Review: Meant To Be Broken
Title: Meant To Be Broken
Author: Brandy Woods Snow
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Format: e-Book
Publisher: Filles Vertes Publishing
Date Published: 2 July 2018
Goodreads Description: Rayne Davidson is perfectly happy fading into the background. Her mama’s antics garner enough attention in their small Southern town for the both of them, but when Rayne catches the eye of all-star QB, Preston Howard, she’s enamoured with the possibilities. Too bad Preston doesn’t make her heart thump—but his brother does.
Gage Howard doesn’t mind the town’s stares, probably because he doesn’t get them. Growing up in his older brother’s shadow, Gage shrugs off the endless parade of girls Preston brings home—until Rayne.
But there are unwritten rules that shouldn’t be broken, like cheating on your boyfriend or betraying your brother. Rayne and Gage deny their growing attraction, neither willing to hurt Preston—until the town finds out.
They think overcoming the gossip will be the hardest obstacle.
They’re wrong.
Rayne’s mama has a secret, and its revelation could divide the town, the families, and the new couple.
Can love really exist if it’s all built on a lie?
Spoiler Free
I really enjoyed this southern romance book. It started off strong and all of the characters were generally likeable (I’m looking at you Jaycee). The writing was smooth and pulled me into the romance. I could connect with both of the main characters, however, my biggest complaint about the book was the pacing. Around the middle and more towards the end, the story started to unravel a bit. Rayne and Gage are pulled apart, which is generally a romance book cliche, but the miscommunication between the two of them annoyed me to no end. It’s one of my least favourite tropes. If people just talked to each other, we’d avoid half the drama in romance novels. But that’s just me.
Characters
Rayne is a well-written character but I found her lacking any clear motivation. She seems like the type who is too big of a thinker for her small town, yet she’s constantly caught up in the small town drama. Typically I hate the love triangle cliche, but you can tell who Rayne likes right off the bat. Even though I don’t agree with all of Rayne’s choices, she did grow by the end of the book. I’m still not entirely sure what her character arc was, but she was a likeable character.
Gage is also fun, witty, and charming when he wants to be. He was my favourite of the two brothers and the chemistry between him and Rayne was electric. Their romance was sweet and adorable and it made me wish I had my own Gage. His choices were questionable as well, and the lack of communication between him and Rayne made me want to lock them in a room until they made up.
Spoilers
OMG, there were so many plot lines. Rayne gets pregnant, Gage joins the army, Rayne’s mother’s secret is only revealed 2/3 into the book. At some point, my head was spinning, and I couldn’t keep up with the abundance of new characters being introduced in the last 10 chapters. It feels like Snow just wanted to cram as many romance cliches into this book as possible. It was a fun read, and some might like the abundance of plot lines, but it wasn’t for me.
General Thoughts
Have you read Meant To Be Broken? What did you think?
That’s too bad they annoyed you. That happens sometimes.
The cover it’s cute, sometimes it happens, you just want to kill all the characters
It was a cute story, there was just too many plot lines.
Great review! I like how you added the spoilers into your review, so we could read what really bothered you about the novel.
I like the premise – I think I was a Rayne…
This looks so cute! Its such a bummer that it annoyed you, though 🙁
Great review but I’m sorry it got annoying. The miscommunication thing is a big pet peeve of mine as well.
I’m not a fan of that trope at all.
Great review! The cover is pretty!
Nope! Won’t be reading this.
Loved those sections in your review.. 🙂 and this with too many plot likes (while i enjoy those every once in a while) is not getting added to my TBR
I always enjoy your reviews and the way that you lay them out. I think I will pass on this one.
Thank you! I’m glad you like my reviews.
That’s the thing that gets me about some romance books – In real life people would of spoken to each other rather than letting things stew. Great review.
I know. Real people talk to each other. It’s my least favourite trope.
Great review, I’m sorry the plotlines annoyed you but I’m glad you had fun reading the story overall. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.