Review: 3.5/5 Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2014
*I received a Netgalley copy for review*(Spoilers removed. View full, unedited review at my website: marielongauthor.com/?p=43)"A Perfect Kind of Broken" is about a girl named Pixie and a guy named Levi, who were involved in a tragedy involving Levi's sister, Charity. Since then, their lives hadn't been the same. They both end up working at a family inn for the summer, and over time, then learn to heal and realize how much they love each other.This began as an amazing story that had me hooked, and I couldn't put the book down. The story is told in first-person-present from both Pixie and Levi's POV, as it alternates chapter by chapter. As a result, some of the chapters are really short (sometimes just a paragraph). This is one of the few books I've read in which I didn't find the female heroine annoying. I actually felt like I related to her, so I found myself enjoyed to be in her head as she deals with life.The story itself could easily be either a YA or a NA. Some of the pranks and gimmicks that go on (like the shower ordeal and the constant teasing), makes it sound high school-ish, but not too over the top. And I just love the fact that Levi's nickname was "Leaves". That's so cute!This is a very sweet romance that ends in an HEA. There's very little sex in the book. We get a little tease in the first half with the shower scene, then a little more toward the end. The scenes are not very detailed, and I didn't care for the latter sex scene. The whole "howling like a werewolf" bit didn't do it for me, and I noticed some of the other reviewers mentioned the same thing.I was so ready to give this book 5 stars when I was abruptly let down around the 75% mark. It's like the entire story does a 360. At the beginning of the story, it was mentioned that Pixie was trying to go to NYU to pursue art. Near the end of the story, she receives a notice that she got accepted to NYU and now she has to choose whether or not she wants to move to New York or stay in Arizona and go to ASU instead. Well, she begins packing and we, as the reader thinks she's going to go to New York. I mean, if we're in her head, in her POV, then she would mention something like this, right? I understand the author wanting to make it a surprise and draw a little suspense/build up for the punch at the end, but it fell flat, because it wouldn't make sense that she would not mention anything when we read her POV. Moreover, the way she started acting the day after they had sex was the very thing that makes me annoyed with female heroines. It was just unnecessary random drama. [spoiler removed]The flashbacks in the beginning of the book were done perfectly. They wove their way through the story unobtrusively. However, as the story went on (maybe 60-75% of the way through), the flashbacks were more and more frequent and felt shoved in. Almost every chapter, they're reminiscing on something when they were 5 or 6. Sometimes it's the same memories, just told differently. I don't mind flashbacks, but I think there was more flashbacking than actual story. And the subject of Pixie's scar and "whose fault it was" felt like a dead horse being beaten over and over. I get it. Scars are ugly, and she has to stare at it everyday because it's a reminder of the tragedy that happened. She's been afraid of what Levi would say about it. But this takes up about 80% of the book, and they talk about the same thing: her being afraid to show Levi the scar even after they talked about it in full and came to some sort of acceptance.And then, just when I thought it couldn't get worse. The BIGGEST cliche of them all happens at the end of the book! [spoiler removed] Just... no.Overall, I really wanted to love this story, and to a point, I did. But I think the last half of the story could totally be axed and this would still be a very sweet and enjoyable romance.