Elena Reviews: Beautifully Broken By Laura Lee

Title: Beautifully Broken

Author: Laura Lee

Publication Date: November 2016

Genres: New Adult, Romance

I knew he would ruin me from the moment we met. Everything about the man screamed confidence. Sensuality. Intelligence. Worldliness. But it was how he saved me that ruined me most. 

Through him, I learned to end my path of self-destruction. I no longer needed to numb the pain with mindless one-night-stands and drunken blackouts. He made me feel worthy. Treasured. Optimistic about my future. 

Here I stand four years later, in a coffee shop a world away, still broken…but beautifully so. My scars no longer hold me back. Instead, they give me strength and enrich my appreciation for the good things in life. I have hopes and dreams…faith that anything is possible. I am no longer the lost little girl fighting for survival. I have direction. I have courage. I am not without possibility.

I’ll always have Gavin to thank for that—Mr. Cooper, I remind myself. That’s who he is to me now: just a former teacher. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry. I was eighteen when we first met. Legally, we did nothing wrong. Morally? Well, I guess that depends on how flexible your morals are 

My name is Kat and this is my story.

*I received the book from the publisher through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

First thing you should probably know about me before you read this review, is that I'm a sucker for student/teacher romance novels. And since I haven't read one in ages, I was so ready for Beautifully Broken. Well, I'd thought I was anyway...

Let me start by saying that, the story was absolutely heartbreaking. Which is something you can probably tell. It definitely intrigued me and I knew I wanted to read this, just by taking a look at the synopsis. And every single chapter was just another jab to my poor heart who was broken so many times throughout the book, I actually lost count. 

Kat, our main character, is a very tormented soul who's been through some very horrid things in her life. My heart hurt for her and my mind could not handle even thinking about what she must have endured. I was utterly and completely devastated when the revelations started sneaking up on me, because I was so not ready for them. The author just kept throwing all these horrible things Kat survived in my face, chapter after chapter. And when I'd thought that, it couldn't actually get any worse...Well, guess what?! It DID!

But I really admired her strength and the fact that she survived without giving up. She's such an emotionally strong character, which is something you don't see very often in New Adult novels. Granted, she used sex to cope and was obviously falling apart under the surface but, really, what did you expect? I also felt so much anger at the people that just felt like ruining her life and the fact that she went through all those horrible things alone frustrated me ever more. I was a ball of fire and anger while reading this book, ready to explode and destroy everything around me. Well, I'm kind of exaggerating here but, I really wish I had some of those people around me so that I could give them a piece of my mind.

Kat had no one to confide in and of course, no one she could turn to for help. The person that was supposed to love her unconditionally and protect her from every single harmful thing that came her way, was never there for her. And *drum roll* here's where Gavin comes in. Who, by the way, I fell in love with. Maybe, slightly more than Kat. You cannot possibly doubt the chemistry they had from the very beginning of the book and of course, you cannot help but fall in love with the thought of them as a couple. They found themselves in each other and all that romantic stuff, which I'm totally up for and love reading about. Even though they can be totally cliche sometimes. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic indeed.

Moving on, the writing was great and the flow of the story was something I enjoyed very much as well. I kind of didn't agree with the ending, it was completely unpredictable and definitely caught me off guard but, not in the way that I had expected. Well, I knew it was going to be unpredictable but it felt very rushed and abrupt.

The character development is something that I also found quite satisfying because truth be told, if there's no character development, there's also no progress when it comes to the plot in general. I feel like it makes the reader so much more invested in the characters themselves and the story so much more interesting to read. Plus, for me at least, character development equals connecting with the characters.

Last but not least, I want to talk about why I gave this book a four star rating. Rating has never been the most important thing for me when it comes to books and reading, but I think that it can definitely help and it - partly - represents my thoughts and opinions on a story. In a very non specific way. 

Even though Beautifully Broken was a very moving and heartbreaking read but, as I've said above, I found it to be a bit rushed. Also, the ending was very abrupt in my opinion and I would've liked it a lot better if some things didn't leave me hanging and without real closure. It definitely looks like the readers get their closure in the last couple of chapters of the book but, unfortunately, that was not the case for me. I just felt like some events weren't explained thoroughly or answer the questions I had in my mind and I expected to be answered while reading the book.

Overall though, if you love NA forbidden romances, I would definitely recommend this one. It was a very quick and enjoyable read that I think won't disappoint!

Until the next post,