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

UnTouch Me (Angels Warriors MC Trilogy) by Dawn Martens Review

Series: Angels Warriors MC Trilogy #2
Publish: April 20th 2015 by Dawn Martens
Format: ebook, 220 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: The truth always comes out, no matter how deep you try to bury it. Secrets never make their way to the grave.
Lilly Mayer has always lived a simple life. She’s loyal—maybe too loyal since faithfulness cost her the love of her life. Keeping Eden’s whereabouts a secret from everyone, including Vinny, has ripped away Lilly’s future.
Vincent “Zippo” Torino knows he’s a goddamn bastard. And he’s willing to use Lilly’s loyalty to Eden as his own escape from a hell he created. He doesn’t give a damn that he’s leaving the woman pregnant with his child behind—not when he has to protect his own destructive secret. And not when he’s sure she’s going to beat him to the punch and leave first.
As the dangers to the club escalate, nobody’s hearts—or lives—are safe.

Review:
  I absolutely love Dawn Martens’ books. However the first book in this series was a huge disappointment for me. That’s why I was a bit reluctant to read this one, but with the way the first book ended I couldn’t help myself.

  Fortunately the structure of UnTouch me is so much better than UnKiss me, that purely this gave the story a better chance in my book. It has a clear timeline with a couple of well placed glance in the past here and there, but the most positive difference that it has a preceptible beginning and a more or less clean ending. Still has a cliffhanger but at least it’s feasible. This is what I was missing from the first book the clear, follow able and logical timeline.
  Sure there are still things bugging me but it would be strange if all of the books I read ended the way I want them.

  This story is told from different characters point of view but the books strongly intertwine with one another. We get to know Lilly and Zippo story but the conflict from the previous book starts to unfold on another thread, too. I like that we get some kind of explanation for things that happened, even if it’s not a full one, yet. Most of these connecting events are surprising and not even remotely predictable.

  Lilly and Zippo’s story is kind of heartbreaking and depressing. Honestly the characters in this series have a really twisted, screwed up values. All they do are making stupid mistakes and decisions. As in the first book with Eden and Angel, now with Lilly and Zippo the secrets rule and eventually destroy their relationship.
  I don’t want to rant about their screw ups because then my review would be full of spoilers and I don’t want that, but let me tell you this Zippo reasoning simply pissed me off. He has extremely strong double standards and in times even act disgustingly. More importantly he doesn’t have a remotely justifiable reason for his actions, like Angel has, other than being a prick.
  Lilly is kind of naïve, a bit too forgiving but loyal to a fault. Her loyalty causes her a lot of grief. In my opinion she deserves better than Zippo, but love is blind.

  Overall this book is much better than the first installment. It’s of heartbreaking emotions and drama with better structure for it. I liked it and it’s more like Dawn Martens other works.
  The way she lined up the stores in the series is a new idea, and it’s good when authors try new thing out but it’s not working, for me at least. In this genre I like when the story is clean cut.
  I hoping for a happy ending, and a triple one at that, in the next book and I’m quite curious about the mysterious ‘Unknown’ characters’ identity so I’m gonna read the next book and I hope the next story is going to be more like this one than the first.

  Oh and the cover is freaking amazing.

By Viki