Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris

Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris
Unraveling #2
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher (NetGalley)
Goodreads Stars: 5
Rating: All Time Favourite 

Buy the Book: Amazon UK

Four months after Ben disappeared through the portal to his home universe, Janelle believes she’ll never see him again. Her world is still devastated, but life is finally starting to resume some kind of normalcy. Until Interverse Agent Taylor Barclay shows up. Somebody from an alternate universe is running a human trafficking ring, kidnapping people and selling them on different Earths—and Ben is the prime suspect. Now his family has been imprisoned and will be executed if Ben doesn’t turn himself over within five days.

And when Janelle learns that someone she cares about—someone from her own world—has become one of the missing, she knows that she has to help Barclay, regardless of the danger. Now Janelle has five days to track down the real culprit. Five days to locate the missing people before they’re lost forever. Five days to reunite with the boy who stole her heart. But as the clues begin to add up, Janelle realizes that she’s in way over her head—and that she may not have known Ben as well as she thought. Can she uncover the truth before everyone she cares about is killed? - Goodreads

I'm going to give you a fair warning, this review is likely going to be a sobfest. It may even sound like I'm ranting towards the end, and if that happens then I promise it's a good type of rant. Unbreakable broke my heart, you see, and then tore it out and stomped on it for good measure. It's been a while since a book made me feel this way, and I hope it never happens again. (That was a lie, I love it when books hurt me like this.)

I adored Unravelling when I read it last year, and I had been dying to get to this one to see what happens with Janelle, her world, and Ben. I was especially looking forward to having Ben and Janelle find each other again. I adored them in the first book, so the wait between books was rather excruciating. Unbreakable totally surprised me, though, because I actually found myself liking a different couple this time around, and I wasn't able to stomach Janelle and Ben when they were together. That's because Janelle and Barclay totally stole the show.

Barclay and Janelle were so freakin' awesome together. They made such a great team, and I loved how they looked out for each other. They started off hating each other in Unravelling, and in this one we see a bond form and their relationship - very gradually, I might add - grows from there. I could read about those two all day.

Janelle's changed a lot since her world was almost destroyed thanks to her boyfriend and his friends. She's bloody amazing and I love her. She's so badass. I love how she was willing to do a hell of a lot in order to save her friend, as well as people she doesn't even know because they've been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring.

Barclay... I don't really know what to say about him without spoiling things or going completely OTT with my fangirling. I am in love. That is all. Barclay made me see Ben a totally different way, and now I'm over him and his cheesiness. It's all about Barclay! And his rock solid chest. Ehem.

I love the world that Norris has built here. Parallel universe/multi-verse stuff is AWESOME, and I find it all really interesting. There were a lot of different universes featured in this book, which was great because we only got to see a couple in Unravelling. There are so many possibilities for companion books and spin-offs as well, since the universes are in such different states. There are some that are abandoned, some that are still stuck in the Middle Ages, and others that are really advanced. I might actually have to resort to begging Elizabeth Norris on Twitter to get her to write more books in this world.

So, I'm sure you're curious about why this book broke my heart. Well, the reason for this is... a spoiler. Let me just say that Norris spent the whole book building something up only to tear it away from me. Then I was given a moment of hope, only to be punched in the gut and thrown off a building shortly afterwards. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot.

Basically I will never read anything Elizabeth Norris writes again in case next time really does kill me.

Obviously that is another lie because I FREAKIN' LOVE THIS SERIES and I will buy everything she ever writes because what's the point in reading if you're not going to be emotionally scarred.

In summary: