Tears of the Broken by A.M. Hudson (Review)

Genre:	Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal
Publication.Date	November 27, 2011
Pages:	466
Published By:	Angela Hudson
Website	A.M. Hudson
	Tears of the Broken on Goodreads
My review copy:	Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Where to get:

Book no longer in print. Please see "Dark Secrets" by A.M. Hudson for this book and The Knight of the Rose, now combined.


"Powerfully integrated vampire series."

An epic romantic fantasy. The entire series is a journey to watch one girl grow and find that love is something you fight for, not a gift you can take for granted, combined with a sexy vampire and a deeper, darker mystery lurking underneath it all.

Vampires do not care about the myths people believe. They feed on humans, walk in the daylight, and no, they certainly do not sparkle. The only problem is, they don't usually fall in love with their food, either. But David Knight is about to discover that love knows nothing of morals or laws.

When Ara-Rose learns the truth about her boyfriend, David, she will be forced into a world of death and secrecy. Living each day on a path lit by predictability, Ara had never imagined such nightmares could exist. Now, her fate is measured by a choice between eternal love and a normal life, a decision she only has until the end of the summer to make.

(Goodreads)

"You really know how to stop a guy's heart, don't you?"
I pressed my palm to his chest and frowned. "Looks like I stopped yours permanently."
"Oui, mon amour. You stopped it with your smile."

The door opened and an evil-villain-type-scary woman, who probably kidnaps dalmatians, popped her angry face out.

"What do you need, sweetheart?" David asked carefully. "Tell me and I'll make it happen."

"Please don't cry," he pleaded, as though somehow my tears might bring the sky falling down on him.

"I'm sorry--" he straightened up, "but my thoughts are terribly inappropriate for a young lady to hear."

 

I'm not the type to compare some books to other books in reviews and list out all the ways a book is like another, especially since it's super easy if you look hard enough. So I'm just going to start my review by saying this: If you like Twilight, then this book is for you. 

Personally, I was a fan of Twilight. Still am, really. That said, this book didn't exactly work for me regardless. I liked it enough to read it all the way through, and to actually be captivated by some parts, but I otherwise feel pretty meh about this book.

My biggest disappointment with this book comes from the protagonist. She is pessimistic. And weak. And she cries ALL THE TIME. Seriously, I'm fairly certain that if I were to go back and count every single time she shed some tears, the count would surpass one hand and at the very least come close to finishing the second. And there really wasn't any arc with her throughout the book. The only difference is that she's in love now. Same person, just throw in some swooning and NEVER EVER EVER being able to/wanting to be apart from her true looooove. 

And then there's everything else that fell flat for me--the plot, the humor, and pretty much every other character in the whole entire story. 

 

The plot was very wishy-washy. First this is happening, and then OH NOES, ARA IS CRYING and everything changes. This ticked me off. Like, at one point they were at a funeral for a close friend of David (the love interest) and Ara had one of her little fits and then everyone and their mother (literally, I'm not even kidding--the mother of the dead kid was soooo worried about poor ole Ara) worried their faces off about Ara's health and whatnot. I understand Ara's problem. I get it. But she KNEW it was a bad idea to go to the funeral in the first place. 

 

And then there's the inconsistencies in this story. They expect to have a SUMMER romance. My problem with this? They're already back in school. For a few weeks. Which means summer should be over. And the way these people spoke. I understand that Ara is from Australia. That's good, dandy, and cool. But aren't all the other kids and people supposed to be from America? So WHY do they use Australian phrases, too? That bothered me, because it was so weird. It would be fine if the book was set in Australia. But if you're trying to pass the whole thing off as in America, then have the characters SPEAK like Americans. 

There were many times in this book where I felt like it was just trying too hard to be funny. Some of the jokes made me laugh a bit. But then other times, I'd just roll my eyes at the obvious attempt--and fail--at humor. Another issue I had with this book was the stereotyping. There are jocks and geeks and whatever--and the characters use those terms, too. No. Just no. No just no. That is not how things go. Not in real life. Playing chess does not automatically make you a geek, nor does it mean everyone in school CALLS you a geek. Just like I don't think I've ever called a football player a jock. Also, there is a part where Ara's new friends break down the social structure of the school for her. Um. What? That annoys me. It's the regular old stereotype thing--football-playing jocks at the top and chess geeks at the bottom. UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO. I know this isn't the first book to include a scene like this, but seriously. Can we just not? Seriously, STOP. STAAAHP IIIIIT.

All right, now let's talk about the love interest. He was...more or less a gentleman. Except for, like, one scene in the whole book. He was kind. And sweet. And also very, very boring. I liked him well enough, but he doesn't particularly stand out among other book boys in the YA world. Nevertheless, he obviously cared about Ara, which makes me like him, and he had loads of sweet moments, which made me like him even more.

The romance in this book...well, it was pretty much insta-love. I am not sure how much time this entire book spans, but it's not a lot. A couple of weeks, tops. And in that time, they meet, fall in love, and decide that they can never ever ever ever live without the other. Because life is nothing without the other in it. NOTHING. Sigh. Moving past the insta-love, though, there wasn't much that flat-out bothered me about their relationship. They had sweet moments, and they just...did their thing. What DID annoy me, though, was when David was literally telling Ara that they should stop their little make-out session because, ha, he wanted to kill her. And then Ara says SHE LIKES IT. She said. That she. Likes. That. He wants. To. Kill her. That it was romantic or something. Dude. No. NO. No. UUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. 

So this book wasn't my favorite ever, but it did entertain me for most of it and I actually DO plan on picking up the next book. Partly because I own it, partly because it's shorter than this book so it SHOULD fly by faster than this one, and partly because I'm actually really curious about what happens next for this wacky couple. This book wasn't absolutely terrible or anything, it just contained a lot of things that bothered me. As I said at the beginning, though--if you like Twilight, you should pick up this book.