Broken

Those Devlin Boys #1

by Eve Vaughn

After seven years of a self-imposed exile from family and friends, fashion designer Jocelyn Winters is home to celebrate her father’s upcoming wedding. Before she can enter into the joy of the occasion, though, she must first make amends for leaving everything she knew and loved behind—which means facing her childhood sweetheart. Seeing the hot, sexy rancher after all this time makes her realize she still loves him. But a painful secret from her past stands between them, one she’s determined to keep. Cade Devlin loved Jocelyn until their bitter breakup put his heart on permanent hiatus. He thought he was over her—until she turns up at the ranch, forcing him to admit that her abrupt departure all those years ago still stings. It’s disturbing how easily she once again consumes his thoughts…and how he still can’t keep his hands to himself when she’s around. Their attraction is stronger than ever. Yet Jocelyn’s secret is a silent reminder that she can never let him back into her heart—unless she wants to break his all over again.

Genres: Romance, Interracial Romance, Contemporary Romance, Ebooks

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2009

About the author

NYT and USA Today Bestselling Author Eve Vaughn has enjoyed creating characters and making up stories from an early age. As a child she was always getting into mischief, so when she lost her television privileges (which was often), writing was her outlet. Her stories have gotten quite a bit spicier since then! Eve likes to read, bake, make crafts, travel, and spend time with her family. She lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and pet turtle. She loves to hear from her fans, so feel free to contact her at Eve@evevaughn.com or join her Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/eveva...

Reviews

[Talltree · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars; would have been 5 stars if only there was an epilogue!

Safety:H was in love with h from when he was 13 yrs old, she is 3 yrs older. They get together when H is 18 , they're both virgins. H worships her. h is drugged/gangraped at a party when on internship and is hurt so bad she can't have kids plus she becomes a mess who panics at everything, so she dumps H brutally telling him he's a hick who's beneath her and other horrific stuff. She wants him to have a happy life with someone who is not damaged and who is able to give him kids.
H is heartbroken, drunk for months passed out at random places, has sex with random floozies he can't remember in the morning. His brothers stage an intervention and he sobers up. After that he does date casually here and there but his hearts not in it and in his heart he never got over h. h has dated but bcos of the trauma, she has never felt desire and freezes up at intimacy, she is in therapy.
Its 7 yrs later when they meet again we see a scene with the H at bar with OW, OW bugged him to take her out and so finally he did. h is also there, when they play their song(h/H's song) H is upset and leaves, he drops OW at her house and breaks it off with her, they were never exclusive
Second chance romances are tricky, but I love them. Usually I hate it when H is sexually active in separation while h is not. In this case I felt that h wanted to move on , be healthy/active in that department but she wasn't there yet, but working on it - with the therapist and all. She had genuine issues( panic attacks, nightmares, fear of loud voices, men touching her...so many triggers) so she didn't seem pathetic to me. She wasn't pining. She genuinely wanted the H to move on and be happy / thought he would have already.
The H was so hurt and angry, I felt in his heart he never moved on. Once he found out why the h pushed him away he was so all in. He dragged the h out of her comfort zone into life. He loved her so much he said if he never had sex in his life with h he would still be far happier married to her than he would ever be with having a marriage with sex n kids with anyone else - how many heroes can say that???!! And mean it!! He says if the h leaves him, he will be single and never marry for the rest of his life. He also offers to sell the ranch, everything and come live in NYC with her, to follow her to the ends of the world. He doesn't want children if he can't have her. Basically she's his life. I had tears in my eyes at some of the amazing heartfelt things the H said!!!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing how violence can not only break the victim but their families and their whole worlds. I'm glad Jocelyn and Cade were able to find their way back to each other. I'd really like to hear more about Kyla's story and see where a little time on the Devlin ranch leads her.

[Izzie d · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a second chance romance story. It's one of my favourite genres but the reasons for leaving or splitting up originally don't always work.
This for me really worked. I was drawn in from the first chapter.

It was interesting as the heroine is slightly older than the Hero and there are racial issues.

The heroine has to attend a function to do with her pursuit of her career and she is drugged and gang raped. This leads to her breaking up with the Hero and not returning home to her father and ranch life.

She returns for her dad's marriage and to meet her new step mum, after 7 years.
The Hero is understandably angry, she said some nasty stuff to him when she broke it off to convince him to stop pursuing her.

A sticky point for some will be that during the separation is that the heroine is celibate and the Hero gets lost in drinking and women when they initially break up.
I hate it when authors do this but for me in this book it worked.
The Hero is heartbroken when the heroine breaks it off and really looses himself, he has no reason to think there is any future with the heroine, he tried to persuade her to work things out, not knowing about the rape and she cut him up with the things she said.
The heroine's celibacy is based on her trauma and fear of the attack so that makes sense, shes seeing a therapist.

The only issues I had was it wasn't right not to discuss the attack when it happened with the Hero, her dad or even the police, to prevent it happening to anyone else but it is discussed, and having little understanding of this sort of experience who knows....

Also the Hero's brother felt things didn't add up and it didn't seem like her to act the way she did, he seems to have more faith in her than the Hero but then he's so spitting mad he can't see straight.

The Hero when he steps up is amazing. He offers to leave the ranch and live in New York with her and even marry her without sex on the table if it means having a life with her and giving up having their own children as there are issues with that too.
His turn around is quick, he is undeterred in his devotion for her.

HEA.

There is another woman on the scene before they work things out but there are no scenes of intimacy, in fact because the heroine is around it causes him to break things off with her permenantely.

💔💕💞
👗👚🐎🐴

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but the ending was disappointing

I’m a fan of Eve Vaughn, but this one didn’t compare to some of her other books. It was an good read but to end it without an epilogue makes you feel like you don’t know how things worked out or if they did for Cade and Jocelyn. Did he propose? Did by some miracle she got pregnant? Did they find the men that raped her? So much was left out that would’ve made this book awesome! I couldn’t give it three and a half stars or even four stars because I feel there’s more to their story.

[Opinionated and Brutally Honest Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt it ended too soon, like something was missing. Perhaps how the rest of the family felt after they found out why she left or how they like them being together again. In the end it seemed very repetitive. Cade and Jos conversations were just the same over and over again. I really like Jos but Cade not so much. He ends up redeeming himself but I felt he was a little over the top.

[Mrsbooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 75%.

This plot has been done a kabillion times and unfortunetly this one wasn't done well. I had a difficult time reading through how the hero treated the heroine. It was a little sexually assaulty.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story

Forgiveness of yourself is sometimes harder than forgiving others. What a waste of time for these lovers. Let's read and enhoy.

[☽ Rhiannon ✭ Mistwalker ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a good bit of angst. For some reason, I really love the storylines where the hero is mean and hurts the heroine over a misunderstanding and has to earn her forgiveness (like in Love Me, Still). Not sure why that is a foil I enjoy, but this book definitely had it. I think the hero was a little over the top in expressing his anger, to the point of being problematic, but I so love this trope I am giving it a pass. But once the misunderstanding is cleared up and the sexin' takes place, I pretty much am done with the story.

Re-read in July 2017: still appreciate the angst and the traumatized heroine

[Jennifer E · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I felt that there was more to the story or more story to be told. If you can't delve into it then why talk about it? For example, Jos' attackers?? More than one time they mentioned getting vengeance but that was it. I would have given this story higher marks if perhaps there was an epilogue to tie up the loose ends.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Too many unanswered questions were left at the end of this book. It ended at 50% on my Kindle & that's exactly what it felt like... like half of the book was missing. It seemed like there needed to be a book 2 , in the series, to follow up on the story of Kyla & Stone but I don't see a mention of that on the author's website.

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

It did not keep my attention and I felt no connection to the characters.