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Review

3.5 “Shortcake” stars

The Fractured Heart is the second book in the Second Circle Tattoos series written by Scarlett Cole. It is written from the dual POVs of Cujo and Drea, the best friends of Trent and Harper from book one.

Drea Caron is a beautiful, smart, dedicated woman who has basically put her life on hold to take care of her dying mother. Even though her mother is ungrateful, Drea continues to work extra shifts to support them and is just making ends meet.

Brody “Cujo” Matthews is a gorgeous, hardworking man who works at Second Circle Tattoos as well as at his other brother’s business. He decided a long time ago to avoid relationships and is content with one night stands.

In The Fractured Heart, Drea and Cujo are thrown together to plan Harper and Trent’s engagement party. They can’t stand each other in the beginning and are constantly irritating each other.

“What are the chances we get through today without a fight?” Cujo asked leaving a tip on the platter.
“We don’t fight,” she responded quickly.
“Like hell we don’t,” he laughed, letting her walk in front of him.
“We wouldn’t fight if you just agreed me with me,” she threw back over her shoulder.
“Drea, we might be the only two people who could fight over whether or not we fight.”

Drea thinks Cujo is really lazy and Cujo thinks Drea is extremely up-tight. It takes a while but eventually the two form a bond when they are thrown into a scary situation. They still bug each other but there is no denying the chemistry they share and they finally give into their desires. Of course, there’s always trouble in paradise.

What the fuck just happened? Because it felt a lot like he just let the best thing that ever happened to him walk out of his life.

Their relationship did turn out sweet at the end. Drea had a lot of stuff to work through and Cujo was right there by her side supporting her.

“Drea, I love who you were before. I love who you are right now. I’m gonna love you ten years from now. I hope you’re not the same, because it means we’ve grown. I just want to be the one who gets to do it with you.”

I did enjoy this book but it paled in comparison to The Strongest Steel. I had a hard time believing the love between Drea and Cujo. It did not take long for Cujo to open up to Drea and jump at the opportunity to date her when he had such strong feelings and reasons for avoiding a relationship in the first place. It also got a bit annoying with all the back and forth that went on. First they need to stay away from each other, then they want to be together, then they need to be apart. Their relationship just didn’t wow me.

As for Cujo’s mother, I absolutely hated her. I can not believe the reason behind her choices.

Spoiler

“I’m trying to tell you what I did, Brody, because I want you to be proud of me. I gave up our family for a bigger cause.”

My family is the most important thing to me. There is no bigger cause that could ever take me away from them and I think his mother was super selfish. I understand wanting to live your dreams but you make your choices. She had a family. She could still have dreams and keep her family. The father was amazing and if she would have talked to him about her feelings I think they could have worked something out. Now, I understand that unwanted pregnancies happen. I am not saying that she didn’t have a choice as to whether she wanted to keep the baby. I understand she was young. But she proceeded to have two more children and then decided that she didn’t want her family. She made me so mad and I can’t believe she was surprised when Cujo wasn’t quick to forgive her. Um, yea, I wouldn’t easily forgive her either!

Though there was a little bit of suspense in this book, Drea annoyed me so much acting like she did with the investigation. Also, Cujo and Drea were quick to snap at each other and I didn’t agree with all of their decisions which sort of annoyed me too.

Even though The Fractured Heart wasn’t as good as I had hoped, I am still looking forward to reading the next book in the series!