Contest, Contest, Contest!

Hey everyone! I've decided to have a contest. We just finished the book Break by Hannah Moskowitz for our book club. (The link for the book club is here.) It was an excellent book, and I decided that I'd give my copy away to entice more people to read her work. She is an excellent author!
Of course, there are rules... but only a few! :)

1. You need to be a follower of this blog. (I'll check!)
2. Unfortunately this is only open to the U.S. and Canada. (Sorry to those who are international, I hope to have a contest later (once I hit 100 followers?) that will be available to everyone!)
3. This contest will run until February 12, 2010.
4. To enter you must comment on THIS post. 1 entry per person. Feel free to leave an email address and I'll email you if you are the winner!
5. I will use random.org to decide on the winner. I'll announce the winner on February 13th and the winner then has 48 hours to get back to me with a mailing address. (Okay, I think I've said "winner" enough in the last 2 "rules".) :)

Good luck, and Happy Reading! :)

Break - Hannah Moskowitz

The first feeling is exhilaration. The second feeling is pain.
The feeling that never comes is regret.

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. Jonah wants to be stronger--needs to be stronger--because everything around him is falling apart. Breaking, and then healing, is the only way he can cope with the stresses of home, girls, and the world on his shoulders.
When Jonah's self-destructive spiral accelerates and he hits rock bottom, will he find true strength or surrender to his breaking point?

Title: Break
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse
My Rating: 4/5

If I hadn't joined Kari's book club forum I doubt I would have picked this book up. It's not one that I would normally read and that would have been a mistake. It is a really great read, and the story is so heartbreaking. It starts off right in the action; we meet Jonah as he's setting up to break some of his bones in a skateboarding "fall". We meet his brother Jesse, and his friends Naomi and Charlotte. His family is a different story; Jonah tends to worry about everyone else, except for himself. He deals with his worries by breaking his bones. Later on in the story he tries to stop, and his best friend Naomi enables him to continue breaking bones. She doesn't stop hounding him until he semi-gives in. (I dislike Naomi, can you tell?) He spirals further and further down and he finally realizes that he could either pick himself back up, or he could just "leave".
The characters are very realistic and they draw you easily into their world. It is definitely a sad book, and it gives you food for thought. The characters are so believable and you can't help but hope that things work out for Jonah. I gave this book a four star rating because, while it was good, the climax and the ending were abrupt. Everything was resolved a little too quickly for my taste.


This book counts toward the 2010 100+ Reading Challenge over at J. Kaye's book blog.