE classroom. I think this is a real highlight of the book – that Saachi’s strengths of loyalty and protectiveness sit alongside some real character flaws such as single-mindedness. The consequences of Saachi’s actions are really brought into the spotlight at the end of the book and handled very well. Plus, Anika Hussein truly captures how it feels to genuinely fall in love and lose sight of everything and everyone around you, and how that can impact on those closest to you.

I would absolutely recommend this novel to pupils aged 14+. There are some references to sex and there are some scenes where alcohol is consumed. However, overall it is a clean novel with issues that are handled incredibly well.”