Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Broken
SERIES: Heaven & Hell Club #1
AUTHOR: Colette Davison
NARRATOR: Piers Ryman
PUBLISHER: Audible
LENGTH: 5 hrs and 59 mins
RELEASE DATE: Oct 18, 2019
BLURB:
Can an older man make Jag break all the rules that keep him safe?
For the last few years, Jag’s life has been a living hell. His rules have kept him safe.
The Heaven and Hell Club was supposed to be another brief stop, but when the bereaved owner, Michael, turns his world upside down, Jag breaks one rule after another.
Being with Michael gives Jag a reason to stop running, but can he find the courage to stay?
Broken, the first book in the Heaven and Hell Club series, is a high angst, hurt/comfort romance with an age-gap relationship, pole dancing, and a HEA.
Trigger warning: Conversion therapy is mentioned and described in brief detail.
REVIEW:
After reading a steady stream of books from “my side of the pond,” I loved the Briticisms in this book. Between jumpers, bedsits, filter coffee, dual-carriageways and punters this book is about as firmly grounded in the British Isles as the Tower of London.
First, let’s deal with a somewhat problematic premise. Jag is convinced he’s running from a powerful family who are not above kidnapping him and subjecting him to yet another round of conversion therapy. To a normal person, it’s unclear how Jag could still be so under the control of his family. He’s now an adult. He has the ability to make a stink in the press. He can get a restraining order, no? But if we grant that premise; chalking it up to the views of a young man still deeply scarred by past betrayals and experiences, the rest of the story becomes a sweet variation on the hurt/comfort trope.
The relationship between Michael and Jag is all the sweeter because Jag insists it can’t last. It’s so clear to the reader that Jag’s rules are unnecessary when dealing with a truly good and supportive man like Michael. But will the wounded and betrayed man-child with little sense of self worth be able to see that amid his fears? Oddly, Jag’s almost paranoiac fears are manifested by him being unable to surrender control and it’s quite interesting to see him taking control in the early sexual situations, while on some level, still being such a broken and brittle character at his base. That said, since “no strings sex” is one of Jag’s early demands, there are plenty of scenes featuring hot action. And as the relationship becomes closer, the sex becomes sweeter but no less frequent.
Piers Ryman does a yeomanlike job in narrating this book. His character voices aren’t as pronounced and his “voice acting” isn’t as on display, as many of the more popular narrators out there. He mostly lets the story narrative and the character’s inner monologues speak for themselves while still imbuing the character’s spoken dialogue with regional accents and points of view. Initially this seemed a bit strange, but a few chapters in I was no longer noticing this as anything unusual.
While the plot’s critical conflict seems a bit minor in retrospect, this is a quick enjoyable read. That it highlights an issue that still all too real in today’s culture, (and the presence of an HEA ending) makes it a worthwhile one as well.
RATING: 
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