Broken (Berkley Sensation)

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Description

The national bestselling author of Fragile returns together with a luscious new blend of sex and suspense.

Quinn Rafferty is working as a bounty hunter for a private detective agency in St. Louis when a new neighbor catches his eye. He's drawn to her-but he has his own soul to mend before he can worry concerning anyone else.

Sarah McElyea is on the run, but not for the usual reasons a woman goes on the lam. She has a plan for her future. And as much as she locates herself attracted to her gruff, tough neighbor, she can't risk telling him the secrets she's hiding.

But Quinn must get closer to Sarah when she turns out to be the target of his new missing persons case, and together Quinn and Sarah will have to expose their true feelings-as well as their fragile hearts-if their love is to survive.

Customer Reviews

Great! 2010-08-24

By tryin2survive (California)

I found this author randomly 3 days ago and read Fragile first and then quickly followed with this one, Broken. I am HIGHLY impressed!!

Quinn's plot follows nicely from the glimpses we were given in Fragile. His relationship with Sarah is great too. It is well development and very steamy.

Read it in one sitting... 2010-08-21

By RVAbooklover (Richmond, Va United States)

I just now finished reading "Broken", the follow up to "Fragile". I couldn't put it down. "Broken" is one of those books that I race through, desperate to see what happens even as I curse myself for reading it too fast. I plan on reading it again so I can slow down and savor the story.

Quinn is just...WOW. Um...yeah...Wow. Ms. Walker draws him out of his shell one line at a time, so slowly. His transformation from loner to lover is believable and so heartbreakingly touching. He is in over his head, and boy, does he know it. He's only had one other romantic entaglement and it did not end well, to put it mildly. There is a sweet, funny scene in a bookstore where he is surreptitiously looking for a book on flirting...He knows he isn't much for the softer side of relationships but wants to try it out with Sara.

Sara is on the run, and what you think she is running from turns into a surprising twist. She is, quoting Quinn, a "tough girl", determined to handle her own problems without Quinn's help. I was a little disappointed in the character not sharing her story with Quinn until the 11th hour, but honestly, I'm not sure it would have been true to her voice if she had been more forthcoming earlier.

Quinn and Sara together just lit up the pages. Chemistry for days, such sadness and loss, and yet they manage to see through the other's barriers and see the person underneath the emotional scars they each carry. Yes, there was darkness here, but there was a whole lot of light, too.

This is a terrific read from Ms. Walker. Now I need to go read it again, slowly this time...

Some conflicts were not logical or consistent with feelings. Too much pondering and inner monologuing. Not enough action. 2010-08-08

By Jane Stewart (Chicago, Illinois)

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
My biggest problem was the plot. Sara is on the run from an abusive man for two reasons. One of the reasons was logical, the other made no sense. The author should have stuck with the first reason. Quinn works for a private detective agency and hates abusers. Quinn and Sara meet and fall in love. Later Quinn is given a missing persons case which shows Sara as the missing person. He shows this to Sara and asks why. He tells her he wants to help. She won't let him. She won't tell him anything for most of the rest of the book. That bothered me. Later she is angry and saying to herself "why couldn't he have just trusted me enough to ask? Instead of assuming the very worst, right off the bat, why couldn't he have asked what was going on?" (page 243). He did, but she wouldn't answer him. I wanted to shake her and say what's wrong with you. Tell him. He knows much of it already. Anyway, I felt like she was making up a reason to be mad at him. My second problem: many of their conflicts are based on not following feelings and inaccurate assumptions about each other (two of my pet peeves). For example, when Quinn tells Sara he loves her, her response is "you can't love me." Then she avoids him for a much too long period of time which doesn't fit her feelings (which are being in love with him). That did not interest me.

My third problem was too much pondering and inner monologuing by both Quinn and Sara throughout the book. It felt like filler. I wanted more action. I was tired of hearing Sara saying over and over again to herself how she didn't want to get attached.

I wanted more details about Don, Alison, and another female during and at the end of the story. I wanted more information about the person sending text messages to Sara. How was the texter getting information and why so vague with the text message "trouble?" Sara should have called and clarified what that meant, so that she could make a better decision of what to do and where to go.

An annoying minor problem (the publisher's fault): the cover guy has what appears to be a crew-cut. Quinn has shoulder length blondish hair.

On the positive side, I liked the two characters a lot. Quinn was the wounded warrior type. As a child, he was abused by his mother. Now he works as a bounty hunter and gets satisfaction by putting abusers and scum into jail. I liked Sara's strength in her plans and responses to an abuser. The plot twist at the end was interesting. The sex scenes had some good emotion and heat.

STORY BRIEF:
Sara is on the run, living in cheap apartments, and working as a waitress for cash wages. She moves often. She has frequent dreams about a man saying he's going to kill her. Quinn is a bounty hunter working for a private detective agency. He rents the basement apartment from Theresa, a kindly elderly lady. Theresa overhears Sara asking about apartments for rent and offers Sara a room in her home. Sara takes it. Living in the same house, Sara and Quinn meet and fall in love. She doesn't ask him what he does because she doesn't want him to reciprocate by asking questions of her. He senses this and doesn't ask.

DATA:
Story length: 327 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 7. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 23. Setting: current day mostly St. Louis and Chicago. Copyright: 2010. Genre: romantic suspense.

Broken 2010-07-23

By M. Nix

Sarah McElyea has been on the run for two years, carefully keeping her distance from everyone around her when she meets Quinn Rafferty, and then everything she's tried so hard to protect is threatened. Quinn is a solitary guy, living a dangerous life, when his new neighbor grabs his attention. No matter how hard he tries, Quinn can't stay away from Sarah. When Sarah's past comes back to haunt her she has to run again. She'll leave her heart behind this time, but Quinn won't accept that easily.

Broken is suspenseful and intriguing. It's a love story filled with hot sex, intense emotion, and even anguish. It's a perfect erotic romance. Sara is a passionate, strong woman facing an incredibly difficult situation. She's doing what she feels necessary for own safety, but even more so for those she loves. Sara calls Quinn a wounded warrior, and that's exactly what he is. He's a brooding, tortured hero who wears his guilt like a shield. Sarah and Quinn have a quiet compatibility. Even with all they don't know about each other, their connection is clear and tangible. Broken is a gripping story with compelling characters that enhance every moment of its poignant plot. It's another weapon in Shiloh Walkers arsenal of praiseworthy books.

Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Love it 2010-07-08

By K. Bergamo (FL, USA)

I really enjoyed Broken; the story is very emotional, the characters well defined; there is a bit of suspense a little bit of drama and everything flow together in harmony giving the readers a pleasurable story. This is one example why I have so mixed feelings about the work of Shiloh Walker , I truly love some of her books, like Broken , on the other hand I hated The Missing and found extremely annoying the precedent Fragile.

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