{"id":4262,"date":"2014-09-05T04:57:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T11:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=4262"},"modified":"2017-03-08T11:11:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T16:11:07","slug":"review-broken-redemption-1-by-lauren-layne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=4262","title":{"rendered":"Review: Broken (Redemption, #1) by Lauren Layne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\r\n <\/div><\/div><\/b><\/p>\n
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

4.5 sweet, angsty, sassy stars<\/b><\/p>\n

I love this book! Both sweet and angsty, it\u2019s a wonderful love story with great banter, lots of chemistry and a nice amount of steam. But it\u2019s also the story of two damaged people moving on from their pasts and finding something very special together.<\/p>\n

Olivia is 22 years old, rich, pampered and popular, but she made a big mistake whose repercussions shattered her picture-perfect life \u2013 this is part of the story of the prequel novella, Isn’t She Lovely<\/em> \u2013 and I love that the author took the character who was essentially a villain, and painted her as a very likeable but misunderstood heroine in her own book. Bizarrely, Isn\u2019t She Lovely<\/i> isn\u2019t available for me in Australia until later this year, so I went into this one without all of that history. But the story is recapped really well, and I was able to get a good sense of what had happened and where everything was at.<\/p>\n

Wanting penance for what she has done, and in an effort to run away from her life in New York and the mistakes that she has made, she takes a job caring for a war veteran in rural Maine. Expecting to be spoon-feeding a crotchety old man, she is surprised when she discovers that her veteran is actually a gorgeous, although scarred, 24 year old whose main problem seems to be his attitude.<\/p>\n

Paul was the only member of his team to return from Afghanistan where he was wounded and badly scarred. Tormented by his memories, he is angry and overwhelmed with guilt, and he channels those emotions into being a sullen and moody bastard. Since his return he has lived his life as a recluse, hiding his scars from the world in a plush estate set up by his wealthy father and after pushing away a series of carer\/companions, he gets the shock of his life when Olivia turns up on his doorstep, and he is instantly on guard.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t need a gorgeous blonde to remind me of all the things I can\u2019t have.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The set up to this story is very similar to one of my all-time favourite books (Me Before You<\/i>) and I must confess it took me longer than I wanted to get into it as I kept comparing it, but Olivia and Paul are strong characters, and the dynamic between them as well as the charm of the story soon had me hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so romantic. The beautiful angel swooping in to save the surly dickwad who\u2019s quite possibly a murderous recluse.\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story is told in dual POV, and the author does a great job at getting us to the heart of her characters \u2013 both of whom are very different from how they initially appear. They are both immediately attracted to each other and it doesn\u2019t take too long sparks to begin to fly as Paul is at his assholish best, and Olivia soon learns that the best way to handle him is to dish it right back!<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re one messed-up piece of work.\u201d
\n\u201cYeah, but you\u2019re starting to worry that you might like me,\u201d I say confidently. \u201cConsidering I also give you a boner, shit\u2019s gonna get <\/i>reaaaaal complicated here in the next few months.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is a lot of push and pull between them as they figure out how to act around each other with all of the zinging chemistry, but the banter is fantastic as Olivia\u2019s strength and sass slowly start to drag Paul out of his shell. And as they get to know each other, it\u2019s no longer just raging lust between them, real feelings start to develop.<\/p>\n

She makes me forget to breathe. She makes me forget everything. <\/i><\/p>\n

I want her. But more than that, I want her<\/em> to want me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I loved the development of Olivia and Paul\u2019s relationship. It\u2019s slow building and it\u2019s realistic, and it\u2019s pretty freaking hot. And each little step forward has a lot of significance to it.<\/p>\n

No matter where I look, my walls are crumbling, and this damned girl keeps presenting me with the most dangerous element of all.
\n<\/i>Hope.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both Olivia and Paul have issues that they need to deal with, and they certainly don\u2019t make it easy on themselves \u2013 or each other \u2013 but I thought that the way they come together was really beautiful. It\u2019s not an easy ride, and they have many hurdles to face before claiming their HEA, but I actually enjoyed the angsty moments, and through all of the ups and downs I could feel everything that they were going through, and I thought their story was beautifully told.<\/p>\n

Olivia hasn\u2019t just taught me how to love. She\u2019s done something much bigger. She\u2019s taught me how to <\/i>live.
\nAnd I don\u2019t want to do it without her.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really enjoyed this book. It\u2019s sweet but has a lot of depth, and the romance is absolutely gorgeous! Paul and Olivia\u2019s story is very special, and I\u2019m hoping that we get to see more of them in future books of the series.<\/p>\n

4.5 stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Redemption\u00a0series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Isn't<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Broken\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Crushed\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

Isn’t She Lovely (#0.5)<\/strong>\u00a0(Ethan & Stephanie)
\nBuy: \u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Broken (#1)<\/strong>\u00a0(Olivia & Paul)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: \u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Cr<\/strong>ushed (#2)<\/strong>\u00a0(Michael & Chloe)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook\u00a0 Review 4.5 sweet, angsty, sassy stars I love this book! Both sweet and angsty, it\u2019s a wonderful love story with great banter, lots of chemistry and a nice amount of steam. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,9,29],"tags":[253,254,48],"class_list":["post-4262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-lauren-layne","tag-redemption","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Broken.jpg?fit=170%2C226&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-16K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}