I am SO pleased and excited to be a part of the official Breakable blog tour. Tammara Webber is one of my absolute favorite authors, story since the first time I purchased Between the Lines, pills and I’m so excited to be sharing this with you all. I’ll be talking all about Tammara, her new book, Breakable, and we’ll have an awesome interview at the end.
First, let’s talk about Tammara herself!
Tammara Webber is author of the New York Times bestselling New Adult novel Easy, the first novel in her Contours of the Heart series, and the Between the Lines series. She is a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life. Before writing full-time, she was an undergraduate academic advisor, economics tutor, planetarium office manager, radiology call center rep, and the palest person to ever work at a tanning salon. She married her high school sweetheart, and is a mom to three adult kids and four very immature cats.
You Can Find Her At:
Her Site / Her Twitter / Her Instagram / Her Facebook
About Breakable
In Tammara’s novel Easy, we meet Jacqueline Wallace, a girl trying to survive in college, after an acquaintance tries to rape her after a party, and her relationship with her savior, Lucas. You can find Easy at GoodReads here.
In BREAKABLE, readers are introduced to teenage Landon on the worst day of his life, the day is family is ripped apart by the death of his beloved mother. Webber flashes from the present to the past, young capturing Landon as he deals with the stark and painful changes in his life following his mother’s death, and present-day Lucas as he reacts to meeting Jacqueline Wallace, the young woman whose appearance changes his life for the better. Loving Jacqueline is so easy, but Lucas knows just how breakable the soul is and that giving himself wholly to another person is the most frightening thing he’ll ever do.
You Can Find/Purchase the Book At:
Good Reads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository
Quick Book Review
I don’t want to sit and talk forever about this book because this will be the longest post in the entire world and I don’t want to do that to you. Here’s the small gist of it: I loved Easy. Easy tackles the idea of rape in such a beautiful way, in an honest and raw way. Jacqueline is nearly raped but she’s afraid to say anything because of the rape culture that we live in, and the only person that knows is her attacker and Lucas. Tammara builds a beautiful love story between Jacqueline and Lucas and its a beautiful book. Breakable continues it, and I honestly had to admit that I was worried. I love Tammara and think she’s an absolutely amazing author but the idea of a companion…I wasn’t 100% sold. Until I got the book. Until I stayed up all night reading it. Breakable gives us even more depth to the person that Lucas (Landon) is, and his story is just as beautiful, just as heartbreaking and just as hopefully as Jacqueline’s was in the first novel. It is a must-read, both of these books, and I encourage you all to pick them up!
The Interview!
Nerd Girl: Why was it important to you to tell Lucas’ side of the story in Breakable?
Tammara: It was Landon’s story that convinced me to write Breakable. I knew his story was heartbreaking, of course, but there was so much more to it. Once he started telling me about it, I had to write it.
Nerd Girl: Was it difficult to return to the same story, but in a different voice?
Tammara: Lucas’ perspective of their relationship was different from Jacqueline’s. The overlapping parts (which one comprise a third of the book) were only difficult in that the conversations and outcomes were already there and set — I couldn’t change them. I enjoyed adding scenes that didn’t occur in Easy – some that included Jacqueline, some that didn’t.
Nerd Girl: Did Jacqueline’s story still have an influence over Lucas’ voice?
Tammara: Over his voice? No. Over his story-yes.
Nerd Girl: There is so much going on within the story of Breakable: abuse, neglect, loss, grief, self-discovery, rebellion, love, etc. What do you hope your readers come out of this novel with?
Tammara: I don’t. I write in hopes of readers to connecting with the story, going on a journey with the characters and finding entertainment and escape along the way. Easy is the only book I’ve written with a clear message in mind — and that message, it wasn’t your fault, was unhidden and meant for a particular reader. In Breakable, I had the added desire of giving readers who loved Easy an in-depth view of Lucas.
Nerd Girl: Now that you’ve wrapped up the Between the Lines series, and now have finished both sides of the story with Jacqueline and Lucas, what can you tell us about what you’re working on next?
Tammara: I can’t reveal much just yet. I have a couple of storylines in mind, but I’ve got my usual brainstorming to do, and meetings with me agents and editors, before I settle down and write.
Nerd Girl: Did you always picture yourself as an author or did you have other career aspirations, and what is the best part of being an author?
Tammara: I didn’t even start calling myself a writer, let alone an author, to real-life people until after I’d published Easy — my fourth book. Writing fiction for a living is literally all I’ve ever wanted to do. When I couldn’t find an agent for Between the Lines, I honestly thought it was never going to happen. I’d already written a second BTL by the time I self-published the first. I never thought it would sell — or that people would want sequels.
The only job I had before writing full-time that I enjoyed was academic advising. I loved helping people one-on-on. As much as I loved it, though, it was secondary to writing.
Nerd Girl: You’ve written all of your novels in the young adult/new adult contemporary genre. Do you see yourself continuing in that trend or maybe branching out to any other genres?
Tammara: I started writing Between the Lines in 2009, with MCs aged 17-20. I called it “Mature YA” and hoped to sell it to a YA publisher, because there was no such thing as NA. Publishers (and therefore agents) have been saying for years, “No one wants to read stories about college students”. I was shooting myself in the foot, writing about characters in that age range — but it’s all I wanted to write. And also, I’m really stubborn. I figured I would find a niche market, perhaps. All I can say is…I found it!
Nerd Girl: Most of your readers definitely have developed book crushes on Lucas. Who is YOUR book crush?
Tammara: Darcy. Always Darcy. :)
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Thanks Tammara for stopping by What A Nerd Girl Says, for the second time! You can check out my interview with Tammara from June 2013 here.
And don’t forget to hit your local bookstore and pick up a copy of Breakable (and Easy if you haven’t read that), now!
Tammara Webber and I at her Breakable book launch event with Abbi Glines in Los Angeles, CA!
Oh, and I still totally fancast Reid Alexander from Between the Lines as Jace Wayland in The Mortal Instruments ;)
Happy Reading Everyone!
