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Ruth Cardello impresses with the first story in her Corisi Billionaires series, The Broken One, in which a single mom meets a lonely widower dealing poorly with a very personal tragedy.
Cautious, organization-happy Heather Ellis is not having a great day. Her four year old adopted daughter Ava has lost her favorite stuffed animal during a car ride (okay, the wind ripped him out of her hands because “he wanted to hang his head out the window”, so close enough). Wolfie is so important to Ava that she’s completely inconsolable without him. Further efforts to replace him fail, which means a desperate Heather resorts to extreme measures to get him back, posting a hundred dollar reward online. The post goes viral, but no one seems to know where Wolfie is.
Fortunately for Ava and Heather, businessman Sebastian Romano happens to be in the right parking lot at the right time; he’s the one who ends up finding Wolfie. Unable to force himself to dispose of the stuffed animal due to negative memories and a compelling feeling that it belongs to someone, he holds on to Wolfie until his mother informs him of the viral post.
It’s attraction at first sight when Sebastian shows up at Heather’s door. But mutual kindness – a plate of messily-baked cookies, Sebastian helping Heather out when she catches Ava’s stomach flu – is what begins to bind them.
While Heather and Sebastian are intrigued by one another and both yearn for physical affection after years of celibacy, the past looms over their shoulders.
Sebastian’s been torturing himself for years over the death of his wife and unborn child in a car accident five years earlier. It’s closed him off emotionally and made him cold and ruthless; a corporate raider who doesn’t bother to memorize his employee’s names and hasn’t had a date or a social life in years. He’s also become a stone-cold drunk. But Heather can relate; she adopted Ava after her best friend died of an infection caught in the hospital after giving birth to her daughter.
Heather has to confront her rusty seduction skills, and has no problem telling Sebastian where to get off if he becomes overbearing in his attempt at ‘helping’ her parent Ava.
Can he possibly open himself up to trusting someone like Heather, and vice-versa? Can Sebastian learn to properly proportionalize his grief and move on with his life? And can Heather ever truly throw caution to the wind and let her hair down?
The Broken One is a surprise of a novel that gives us lovely, fully fleshed-out characters who manage to sneak up on the reader and steal their heart.
Heather is one of those single moms who works hard, tries hard – and now wants to play hard. She’s more than earned a little fun, and watching her try to understand the singles’ game after four years absence is fun.
Sebastian is one of those romance novel rarities – a husband legitimately mourning his dead wife; the kind of man who can’t stand to think of her death, but also can’t stop himself from mourning her life, and the life of their child. After hundreds of novels where previous wives and husbands have been villainized by poor plotting and instantly obliterated by the presence of the new hero or heroine, Sebastian was a breath of fresh air. There’s a graveside scene at the end of the book that’s genuinely touching.
Even with the heaviness of the plot, there’s a surprising amount of humor injected into the narrative. I liked, for instance, Heather’s saucy friend, Erica, and her dependable friend Teri, and Sebastian’s drunken conversation with Wolfie.
Sebastian and Heather have a fun, pleasing dynamic filled with erotic heat, but also filled with actual care for one another. Sebastian is so fearful of caring about another human being that he treats his employees like crap (something Heather doesn’t allow or stand for), while Heather has her own issues – abandoned by her mother and estranged from her father, she’s quick to cut others from her life. They have to work through these problems alone if they ever hope to share a life.
The book does have a few weak spots. As realistic as Heather and Sebastian’s union is, they do move from acquaintances to lovers without much of a stop to think, but many will find the breathlessness of the quick shift in their relationship exciting. Ava alternates between being a little too treacly and spot-on for a young child. And the Corisi family of the series title looms over the story but doesn’t yet touch the main character; they feature in a subplot that mainly centers on young Judy as she tries to reunite the Corisi side of the family with the Romano side. It works all right as an overarching hook for the series, but is somewhat less compelling than the rest of the story here.
But in the main, The Broken One is an excellent book about two people awkwardly stumbling their way into love and staying there. It’s worth more than a single glance – or a single read.
Buy it at: Amazon
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Grade: A-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 04/10/19
Publication Date: 10/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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I just wanted to pop back in to say that I downloaded the book today and started reading it this afternoon. I’m about a third of the way through and so far it’s so, so good. I suspect THE BROKEN ONE will make it to my list of favorites of the year.
It really is an excellent romp!
It’s a great book. I also realized that the book reminded me of another of my all-time favorite romances and reliable go-to comfort rereads: Melanie Harlow’s AFTER WE FALL. Although the books are nothing alike in tone or plot, both books feature a widower hero who blames himself for the death of his late wife and has to resolve the grief and guilt in which he’s mired before he can love and be loved again.
I have always hoped that, were something to happen to me, my husband would find the second love of his life. And that she would have space in her heart for him to always love the memory of us. I don’t see that in enough books and am happy it’s in this one!
There’s a story about an English prince whose wife, on her deathbed, begged him to remarry. “Oh no, my dear,” he assured her, “I will never marry again. I will just have mistresses.” My husband—presumably with a chuckle—always says this would be his response too!
I struggle so often with second-chance romances when. the first wife or husband is treated with callous indifference (unless there was abuse involved, which is quite often the case).
This book just knocks it out of the park.
I am rereading Serena Bell’s Sleepover which is another lovely lovely story about a man getting over the death of his wife. I’ll add this one to my TBR!
Great review. I am so one-clicking this!
DDD we one click a lot of the same books. This sounds excellent too! Is your TBR as overflowing as mine these days?!?!
@EmilyWittmann—so true! When I went to check THE BROKEN ONE on Amazon, I saw it was available through KU, so it was an even easier decision to download. My monthly KU subscription fee usually pays for itself within the first few days of the month! As for my tbr—I’ve given up even trying to reduce it from a mountain to a hill. Just when I knock off a couple of books, ten more rise up to take their place. It’s like the many-headed hydra on steroids!
I love it when I click through and find KU at the end of the …. amazon rainbow! Yay!
Ditto!
I hope you (And Emily!) both love it!