Unbreak Me
By: Michelle Hazen
Genre: Multicultural Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date:
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Format: Kindle Advanced Copy
Blurb:
What could two troubled souls from different walks of life have in common? Maybe everything.
Andra Lawler lives isolated at her family’s horse ranch, imprisoned by the memories of an assault in college. When she needs help training her foals, she hires a Haitian-Creole cowboy from New Orleans with a laugh as big as the Montana sky.
LJ Delisle can’t stand the idea that Andra might be lonely—or eating frozen TV dinners. He bakes his way into her kitchen with a lemon velvet cake, and offers her cooking lessons that set them on the road to romance. But even their love can’t escape the shadow of what they’ve been through. Despite their growing friendship and his gentle rapport with the horses, LJ is still an outsider facing small-town suspicions.
Before they can work through their issues, LJ is called home by a family emergency. In the centuries-old, raggedly rebuilt streets of New Orleans, he must confront memories of Hurricane Katrina and familiar discrimination. And Andra must decide if she’s brave enough to leave the shelter of the ranch for an uncertain future with LJ.
“He’d started out as just a handsome man with gentle hands, holding a cake. He made her feel safe, and beautiful. He made her feel like it was safe to be beautiful”
I received an advanced copy of Unbreak Me from Berkley Romance via Netgalley. I also ended up winning a giveaway Michelle Hazen was hosting and received a signed paperback copy. Thank you to both Berkley and Michelle for allowing me to review this novel. I had initially intended to have my review up last month, but with life comes tragedies and let’s just say, It’s been a long month. All I can give you all is my honest unbiased opinion, so let’s get started.
Unbreak Me is what I like to call a ‘learning to live again’ romance. Both main characters have had great tragedies that they have had to crawl their way through in order to come out on top in the end. It is also told from Andra Lawler and LJ Delisle’s point of views.
Andra has had a tough past. Five years ago she was kidnapped, handcuffed to a bed and held prisoner for nearly a day until she escaped her rapist. Now five years later, she’s a shell of the person who she once was. She keeps to herself and barely laughs anymore, for fear something will trigger her anxiety and send her spiraling back into the black abyss of her panic attacks.
LJ Delisle is a new orleans city boy who has always dreamed of working and running a ranch. His passion in life is training horses and he’s damned good at it too. So he decides to hop in his truck and travel up to Montana to achieve his dreams. But life isn’t always as easy when you’re surrounded by close minded people.
When Andra first meets LJ, she instantly knows he’s going to be perfect for the job. Not only is this man caring and soft spoken around her horses, but he’s also gentle and his untraditional ways of training horses seems to be working in a short period of time. She finds him to be the perfect fit for her ranch. But not everyone is on board with hiring him, especially her close minded father. Because LJ Delisle is not only a city boy but he’s also African American.
Unbreak Me is a story of two broken souls seeking out the person they are truly meant to be with, no matter the consequences and negative thoughts that surround them. The heart wants what the heart wants.
Michelle Hazen is a fairly new to me author. When I read the blurb for Unbreak Me I knew I needed to get my hands on LJ and Andra’s story as soon as possible. I’m not that well versed when it comes to diversity in novels. It’s something I plan on changing and something I want to read more of in the future. Multicultural relationships bring something new to the table where reading romance is concerned. Not only are there new traditions to be told, but there are new experiences to be made. The door is wide open and so many possibilities are in the air!
Andra and LJ’s relationship started off extremely slow, but I found the slowness to be a breath of fresh air, especially given the fact that Andra was still internally suffering through everything that happened to her all those years ago. I’m really glad the author decided to take the slow approach to their relationship. From the start, LJ felt something in his soul that called to hers as their relationship grew and blossomed. All he wanted was to put a smile on her face and a lightness in her heart. He wanted her to open up to him and he wanted to be the man she could trust with all her secrets and all her pain. But with all great love stories comes even more tragedy. LJ and Andra are from two different worlds and were raised in two different cultures. But through all the trials and tests that were thrown at their relationship they always made it through.
She’s country to his city.
He’s the laughter that erases her pain.
She’s the light at the end of his dark tunnel.
One thing I really loved was LJ! This man was a freaking sweetheart and he had the southern gentleman vibe on lockdown! I honestly couldn’t get enough of this man. I could read several books based on his character alone if there were any. I just loved his overall attitude and the gentle way he was when Andra revealed all of her deep dark secrets….. I mean, the man handed her a screwdriver after she told him her traumatic story and it took all I had inside of me to not fall into a mushy puddle on my bedroom floor. He was the sweetest man and given all that the world threw at him and continues to throw at him on a daily basis, I admired this character trait. I loved his sweetness.
Andra was a little harder to connect with, but given all she’s been through, I can kind of understand why the author gave her such a closed off approach. When I eventually learned Andra’s truths, I fully understood why I couldn’t connect with her. It was in that moment that I felt her pain and her agony. It was absolutely devastating and LJ was the exact antidote she needed to get through all that pain she had built up. Little by little I watched both of their walls fall down. It was a special moment watching these two characters slowly fall in love through cooking lessons and training horses.
I love experiencing new cultures through reading books and internet research. It’s something I have always been passionate about. So when I read that LJ was from New Orleans, I was ready for the culture and for my imagination to run rampant! I have always found the Cajun and Creole culture lifestyles to be fascinating. I do have to say, I had a small dose of the culture but it wasn’t enough. I wanted and needed so much more.
Given the fact that I really enjoyed Unbreak Me, I have unfortunately address a few plot issues. first of all, I wanted more New Orleans culture and I would have liked to have more of LJ’s backstory before hurricane Katrina happened. I would have liked to view him as a little boy just to see where his love for horse training and ranching started. I needed those flashback moments, and I waited for them, but they sadly never came. I also would have liked more of a resolve between LJ and Andra’s dad. I felt that relationship left off on a shifty note. Of course you can’t change people’s views and there’s always going to be discrimination within closed minded people, but darn it, this is fiction and I wanted them to freaking hug it out!!!! How hard would that have been! I also would have liked to see Andra go through therapy, because obviously she suffered through ptsd in this novel and I would have liked that little tidbit to have been addressed.
But through it all I can say with an honest heart I really did enjoy LJ and Andra’s slow burn romance.
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Peace Love and Happy Reading,
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