Tuesday, November 4, 2014

ARC Review: Broken Open by Lauren Dane

Broken Open (The Hurley Boys, #2)Broken Open (The Hurley Boys #2) by 
5 STARS

First things first, Ezra Hurley's beard is absolutely everything.

Now that we have that established, we can talk about how Ezra is not only my favorite Hurley brother, but he is my favorite Lauren Dane book boyfriend. Yaaasss, this is serious! Ezra is walking, talking intensity; a big corn-fed farmer/rock star; and he happens to be fond of brown sugar. Swoon! He and Tuesday Eastwood have been eye-banging each other from the first time they met, their chemistry apparent to everyone. Tuesday's best friend is dating one of Ezra's younger brothers, and the attraction was instant. Ezra applies his quiet intensity to his pursuit of Tuesday like he does with everything else, and the result is some scorching hot reading. Tuesday is a tall Amazon goddess with great hair and is an artist to boot. She gives as good as she gets from Ezra and they perfectly compliment each other.

However, neither of them knows exactly where their seeing each other is going, and Tuesday and Ezra both have demons they are fighting. Ezra has been clean for several years but at the height of the success of his band with his brothers he became an addict. He is the eldest of the Hurley brothers and his guilt associated with his addiction still weighs on him heavily. Tuesday is a widow. Her husband passed away within a few months of a cancer diagnosis a few years previous, and she hasn't allowed herself to fall in love again. Despite their struggles, Ezra and Tuesday manage to be a power couple with a dynamic magnetism that draws the reader in. When Ezra walks into a room, Lauren Dane makes you wish you were Tuesday.

It is always a special treat to read about a character you can relate to, and as a woman of color I enjoyed Tuesday immensely. Lauren Dane did a fantastic job in writing a woman who was extraordinary in many ways; she had strength, honesty, and integrity with a mix of frank sensuousness, but she was also an ordinary woman who happened to be of color and she fell in love again after having loved tragically. Hat's off!

Did I mention Ezra's beard? He has tatts and piercings, too. Swoon!

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