Broken by Shiloh Walker

Well...What I say is this. In a story full of characters with names like Quinn, Don, Sara and James, why introduce a character who is basically raped and beaten to death and call her Elena. Her only function is to highlight Quinn's supposed inability to express his emotions to people he wants to care about. But that's just me and my opinion...in my capacity as CEO of the Society for the Protection of Minor Characters.

Basically I suppose this is Quinn's story. His main parent for most of his youth was a drunk, foul-mouthed mother. So it's understandable that he's not really confident in making relationships. I suppose. But. Something that Quinn does have is a wonderful fairy godmother. So when his mom dies he is whisked off to a rich rancher Dad. And then at the end of the story (spoiler alert) incredibly the main bad-guy dies by his own hand, so Quinn gets his girl. Lucky ol' Quinn.

For me the trouble with the story was Sara. And how the reader is led to believe that she is an abused wife. Because then it would seem that Sara is having a relationship with a new guy Quinn when she hasn't resolved the poisonous relationship with her abusive guy. And she's certainly picked what looks like another controller in Quinn. He programs her cell phone number into his cell without telling her; he shows up at her place of work when she hasn't actually told him where she works.

Despite all that I ended up feeling sorry for Quinn. Because I would say that Sam is not a good relationship for him. Sam is in fact pretending to be Sara to lay a false trail for Sara's abusive husband. There is no way the mindset of the sister of a marital abuse victim would in any way be the same as that of the abuse victim herself. But that is what the reader is lead to believe. Or so it seemed to me. It was just ridiculous that after all his threats, James decided to take his own life and so leave everyone free to carry on happily ever after. (With Sara being the ultra-rich widow seeing how she was still married to James at the time of his death.) Sam totally played Quinn and she should have been made to grovel some. I don't remember coming across a heroine who absolutely refuses to trust the hero with any relevant information at all.

From almost the beginning this book totally read like it was the minor character follow-up of a successful novel. Good luck to Quinn as he watches the lovely Sam change back into a blimp now that she doesn't have to run anymore. Actually he'll probably be very happy with such a completely normal relationship.

What I enjoyed most about the story was that the main characters worked blue-collar jobs and that Quinn thought in terms of his (and Sam's) future when he took that high-paying job.

Not to be compared to Tate and Matt in Lauren Dane's novel ....Chase. But an interesting read anyhow.