Not Meant To Be Broken

This read a lot more YA than I was expecting. I’ve only read adult from this author and I just assumed this was too. Upon looking at the listing post-read, I do see that it is tagged as New Adult. So I’m not really griping here, just putting that out there.<br /><br />This is definitely a trope that’s been done before, but for some reason I am a sucker for Cora Reilly. I don’t know what it is. I always rate her stuff as middle of the road upon first read, but then end up returning to the well and upgrading it. Again, I don’t know what it is.<br /><br />As what seems to be par for the course with me and Cora, I liked this well enough. I enjoyed Amber and Zach. Nothing to write home about or anything. Although - again - don’t be surprised if I’m back here later this year rereading this again. I truly don’t know what it is about me with this author. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve re-read her mafia stuff. It’s ridiculous. They are just little guilty nuggets of pleasure I guess.

Firstly, I don't think this book is terrible, but I gave it 1 star because of a few critical problems that lost it two stars. I really wanted to like this book because I quite enjoyed a different book, Bound By Honour <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/23925109.Bound_By_Honor" title="Bound By Honor by Cora Reilly" rel="noopener">Bound By Honor</a>, by the same author and figured her other stuff would be just as entertaining.<br />However, this book let me down in a few ways.<br /><br />The most prominent issue that I dealt with in this book was slut-shaming. Which I found rather ironic as this book was, at it's core, an anti-rape message wrapped in a love story. But I was flabbergasted why even main characters we're expected to like and care for, like the brother character or love interest, brand every woman in the book who enjoys or has frequent sex as a 'slut' or 'skank'. <br />In fact, there are two female characters in the book who are previous sexual partners for the two main males, and who enjoy and practice (safe, by the way) sex with other people, and they are BOTH portrayed as "Bitches". Mean, catty and jealous creatures that can barely string a sentence together because they're too busy having sex. They are degraded by, mainly the love interest, and disrespected. Because, obviously, women who enjoy sex are terrible people and therefore don't deserve respect....wait.<br />This is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable behaviour. Slut-shaming is a social behaviour that LEADS TO RAPE, because when you start believing that one group of individuals doesn't deserve respect, you start behaving like that group doesn't deserve respect, and that's how rape happens.<br />THEN to reinforce this running theme of women's morality being tied to their sexual appetites, there's is only two women in the ENTIRE novel that are treated with anything resembling courtesy, and that's Amber and Raegen. The two girls in steady, monogamous relationships with only one guy. Not in a relationship but still having sex? You're a bitchy skank, you're a slut, you're a jealous monster, you're good for nothing but sex. In a relationship, and preferably made your boyfriend wait before having sex with him (like both characters did)? You're loving and gentle and good. <br />This ran through the entire books, starting from chapter two, where the author states that all women in dance clubs that are 'scantily clad' are 'skanks'. <br />Then, I cannot tell you how many times this book not only suggested that rape victims are "broken" things that need a man to repair them, but downright said it. The word "broken" referring to the main character is said so many times I almost put the book down. It saddens me that anyone could think of a trauma victim like that. <br />I am actually having trouble understanding how this book and the one I read before this came from the same author. I really did enjoy Bound by Honour...<br /><br />So there. This would have been 3 stars but:<br /><br />one star lost for slut-shaming and absolutely UNACCEPTABLE portrayal of women.<br /><br />one star lost for victim bashing <br /><br />=1 star <br /><br />:( What a pity. <br />

<b>4 stars</b><br><br>Although I LOVED Amber and all of the other characters in the book...the hero pissed me off. <br>I felt the same thing while reading another book by the same author: <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/23925109.Bound_By_Honor" title="Bound By Honor by Cora Reilly" rel="noopener">Bound By Honor</a>. <br><br>Poor Amber. Seriously. She survived a horrible rape and suffered severe psychological damage as a result. We meet her in the beginning, barely able to shake hands with someone without having a panic attack and flashbacks of her attack. She moves in with her brother Brian and his roommate Zach. She starts to develop feelings for Zach and he really seemed like he wanted to help her through this. But then...dum dum dum...something happens and I literally felt like I wanted to add the book to my DNF shelf. That, or throw my kindle out of a window. <br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1417328050ra/12294878.gif" width="400" height="216" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>UGH! I WAS LOVING THE BOOK UP UNTIL THAT POINT! and not only does the thing that pissed me off happen once, but it happens AGAIN! Spoiler ahead- as well as massive amounts of curising: <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="6ea6fcda-540b-441d-b35b-513f59e143f7" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="6ea6fcda-540b-441d-b35b-513f59e143f7">fucking cheating. I can't handle it in books anymore than I can handle it in real life. He was being SOO sweet to Amber and all it took was for him to have a slight change of heart and he's immediately fucking another girl...under the same roof...knowing full well she could hear them. And what does Amber do? NOTHING! SHE DOES NOTHING AND ENDS UP MAKING OUT WITH HIM IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! And guess what? They end up breaking up for other reasons later and in the book- so what does he do? You guessed it! Same girl, different location. Yeah, he stops it, but that's not the point. You want more for the heroine than some guy who can't keep his dick in his pants whenever shit gets too heavy. Yeah...i'm still heated over this...is it obvious?</label><br><br>Now that I am calmed down, I really did like this book. Amber and her recovery is what kept me reading...</["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]>

<b>4.25 stars**</b>

Cora really writes a lot of manwhores heroes. The only heroes who are decent are dante from bound by duty and cassio from sweet temptation. <br /><br />This one a decent read if you don't mind a full detailed scene of the hero getting a bow job after meeting the heroine and another full detailed scene of him having sex with the same girl at the house he shares with the heroine and her brother even though he's admitted to himself that he got feelings for the heroine and not to forget that he is always thinking about how hot and mindblowing the sex with the ow is and how sexy she is and how he can't resist her . <br />I hated him and he ruined the whole book and I don't find anything attractive about reading about his exploits with other women and I agree with the heroine brother she deserves better that someone like him .

Ya no aguanto este tipo de libros y no se porque lo sigo intentando, esta vez fue la autora la que me atrajo a este libro ya que su saga Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles me intereso en su momento<br><br>La premisa llamo mi atención pero la manera de tratar este tipo de temas me molesto tantísimo. ¿Por que las cosas tienen que avanzar tan rápido cuando tenemos a una protagonista tan "rota" en los primeros capítulos? Y lo mas importante ¿Por que una mujer necesitaría de un hombre para mejorar después de un trauma?<br><br>No sirve de nada perder el tiempo en un libro como este si no nos dejara ninguna enseñanza sobre estos temas tan delicados...<br><br><span>[image error]</span>

<br />I started this book only because of the author. I love her mafia series, so I give this book a try. However, this book was a disappointment. The start of this book was great, but towards the end, it became boring and predictable.

This seemed like a great book. Amber is extremely damaged, and she wants nothing more than to try to start her life over. She moves in with her brother and his roommate, Zach, who’s been informed about her anxiety issues. Zach seems like the perfect love interest, and he really is, aside from one thing. If you’ve read the other reviews, you probably already know what I’m talking about. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="5d0db6c6-09df-4797-b403-2320c30f4fae" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="5d0db6c6-09df-4797-b403-2320c30f4fae"> I hate Heros who cheat on the heroine. Like why was that even necessary to include in the story? Ugh!</label><br />Aside from that annoying character trait for the love interest, the book was quite good, and Cora Reilly did an excellent job of writing about a damaged woman finally learning to heal herself.<br />

I really liked this! It was a very hard book to read because it's just intense. She was brutally raped and left for dead and there are some descriptions but nothing too bad but you can only imagine. It made me cry so much to know what she was going through. But I loved seeing her growth and how she grew to want to live. At the beginning, she was very suicidal and was only trying for her brother and father. That broke my heart, her hopelessness. I've been hopeless but hers was 100% hopeless. But again, I loved how she ended up loving life. She felt so broken and disgusting and just seeing her view of herself turn around, it was beautiful, it made me happy. <br /><br />I was so excited to write a review and I thought more people would like this book but as I looked into the reviews here on goodreads, I was really disappointed lol. I guess we all feel differently. It is a hard book to get through. There was a review where they hated that rape victims were depicted as broken. What I don't get is that this is one instance of a rape victim? Everyone handles rape differently and some handle it like this, feeling broken and unlovable. I don't think there was any misrepresentation. I've read many books with rape victims (it's like a little niche I like reading) and there's some that act this way, suicidal and broken and some that ignore what happened and power through and some that are more positive. It just all depends on the person. Of course not all rape victims end up this way. I just didn't like that that was said against the book. <br /><br />Another reoccurring thing I saw was the topic of cheating, which I honestly didn't get. In the 3 instances, THEY WERE NOT DATING. How is that construed as cheating when they weren't even together? Imagine being called a cheater for sleeping with a person when you're single. Huh. Interesting. The first time he slept with Brittany, they literally just met the day before? How can you even be angry at that. He doesn't even know her personally. The second time, they were just becoming good friends. I agree that it was tasteless of him to bring her to the apartment that they shared but he didn't cheat. I agree that he shouldn't have slept with Brittany this time considering that he was already developing feelings for Amber but again, still nothing wrong. Then the third time was 3 days after SHE broke up with HIM. I mean ... THEY WERE NOT DATING. Yeah he still loved her. Yeah he was drunk for those 3 days. Yeah he wanted to feel better. Tasteless sure but not cheating. I mean he didn't even end up sleeping with her, he hated himself for entertaining the idea.<br /><br />But geez cut the guy a little slack. He wasn't cheating. He's unsure of himself. Just because the heroine was going through her problems, doesn't mean no one else can go through their own problems. Zach grew up with the expectation the he is exactly like his cheating, man-whore father. He lived his life woman after woman (not cheating btdubs) but just sleeping around. No one has tried to tell him he could do better (with the exception of Kevin). They pretty much encourage that he'll end up like his father, hell even Brian tells him he's a screw up. Geez, terrible friends. And Reagan talks to him about it but it was very derogatory. It wasn't like hey I know you feel this way but I know that you can be better and treat Amber better (it kind of started that way) but then she was all like I knew you can't keep it in your pants, you don't deserve her, I'm disappointed. Like this guy has no one in his corner thinking her can be a better person. Constantly being told that you're like this FOR YEARS, why would you think that all of a sudden he'd just turn around 100% and be a completely different person. I think his change through the book was very well done. I don't expect a guy who got sex on the regular like that to just be a saint in 2 seconds. This has been his habit and it's not like he's had a good example of how to deal with issues and stress - his mom drinking and doing drugs, his dad cheating. Like come onnnnn<br /><br />If we're talking about terrible guys, geez look at her own brother. The number of times he practically yells at her because she's scared of him. I understand he's frustrated but damn, that was rude. He also loses his patience rather quickly. I thought Zach was such a good guy and helped Amber a whole lot more than Brian. Brian was like hardly there and when he was, he'd bark orders and want to know where she was 24/7. Like chill fam. However, I wish that I got to see more of a progression between Amber, her brother and father. Also, if the brother saw how good Zach was to her and the fact that he doesn't cheat on her, he should've been supporting both of them considering how well Amber was doing.

Nowość od Cory Reilly odhaczona. ?<br /> <br />Tym razem jest to romans New Adult, w którym główna bohaterka Amber wciąż zmaga się z konsekwencjami wydarzeń sprzed lat. W środku… w środku czuje się pusta. Dotyk ją przeraża. Wywołuje panikę. Przebywanie z <br /> mężczyznami w jednym pomieszczeniu? Ciężki orzech do zgryzienia. Dużo czasu minęło, a Amber wciąż boi się żyć. Jej lęki, wspomnienia… Ograniczają ją zamykając w czterech ścianach.<br /> <br />Wiecie przychodzi taki moment w życiu, że są chęci żeby coś zmienić. Żeby o siebie walczyć, żeby zacząć żyć na całego. Żyć od początku. I Amber ma takie chęci, boi się, ale chce w końcu zaznać tego prawdziwego życia. Takim krokiem ku lepszej przyszłości jest przeprowadzka do brata i jego przyjaciela Zacharego. Zachary to typowy imprezowicz zmieniający dziewczyny jak rękawiczki. Cóż myśle, że dalej już nie muszę pisać bo chyba domyślacie się w jaką stronę to wszystko zacznie zmierzać? ?<br /> <br />Ta historia nie była tylko romansem, który połyka się na raz. Daje do myślenia. Historia Amber, jej zachowania i lęki. Moment, w którym wyjaśnia się dlaczego jest tak a nie inaczej. Nie ukrywam, że wywołało to we mnie ogromną ilość emocji. Skrajnych emocji, ale głównie złości i poczucia niesprawiedliwości.<br /> <br />Co ciekawe Zachary pomimo, że przedstawiany jest w naprawdę złym świetle nawet przez przyjaciół - kurczę kupił mnie ten chłopak. Naprawdę mnie kupił, chociaż były momenty, w których chciałam mu czymś porządnie w coś, no wiecie. ?<br /> <br />Jest to króciutka historia, którą dobrze się czytało. Brakowało mi troszkę może… hmmm zwolnienia tempa akcji i postępowania relacji między bohaterami ze względu na stany lękowe głównej bohaterki. Ociupinkę wolniej i było by idealnie. ??<br /> <br />Znacie ten moment, w którym dochodzicie do momentu, w którym wszystko się super układa, zmierza w dobrym kierunku, a do końca książki zostało jeszcze sporo? ?<br /> <br />No to właśnie dochodzimy do takiego momentu. Czekałam na plot twist, który zmiecie mnie z planszy (w końcu to Cora!!), ale jakoś tak tylko lekko powiało. Autorka mnie nie zaskoczyła, troszkę tak bez emocji przyjęłam ten zwrot akcji. Nie wypadło to wszystko źle, ale też tak wiecie, nie było efektu wow.<br /> <br />Podsumowując, nie zrobiła na mnie jakiegoś ogromnego wrażenia, jednak miło spędziłam przy niej czas. Książka porusza naprawdę ważny problem gwałtu i przemocy seksualnej oraz skutków takich zachowań. Nie jest to cukierkowy romans chociaż można się momentami rozpłynąć. Warta waszej uwagi!<br /> <br />Polecam.