Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Broken Bones

SERIES: Broken prequel

AUTHOR: Deja Black

PUBLISHER: eXtasy Books

LENGTH: 206 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 8, 2019

BLURB:

Dan Tolliver, the adopted son of Alpha pack leader Jeremiah Tolliver, has suffered his last moment of abuse by his lover Keith Mulligan and finds himself in the hospital. There he meets dark and sharp-tongued Dr. Aiden Kavanaugh, who believes Dan needs some of his straightforward kind of medicine. Still, there is something different about the doctor.
Aiden is a sandman, a weaver of dreams, and has been on Earth far longer than even he knows. He’s at the end of his time, ready to transition, and needs a human mate to keep him connected to the world he’s grown to love. Only he hasn’t found a special person who makes him want to stay. He doesn’t despair, because not every Sandman has the chance to choose, but he knows if he doesn’t find a partner, he will soon lose his physical form and exist only in dreams.
When Aiden realizes Keith is a far greater monster than Dan has any idea, they grow and work together using the support of the pack―and Dan’s inner strength―to overcome impossible odds.

REVIEW:

First and foremost, you know what’s coming. There are some SEVERE triggers in this book. The first few chapters start out with major physical, verbal and emotional abuse. Physical to the point of almost death. It’s bad. If this is a trigger for you, please be careful.

Whenever I read a book, I often go to other people’s reviews just to see what the opinions are and if they match mine, or whatever. They never change my opinion, just a curiosity thing. I know most of the reviews were from years ago, so I’m not sure how the book has changed since it was first released. But if it hasn’t changed much, the one thing that surprises me about people’s comments were that they didn’t seem to get the dynamic of Dan and Aiden and why they acted the way they did. I don’t want to give much away so bear with me. The only thing that bothered me about the whole thing, was that the family, friends, and even the hospital staff never stepped in to help. No police, no nothing. BUT after reading about what Keith was able to do with some other people, maybe that was why as far as the humans were concerned. Dan’s family and best friend, still make no sense to me. Especially his very best friend, who even had a key to his house and a way to get him out.

So, Dan has been severely abused for several years. To the point the hospital know him by name. When he was beaten almost to death this time, his best friend stepped in and called his family. It was time to take action. When Aiden saw him in the waiting room, he took him back to a room and basically told him, in nicer terms, it was time to shit or get off the pot. If he wanted to leave the life of abuse, he had to take the steps to do so. When Dan’s family comes in, they are upset with him for not reaching out, but vow to make it right. Starting by taking him home to pack lands. Being human, he couldn’t shift but his mom was the love of his alpha’s life and Jeremiah adopted him as one of his own.

Jeremiah made arrangements with Aiden to come talk with Dan and treat him, because nothing they were doing was drawing Dan out of his shell. And with the nightmares Dan was having, he was getting worse. Eventually, the truth of everything comes out, including why Dan went through the hell he did. Little by little, surrounded by love, support and safety, Dan comes out of shell and is more like himself. And the lure of Aiden is drawing him closer, making him want things he never wanted before. But his abuser, Keith, doesn’t want to give him up and is more than willing to kill Dan than give him up. It’s up to Dan and Aiden to fight the evil that is Keith, before Keith destroys them and everyone around them.

Ok. So. A lot of the comments I saw were that Aiden more or less acted like a dick, and went from being strong to venerable and shy almost, while Dan was the victim, who was weakened by abuse, ended up stronger and a fighter. The dynamics changed.  There’s two different things going on here. One, when you have to be strong all the time, when you have no time to relax or be at peace because someone is creating havoc, you tend to be seen as strong and forceful. Intimidating. When you find that someone who is your intended, and you don’t want what that entails, even if it makes you lonelier, you fight. You run. You sneer, you act like a dick. Anything to push away what you fear. But when you find out you really do want and need that intended, but you have to show them the scariest parts of you, you have to let your guard down, submit, be vulnerable to them, it does make you that very thing. Vulnerable, shy, scared. Terrified. As is Aiden.

On the other hand, you have Dan. So beaten down and abused, he’s terrified everyone will see him as weak or unworthy. That’s for anyone who is an abuse victim. Especially when they are supposed to be strong. They are ashamed, guilty. In this case, he feels worse because his family is a pack of wolves. When he gets back home on pack lands, he is surrounded by love, acceptance, support, and everything. But abuse is not something to get over overnight. It takes a lot of time, therapy. But after a time, not always, but sometimes when those victims finally feel the love and support, etc. that they need, it empowers them. They become stronger, willing to stand and fight. I’ve seen some become advocates.

The case with both of these guys, is what they’ve been through in their times, have left them scarred and feeling broken. Even though, Aiden comes across cocky and assinine at times, he’s actually quite soft hearted. They just needed someone to show them they were worth it. It was ok to be ‘weak’ or to ask for help. It was ok to rely on others to get them through. And the result was beautiful. They opened up and became different people. Freer. Happier.

I’m glad I got to read this. It was so good. And the start of what looks to be like an interesting series. I want to see if my suspicions about the alpha are correct as well.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

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