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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
this is one of those books that’s genuinely so hard for me to review because my feelings are all over the place. but let’s start with something i can say without any hesitation: angela dawe’s narration? absolutely nailed it. she made the story so engaging and easy to fly through, definitely elevated my overall experience.
now... onto the conflicting emotions. broken beyond repair had everything i usually love in a sapphic romance: age gap, celebrity ice queen, grumpy-sunshine vibes. it checked so many of my favorite tropes, and when i found the audiobook, i was honestly hyped. that’s probably why i'm so torn, because even though it had all the right ingredients, i didn’t fully connect with the characters, either individually or as a couple.
beatrice, our older celebrity star, has this traumatic childhood that explains her ice queen exterior. and look, i'm never trying to invalidate a character’s pain, but here... it felt a little too much like it was just there to excuse her bad behavior, and that never fully worked for me. then there’s sydney, the personal assistant who starts off with a really rough intro, but she turns into this perfect ray of sunshine. sometimes too perfect. i did appreciate that she wasn’t about the miscommunication life, she spoke up when needed, which was super refreshing, but a lot of her actions toward beatrice felt a little like insta-love blindness.
as for them together... i wanted to feel it so badly. the buildup was there, and i was rooting for it, but when they actually got together, it just felt kind of underwhelming? like i blinked and missed the emotional punch. and the scenes towards the end where beatrice still lowkey treats sydney like her assistant? not the vibe i was hoping for, honestly.
BUT (and here’s where the conflict really kicks in), despite all that, i still enjoyed listening to the audiobook?? if you ask me if i liked the experience overall, i'd say yes. i know that sounds weird after everything i just said, but it is what it is. angela dawe’s narration definitely carried a lot, but even beyond that, the story had enough charm to keep me hooked.
so yeah, messy feelings, but still a good time.
now... onto the conflicting emotions. broken beyond repair had everything i usually love in a sapphic romance: age gap, celebrity ice queen, grumpy-sunshine vibes. it checked so many of my favorite tropes, and when i found the audiobook, i was honestly hyped. that’s probably why i'm so torn, because even though it had all the right ingredients, i didn’t fully connect with the characters, either individually or as a couple.
beatrice, our older celebrity star, has this traumatic childhood that explains her ice queen exterior. and look, i'm never trying to invalidate a character’s pain, but here... it felt a little too much like it was just there to excuse her bad behavior, and that never fully worked for me. then there’s sydney, the personal assistant who starts off with a really rough intro, but she turns into this perfect ray of sunshine. sometimes too perfect. i did appreciate that she wasn’t about the miscommunication life, she spoke up when needed, which was super refreshing, but a lot of her actions toward beatrice felt a little like insta-love blindness.
as for them together... i wanted to feel it so badly. the buildup was there, and i was rooting for it, but when they actually got together, it just felt kind of underwhelming? like i blinked and missed the emotional punch. and the scenes towards the end where beatrice still lowkey treats sydney like her assistant? not the vibe i was hoping for, honestly.
BUT (and here’s where the conflict really kicks in), despite all that, i still enjoyed listening to the audiobook?? if you ask me if i liked the experience overall, i'd say yes. i know that sounds weird after everything i just said, but it is what it is. angela dawe’s narration definitely carried a lot, but even beyond that, the story had enough charm to keep me hooked.
so yeah, messy feelings, but still a good time.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Never really like an ice queen book with POV from the ice queen, it ruins the illusion. Other than that it was a alright book.
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
If this is how the series starts, I’m so excited to get to the other books!
The side characters were diverse and dynamic, and the main characters were so loveable! Even ice queen had my heart midway through.
This one is so many tropes all in one, but what stands out is the age gap, nursed back to health, and ice queen for sure. I didn’t know I liked the nursed back to health trope, but Emily Banting might have just sold me on it!
The side characters were diverse and dynamic, and the main characters were so loveable! Even ice queen had my heart midway through.
This one is so many tropes all in one, but what stands out is the age gap, nursed back to health, and ice queen for sure. I didn’t know I liked the nursed back to health trope, but Emily Banting might have just sold me on it!
Well. I didn’t love this one as much as many others seemed to. I liked it, but there were a few things holding me back from the love category. I listened to this one on audio, and I sort of wish a different narrator had been picked? Angela Dawe is fairly good with accents, and does a decent job, but (for me) it was a little distracting to have the narration and all the voices (since everyone in the book is someone from the UK) be dropping in and out of different accents. I sort of wish that a British narrator had been picked. That said, she’s a good performer (not actually among my favs, but reliably strong).
I’ll say upfront that I found all the Gertie stuff a little too much/it got on my nerves. I don’t find it endearing when people call intimate objects by name and then proceed to treat them like people. Especially cars. Maybe bc i just absolutely don’t care abt cars, idk, it got old for me fast.
In general, i wanted to like Sydney a bit more than I actually did. Like, yes, 100% Beatrice was a bit rude of an employer, but it was WILD to me that Sydney just burst into her bedroom, told her off abt how to behave around her own child, and was not seen as in the wrong for that? Similarly, (and I know a lot of this stemmed from her own issues with her dad) but the judgement on Beatrice’s reactions to her parents without knowing anything about them or her was also annoying to me. She was juuuuuuust on the cusp of too earnest/sunshine-y, for my personal tastes.
I did like Beatrice quite a bit, and I overall did enjoy their dynamic together, but I didn’t get much swoony or dreamy vibes from them in the way that some couples/stories really stick with you. I thought the pacing towards the end felt a little drawn out/off somehow, but it wasn’t enough to fully put me off to distract me. I’ll be checking out other books by the author, though, as I liked enough there to want more, and it’s the first audio that sucked me in in a while.
(I’ll admit, I’m in very much a reading slump at the moment, so that could be clouding my judgement slightly? But I don’t THINK so?).
I’ll say upfront that I found all the Gertie stuff a little too much/it got on my nerves. I don’t find it endearing when people call intimate objects by name and then proceed to treat them like people. Especially cars. Maybe bc i just absolutely don’t care abt cars, idk, it got old for me fast.
In general, i wanted to like Sydney a bit more than I actually did. Like, yes, 100% Beatrice was a bit rude of an employer, but it was WILD to me that Sydney just burst into her bedroom, told her off abt how to behave around her own child, and was not seen as in the wrong for that? Similarly, (and I know a lot of this stemmed from her own issues with her dad) but the judgement on Beatrice’s reactions to her parents without knowing anything about them or her was also annoying to me. She was juuuuuuust on the cusp of too earnest/sunshine-y, for my personal tastes.
I did like Beatrice quite a bit, and I overall did enjoy their dynamic together, but I didn’t get much swoony or dreamy vibes from them in the way that some couples/stories really stick with you. I thought the pacing towards the end felt a little drawn out/off somehow, but it wasn’t enough to fully put me off to distract me. I’ll be checking out other books by the author, though, as I liked enough there to want more, and it’s the first audio that sucked me in in a while.
(I’ll admit, I’m in very much a reading slump at the moment, so that could be clouding my judgement slightly? But I don’t THINK so?).
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was fine. I would've really liked more to Alex's story. It had so much potential and yet was left to fizzle out to nothing. I didn't like the way Beatrice reacted to Alex's questioning either. Yes, she was 100% supportive, but it was all so blase, like "oh yes, obviously, I could see it all along." Girl, you did not. Show some emotion for once.