The Fractured Heart by Scarlett Cole Review
4.5 Smooches
Synopsis
All things, when placed under pressure, eventually break or leave a mark.
Tattoo artist Brody “Cujo” Matthews knows how to keep things simple. In life and in love. Abandoned as a child by a mother who refused to stick around to raise three boys she didn’t want, he’s intent on staying clear of complicated women. The only things complicated in Cujo’s life are the killer tattoos he designs and inks. That all changes when he’s asked to help organize his best friend Trent’s engagement party, which means working with Trent’s fiancée’s best friend, Drea, the definition of high maintenance and sizzling curves. And the one woman he doesn’t want to walk away from.
Andrea “Drea” Caron is broke and tired. After years of caring for her ailing mom, she’s at the end of her rope trying to manage the piling medical bills, two jobs, and a life placed on hold. She certainly doesn’t need the added frustration of a sexy playboy tattoo artist messing up her best friend’s engagement party or her carefully balanced life. But when Drea witnesses the abduction of a woman from the café she works at, she can’t help but turn to Cujo who’s determined to prove to Drea that he’s someone she can count on forever…but as they attempt to bring the truth to light, someone is working to bring that forever to a sudden, deadly halt.
Review
‘When she stopped being mad at the world and him, when she let herself be vulnerable for a moment, he found it hard to stand be his decision to stay away.’
Scarlett Cole is a new author that I am watching closely. After a good book friend basically forced me to read her first books, The Strongest Steel, I was completely captured by her fresh story telling mixed with a seriously sexy hero and a strong heroine. I read it and knew that she was on to something. So to say I have been eager for the follow up novel, The Fractured Heart, would be an understatement.
“What makes you think it would be off the charts?” Her voice was barely a whisper. He leaned toward her, his lips a fraction from her ear. It took every ounce of self-control not to taste her skin. “When it feels this good without even touching, how could it not be?”
Drea and Cujo’s story isn’t always easy but really are the good ones really every easy? Drea spends most of her time caring for an ailing mother who doesn’t even appreciate her and Cujo is just a playboy who will never settle down. From the beginning these two cannot agree on anything and are at odds most of the time that they have to spend together in order to plan the engagement party for their mutual best friends. All the while Drea becomes mixed up in a mystery and her curiosity and need to help have her putting herself in dangerous situations. Can Brody “Cujo” convince her he can be a one woman man and help her stay safe and learn to be loved?
‘How did you help someone you love through a grief so violent they were choking on it?’
Being honest going into this book Brody’s nickname of Cujo had me apprehensive. It doesn’t scream sexy book boyfriend (more like might kill me in my sleep boyfriend) but soon after getting to know him I too fell for him and by the time I found out the source of the offending nickname I was on board too. There were parts of this story that as an outsider with a lot more information I wanted to shake Drea and yell at her to put the pieces together but then I sit back and look at it from the point of view from the frantic girl who is trying to distract herself from a sad life. She lives the life of an old woman who has lived her prime only she never got to experience it. Since she was seventeen she has been struggling to keep her and her mother above water with no help and no one patting her ont he back telling her she is doing a good job. If I was her would I be able to clearly see everything from all angles, honestly no I wouldn’t . I loved Drea, I loved her heart, her fun side and mostly I loved the way she fully loves those she cares for. She would do anything for you if you were close to her and that in my opinion is a great woman.
“Why would you be proud of me? I hurt you. I hurt us.” ‘That’s just one moment in our history. It won’t define us.”
Brody and Drea have incredible chemistry and thoroughly steamed up my kindle. From the start you can tell that they want each other but both come with deep emotional baggage that they need to work through. Personally, I believe Scarlett did a grand job of slowly healing two fractured people and making both completely whole again, together. I am falling for these characters and this series and I cannot wait for The Purest Hook to come out! So if you have not read Scarlette Cole yet I encourage you to take the leap and jump into one of her books, you won’t be let down.
~miranda
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