Broken by Traci L. Slatton is a dark story of love and war in Paris, France 1939-1942. Rating: 4/5

*This is book #25/28 for my 2014 book challenge. You can take a look at the reading challenge here.

Power is pornographic

Paris, 1939-1942. A fallen angel is trapped in the web of German Occupation. The deadly noose of Nazi control grows ever tighter, ensnaring her and two of her lovers, a bullfighter and a musician working in the fledgling Resistance. Can she save them and the Jewish widow and her child that she has come to love, or will betrayal take them all?

This is book is not my cup of tea. This is not a book that I would have ever picked up for myself. It is historical fiction (which I normally avoid) and there is far more sex and other erotic things than I would have liked in a book about nazis. With that said, I cannot deny how well written this book is, and I cannot pretend that I didn’t like it, because I did. I very much liked it. The story flowed exceptionally well and I felt so strongly for all of the characters – whether that be hatred, love, sympathy, or a mix of all three. This is an incredibly dark story – as it should be. There is no way to take what Hitler and his army did and make it airy and light.

There was too much french in the book for me. There were several words and phrases that I had absolutely no idea what they meant, and several of those times I felt as though these words and phrases were possibly important in relation to the events happening in the story. As I said, there was also too much sex for my taste. I mean, I read 50 Shades of Grey (though that sex was incredibly boring to read) so it’s not the existence of sex that bothered me, so much as I felt the story was strong enough to stand on its own. The word pussy also really grosses me out, I don’t know why. There were some moments where the sexual acts were incredibly necessary, so I will not consider this a negative so much as a personal preference. I also felt as though the fallen angel bit was unnecessary as well. Traci L. Slatton did such a wonderful job of telling this story that I almost would have preferred it if Alia were just a normal girl. The story would have been completely different, though, as many events and major plot points existed because of her “gift”. I suppose what I am trying to say is that because this was already so out of the box for me, I would have preferred it to JUST be historical fiction and to have left the erotica and paranormal aspects out of it. Again, personal preferences.

After seeing how wonderful of a write Traci is, I am very much interested in reading some of her other books. I felt like the ending happened much faster than I was ready for and I would have preferred to find out what happened to the other characters. With that said, the ending tied together the other aspects of the book that I wasn’t incredibly fond of (the whole angel thing) and it made sense. So while, like I said, it wasn’t “my cup of tea” it was very well thought out and executed wonderfully.

Rating: 

If you’re interested in reading my GoodReads updates from this book you can do so here. I must say, they’re quite entertaining. It will tell you exactly what I was thinking on certain pages.

PLEASE NOTE: I received a free ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of this book from the author, Traci L. Slatton, and Worldwind Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. All opinions held within this review are my own thoughts and feelings and do not reflect upon anyone else.

Like what you see? Follow Drunk On Pop on bloglovin’!