Review: Two damaged souls find completion with each other…
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2014
This is the fourth book in the Beautifully Broken series but it can be read as a stand-alone. I first met Brand in the book Before We Fall. He was Jacey’s protector, always rescuing her from herself, but she was not the one for him much as he wanted her to be. You don’t need to have read that book to enjoy this one, though some characters are revisited.Brand Killien is called home, a place he doesn’t want to go to, by his mother, a person he doesn’t want to see, upon his father’s death, a man he doesn’t want to remember. He’s an ex-army ranger who does what needs to be done whether he wants to or not and the past that has just been brought to mind was not a happy one. When he arrives in town all hell breaks loose it seems and he is injured saving lives. One of the lives he helps to save is Nora Greene’s, a girl he knew briefly long ago.Nora Greene used to fantasize about Brand when she was a teenager. He once did something nice for her and she never forgot it but he left town and she never expected to see him again. And then one afternoon there he is and he is so much more than he was.  Brand the man is a fantasy she so much wants to come to life but she is damaged and keeps deep secrets. Brand wants no attachments but Nora needs the distraction and temporary redemption that only Brand can provide and he needs some help while he heals.This was quite an enjoyable read with many underlying nuances. The main characters are two damaged individuals, one enables the other to heal and the other enables the other to find the strength to face living demons and do something about them. I liked both these characters, the sexual tension between them was palpable and the connection born of knowing suffering makes for a deep understanding of the other once their histories are known. The heroine is quite feisty yet deep down very vulnerable. I love how she taunts Brand and how he tries not to let her get to him but there something about Nora that does and he eventually gives in but the protector in him also senses that there is much going on with her that she doesn’t speak of, a trait he is guilty of himself.The past that Brand survived and the man he made of himself made him quite endearing not just to Nora but to this reader. What Nora has been dealing with when the truth becomes fully known, which I never would have guessed the twist in it, was absolutely horrendous. That she found the strength to end it one way or another showed how much knowing Brand changed her, to protect him she reached for more than she had believed she deserved. This story was emotionally intense and suspenseful with amusing moments as the two danced around each other.