Review: Not your typical New Adult book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 7, 2013
Honest disclosure: I received an ARC from the author in exchange for my honest review.When you stay up until 3:00 in the morning in order to finish a book, you know it's a good book.It seems that the New Adult sub genre has taken the publishing world by storm and there's a bounty of angsty, dramatic romances available right now. Some are better written than others, and some are edgier than others. However, Beyond Broken is not your typical New Adult novel. I thought it was - given the title, the cover art, and the blurb - I thought I knew what kind of book I was picking up to read. And I did... but I didn't.Sophia Holton is NOT your typical college student seeking an internship at a drug-rehab facility and Greyson Bentley is NOT your typical detox patient. As I began reading I thought this would be a typical case of a sweet girl falling in love with a messed-up guy - in this case a nurse falling in love with her patient. It has all the earmarks of a good NA novel: wealthy, gorgeous, drug-addicted guy needs "rescuing"; sweet, innocent, gorgeous girl falls in love with and wants to "save" said guy. And if that was all there was to this story, it would be a good NA novel.However, Kristen Vayden hasn't given us a "good NA novel". She has written a powerful, inspiring work of fiction that challenges the reader to think more deeply about choices. Just because your heart & even your body is screaming "I want him" or "I want her" - that doesn't mean it's the right choice. Sometimes, doing the right thing is hard. Sometimes, in order to help someone you have to hurt them first.While Sophia & Greyson's relationship has a depth that can sometimes be hard to find in today's fiction. Their relationship is not just about physical attraction. It's not simply, "I want you so I'm going to have you". Sophia struggles with reconciling her feelings with what she knows and believes she should do. The heart and the mind don't always agree with each other and Sophia knows there will be consequences to her choices. Greyson hasn't been blessed with the real-life experiences that Sophia has witnessed, so he ends up learning a few lessons "the hard way". The journey of their relationship isn't a straight course - it has lots of bends & even switch-backs. The result is a book that allows the reader to not only experience a great love story, but also an "epiphany of truth" that left me wanting to be a better person.FYI: this is a New Adult book, while there are no sex scenes, it does have some language and there are adult topics such as drug abuse so I, personally, would recommend for readers 17+