Review: 4.5 Stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2014
I’ll be honest I didn’t even want to like this book because of my hatred for Audrey but holy crap, I loved it!  Beautiful Broken Mess is told in alternating points of view between Audrey and Jace  That right there had me excited right from the beginning, I love being inside the male brain. Plus in this story there was so much going on it was really needed to see both sides so we the readers could see the whole story.That doesn’t mean I was there the whole time though. This book has time jumps again which I found to be confusing in the beginning. One minute we’re present day, then four years ago, then present day, then 8 months ago. For a while I couldn’t actually figure out what year it was suppose to be since one of the main characters was entering a higher level program than where we originally left the boys. It wasn’t until 20% that I finally put it all together. Although, I’ll fully admit this could be because I started the book late at night… or early depending on when you start counting. Either way, if you find you have a problem with it don’t worry it’s not you and all will be cleared up soon… keep reading. It’s worth it!Like I said, I did not want to like Audrey. In fact after finishing book one, I pretty much hated her. I said it in that review and I’ll restate it here, Kimberly Lauren had a lot of work to do in order for me to like Audrey and it was going to have to be convincing for me to accept it. But damn her, she did it.  I have three notes about my feelings toward Audrey, in the following order.* I do not want to like Audrey. At all. Lots of work to do* Darn her, she’s making me like her and I really don’t want to.* And she did it, she made me like Audrey. Damn it.As you can see, I really did not want to like this chick, but she got under my skin and I couldn’t help it. I fell for her just like everyone else in the book did. And you know what it wasn’t her sad past, I didn’t feel sympathy for her in that regards, it was the way things were misconstrued in book one. It was done in such a believable fashion I didn’t question the believability of it. It wasn’t soap opera-ish at all which is what I was worried about. Audrey was just such a sweet girl she fit with Jace perfectly. I want her as a friend.We saw a lot of Jace in book one, but it isn’t until his story that we really see Jace as an individual and his true depth. I loved that Jace was overly dominant but sweet and thoughtful as well. Morning coffees every day, come on… why didn’t my hubby try that trick when I was in college? I always though Jace was a bit of an elusive character in book one and we find out why in this book. He has a lot of life changing decisions to make and things to fess up to and watching him do it was quite an emotional ride.This one had me crying sad tears, then happy tears, then I was laughing right along with everyone else. I felt like I was right there with them the whole time while everything was going on. I’ll admit there were some events toward that end that felt a bit “rushed” for the couple, but I suppose when you’ve found the one you’re looking for you don’t want to wait.One of my favorite things about this story was that we actually get a few glimpses into the relationship of Jaxon and Emerson as well as conversations with them. We delve deeper into their relationship as well but do it through the eyes of Audrey and Jace.  I loved those updates at how they’ve progressed and seeing them as a couple. I really enjoyed reading this book and liked Jace, but Jaxon will always be my Riley twin. What can I say, I apparently like my book boyfriends to be impulsive and a bit angry… shrug.Book 3, Beautiful Broken Promise is due out in 2014 and will feature Lane’s story. You can tell that Lane is going to have an interesting background and love interest just from the few clues we were given in this story.  I can’t wait to read about it.I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review