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raddreader 's review for:
Beautifully Broken Spirit
by Catherine Cowles
“I want you to be so happy, so full of joy it seeps out of your skin.”
My breath hitched. “Maybe one day.”
“Yeah, one day.”
“You’re not alone, Jensen. Families can take any shape, and sometimes, the unique ones are the most beautiful.”
- Who is the Hero? Tucker Harris - Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer - extremely skilled at tracking
- Tucker has been best friends with Jensen’s brother since before they could even talk. So Jensen has always been a part of his life. Over the years they formed their own close relationship, but it’s never gone out of the friend zone.
~ “We always accepted each other just as we were. No pretense or pressure. When we were together, we could just be.”
Tuck’s dad is a cheater, so his home life has never been one surrounded in love. However, he is very close with Walker and Jensen’s family and they mean the world to him. He’s not willing to risk losing the family he loves, so he’s not willing to cross the friend line when it comes to Jensen.
- Who is the Heroine? Jensen Cole - owner of The Tea Kettle and horse rescuer
- Jensen is a single mom to her nine year old son, Noah. Jensen has only been in two serious relationships. One guy left her when she was pregnant. The second guy turned out the be the man who tried to kill her brother and his fiancé. She hasn’t been able to forgive herself for the havoc the second man rained down on the lives of her loved ones. Her spirit is broken.
Besides owning the Tea Kettle, Jensen runs a mustang rescue. She loves the horses and finds peace just being in their presence.
- “Whenever life felt out of control, this was where I wanted to go. To see the beauty the world had to offer. The magic. The wildness that still reigned free.”
Just like the mustangs she rescues, all she needs is the right man to unconditionally love her and show her that she can trust her instincts and that she has value beyond measure.
Plot overview:
Jensen is broken and Tuck just wants to see some spark of life in her again.
~ “The girl I’d known all her life had a wildness to her. An unnamable quality that couldn’t be tamed. She’d lost that over the past year, that wildfire in her eyes, gone. And I’d do whatever I could to help her get it back.”
She has leaned on Tuck in the past, and he’s not willing to allow her to pull away from the family and especially from him.
~ “I feel so damn guilty. And sometimes being around everyone just makes me feel worse.”
I brushed my lips against the top of her head. “You have to forgive yourself, J. No one blames you. We just miss you.”
Jensen knows she can trust Tuck, but she’s not sure she can trust the feelings that seem to be sparking between them.
**The following are my thoughts about this book: **
* * My heart went out to Jensen. She was really struggling with what happened in book one and her feelings were understandable.
* * The switch from best friends to lovers worked for me. The introduction to their feelings as they moved from friends to “more” was something the author eased into. Their transition was believable.
* * I had a few guesses for the bad guy. I will say I was surprised how it ultimately unfolded. The bad guy in book one wasn’t obvious either, so this author does a good job of throwing in some red herrings and weaving a less obvious conclusion.
* * sometimes it felt like Noah was younger than 9 and that was a bit of a disconnect that bothered me a tiny bit
* * I was glad to see that Jensen didn’t keep the blackmail to herself. She leaned on others and I enjoy when family and friends pull together to fight against a bad guy rather than one person trying to fight it all by themselves.
* * perfect amount of description. Enough that I could picture the meadow and the horses and I could “feel” the peace, but not so much that I became overwhelmed with descriptive writing
* * the last 25% had a lot packed into it. I would have preferred it to be spread a bit more throughout the book rather than everything coming to a head in the last quarter of the book.
**Overview:**
- Content Warning: cheating/alcoholic parent
- Setting: Sutter Lake (somewhere around Pacific Northwest)
- Do you need to read previous books in series?: I would recommend reading previous books. Some critical backstory happens in book one.
- POV: Dual POV
- Tropes: best friends sister, friends to lovers, secret relationship, single mom
- h virgin? No
- First time they kiss: 31%
- First time they sleep together: 32%
- Safe sex? Yes. Condoms were used
- First time they say I Love You 85%
- steamy? Yes. Descriptive bedroom scenes
- Chemistry? I thought Tuck and Jensen had great chemistry. They had years of friendship as their foundation, so their scenes together had that mix of long-time comfortableness coupled with new sexy sparks. It was a good combination.
~ ~ “I’ve loved you since before I knew what the word even meant. That love has shifted and changed through the years. Because, what I didn’t realize, was that love is a living, breathing thing. I’ve loved you as a brother, as a friend, as my first crush, as my lifeline, as the person who sets my soul free. You call me Wilder, but it’s you who helps me be that way. I’m never more free to be who I am than when I’m with you.”
- OW/OM drama? A little bit. Although Jensen was not interested in the OM, he did create a bit of drama
- H/h cheat? No
- Time apart? No
- Did I skip pages? No
- Big secrets? Tuck and Jensen didn’t hide anything from each other, but they did hide their friends with benefits status from their friends/family
- Did I cry? No
- Did I laugh? Not really. Although mine year old Noah has a few cute scenes
- Did I swoon
My breath hitched. “Maybe one day.”
“Yeah, one day.”
“You’re not alone, Jensen. Families can take any shape, and sometimes, the unique ones are the most beautiful.”
- Who is the Hero? Tucker Harris - Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer - extremely skilled at tracking
- Tucker has been best friends with Jensen’s brother since before they could even talk. So Jensen has always been a part of his life. Over the years they formed their own close relationship, but it’s never gone out of the friend zone.
~ “We always accepted each other just as we were. No pretense or pressure. When we were together, we could just be.”
Tuck’s dad is a cheater, so his home life has never been one surrounded in love. However, he is very close with Walker and Jensen’s family and they mean the world to him. He’s not willing to risk losing the family he loves, so he’s not willing to cross the friend line when it comes to Jensen.
- Who is the Heroine? Jensen Cole - owner of The Tea Kettle and horse rescuer
- Jensen is a single mom to her nine year old son, Noah. Jensen has only been in two serious relationships. One guy left her when she was pregnant. The second guy turned out the be the man who tried to kill her brother and his fiancé. She hasn’t been able to forgive herself for the havoc the second man rained down on the lives of her loved ones. Her spirit is broken.
Besides owning the Tea Kettle, Jensen runs a mustang rescue. She loves the horses and finds peace just being in their presence.
- “Whenever life felt out of control, this was where I wanted to go. To see the beauty the world had to offer. The magic. The wildness that still reigned free.”
Just like the mustangs she rescues, all she needs is the right man to unconditionally love her and show her that she can trust her instincts and that she has value beyond measure.
Plot overview:
Jensen is broken and Tuck just wants to see some spark of life in her again.
~ “The girl I’d known all her life had a wildness to her. An unnamable quality that couldn’t be tamed. She’d lost that over the past year, that wildfire in her eyes, gone. And I’d do whatever I could to help her get it back.”
She has leaned on Tuck in the past, and he’s not willing to allow her to pull away from the family and especially from him.
~ “I feel so damn guilty. And sometimes being around everyone just makes me feel worse.”
I brushed my lips against the top of her head. “You have to forgive yourself, J. No one blames you. We just miss you.”
Jensen knows she can trust Tuck, but she’s not sure she can trust the feelings that seem to be sparking between them.
**The following are my thoughts about this book: **
* * My heart went out to Jensen. She was really struggling with what happened in book one and her feelings were understandable.
* * The switch from best friends to lovers worked for me. The introduction to their feelings as they moved from friends to “more” was something the author eased into. Their transition was believable.
* * I had a few guesses for the bad guy. I will say I was surprised how it ultimately unfolded. The bad guy in book one wasn’t obvious either, so this author does a good job of throwing in some red herrings and weaving a less obvious conclusion.
* * sometimes it felt like Noah was younger than 9 and that was a bit of a disconnect that bothered me a tiny bit
* * I was glad to see that Jensen didn’t keep the blackmail to herself. She leaned on others and I enjoy when family and friends pull together to fight against a bad guy rather than one person trying to fight it all by themselves.
* * perfect amount of description. Enough that I could picture the meadow and the horses and I could “feel” the peace, but not so much that I became overwhelmed with descriptive writing
* * the last 25% had a lot packed into it. I would have preferred it to be spread a bit more throughout the book rather than everything coming to a head in the last quarter of the book.
**Overview:**
- Content Warning: cheating/alcoholic parent
- Setting: Sutter Lake (somewhere around Pacific Northwest)
- Do you need to read previous books in series?: I would recommend reading previous books. Some critical backstory happens in book one.
- POV: Dual POV
- Tropes: best friends sister, friends to lovers, secret relationship, single mom
- h virgin? No
- First time they kiss: 31%
- First time they sleep together: 32%
- Safe sex? Yes. Condoms were used
- First time they say I Love You 85%
- steamy? Yes. Descriptive bedroom scenes
- Chemistry? I thought Tuck and Jensen had great chemistry. They had years of friendship as their foundation, so their scenes together had that mix of long-time comfortableness coupled with new sexy sparks. It was a good combination.
~ ~ “I’ve loved you since before I knew what the word even meant. That love has shifted and changed through the years. Because, what I didn’t realize, was that love is a living, breathing thing. I’ve loved you as a brother, as a friend, as my first crush, as my lifeline, as the person who sets my soul free. You call me Wilder, but it’s you who helps me be that way. I’m never more free to be who I am than when I’m with you.”
- OW/OM drama? A little bit. Although Jensen was not interested in the OM, he did create a bit of drama
- H/h cheat? No
- Time apart? No
- Did I skip pages? No
- Big secrets? Tuck and Jensen didn’t hide anything from each other, but they did hide their friends with benefits status from their friends/family
- Did I cry? No
- Did I laugh? Not really. Although mine year old Noah has a few cute scenes
- Did I swoon