Tracy’s review of Unbroken by Melody Grace.

Be warned: This review has major spoilers in it. In fact I pretty much told all.

“Mom always told me there are two kinds of love in this world: the steady breeze, and the hurricane. Emerson Ray was my hurricane….”

Juliet McKenzie was an innocent eighteen-year old when she spent the summer in Cedar Cove—and fell head over heels in love with Emerson. Complicated, intense Emerson, the local bad boy. His blue eyes hid dark secrets, and just one touch could set Juliet ablaze. Their love was demanding and all-consuming, but when summer ended, tragedy tore them apart. Juliet swore she’d never go back, and she’s kept that promise… Until now.

Four years later, Juliet’s done her best to rebuild the wreckage of her shattered life. She’s got a great boyfriend, and a steady job planned after she graduates. Returning to Cedar Cove to pack up her family’s beach house to prepare it for sale, Juliet is determined that nothing will stand in the way of her future. But one look from Emerson, and all her old desire comes flooding back. He let her go once, but this time, he’s not giving up without a fight. And Emerson fights dirty.

A heartbreaking history. An unstoppable passion. Torn between her past and future, Juliet struggles to separate love from desire. But will they find a way to overcome their tragic secrets—together? And after so much damage has been done, can a love remain unbroken?

Juliet fell in love with Emerson when she was 18 (he was in his early 20’s, I believe). Their love was hot and all encompassing and they made plans to rearrange their lives so that they could be together. At the end of that summer Juliet’s mother died and next thing you know Emerson is breaking up with Juliet. He says that it’s all too hard and that everything he said about love and their plans together was a lie. She is devastated and leaves Cedar Cove to go start college as planned. She’s depressed, has anxiety attacks and basically between her mother’s death and the death of her relationship she’s not dealing with life well.

Now it’s four years later and she’s headed back to Cedar Cove. Her father wants to sell the house cuz he needs the money but Juliet’s not willing for him to let all those memories be trashed so she will pack the house herself. She arrives at the beach house with the thought that she can pack up and be gone without ever seeing Emerson. Wrong. On the first night she’s in town they see each other and Emerson acts cruel to her. Juliet’s confused as to why he acts mad at her when he’s the one who broke her heart all those years ago. They continue to see each other around town and soon he’s making a move on her. They’re in the middle of making out when Juliet comes to her senses and tells him she has a boyfriend. Emerson stops but leaves her with:

“You‘re mine,” he says again fiercely. “Not his, not anyone else’s. You can try and pretend you don’t feel it, but you do. You’ll always be mine.”

This is a bit weird after he treated her so awfully when he first saw her again (and previously broke up with her), but ok.

Juliet heads back to her real home and ends up breaking up with her boyfriend (which was a ridiculous break-up as she didn’t even give the guys a chance but she just knew she was in love with Emerson) and heading back to Cedar Cove. (Daniel, the boyfriend, definitely got the short end of the stick with this one as he was such a nice guy. A bit misguided when it came to Juliet’s family but still a nice guy.) Juliet and Emerson spend a wonderful day and night together and then he disappears the next morning and then texts her with a lie as to his whereabouts. When she does see him he’s incredibly cruel to her once again but then she finds out some why he broke up with her 4 years prior all is forgiven and yay – an HEA. Yeah, right.

Can you tell I was more than a little unimpressed with this book? I have to say that I did like the writing. Melody Grace sucked me in and I seriously couldn’t put the book down (it was a quick read at just 215 pages). That being said I didn’t care for the story as both Juliet and Emerson acted like they were 14 years old and not able to decide what the hell they wanted.

Emerson was running hot and cold the entire book. I have no idea why he treated her with cruelty when he first saw her again after 4 years because soon after you could tell he cared for her. However, that didn’t stop him from being a complete and total ass to her once again after they spent a wonderful day and night on his boat. What was up with that? We never actually find out why he took off and why he lied to her about where he was. It was inferred that he was having second thoughts but who really knows?

Juliet can’t make up her mind what the hell she wants and like I said before, acts like she’s 14 and is all googly eyed with Emerson even though she has a steady boyfriend. Even when Emerson was treating her badly she was still mad for him. Frankly if Emerson had talked to me that way – even if it was pushing me away “for my own good” I’m not sure I could forgive him. I also never got the love feel from Juliet. Even after being in her head for the entire book all I got from her was lust and obsession and to me that’s just a disaster waiting to happen. I definitely didn’t see the couple staying together for the long term

As I said – I did like the author’s writing style so I will give her another go in the future but I can’t say I recommend this one at all.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (It would have gotten a 1 if not for the writing)

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.

This book is available from Melody Grace Books, Inc.. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.