Set in 1989, this series was originally published in the eighties. Janet Quin-Harkin was a huge favourite of mine when I was a teenager and so I was thrilled at the news that the Heartbreak Café series was being republished for a whole new audience of readers. I thought that the story might feel a little dated considering it's over twenty years old but it didn't at all. It deals with so many universal themes which will resonate with teens today, such as trying to become independent and find your own way in life, juggling the demands of school and friends with a part-time job and facing the trauma of parental divorce, that it still feels as fresh and new as when it was first written.

'No Experience Required' centres around Debbie, whose parents have just split up. Finding it hard to cope with a mother who has decided to go back to school, Debbie decides to get a part-time job. When she stumbles across the Heartbreak Café her mind is made-up that this is where she's going to work, even though she has never flipped a burger in her entire life. She begins to work alongside the gorgeous Joe and they develop a bit of a love/hate relationship. But with sparks flying between them, could their wisecracks mean something more?

I adored the Heartbreak Café gang. There's cool Joe who all the girls are head over heels in love with, Ashley and her penchant for chocolate, plus geeky Howard and carefree Art. They are such a great gang that I wanted to scoot over on a stool, with a dish of chocolate madness in front of me and join in with all their fun.

If you're looking for hot and sizzling then you won't find it here but what you do get is a sweet, clean teen series where the romance is innocent and you won't catch the characters using any expletives, not even when things get steamy in the kitchen. It's such a refreshing change that I enjoyed kicking back and delighting in a wonderful slice of nostalgia.

I can't wait for the rest of the series to be published. Next up is 'The Main Attraction'. Will Debbie and Joe ever become a couple? You'll have to wait and see.

It’s hard getting used to thinking of 1989 as being a retro year. But sooner or later most things turn retro, and here is an old favourite being reissued. Maybe you read Janet Quin-Harkin’s Heartbreak Café series 25 years ago, and would like to visit again. I didn’t, so for me it was a pleasant return to old values in a new-to-me book.

In a way this is no different from a Sarah Dessen. No mobile phones or computers, and fashion has changed a little, but other than that we have the same American teenagers driving around in their nice cars, going to school and planning for college, working part time, and falling in love. Dealing with parents and some kind of problem, but mostly hanging out with their friends in that very American way people in the rest of the world are so fascinated by.
Debbie is 16 and has to find a job when her parents divorce and money suddenly becomes an issue. Instead of going for the safe kind of job you could seemingly expect back then, she finds a job waitressing and cooking burgers at a beach café. The young and handsome boy who runs it reckons she won’t last, so obviously Debbie has to prove him wrong.

The hardship we are all mostly used to today is missing. Or maybe it is still an American idea that if you work hard you will have to succeed. I’d like to think this book will appeal to teenagers today. Whether it will seem hopelessly dated, or just charmingly retro is not for me to say. I was old even in 1989.

But this is fun and a bit romantic and so very American. And to Janet’s credit, she didn’t end the book the way I’d been expecting.

Heartbreak Cafe

by Janet Quin-Harkin

Debbie Lesley is living a dream life: she's popular at school, has loving parents, a great boyfriend and a car. But when her parents get divorced, and she's no longer the centre of their world, her American teenage-dream life starts to crack. Her mum can't afford all the luxuries Debbie was used to: now that she's no longer a member of the country club and has to pay for her own car it's time she takes some responsibility for herself.

A chance meeting at the beach lands her a job at the Heartbreak Cafe - she needs the job but Joe, the boy who runs the cafe, gives her a hard time. Debbie's stubbornness fuels her mission to prove him wrong; and to prove to herself and her parents that she is tougher than they might think.

Originally published in the 80s, Heartbreak Cafe (the first in a series) is a fun, typically American story in the tradition of TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210. Debbie is a likeable, yet slightly spoilt and overly dramatic 16-year-old teen. Set in California in 1989, her quest to forge her identity outside of the fickle luxuries of the country club, debate club and prom, provides an enjoyable summer read for teens and young adults.