Broken

Callahan Rush lived the wild, hard partying life of a rock star for years. As the lead singer of the band, The Rebels, he soaked up all the attention until Rosie, his girlfriend, helped him get sober. She was his saving grace until one fateful night when tragedy struck. Cal stepped out of the spotlight and fell back into addiction after her death. He would have lost everything if not for his sister pulling him out of the gutter.

Cal had become completely complacent with his boring life until he sees Lucy again. Lucy, a girl he’s known since they were kids, is so hyper focused on becoming a vet she never sees him coming. They both have been single for so long but can’t deny the indescribable pull they feel towards each other. Could this be their happily ever after?

I found Broken by Jennifer Kent while scrolling for a book to read on BookSirens one day and was intrigued by the synopsis to check out this book from this author I’ve never read before. I love stories where one of the MCs has a second chance at not only love but at life. 

Callahan Rush is the typical rockstar guy I normally read in rockstar romances, where they end up getting into trouble and needing help before they spiral too much out of control. But I wouldn’t consider this a rockstar romance because you get only a brief scene or two of his rockstar life. Then you are fast-forwarded to him living a different life, a much simpler one where he now lives a simpler life and never thought he would love someone else after losing his fiancee tragically. 

Lucy is the girl that Cal falls hard for in the book. She’s a sweet and hard-working girl who is determined to become a licensed Veterinarian and is almost there after she finishes her clinical with the Vet she’s working for. She’s had a crush on Cal for years but never acted on it because he was with someone else, and even afterward, she knows he’s still not over with what happened to his fiancee. But there’s no stopping the instant attraction these two characters have for one another when they are forced in proximity to one another when Lucy is watching over Cal’s sister’s dogs for her, and he lives on the same property. 

I loved reading how Lucy and Cal were finding love with one another in different ways. Cal gets a second chance with someone else, and Lucy ends up with her longtime crush, who actually understands her and won’t walk away, even though she’s working and studying all the time. I’ve always loved reading age-gap romances, and when it comes to Cal and Lucy, there’s a nine-age gap, and it may bother some readers, especially with the mention of Jimmy (who is Lucy’s uncle, but they are not blood-related). I loved that both characters knew each other, and they were friends first and then lovers. Their story was promising, and I was rooting for them to have a HEA. 

Now, why did I give this book three stars? (I would actually rate it 3.25, but Goodreads and Amazon won’t let me.) One of the reasons is that this book was marked as having a happily ever on BookSirens but ended up having a cliffhanger instead. It was a predictable cliffhanger, too, since it was one of the MMC’s fears when forming a relationship with Lucy. Then there was the issue of the brother-in-law and sister not knowing that Cal and Lucy were together because Lucy was constantly over Cal’s place sneaking out. No, that wasn’t believable for a second that they hadn’t figured it out until then. Plus, the way Jimmy handled it could have been dealt with better, and I wouldn’t say I liked how Cal was about to break it off because he was intimidated by Jimmy. There were other minor things that I noticed that bugged me, one of them being the time that Lucy got a tattoo, and it wasn’t addressed how long she waited for it to heal before she jumped into a pool. These are just some minor timeline issues that I found confusing. 

I’m hoping Jennifer Kent doesn’t leave us hanging for too long because I need to know if Cal and Lucy do get their HEA. They both deserve one, after everything they went through in this book, the good and the bad. 

Story Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Steam/Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Cliffhanger: Yes.

Genre/SubGenre(s): Romance | Contemporary Romance

Trope(s)/Element(s): Rockstar Romance | Second Chances | Age Gap

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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