review || FRACTURE

Fracture by Amanda K. Byrne 

Publication date: April 21st 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance 
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Every nightmare has an end.

There’s no way Nora can ignore the beating. Same heavy boots. Same curses, same pained groans. But that was two years ago, and this a different man, a different part of war-ravaged Sarajevo. This is her second chance. She has to try.

And then she’s stuck with him, nursing him, putting up with him. Declan’s an ass. He’s rude and tactless. He’s arrogant. Dismissive.

Charming. Intense. Caring when she needs it most – and least expects it. He tears away the numbing fog that’s been her constant companion and offers her a way out and a way home.

And it damn near destroys her.

Nora’s survived two years in a war zone. Can Declan show her how to live?

about Amanda || When she’s not plotting ways to sneak her latest shoe purchase past her partner, Amanda writes sexy, snarky romance and urban fantasy. She likes her heroines smart and unafraid to make mistakes, and her heroes strong enough to take them on.

If she’s not writing, she’s reading, drinking hot chocolate, and trying not to destroy her house with her newest DIY project. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and no, it really doesn’t rain that much.

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{ review } .

Right from the beginning, you are sucked into war-country.

Amanda leaves you no room to get acclimated to the war-torn Bosnia; you're just there.

Nora is an American who went to Bosnia with her fiance while he worked on a college thesis. In a terrible turn of events, Ryan ended up killed and Nora on a list that no good person wants to be on. As such, she's been stuck in this hell hole for the last two years with no hopes of ever going home. Her fiance is buried in the ground here, not even back home, and she has little to no contact with anyone back home -- with spotty internet, occasionally she gets an email out to her brother, but her and Ryan's parents want nothing to do with her.

Nora watch Ryan die, and the scene of his death is playing out in front of her yet again when we first become introduced to this fiery spirit. But it is not Ryan lying unconscious in the streets, but a man she doesn't know; not wanting him to suffer the same fate as her fiance, her little pixie self tries to haul him into an alleyway. Luckily for her, the man is with it enough to try and help.

When possibly dying, there's nothing more comforting than a woman to hold you hand, or so Declan claims to Nora later. When all Nora wants to do is hide and run away, Declan forces her to stay and hold his hand --

And again and again, he forces her to stay.

Declan, a photographer in country for the hard money winning shots of war, is not an easy man to be around, or even live with. He has his walls, and while they're not some response to a deep travesty, they're just him. He's not good with showing emotion, at all, but he has his little quirks that show he cares -- my favorite is probably the simplest of them: holding his arm out to her to have her cuddle into his side as they read. Oh, but don't be fooled; when they're not having those little moments (or the few teasing moments when he's taking her picture), his off switch is easily flipped and he can be a bit of an ass.

...Declan maintains his position, thumb stroking the point of my chin. I like this version of him. I can almost forget the insulting and asinine comments he made moments ago.

[...]Declan tugs me back inside and picks up my coat. "Ready?"

"I can't. Do you have any idea how hard it was, not being able to leave, that day I found you? You wouldn't let go of my fucking hand!"

"Would you have left?"

"Yes!" Yes, without a doubt, yes I would have left.

His expression turns to stone...

Declan, however, is sweet on her, even though he shows it in terrible, inconsistent ways. When it comes time for him to return home to Galway, he wants to bring Nora with him. He figures she can get home easier from Ireland than she'd be able to in Bosnia. While he's adamant that he'd never be able to love, I found his actions in Bosnia, and bringing her home (...both times), to be those of a very loving person.

Nora was fractured in this story. She was broken in every little way and she was terribly alone in the scary world that Ryan brought her to. Declan slowly helped her mend the pieces back together.

While this story very much has a finality tone to it, I wouldn't mind so much seeing these two again in the future, just to catch up.

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