Broken (Broken) by Kelly Elliott Review

Series: Broken #1
Publish: November 17th 2013 by Kelly Elliott
Format: ebook, 354 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: Layton Morris and his brother Mike grew up not knowing what it would be like to live in a normal home. With no running water or electricity in their home, no parents around to protect them, they quickly learned how to survive and depend only on each other.
When a tragic accident takes Mike away from Layton, and the only other person that he ever let into his heart walked away from him, leaving his heart shattered, Layton focuses all of his time and energy into the ranch he and his brother dreamed of. He makes a vow to himself to never let love in again. The last thing Layton needed or wanted was more heartache.
Whitley Reynolds grew up in a privileged home in upstate New York. When she landed the star football player in high school no one was surprised, not even Whitley. She dreamed of a life with Roger living in New York City and happily followed him there.
The first time Roger hit her for arguing with him about a dinner party, she forgave him. The more it happened, the further Whitley withdrew from her friends and family. One fateful day things go to far. Whitley makes a promise to herself and finds the courage to do the one thing she thought she’d never be able to do.
Fleeing with her best friend Courtney, Whitley was determined to put her past behind her and start a new life in the small town of Llano, Texas, where no one would ever find out about her past.
Will they both ever learn to trust and love again, or will their pasts come back to haunt them, keeping them both alone and...
Broken.

Review:
  Kelly Elliott has an outstanding talent to create stories which are extremely sweet and steamy at the same time. Okay her books are a little bit predictable but not so much. She can create exceptional situations and can make the same situation a bit different every time giving them a novel feel, atmosphere. There is little bit of a similarity between this series and her Wanted series. Both takes place in Texas with cowboys and loveable best friends, whom stir up the events. But there are plenty of differences between them. First of all that in this book there is an older cast and has a more mature and darker topic.

  Both of the main characters have a lot of emotional and physical scars. They come from very different worlds, backgrounds still they have a similarly hard past.
  Layton’s father left him and his brother so they had to grow up really fast and only could rely on each other. If it wouldn’t be enough he lost his brother and the love of his life left him, too. While Whitley has a beautiful and good childhood but her taste in boys is not the best. The man she chooses for husband slowly turned into a monster and completely broke her. They hit rock bottom and thought there is no way out they met.

  Their first meeting is not roses and love; they are constantly at each other throat. However these little disagreements and the banter between them turn into attraction somewhere along the line. They learn to love again with each other help and thanks to this they get over the obstacles. The sexual tension and the chemistry are palpable. It’s impossible to put down the books until the two main characters confess their feelings and take the road to emotional healing.

  The plot is built typically in Kelly Elliott style, makes a full circle. It’s a fluidly flowing story that sucks the reader in completely. It’s full of romance, amusing little events, emotional debates and a lot of pleasant moments in the company of a freshly formed circle of friends. Of course there is a lot of drama and a bad guy too. The author not only endears her characters but makes the reader an addict. I can’t wait to read the next book, however not because of Courtney and Reed but because I hope there is more Layton and Whitley in it too. Courtney and Reed behavior with each other makes it hard to like them.

  About the cast? There is an extremely sexy cowboy, who is a bit closed up in the beginning but slowly opens up and shows his true personality. He is really passionate, caring and sweet and all of this without losing his masculinity. I couldn’t help myself; I constantly smiled during reading his point of view.
  Then there is Whitley who is the perfect damsel in distress, but still a very strong and persistent character. She is really honest and loveable; it’s easy to relate to her.
  We also get a very detailed description about the secondary characters too. And they are the levers for the main characters, whom on the edge of giving up in the beginning of the story. Despite this Courtney and Reed couldn’t get along, in each other presence they act like completely different persons and most of time it’s an ugly change. I know it supposed to prepare their story but it’s not really appealing.

  I absolutely love this book and hope there are a lot of people who agree with me. A fantastic story, I can recommend it to anyone who likes light romantic books.

By Viki

Yield the Night (Steel & Stone) by Annette Marie Review

Series: Steel & Stone #3
Publish: March 27th 2015 by Annette Marie
Format: ebook, 278 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: After surviving a round-trip to hell, Piper figures she can survive anything. After all, she just lived through the devastating loss of her Consul apprenticeship and a torturous stint at boarding school. How much worse could it get?
Well, she wasn’t expecting a group of crazy radicals to burn her home to the ground and take her prisoner.
The Gaians, a.k.a. the crazy radicals, plan to rid Earth of daemons and they need Piper’s help. In exchange for her cooperation, they promise her the answer to all her problems: magic. With her own magic, she could reclaim her apprenticeship, the only future she’s ever wanted. But her magic comes at price — it could kill her.
With the life she’s always known crumbling around her and her future slipping from her grasp, she needs Ash’s help one more time. But the greatest danger of all lies within her, and no matter what she does, she may lose everything — including him.

Review:
  The story starts a couple of months after where Bind the soul ended and as the previous books, starts with a dose of disappointment for Piper and quite a much action.

  We know the Gaians from Chase the dark and now they are back. Let me tell you Piper didn’t luck out in the parent department. With an emotionless, workaholic dad and a mother with a childlike delusion and a naivety what leads to overly grandiose and misplaced plans of world domination, it’s a miracle Piper hasn’t got a few screw loose. Okay as Piper states in the story to the Gaians have a couple of great idea but they also portray it through notions similar to the ones that led to the Third World War in their history. They also want to squash everything they don’t know or fear, even if they don’t have a chance. This part is typical in dystopian stories and I really don’t like it, so it’s true for the Gaians too. What pissed me of even more was Piper’s mother’s willingness to sacrifice her so called ‘destined to be together’ daughter. Unfortunately their angle doesn’t get a solution so I think they going to cause more problems.
  In the story we see into the Overworld, so we get to know all the planes there are in this magical world. There are a lot of beautiful descriptions about the places our heroes visit.
  After a while our trio reunites and their dynamic is back but not as intensely as in the first book and there is a couple of reasons for that.
  Piper is more confident in herself but her life turns so complicated through the course previous installments that her emotional stability becomes questionable. There are much more emotion in this story but is works spectacularly. We find fewer action scenes but a lot of answers for unanswered questions. Again a completely different atmosphere.
  Piper and Ash relationship reaches its peak and finally blooms, not with the best conclusion but they are so cute together its melt the heart. There is still hope for their happy ending.
  Ash’s sister is the biggest obstacle between them. She is really mean, manipulative and more like Samael than Ash wants to admit. As Piper states it they don’t know each other as much as they think, at least Ash still sees the little girl she once was. I hated her especially the way she tried to chase Piper away. She usually strikes where it hurts the most, breaking Piper even more with every jab.

  There is a lot of beautiful scenarios and otherworldly being in this book what proves the author has a really colorful imagination.
  This story isn’t that fast paced and has a little less action but its emotional depth gives that little plus I was missing in the previous books, thanks to this I gave it a 5.
  Originally I thought it’s going to be the last book in the series but it quickly became obvious that it’s not. I don’t really mind that there is gonna be a fourth book but I think Ash and Piper deserve a HEA especially after how this one ended. I’m curious about the next story since we already got three books with completely different undertone but the same plot thread.

By Viki

Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) by Helen Harper Review

Series: Blood Destiny #1
Publish: December 27th 2012 by Helen Harper
Format: ebook, 246 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: Mack might be, to all intents and purposes, a normal looking human, but she lives with a pack of shapeshifters in Cornwall in rural England after being dumped there by her mother when she was just a young child. She desperately wants to be accepted by her surrogate family, not least because a lot of them hate her for merely being human, but for some reason her blood just won't allow the transformation to occur.
With a terrible temper to match her fiery red hair, Mack is extraordinarily useful in a fight, and when her pack alpha is brutally and abruptly murdered, she swears vengeance. Unfortunately, his murder also draws in the Brethren - the leaders of the shapeshifter world - who will slaughter everyone in Mack's small rural pack if they discover her true identity. Unfortunately Corrigan, the green-eyed muscle-bound Lord Alpha of the Brethren, doesn't let much slip by him...

Review:
  This is the first book I ever read from Helen Harper but I's sure I'm going to look for her works from now on. I have it on my to read list for a while now, but for some reason I didn't read it yet. However, the other day I stubled upon it again and started it. I'm glad I did, because it is an excellente story and I found a lot of similarities with one of my favourite series. I quckly became a fan.

  The story starts after a devasting event in the pack life and from there everything start to spiral out of control at least for Mack. There is already a lot of threat for her life but suddenly these multiply. There is a great chance that her true identity is gets exposed but she is too determined to get revenge so she is willing to risk it. The whole mystery about Joh murderer is strongly interwined with Mack history and secrets. However, while Mack part of the suspense is quite predictable the other part isn't. Thanks to this there is a really strong balance in the plot. I really liked the book, it was a little strenge in parts but in the good way. Everything takes olace in the British Islands with a little supernatural twist. I think the autor idea about the paranormal world is quite godd, but in this book it mainly focuses on the shifter population and doesn't really talks about other species. Otherwise I like the general background of the story. There is a tangled web of lies and secrets in the shadows what makes difficult everybody lifes.
  The plot is well spaced and gradually unfolds. A well written book with interesting characters, exciting world and an action packed plot. The whole story is told by Mack who gives us a hazy picture since she isn't quite sure what's going on either.

  There is a lot of interesting character in the book but we only get a clear picture about Mack. She is my cup of tea. Strong, snarky, fiery and generally a trouble maker. She is raised by the pack and they are the only family she knows, but since she is human her mere existence is a therat for the pack. She needs to keep a low profile for a while but foe some reason she simply can't do it. No matter how much she tries. Everywhere she goes trouble follows. I really like her personality but it is a bit strange that nobody ever quetioned tha fact that she is a better fighter than most shifters when is is just a human. Beside this her bloodfire thingy is a little hazy, it takes a while to really unterstand the meaning of it. This ridiculous disregard of clues from their part is easily forgivable because it doesn't take away from the story.
  Corrigan is the only one who sees the signs of her power he just can't put together the right picture. However he is a really observant and in my opinion quite likable character. Sexy, strong and smart and for some reason Mack got his attention from the beginning, too much of his attention. I love the interactions between the two and I think there is a hidden attraction somewhere behind their fighting. He knows perfectly which buttons to push and not just with Mack, everybody. I like him, I hope there is going to be something more between him and Mack.
  I like most of the pack, well expect Anton, but unfortunately we doesn't get to know them enough. There is a lack of deeper introduczion for them. They all love Mack in different ways. Most of them is kind and loyal.

  It is a beautiful and interesting story, but it is missing something, something I can't quite put my hands on. Still I loved it. I can't wait to finish the second book, since there is a lot of place for development in every way, but for a first book it's perfect. It's spieced with a lot of surprising twist and turn most of them I couldn't perdict and I liked it. It is a fresh and a phenomenal book. Perfect for everybody who likes urban fantasy.