Semi-Broken

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

​Title: Semi-Broken
Author: Isabel Jordan
Publication date: 04/14/2017
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 5 out of 5

Amazon blurb
Wolf shifter Lucas Cooper is usually up for any wild mission Harper Hall throws his way. But impersonating a doctor and breaking a woman out of the psych ward at a supernatural prison? That's a little crazy even for him. Until he sees her. One look into her haunted blue eyes and every protective instinct he has flares to life. He'll do anything to save her. Not that it'll be easy. Break her out of prison? No problem. Convince her she's not broken, undeserving of love, and incapable of redemption? That might be trickier.

She’s 754821 and she’s a perfect killing machine. A nameless Sentry cleaner raised from birth to destroy paranormal threats, she’s the thing monsters fear. But then Lucas rescues her and everything changes. According to him, she has a family, a home, a purpose. To Lucas, she’s not just a number; she’s Seven, and she’s beautiful. 

They’re nothing alike. He’s warm, open, easy to talk to. Her? Not so much. Violence is all she’s ever known. 

And none of that matters when she’s in his arms.
​ 
But when a threat from her past emerges to destroy the new life she’s worked so hard to forge, Seven knows she’ll need to rely on her killer instincts to protect the future she longs for with Lucas. She can only hope she doesn’t lose what’s left of her humanity—and Lucas—in the process… ​​

My Review
I think I’ve made it clear in my other reviews that I’m not a fan of deep, dark and emotionally scarring reads. For the most part, I just want to be entertained when I read. I prefer light-hearted-but-still-emotional reads that make me LAUGH a time or two. That’s why I love this series. It reads like a perfect blend of all my favorite romantic comedies, action movies and supernatural TV shows. That’s what kept me coming back to this series after Semi-Charmed, and why I loved Semi-Human and Semi-Twisted.

Semi-Broken still has all the elements that made me fall in love with the rest of the series, but it isn’t EXACTLY like it’s predecessors. There’s a little less slapstick comedy, a little more emotion, and a LOT more ass-kicking. And the fact that 90% of the ass-kicking is done by the heroine? Well, that pretty much makes this book my own personal brand of catnip.

I’ll be honest, though. I wasn’t one of the readers who was crying out for Lucas’s story. I thought he was a good secondary character in the other books, but I wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of him as a hero. I’m happy to say I was proven wrong. Somewhere along the lines in this series (when I wasn’t looking, apparently), Lucas became HOT. He’s alpha without being an alpha-hole, which isn’t easy to find in the world of paranormal romance.

And Seven? Ah, Seven. She’s the anti-Harper Hall. Where Harper is snarky and open and supremely likeable, Seven is somewhat confused by emotions and unsure of how to relate to normal people, so she keeps her guard up all the time. Seven is like a cross between Nikita from La Femme Nikita (the 90s TV series that I ADORED), Leelo from The Fifth Element and Alice from the Resident Evil series, maybe with a little Jason Bourne thrown in for good measure.. In other words? My catnip. All. The. Way.

So, long-story-short: get to your Kindles, folks. This one’s another keeper. Bring on the next book in the series! I have my one-clicking finger at the ready...        
  
Full disclosure: We received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
     
Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Crushes it! No rehab needed. This one is clean and sober.  

Other reading suggestions
Obviously, I would suggest reading the entire Harper Hall Investigations series. But for other great paranormal reads that offer a good blend of emotion and laughs, try the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones, or anything by Robyn Peterman.

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