review || BROKEN { series }

BROKEN SERIES

Broken Holidays, book 0.5 amazon || review
Perfectly Broken, book 1 amazon || review

Unforgivably Broken, book 2 amazon || review

BROKEN HOLIDAYS by Meagan Abel

Series: Broken, book 2.5

Publisher: Forever Red Publishing (12/7/2014)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

*this book was published after PERFECTLY/UNFORGIVABLY BROKEN, but is pre-story

Disclaimer: This novella does NOT end in a cliffhanger!

Before Perfectly Broken, before a beautiful relationship can start, the bond that solidifies who Lili and Zane are together must form. Beginnings are always the first step in building something stunning, something undeniably perfect…

The first holiday…

Things are tense between Zane, Lili, and Tish. They’re all still adapting to living in the house, Zane’s divorce has just been finalized, and he’s pissed off at the world. A bright light, however, shines in his world of darkness. Will the person he's hated since their first meeting be the one to help him turn things around?

The second holiday…

One year later, we find a much more settled family. Zane and Lili are falling into a pattern, learning to trust and lean on one another, but one wrong move, just the tiniest of slips, could ruin what is finally feeling solid for the both of them.

The beginning of tradition…

New Year’s Eve brings a fresh start, a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin again. Knowing your history, and where you come from, might be all that keeps you going when your whole world falls apart.

The strength of the holidays, family, new beginnings, and acceptance, is how their broken pieces begin to glue themselves back together again, if only for a little while…

PERFECTLY BROKEN by Meagan Abel

Series: Broken, book 1

Publisher: Forever Red Publishing (6/15/2014)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Zane Tishler moved in with his brother after his nightmare divorce to find that his brother had taken in a “stray”, a punk chick with a bad attitude. Liliosa Cortez found a place to start over in a city built for hiding. But when her roommate’s brother moved in she pegged him for a pretty boy with enough baggage to fill a semi and major hostility toward women. But now, after two years, Lili and Zane have become best friends and the perfect “wingmen.” They’ve developed a system for tagging and bagging tourists. No strings attached. They are partners in crime who have managed to have the time of their lives in the City of Sin.

Life would be perfect if they could keep it this way, but a new player in the game makes both Lili and Zane face the feelings they had not been prepared to notice. What happens when dangerous shadows from a forgotten past find their way into the neon spotlights? What happens when the fuse is lit on all those emotions they have deeply buried?

Can they survive the explosion or will the backlash tear them and everyone they love apart?

When two pasts become one present in the searing Nevada heat…

When two realities collide under the lights of Vegas…

When two lives are threatened due to secrets and lies…

What do you do when you find out your perfect world is Perfectly Broken?

 

 

UNFORGIVABLY BROKEN by Meagan Abel

Series: Broken, book 2

Publisher: Forever Red Publishing (9/22/2014)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

It took a near-tragedy for Zane and Lili to admit their feelings for one another. If they could survive that explosion, wading through the debris left behind should be a breeze, right?

Lili has spent years hiding from her past. Now, she's being forced to admit her mistakes and make a decision. Can she conquer her demons head-on, or will she remain by Zane's side while he fights his own?

Zane learned early in life that charm and deception are easier than hard truths. Sometimes, old habits die hard. When his past mistakes start making continuous reappearances, he is faced with some of the most crucial decisions he's ever made.

When you have secrets, they can rip ragged holes in the ties that bind even the strongest relationships.

What do you do when you realize you're unforgivably broken?

about Meagan || Maegan despises writing about herself in the third person. She also hates touting her accomplishments like she thinks she’s really done anything special…

Now that we got that out of the way, I’ll tell you what you need to know. I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I went back to school in my late twenties and studied Stage Production Technology. I now work full-time in the alterations shop of a major department store and part-time backstage in the various theatres around the area.

I’ve been an avid reader from a very young age and the top goal on my list of things to accomplish in my life was to write and publish a book. During the summer of 2013, while working backstage on The Lion King, I read eleven books in four weeks. I read my first New Adult book and was introduced to a genre I felt I could totally relate to. The idea for Perfectly Broken and the character of Lili was born backstage during that time.

{ reviews } .

Broken Holidays

Rating: ★★★★★

I'm starting my reviews with the novella simply because timeline wise, this one comes first.

This book begins when Lili first meets Zane, her roommate Tish's brother. Lili is living in the house using their sister Paige's bedroom, and now that Zane is divorcing his wife, he's moving back in. Zane has had a whirlwind of a year; he found his wife and best friend having an affair. Not only that, he's learned that he's not his toddler son's father, but Adam, his supposed best friend, is.

Zane and Lili's is an interesting relationship. In this pre-story, it's with Lili being, as Zane not so politely puts it, a cockblocker -- which is interesting in it's own because the two of them become wingmen for one another and fend off unwanted advances.

I rather like their relationship in this book, to be honest. When it falls apart, eventually they make amends and become pretty good friends again. They start a tradition here, where they go to the rooftop on New Year's Eve and say out loud their biggest regret of the year. The first year's regret includes a man who let's his ex manipulate him, and a girl who's had to do unwanted things to survive. And while Zane doesn't judge Lili, Lili gets angry with Zane's ex -- when just days before she thought it was 'cool' of Zane and Lizzie spending Christmas together for Conner.

Zane is a bit of a pushover -- and Lizzie uses that to her advantage. It's not the last we see her and her manipulative ways...

I liked this little before-the-story novella. It helps set the tone for the relationship Zane and Lili have, and helps us see that they have a solid foundation to work on.

Perfectly Broken

Rating: ★★★★★

We start this book in a rather anxious way. You know something is bad -- even if you did read this one first, you feel for Lili and her nerves.

When the chapters themselves begin, we are at Zane's birthday celebration. Here, we really begin to see these two and their "wingman" ways. 

Lili enjoys her friendship with Zane. As she states it, they're like two parts of a whole and could finish the others thoughts without a word spoken -- yet neither does anything about it on a romantic level. Their friendship is important.

But when Lili leaves the club, embarrassed, we kind of begin to see how Zane feels about her.

Both are stubborn in that regard -- they appreciate their friendship, great, but they could have so much more. Granted, Zane keeps getting drawn back in by his druggy, manipulative ex-wife, and Lili is getting over her "boy toy" -- who she refuses to name.

I think one of my favorite aspects of their relationship is that Lili is tiny yet strong, and Zane loves that about her. He's nicknamed her Pixie, and while at first she didn't care for it, after he explained the whole "though she be but little, she is fierce" she accepts it -- tattooing the quote, even, in her defensive stance.

It's a cute nickname that is more of an endearment, but neither wants to go there...

When these two fight -- 

My goodness, do they fight. Raised voices, harsh words, loads of passion... Yet they manage to remain friends. The passion alone speaks for the feelings both repress for the other. So while they fight well, they keep their emotions under lock and key much better.

Zane, heck Lili too, has commitment issues -- obviously due to the infidelity he dealt with. But when Lili's life is threatened, that's when we get a full taste of his feelings for her. His anger morphs to concern and fear, and you can simply FEEL what he feels for her.

One if my biggest likings about these two is when "I love you" is finally said, there wasn't sex involved, no manipulation... It simply was.

It took time for their friendship to progress, but they're solid. They both have baggage and there both OK leaving it where it is...

But we all know nothing stays buried, and both their pasts, while Lili's stays pretty hidden, intermingle and cause problems.

And gotta say... Still dislike Lizzie in this book.

Unforgivably Broken

Rating: ★★★★★

In UNFORGIVABLY BROKEN, Lizzie brings her manipulative ways full-force, nearly ruining the newness of Zane and Lili's relationship. Gah,  I REALLY disliked Lizzie in this book.

We see Zane's feelings full-fledged right away -- Lili coldly refers to him as her roommate and it gets a nasty rise out of the man who tells her he loves her. Side note about them moving one another? They do this cute heart thing that makes my own melt -- even in the depths if the nastiest fight, it's their common ground.

We get to see more of Lili's past in this book, and get a deeper understanding of how she came to be in Tish's household. We learn more of her fears, and what drives her -- as well as see so much more of our strong lead female.

Zane and Lili work through a lot of things, including Paige's hatred toward Lili. Their relationship grows and hits new highs, as well as shows just how strong of a foundation they're working on. They still have super passionate fights, but they're learning to trust one another and work through these problems.

Zane and Lili become a cute little family unit when Conner comes to stay with them -- and while Zane had his siblings and between he, Kas, Tish, and Lili they were a family -- it shows them both that they can rely on the other as well as what a healthy relationship can be. 

That's not to say everything is peachy keen with a bow on it at the end of this, though. We have a major fight -- over exaggerated by other life events -- and a big kaboom, leading into a major cliffhanger.

Yes, I said it: CLIFFHANGER.

But dang, it makes me antsy to see what happens in the next book. Sooner or later these two HAVE to have a happily ever after. If there were ever two people who deserved it, who had a concrete foundation to work in, it is these two.