Once Broken

Tristan #6

by Sylvain St-Pierre, Sean Gerace (Editor), Benjamin Mahir (Contributor)

Home, familiar, alien. Answers? Tristan returns to the one place he never expected to go Samalia—home, dragged there against his will by Alex, who believes its people hold Tristan’s cure. What Alex discovers is that a corporation is taking over the planet bit by bit, and simply returning a Samalian artifact isn't enough to complete the ritual. Can Alex stand still long enough for Tristan to rebuild the place the artifact belongs? Can Tristan remain sane enough to do the work? And if Tristan does get better, will Alex be able to accept what it means? For once broken, can someone ever be exactly who they used to be?

Genres: Aliens

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2020

Reviews

[Aeron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review contains high-level spoilers, but they are at the end of this review and clearly marked as such. This is a composite review for the whole series (6 books, ending with Once Broken) because it's basically one giant book. But ratings are per-book, as well as some book-specific notes here.

The author indicates at the end of book 6 that there may be more story, but that was 3 years ago so I don't know if that's still true or not. If more story comes out, I'll revise this review accordingly.

Summary Opinion
Okay... so here's the deal. These books are well-written. Like, really well-written. There's minor technical issues like typos (author, I'd recommend a proofreader) and formatting (some random line breaks, at least in the Kindle app), but they aren't too distracting or frequent. They don't impede enjoyment of the books.

The content is plentiful, and the universe is intriguing. The world building is passively built into the story, so there aren't many (if any, that I recall) big info dumps. Dialogue is well-constructed and executed, and the plot lines flow nicely together. The plot is rather intricate, relatively speaking, and the author did a really good job and weaving it all together. Despite the intricacy, it's easy to follow and digest, which is further kudos to the author.

Although I have issues with the character development (further discussed below), those are NOT on the same scale as the "character development" issues I have when I write reviews for pretty much any other M/M romance. It's not even close. This series has major, well-written character development across the board, but relative to its own standards, that's where I have some issues. (More on that later.)

The content *IS* dark, substantially so in places. I'm saying that as someone who has read plenty of other dark things. This series is on the darker end of that scale. Violence, torture, thoughtless and meaningless loss of life, etc.--if you read this series, know you'll be reading about psychopaths. Literally. There's some balance to it, but it's likely far less than you'll be expecting going in. The two MCs are antagonists, but they're written as protagonists (since there are none, basically). It's a fairly unique take on things, and one that I think works overall.

I'll put it another way: if you find the first book's (which is short) content severely troubling, don't bother going to the next book, and especially not the third. It gets far darker than the first book.

One thing to note... it takes quite awhile for the relationship part to start in. That basically doesn't happen until book 3, and it's not going to be the relationship you're wanting to read until later books. You have to really read the whole series to get the complete story and see the actual relationship between Tristan and Alex. This is NOT one of those series you can pick and choose which books to read... not even close. In other words, the first part of the series can take some willpower to get through.

Would I read again?
Only if the author comes out with more in the series, in which case, yes, I'd re-read the series and then carry into the new book(s).

Would I buy new books in this series?
Yes, without a doubt. I'm anxious to see what is next for Tristan and Alex.

Does it have an HEA?
If you get to the end of the series, yes, but it's a damn climb to get there so be prepared. There aren't any HFNs in between.

Book-specific opinions
Tristan (Book 1) - 3.5 stars, rounded up
This is a good start to the series. I don't have many bad things to say about it. I do feel that Tristan's feelings about Alex at the end of the book should have been expanded upon a bit (even if just in his head), but it's not a huge problem. This book ends on an extreme cliffhanger and is much shorter than other books in the series, so be wary of that.

Crimson (Book 2) - 3 stars
This book was the hardest to get through because it doesn't include Tristan at all. It's purely about Alex. It *IS* helpful to see how Alex starts his descent into psychopathy, and it's generally entertaining, but it's probably my least favorite of the series. I feel that's mostly because I was anxious to get to the Tristan/Alex part, and had the author structured these books in a bit different order, it would have made this one more enjoyable. That said, I don't regret reading it.

The Used Child (Book 3) - 2.5 stars, rounded down
Without saying too much, this one was the hardest to read because of how Tristan behaves towards Alex. It breaks my heart for them.

If anyone is needing to know if Tristan harms the child, well here's your answer under the spoiler tag: no harm comes to the child by Tristan's hand or otherwise.

Shattered Salvation (Book 4) - 3 stars
Fractured Families (Book 5) - 4 stars
I'm bundling these together because I don't have a whole lot to say about them. They were critical pieces of the story, but some of it was just repulsive to read. Alex changed so much, and he becomes very unlikable in a lot of ways. There were some good moments, however few. Alex's loyalty to Tristan is admirable.

What happened to Tristan was terrible, but given his crimes, he deserves it and worse. It was hard to feel sorry for any of them, but we finally get to see Tristan's shell shattering.

Which leads us to...

Once Broken (Book 6) - 3.5 stars, rounded down
This is the one I was waiting for. This is where the story comes around to how it started. Tristan shows major character development and he and Alex have a lot of important conversations. I feel it wrapped up too quickly (or another book is necessary), but it wasn't a terrible conclusion. It may feel less acceptable to some. Don't expect miracles.

I will say, somewhat randomly, the stuff about Tristan's brother made me cry. It was a unique handling of that situation.

The rest of my feedback on book 6 gets into spoilers... so without further ado...

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SPOILER SECTION BELOW: I haven't included any major spoilers here. It's just high-level stuff, but spoiler-ish regarding the ending and overview of Tristan/Alex's relationship.
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Alright so back to the psychopath and character development items I mentioned... We spent so much time witnessing how Tristan manipulated and mutated Alex from being a kind, caring guy to being a cold-blooded killer (even more than Tristan sometimes, frankly). It's repulsive in certain parts, but that's not my problem. No, my problem is that we don't get nearly as much time to see the quasi-redemption arc. We get half(ish) of book 6, basically, for the real redemption/reconciliation, and half of that is spent with action scenes. It's not enough.

Tristan abused Alex so, so bad (he even literally says that to Alex), and while he did apologize and grovel (in a way), it wasn't on the same level as him tearing Alex down. Because of how long and severely Tristan violated Alex in body and mind, Alex has become a full-blown psychopath, seemingly incapable of empathy at all. His first instinct is to kill, anyone and everyone except Tristan. Book 6 does a lot to show Tristan may be on a path to unlocking his empathy in a significant way (and he does, to a degree), but Alex is still the same psychopath by the end of it. We weren't shown any serious way in which he is back-tracking to some form of empathetic state.

First off, that's a bit unrealistic given Alex's initial personality in the first book. Yes, Tristan wiped away a lot of it through repeated conditioning over years, but that doesn't mean everything is just permanently gone. He's not a computer to be erased. Once Tristan makes clear that things are changing between them and tells Alex that he will no longer abuse him but rather treat them as equals... well that should have sparked something in Alex. He's not going to just revert to who he was and everything is okey-dokey. Of course not. But he should have even a slight resonance with who he was before and who he wanted Tristan to be. I don't feel we got that in any substantial way.

Secondly, Tristan told Alex that he's going to do whatever he can to undo the damage he caused (to Alex). That's great, and we can clearly see Tristan start to change. Once again, he's never going to be a fucking saint, but he can be a killer (in this universe) without being a complete psychopath. Kill those that deserve it, those that get in their way or threaten Alex, minimize innocents, etc. I got the genuine feeling from Book 6 that Tristan was headed there. So, I needed to *SEE* Tristan actually reconditioning Alex away from his psychopathy as best he can (i.e. undoing what he did). I didn't get that, and THAT'S the core of my major problem.

It feels like this series is missing a book. Book 6 should have ended right before the Epilogue, and Book 7 should have been a full-sized book dedicated to showing the ways Tristan was starting to treat Alex better, working through the struggles of reconciling his love for Alex (which he's just accepted) with his actions, and Alex starting to roll back his stab-first-ask-later policy to whatever meaningful degree he can. We got a short bit of it in the last quarter of Book 6, but it's not enough. If I got a serious dive into that part (e.g. a book about it, similar to how Book 3 was Tristan's breaking of Alex) from this series, it'd be at least a 4.5 star, if not a full 5. The writing is just that good. But without the proper resolution to several books of abuse and unspeakable manipulation, I can't feel good enough to rate it more than I have.

I'd even like to read Tristan and Alex's adventures on Samalia. It would be a perfect way to weave in the relationship and character development stuff I spoke about.

If this series does get another book (or more, hell I'll read them all), and it has what I just talked about between Tristan and Alex, then I'll come back to revise this review accordingly.

Author, if you are reading this, please write something to fit in between the end of Book 6 and its Epilogue. Or write another book after the Epilogue. Hell, I don't care, you're very talented and I'd trust you to make it work whatever way. But there's a lot more that needs to be said and shown between Tristan and Alex, and I really hope you give us that. This has been one of my favorite series to date, despite the difficult parts. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for other work. I'd buy and read another 6 books in this series, at least.

[Joshua Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

a action packed adventure that i most certainly enjoyed. I will definitely be rereading this novel series again in the future