(Review & Tour) Breakaway

Title: Breakaway
Author: Michael Betcherman
Pub Date: September 2012
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Pages: 352

Source: I received an ARC from Razorbill for my participation in the book tour.

About the book: Sixteen-year-old Nick Macklin’s life has been divided in two. Before and After. Before his father went to jail, and After. Before, he was a talented hockey player, an A student, in love with his girlfriend, Sherry, and had the greatest dad in the world, a man who not only was there for him after his mom died of cancer, but who was also a star player for the Vancouver Canucks. Then the bottom fell out. His father was convicted of murder and given a life sentence for a crime Nick is convinced he didn’t commit. Now living with his dad’s agent, the only thing that keeps Nick going is a burning desire to seek justice for his father. Who framed him? And why? Drifting away from everything and everyone who matters, Nick spends his days roaming the city, looking for the bald man with a limp who is the key to answering these questions: the man his father swears planted the evidence that led to his conviction. Finding him is like looking for a needle in a haystack – until Nick stumbles on a very real clue, an eye-opening revelation that just might save his father… and himself.

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One of the best things about blogging is getting the chance to discover a book you might not have known about otherwise and this was the case. I have to admit I never heard about Breakaway until I was contacted by Razorbill asking if I would like to be a part of the book tour. I read the synopsis and instantly said yes. I have only seen this reviewed on a few Canadian blogs so far but I am hoping that will change after our reviews get out there because this is a great book for the male young adult reader who likes books about hockey and a little mystery.

The book opens up with Nick sitting in a courtroom hearing the verdict of is father, Steven’s, first degree murder trial. From that point on I had to read to find out what happened, who did his dad kill and why. 

One of the things I loved was the mention of the Vancouver Canucks, they are our second favorite time, we are Hab fans all the way.

Nick is sixteen years old and is facing almost a life without his dad as he knows it. Thankfully he is close enough that he can go and visit his dad in jail and they do keep in touch. Nick is sure his dad didn’t kill anyone and that he is being set up. There is one person out there in the city of Vancouver that knows exactly what happened that night and its a bald man with a limp and Nick is determined to find him and prove his father’s innocence.

Nick has been told to stop looking for the man by his dad and to accept what is the new reality of his dad being in jail. So Nick tries to get back to a normal life (or what can be as normal as expected) with getting better grades, getting back onto his hockey team and possibly getting Sherry back but he is still looking for the man responsible with only his friends knowing what he is really doing. But deep down inside Nick will never give up the search and some how he will try to prove his dad’s innocence but can he before his dad looses hope?

I really enjoyed the book and Michael has asked to read it when he saw the cover of the book but I have told him no not for awhile as its not appropriate for his age. I enjoyed it and I was curious to find out if Nick would be able to pull it off and find this man in a population of 2,000,000 + people. I was also curious to find out why his dad was being set up and for what reason. Do we find out? That you will have to pick up the book to find out.

I think this is great that there is actually a book written for male readers which is few and far between in young adult books in my opinion.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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