Made to Break Your Heart

by Richard Fellinger

A finalist for the 2017 Somerset Award for the Novel. Made to Break Your Heart is a family saga, set in a gossipy suburb, that explores the complexities of raising a child, holding a marriage together, and maintaining your sanity in the cutthroat world of Little League baseball.

It’s 2008, and Nick Marhoffer is a stressed-out dad who finds himself flirting with thoughts of infidelity. While his job is being threatened by a crumbling economy, he’s fraught with anxiety over his only son’s well-being. So when his son starts playing baseball, Nick becomes a rabid Little League dad who loses sight of what’s good in his life. After developing a crush on a gorgeous team mom, he can’t decide between her and his wife, then finds himself at risk of losing everything that’s most important to him.

This is a smart, sexy, and funny novel about bad breaks, bad decisions, and the long road of life.

290 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2017

About the author

Richard Fellinger is an award-winning author, a college writing instructor, and former journalist. His novel An American Girl (Serving House Books, 2025) won the inaugural Thomas E. Kennedy Novel Award. His novel, Summer of ’85 (TouchPoint Press, 2021), was a finalist for the American Fiction Award, a distinguished favorite for the NYC Big Book Award, and winner of the Seven Hills Review Novel Excerpt Contest. He is also the author of the story collection They Hover Over Us (Snake Nation Press, 2012), winner of the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award, and the novel Made To Break Your Heart (Open Books, 2017). His fiction has also earned a Pushcart Prize nomination and won the Flash Fiction Contest at Red Cedar Review. His work has also appeared in Newsweek, Epiphany, Potomac Review, and PANK, among others. He teaches writing at Elizabethtown College and Drexel University and lives with his wife in Harrisburg, Pa.

Reviews

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. The hero cheated on his fiancee, the heroine, before they were married, we had to read about it too in flashback, but she eventually took him back. He lusted after another woman the entire book. He called her to meet with her and two times he almost took her back to his room for sex. The last time was at 90% into the book. He got hard for her and a bunch of other stuff and no they never kissed or anything but he wanted her and dreamt about her and I never felt he loved his wife never, not even at the end.Just a disgusting pig of a man. Then it throws in little league baseball and all the gossip and the kids and I really hated this book. It sucked. But I finished it and it gave me a bad feeling in my stomach. I wish I hadn't read it.

[Ana Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but if this corresponds to "real life" for someone, then that person should seriously seek help, because supporting an excuse for a man as a husband is sick. And of course, so much sexist bullshit was written by a man. I suggest that in his real life, he treats his wife with more respect and saves the public from that kind of crap.🤦‍♀️🙏

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story about a man, his wife and son growing up in a small community outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was very poignant and entertaining. Nick is the father, husband and little league coach for his son. This story shows little league in its true colors and with parent involvement, it's not a pretty sight. However, there were some very funny moments in which I laughed out loud.

Nick's wife seems to have a huge chip on her shoulder. And, as they do live in a very small town where everyone knows everyone, rumors run rampant. Unfortunately, his wife believes a lot of those rumors causing major riffs in their marriage. And personally, I really didn't like this character.

However, I loved the story, thought it was well written and very entertaining.

Thanks to Amazon Digital and LibraryThing for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Veronica WordsAreMyDrinkOfChoice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not Sure if the reviewers are friends with the author, or were high when they read it? That I all I can assume in connection to the 4 and 5 star reviews. This book was dull and lacked depth or emotion. I don’t know why anyone felt sympathy for The hero, he was. Self absorbed man child who whines bout everything. His wife was not perfect? Shocking! He reviews saying he didn’t cheat are wrong, he had an emotional affair in my book. He be Rocco we’re disgustong assholes! I was done when the hero woke up from a sex dream with the other woman, and tried to initiate sex with his wife asshole! He didn’t really seem to care about either woman really!

[Jena]

Cheating book written by a man.
🤮

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the guy was kind of a loser...not because he lost his job or anything, but because he just kind of shuffled along without much effort and then blamed his bad luck when things didn't go his way. It's like he didn't have a personality or something. Instead of actively trying to win back his wife he just kind of maybe hoped she might take him back, while still pining for the hot mom..he never even apologized or tried to explain what he was doing spending time with her in the first place, he acted like he was completely innocent and just being falsely accused and persecuted, and even towards the end of the book he couldn't commit to whom he should try his hardest to win over, his estranged wife whom he supposedly wanted back, or the hot mom (who was also married btw)(he considered her his "plan B")(AND!!! when his wife had the guts to go and confront the hot mom, he apologized to the hot mom, before running after his wife! So wishy washy! And then he apologized to her AGAIN when he ran into her at a bar later on...Pick a lane man!!)...also he'd previously abused his wife's trust in the past when he cheated on her while they were engaged...he just really got on my nerves. He had a good wife, she worked hard to support the family, she was faithful, attractive, intelligent, forthright, she was a good mom and did her share of household chores, what was this guy's problem?? I think when he starts teaching, he'll meet a cute teacher who might flirt with him and pay him a little attention and then he'll be off to the races again and probably start an affair, and then will blame his predicament on his bad luck again.
Having said all that, it was a nicely written book, even though I wasn't crazy about the main character (Nick).

[Tmstprc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I’ve read a few reviews that seem to treat it like a romance, not so much my thoughts. It’s family fiction written by a man—1st person POV, completely from the husband’s perspective.

It’s a story about a man getting his act together with Little League as the backdrop.

He’s very attracted to one of his player’s mother. She’s attractive, flirty and though married, obviously available. He’s physically attracted, but not emotionally attached to her. They take the flirting too far and the small town gossip mill is running rampant. His wife is well aware of everything every step of the way and once she’s had enough, he’s out of the house. He doesn’t go to the OW, he thinks about it, but he’s not that interested and ultimately his wife and son are more important and he spends 3 months living day to day in a fleabag motel, waiting for his wife to make her decision.

As a retired Little League mom, I could completely relate to the little world that our kids love, but as parents we often suffer through. You’ll recognize every character on the field and off the field.

This isn’t an emotional dive into the main character’s psyche, but it’s somewhat entertaining.

[wrkatreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a different take on a marriage in trouble. Its told in the POV of the man. This is not a romance. There is emotional cheating and flirtation with OW and that’s bad enough but he does do the right thing in the end. The man is obsessed through 90% of the book with the OW so if that’s going to turn you off don’t read.

[Gale Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is so wonderful to settle into a book by a highly skilled writer like Fellinger. His effortless style makes you feel like you are wearing your favorite cotton sweater while reading this novel. His prose sings and his vignettes are luminous--particularly the agonies and ecstasies of little league baseball coaching. It offers more than a little voyeurism, looking over the shoulder of Nick Marhoffer, the viewpoint narrator, who freely offers his thoughts, his temptations, and his lip-biting and nail-biting moments. The narration is honest and the reader feels for Nick, who was pretty much a boy scout throughout--hardly the poster boy for the decline of Western civilization. A very engaging read.

[Layla]

One one hand, I liked seeing a male perspective and the blunt honesty of the hero's thoughts and impulses. But the complete lack of reflection was troubling. Also, his defense of the ow. She was a homewrecker, by definition. She was willing to sleep with the H knowing he was married. The way the character is written and the lack of communication between the husband and wife means that it's just a matter of time before he cheats again. I'd considering reading a sequel if it's told from the wife's point of view as she's divorcing him lol.

[Emma Rowson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made to Break Your Heart tells the story of Nick Marhoffer, a married father of one. When his son, Wesley starts to play baseball, Nick becomes the team coach and quickly becoming involved to the point of obsession with Little League as a way of escaping the stresses of his everyday life. Very soon he becomes drawn to the Mum of one of the players on his team, and thus begins a moral conflict for Nick - his wife, or the other woman.
I was initially drawn to Made to Break Your Heart because I was intrigued to read about the temptations of adultery from the flip side. As far as memory allows, I cannot recall having read a novel from the male perspective when he is also the purported adulterer. I have read multiple novels which explores the feminine voice in the 'woman scorned' scenario, but I was really interested to find out what may make a seemingly committed family man become inclined to cheat on his wife.
I spent much of the novel feeling conflicted towards Nick. The entire novel is told solely through his perspective and the author has done a great job of creating a pretty normal, likeable character who is behaving, at times in an unlikeable way. I could not condone his thoughts or behaviour and I spent much of the time feeling a great deal of anger towards him. However, I also felt as if he was unswervingly honest throughout and that I had a unique insight into the male mindset. Whilst I did have some sympathy for Nick, and at times I did understand his point of view, this was severely knocked by his continued indecision, his desire to cast himself as the victim and his inability to take responsibility for his own actions. I really wanted him to step up and be the husband and father his family needed him to be, and at times I really wanted to virtually slap him and make him see sense. The events throughout the novel leave him lost to the point where he questions every aspect of his life. He is essentially going through a mid life crisis.
I felt that his observation of the two women in his life, Marcy (his wife) and Tess ('Diet Coke Mom') was an interesting development throughout the novel. Initially, his wife is portrayed as dull, mundane and a bit of a nagger, whilst Tess seems shrouded in sunshine and sparkles at every sighting. As the novel progressed I found it really interesting to see how Nick's narration and his reactions towards his wife altered as events unravelled and the novel steamed towards its conclusion.
I've recently read quite a few thrillers, and so I really enjoyed the change of pace that this novel offered. There is no major twist, no crimes committed, no skeletons leaping out of closets. It is very much about everyday people, dealing with the usual ups and downs of family life. It is utterly relatable and because of that it feels close to home. The beauty is in the smart, witty and honest narrative which is delivered wonderfully by Fellinger.
The Marhoffer's home town of Misty Hill which features a great cast of hypocritical gossip mongers, is bound to be a universally recognised setting and deserves a special mention, especially as it serves to drive the story forward on many an occasion. In addition, the backdrop of baseball, and the smaller Little League community of the town features heavily. Although I know nothing about the sport (I'm British!), some of my favourite scenes were actually on the baseball field. There were some moments, often humorous, that I'm sure will be very familiar to American readers. I also liked to see how the internal strife Nick was feeling was mirrored in his struggles as a baseball coach to the point where the two became intertwined.
The author has a lovely style of writing which is easy to read and very engaging and so despite my conflicted feelings towards Nick as the protagonist, I really enjoyed the reading experience. Made to Break Your Heart is a simple tale of family life, which I am sure will strike a chord with many who read it. I would eagerly read another novel by Richard Fellinger.

[Elkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: It’s good to live in a community where people watch out for each other — except when they scrutinize you a bit too closely.

Nick Marhoffer and his wife, Marcy, live in Misty Hill, an upper middle-class suburb of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Nick is a journalist for the local newspaper and Marcy works for a big public relations firm. They have one all around average kid, their 7-year-old son, Wesley.

Nick signs Wesley up for Little League and agrees to coach a team. Nick figures he can handle some boys Wesley’s age, despite his own lack of baseball skills. Anyone familiar with team sports knows it’s not the kids who are the problem, it’s the parents. Nick is about to learn that lesson.

Nick finds himself under scrutiny and pressure from the other coaches, the parents and most of all, his wife. Marcy isn’t happy with the way he looks at one of the other team mothers, but Nick can’t seem to stay away from sexy Tess Sugarmeier. After Nick is laid off from his job, their marriage gets even rockier. As if Nick isn’t doing a good enough job getting himself into hot water, the town gossips unjustly turn up the heat until his volunteer coaching job is in jeopardy.

Comments: One of the great things about doing book reviews for a publisher is reading books that are out of my normal comfort zone. I never had to deal with Little League, but my son was on a soccer team one year when he was about 10 and my own first marriage was rocky, so I could relate to Made to Break Your Heart. I remember the hours in the sun battling insects, the gossipy, controlling parents and the horrid snack bar duties. I could also relate to the locale as I was born and raised in the Mid-Atlantic area. One section of the book takes place at Camden Yards in Baltimore. It was a chance to feel like I was back there with my own kids again.

The book kept my interest and I really wanted to see if Nick resolved his problems. I didn’t personally like every character, particularly Marcy, but they are all portrayed realistically. Finally, I think the book could benefit from a different title.

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher, Open Books.

[FreshBrewBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating is 3.5

Made to Break Your Heart follows Nick Marhoffer, a reporter who struggles balancing his job during the global financial crisis of 2008, his family and coaching a little league team. Due to the pressures of his life and feeling a lack of support from his wife, he starts to find his eyes wandering to the mother of one of his little league players, Tess Sugarmeier.

The novel is easy to read and almost reads like a succession of diary entries. However, I found that I was never emotionally invested in any of the characters to the point of caring about their well-being. I feel like we were meant to root for Nick but most of the time I found him to be whiny. Also, I found he created a lot of his own problems. He doesn't speak to his wife much about what's troubling him and then he resentful when she doesn't show him compassion. Instead he develops a crush and treads on thin ice, treading into affair territory. It just seems like a rash, childish move on his part. And it's not like he has a big revelation where he realizes he's been an idiot; at no point does he acknowledge that he was being foolish.

Overall, I didn't mind reading this novel but I can't say I'd read it again due to a lack of likable characters as well as the lengthy baseball chapters. I enjoy baseball and I understand that baseball was a big part of Nick's character, but I found that the lengthy play-by-play chapters took me out of the story.

[Mary Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me laugh a few times and cringe once or twice, but overall it was a well written novel. The reference to a calculus exam made me both laugh and cringe. Another reader mentioned that she didn't like the character of the wife and that's how I felt too in the beginning, but I think that's because the narrator didn't like his wife in the beginning. He, and we the readers, see her differently as the story progresses.

As a baseball mom myself I appreciated the baseball backdrop for the story, but I'm pretty sure that parents of kids in any youth sport can relate. But mostly this is a story about marriage and commitment and the struggle to maintain both.

I'd like to see Rick write a sequel to this book written about the exact same events but with the wife as the narrator. That would be fascinating and could be a whole series of novels written back to back from two perspectives. Maybe teenagers falling in love written from the boy's then the girl's perspective. ;-) Maybe a criminal case written first from the victim's then the perpetrator's perspective. Just a thought. Please just keep writing.

[Eclectic Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

Misty Hill is a town where everyone knows everyone's business and Nick Marhoffer found this out the hard way.  After signing up for coach of his son's new baseball team, meeting the hot and sexy Diet Coke Mom, and losing his job at the newspaper during the great recession, the stress was unbearable.  When conceivable, but untrue, rumors spread that he was sleeping with Tess, aka Diet Coke Mom, Nick's world crumbles.  His wife, Marcy, kicks him out with nothing to live on, but credit cards.  Holed up in a cheap hotel, he makes plans to continue with his life no matter what happens.  Will he lose the family he loved because of a stupid misunderstanding?

Along with the seriousness there is a lot of funny stuff in this book including the "bad coaching moments", dealing with the Notoriously Obnoxious Dad, or N.O.D. for short, the Science Fair Smackdown, and all the trials and tribulations of coaching seven-year-old and eight-year-old boys for the first time.

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review

[Kassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank You Open Books and Bookglow for providing a free e-book copy for me to review

Nick Marhoffer is a coach for his son's little league team. Nick thought the other dads took the game a little too seriously, and he made it his mission to make the game fun and enjoyable.

His marriage has been a little tense since losing his job, and he is quickly losing sight of everything good in his life. He starts to have a crush on one of the moms on his team and his life spirals out of control once rumors reach his wife. Will Nick be able to fix his broken marriage? Or will the vulnerability of being alone cause him to make bad decisions?

This book was written very well and this is something that all baseball fans will enjoy. This is an adorable story with laugh out loud moments and I enjoyed this book very much!


Star Rating: 4/5⭐️
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: June 11, 2017
Publisher: Open Books

[Alice Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book from the author at a book fair. Although I knew the premise was about family/marriage issues, I was unsure how much I would enjoy it because the other theme was Little League Baseball. (I am not a sports fan.) So it was a surprise when I read this in just a couple of days. It was written in an easy-to-read format and kept drawing me back to see what would happen next to the primary characters. I've lived in small-town America and had children who participated in sports, and so the descriptions of these things were familiar, and somewhat humorous at times. I was happy with the outcome of the book. My disappointment, and the reason I didn't rate the book higher, was the inclusion of language offensive to me. And although the sexual situations/temptations in the book will come across as "real life" to some, I found them too detailed and unnecessary.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished “Made to Break Your Heart” and now I can breathe again. I pretty much read it for two days straight until I finished. It has everything I was looking for in a novel. I found myself smirking at times because of the little league references (as I am sure things are the same in every suburb across America) but what I loved about it was it wasn’t only about baseball. It was about American life and how things can get turned around so easily. It was about family and how quickly things can change. My son is the same age as the boy in this novel and I found myself wondering and thinking the entire time. This book was a home run -- especially for a debut novel! I will be watching to see what else he writes. -- NOTE -- I read the kindle version

[Marc Levy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, finely crafted book, so well controlled and focused by Fellinger that it reminded me of Russell Banks' "The Sweet Hereafter." It had lough-out-loud moments. It had moments where you cringed for Nick Marhoffer, barely able to read on out a sort of pity for Nick and fear for what was coming next for him, deserved or not. Very lifelike, very believable stuff, such real moments that it makes you think about your own life while you're reading it, and for a long time afterward. Excellent work.

[Joel Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Rick effortlessly moves between the fragile complexity of prepubescent boys, manhood, and the evolution of "family." Both the innocence of childhood and the perils of attraction are used to craft a compelling story. The characters are believable, and their journey entertains as Rick uses his intimate knowledge of Pennsylvania and youth sports coaching to frame the tale.

[Eliana]

Books i read in the past

[Proud Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story overview
The global financial crisis (GFC) is something I remember clearly happening in 2008 when this book is set. Following a series of banks in the US collapsing a number of domino like effects happened. As a result, Nick lost his job at the newspaper.

Nick's experience during this time doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how bad some families were affected. Over the two year span immediately before and after the GFC we follow Nick and his struggles to keep his family together.

Leading up to the GFC Nick struggles to be a good father, husband and coach to his son's baseball team. During, and immediately after the GFC Nick pick's up the pieces of his life while he desperately tries to find a job he's passionate about. Given the job climate this is a struggle that leads him to potentially murky waters with another woman.

In light of those actions, he's kicked out of his own house by his wife as she believes he's cheating on her. Throughout the book we follow Nick's perspective and learn just how clueless he is about women as he struggles to save his marriage.

My thoughts
I will warn you that this read is a slow grand kind of book to me. Unlike many books that I read, I found that I wasn't hooked in at any given point in time. There was no buy in or emotional investment in the characters.

The way the story was structured it felt like I was reading directly from Nick's diary. And it felt like her was just trying to come out alive and with a woman by his side. He never made an effort to even talk to his wife about how he was feeling. So how could she have known what he needed from her?

The concept of this story is great. I mean, how many times do we hear this story from the woman's perspective? Unfortunately, the delivery didn't quite hit the mark to make this a great success.

It lacked the pizaz and attention grabbing moments that hook you in and keep you hooked. I ended up feeling like I was reading this purely for the sake of finishing it to write this review.

And I'm glad I did because it was a different perspective. It showed that break ups happen over time and that fighting for the relationship can make a difference to save it.

But I honestly can't say I've ready it again. Especially since I found myself making excuses to do other things. Such as cleaning the house! Just to avoid reading.

So if you enjoy complex books that make you think. But don’t necessarily have that hook, line and sinker moments you come to expect. Then you could really enjoy this one.

[Tracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading the book and loved it. Each character made me feel like I knew him/her from my own town. This isn't just about dads coaching, but the moms and the other families on the teams. It accurately depicts many feelings I have experienced which made it even more interesting to read and caused me to laugh at a few of the situations. Great 1st novel and I'm looking forward to more from this author.