Review - Hart Broken by Annie Arcane

Title: Hart Broken

(A Hart Series Novel)

Author: Annie Arcane

Publication date: May 6th, 2016

Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Mickey Hart doesn’t do one-night stands. Until she wakes up in a luxury penthouse. With nothing but a t-shirt. And no idea who it belongs to.

Enter Cale Windermere. Driven. Ambitious. Successful. And so gorgeous he could've walked straight out of a romance novel...

Except I can’t walk.

Not that it ever stops me from getting what I want.

And I want her.

Even if she's keeping secrets.

That could tear me to f*cking shreds.

Warning: Adult language and (mild) content. Cale has a bit of a potty mouth. Just saying. 

2.5 “Overdose of inner monologue” Stars

ARC provided by author.

Thank you!

I’m extremely surprised I didn’t exactly love this book, because I expected a different result based on the reviews I read on Goodreads and the premise itself.

Let me start with the positives, because there were enough good things about this book to keep me interested and reading until the end. The biggest positive was the love interest, Cale. I enjoyed reading his chapters (this is dual POV) and getting to know him a little better. He was funny, confident and sexy. He didn’t make excuses and went after what he wanted, which in this case was the MC.

After an accident left him wheelchair-bound, Cale kept going with his life and didn’t let his disability get in the way of his success. He owes a company alongside his twin brother and they’re doing more than fine. I enjoyed this aspect of the story, because it would’ve been easy for the author to try and make Cale’s disability an obstacle to his financial and professional success, but she thankfully didn’t.

While I liked Cale quite a lot, I can’t say I feel the same for the MC. And that’s a problem because we spend most of this book inside her head.

First thing that bothered me a lot about Mickey’s chapters was the overdose of inner monologue. I didn’t understand why Mickey’s chapters were third person if she kept interrupting the narrative to express even the silliest and most unnecessary thoughts. It was jarring, and after only a few pages I already knew I’d be skipping most of her thoughts if I planned on finishing the book. And the thing is, most of those thoughts didn’t even have to be in first person. They could’ve easily been incorporated into the narrative in third person without a problem.

But I could’ve (and I did) ignored all of that and even like the story a lot more if it weren’t for all the little hints in the beginning of how Mickey really saw Cale and his disability before she fell for him. I did NOT approve of her reactions to him, especially in the first half of the story, and that only made her much harder to like.

4% in and I was already begging the MC to be careful with how she addressed Cale’s disability. Then came the references to “his problem” or how perfect he was except for his legs or how she simply couldn’t even guess how he drove a car (OMG, really?), and I was highly annoyed. And offended.

Please, please, authors, you need to be careful about those things. Really careful. Even if your character arc includes having your MC grow to the point she doesn’t see his disability as a problem, having her call it that in the beginning might not be the best way to go about it.

Here’s when this review gets spoilery, so… Warning:

It might be an even worse idea to start that way if the MC was going to do the unthinkable and call the LI a cripple later on. I understand she was trying to push him away so she chose the worst thing she could tell him, but I just couldn’t get past what she did, mainly because I already had a problem with the way she treated him in the begging. So, yeah, it’s pretty safe to say I did not like Mickey at all.

I also had a huge problem with pretty much everything she did after they broke up. It was so immature of her to go looking for her ex-boyfriend (the guy who cheated on her) just because she was hurt by seeing Cale TALKING to another woman. At least she was honest with Cale when he asked about it. While he quickly forgave her for it, I’m not sure I was able to do the same.

Not even the reveal of the source of Mickey’s commitment fears worked to make me feel much for her. Sure I was sorry that she went through those horrible things when she was younger, but it took WAY too long for that to come to light, and by the time it did, I already disliked Mickey too much.

The ending was also disappointing because it felt like it was cut short. I’m not sure if there’ll be a sequel (or if the next book on the series will feature different characters and still show more of Mickey and Cale’s relationship), but the whole thing felt rushed and awkward.

I wished I could say Cale’s personality and the chemistry between the characters when they got together were enough to make it a three or a four-star read, but my problems with the main character make it impossible to rate this book higher. 

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.