Beautiful Broken Mess by Kimberly Lauren Series: Broken #2
Also in this series: Beautiful Broken Rules
Published by Montlake Romance on 1/1/2012
Pages: 303
Genres: College, New Adult, Romance
Goodreads
Jace Riley and Audrey Mills had a tender and irresistibly passionate romance…until Audrey shattered his heart. Years later, she still can’t stop thinking about him. They shared kisses that she’ll never forget, and one brief, explosive encounter that she wishes she could. But no boy could rescue Audrey from her nightmarish home life, so she rescued herself, got through college and got into graduate school…only to find herself at the same school as Jace and his identical twin brother, Jaxon, who has his own complicated history with her.
It takes only one glimpse of Audrey’s long legs and brown eyes for Jace to ache for her once more. Yet he’s determined not to fall for her again. She ripped apart his heart and betrayed his brother…or so he thought. But what if Jace made a terrible mistake about Audrey? And what if he has one last chance to fix it?
Review
I Didn’t like Audrey in Beautiful Broken Rules. I saw her as the “popular girl”, the bubbly, dimwit that runs around snagging guys, looking for the one to take care of her. She was out to get Jax and was so obnoxious about it. I couldn’t stand her!
In Beautiful Broken Mess, we learn her story;
“To say it simply, my life is a broken mess.”
She is beautiful, she has secrets, and an abusive past – perpetrated by three people whom she should have been able to trust the most.
“In the back of my mind, I wonder if people are given a set number of obstacles they have to overcome before they die. If that were the case, then hopefully I’ve already hit my limit for this lifetime.”
She turns out to be such a strong, resilient character that I adored her.
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
JACE rocks her world, wait, what? Ya, Jace, he literally runs into her in front of a bookstore and immediately knows he has to have her. Jace doesn’t know her past or the secrets she’s hiding, but he knows there is something more to her what he sees, and he’s afraid;
“You would wreck this girl Jace. She just seems so fragile, yet deep in her eyes I can see fierceness and damn if I don’t want to unleash that.”
Not a relationship kind of guy, he struggles with the thought of being away from her;
“I have to keep touching her, and I’m NOT a touchy-feely guy. Who the hell is this girl? She has to be a witch. That has to be it. She must have cast a spell on me, because it’s the only way I can vouch for my actions around her.”
Again with this book we get to see the wonderful relationships with friends and family. And just like BBR, their support for each other rounded out the book and tied everything together. I loved how they took care of each other. Lane:
“You either stop staring at her like she’s holding your next breath, or you go talk to her.”
When Jace and Audrey find themselves separated by trauma and emotions they don’t know how to deal with, Audrey finds support from the last person she expected, Jace’s mom. She accepts Audrey for who she is, feels bad for what’s happened to her in her past, and urges Audrey to have patience. But Audrey feels beaten down, broken;
“I feel like I’ve been giving people time my whole life.”
The love between Jace and Audrey is undeniable. They struggle and fight to find their way back to each other. And when we “hear” the song … “Whatever It Is” by Zack Brown Band, I want to cry. It is a perfect choice. The words in this song perfectly describe their story. I could hear him sing it and feel the emotions he was feeling as he sang.
And the “gift”, was so sweet, his words so heartfelt;
“Lucky to have found you. Blessed to have you.”
I thought it was brilliant how this book brought us back to the first. It weaves in the story from BBR while at the same time giving us a new one.
I love the writing of Kimberly Lauren and will read anything she writes. I look forward to the rest of the books in this series.
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