Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Broken Embrace – Dana Mason

The Past…

As childhood sweethearts, Brian and Melissa’s plans were simple: finish school,
get married, and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, life didn’t go as
planned. Melissa went away to college, and Brian married her best friend.The Present…

Seventeen years have passed and Brian’s stable family life has come crashing
down around him. His wife’s a cheater, his teenage daughter is hiding things from
him and Melissa is back in town to remind him of what he lost all those years
ago.

Melissa’s returned home, ready to forgive and focus on her future, but that all
changes the day she gets a desperate phone call from Brian’s daughter, Erin.
Thrown back into Brian’s tumultuous life, Melissa struggles to move beyond the
pain of his broken promise.

The Future…

While working together to save Erin from the evil web she’s caught in, Melissa
and Brian fight to fix the past or face losing each other all over again.

Series: Embrace #3
Release Date: June 5th 2014
Publisher: Dana Mason
Source: AToMR Tours
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

BROKEN EMBRACE gives us a second chance romance with some suspense mixed in.

I really liked Brian in PRECIOUS EMBRACE (book 2 in the Embrace series).  He was a guy who would do what he needed to for his life long friends.  He was a guy who protected his own.  So it was hard to find him falling apart in BROKEN EMBRACE.  His marriage to Julie had fallen apart and then he fell apart just when his kids needed him.  But I could also understand how the stress of finding out everything you believed it may not have been in reality could cause him to spiral downward.  He gets his act together pretty quickly and becomes that man I knew he was, protecting his loved ones no matter what.

Melissa was a bit different than when we were introduced to her in PEFECT EMBRACE too.  She and Brian definitely had hostility towards each other, even though we didn’t know why, but it was strange to find out Melissa had reconnected with Brian’s wife Julie after everything that had happened.  If she was going to be openly hostile to Brian, she should have been just as hostile to Julie.  The both broke her heart, but it she was more willing to forgive Julie than she was Brian.  That was hard to understand to me and didn’t endear her to me.  But I liked how, despite what she might be feeling for Brian, she was there for him and his kids, when they needed her.  That had to have been incredibly hard, and it took a level of bravery I don’t think I would have possessed.

I liked the twist and turns with the story, especially the very creepy swim coach.  Dana Mason did a great job of keeping me guessing with that storyline.  She had the perfect mixture of emotional angst, romance and suspense to keep me turning the pages late into the night.

Brian stood with one hand on his daughter’s shoulder and one on his son’s, looking out over Erin’s bowed head. He felt like he’d been thrown back in time, back to a day he would never forget.

Their blond heads perfectly matched as they tilted toward each other in an iron embrace. He remembered the day like it was yesterday, the picture clear as the bright blue sky above. He knew right then—with every breath—he loved Melissa. Who gets this stuff at eight years old? He would’ve laughed at the idea if he had the energy. Who the hell understands what love is at eight? It didn’t make sense, but he couldn’t deny it.

Watching Melissa and Ali cry over their father’s coffin twenty-six years ago was so like today. There they stood, holding each other again, Ali’s hand reached out to Johnny’s, but her arm around Melissa, their heads together, crying all over again. He remembered how hard it had been for them both. He wanted to cry, too, and he did, for Ali and for Melissa. It hurt him in his soul to see the pain and tears in her eyes. 

He looked again at Julie’s shining coffin glinting in the bright sun and wanted to kick himself for thinking about Melissa on this day, the very day he had to put his wife in the ground. If Julie could hear his thoughts, she would hate him. Ironically enough, so would Melissa. Melissa would never respect him, not after what he’d done to her, especially if she knew what he was thinking about now.  

How did we get here? How did so many things change since that day? Nothing had turned out the way he’d planned. Back then, and for years after, his future was sure. He never doubted where life would lead him. But how could he regret? How could he—as he stood there with his kids—regret his family? Regret his life to this point? Regret Julie? No, he didn’t, of course not, but regret Melissa? Yes, he regretted losing Melissa. He loved Erin and Cody with his whole heart. He’d loved Julie, too, but Melissa was different. He couldn’t explain it, just different than Julie. Melissa held a part of his soul. To this day, she still gripped it in her hands. That part of him had been missing the day he’d proposed to Julie, and every day since then.  

Melissa will always have it, even after she marries that jerk-off from Berkeley. Even then, she’ll still own a part of him. His stomach lurched at the thought of her with him, that puny, little clone with no heart or passion. Melissa was full of piss and vinegar, how long would it take this jerk to squash that out of her. 

Is this what it felt like to Melissa? Had she felt this sinking, overwhelming sickness when she’d found out about him and Julie? Had she been living with it for all these years? Had her love for him been equal to his for her? He couldn’t remember if he’d ever told her how much he loved her. Did she know? Did that make everything harder for her? Did Julie understand how much he loved her? It’s too late to fix that—she’s gone—Jules is gone. Julie is dead! Did she understand how important she was to him? Even after the hateful things he’d said, he still loved her, and now she was gone.

 

Broken Embrace (Book #3)
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1l0Y40W
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/broken-embrace-dana-mason/1119569541?ean=2940045949187