Thursday, 26 February 2015

REVIEW: Broken Chords by Carrie Elks

Broken Chords by Carrie Elks

(Love in London #2)
Purchase: Amazon US / Kobo

Genre: Contemporary Romance

     
      
Lara knows she should feel lucky. Married to the man of her dreams, with a gorgeous new baby, she should be enjoying her happy-ever-after. But she never expected motherhood to be so difficult, or for her life to change so dramatically.

Alex has it all: hot, tattooed looks, a beautiful wife, and a band that's finally getting noticed. A lucrative offer of a US tour should be the icing on the cake. But as he leaves the country, distance isn't the only thing that starts to pull their relationship apart.

With half a world dividing them, Alex and Lara have to battle for a marriage they once took for granted.

Author Note: Broken Chords is the second story in the Love in London series but can be read completely as a stand-alone.


MY REVIEW:


In Broken Chords, Carrie Elks shows us that finding The one and marrying him does not guarantee your happy-ever-after. Sooner or later, real life gets in the way and even the strongest marriage can crumble. This is the story about how parenthood changes people and how it affects their romantic relationships. Because it is not only "hearts and flowers" when it comes to marriage and parenthood. Will be Alex able to put his old habits aside and put his wife and son on the first place before his "rock-star" carrier?

"Maybe he's going through a midlife crisis a bit early. Most guys get a sports car or a motorbike, Alex decides to become a rock star."



Carrie Elks is my queen of realistic angst. There is no over-the-top drama in her books, just realistic and sad (sometimes painful) emotions. She has a knack for taking most ordinary human problems and making beautiful bittersweet stories out of them. I admire her for that and it is main reason why I love her novels so much. She always delivers flawed realistic characters and made you love them the way they are even with their faults. Broken Chords is no exception. Characters in this novel learnt the hard way that life is never easy. But they also learnt to make the best out of it.

"Alex was like a blinding light cutting through the darkest of nights. He unravelled me, thread by thread, until the old Lara was somebody I hardly knew."



What about main characters? I really liked Lara and Alex, both for different reasons. And together, they had some superb chemistry. Whenever the two of them were bantering, my heart sped up and I found myself grinning from ear to ear. 

"He's an enigma. A mixture of hard and soft, of bitter and sweet. My Dr. Jekyll with a dirty Hyde mouth."


I highly recommend this novel to all those who are looking for angsty and realistic contemporary standalone story with passionate romance and no over-the-top drama!

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Lucia @Reading Is My Breathing

Lucia is 29 years old passionate reader and reviewer who enjoys talking about all bookish things. Currently she lives in Prague, works in business industry and dreams of starting her own publishing company. Her weakness? She can never say no to cake, coffee or good novel.

Comments (16)

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Oh, this book is going to resonate with me soon, I can actually feel it... lol! I'm getting married soon and I'm actually pretty fearful of encountering new problems with my relationship. Hopefully not and that when we do get married, our bond will just become stronger. In any case, I'll cehck this book out since you loved it so much. Plus, it's a standalone!! Standalones are far and few between now, tbh...
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1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
Yay congrats on your upcoming wedding, Faye! I will be getting married myself this september so I completely understand what you are going through at the moment :)
Anyway, hope you will give this book a chance. Realistic angst cannot get any better. Plus yeah, this is good ol' standalone!
Love your review Lucia! Can't agree with you more, and it's definitely a great realistic romance.
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1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
Aw, thank you Feifei! And thanks for stopping by at my blog :)
wow Lovely Review, sound like a good read :) thanks for sharing
1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
Thanks, it was truly great book :)
I loved this book too - love Carrie's works. I enjoy the deep drama and sad parts and she strings it out as I love. So many reads its all hapy happy happy, then a quick downside thats over in a couple of pages, when I love to wallow in it and really feel it's genuine. Then when all comes right its a real brightener.
1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
Yay, nice to meet another fan of Carrie's work. I also enjoy drama and sad parts in her books! Thanks for stopping by and finding time to comment :)
So I only skimmed this review because it's part of a series (I love being surprised!) and I've been looking for a contemporary romance!!! And the graphics you included in this post....LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! ;)
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1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
*blushes* I am glad you like my graphics :)
And this is a standalone so you wont find any spoilers in my review. Every book in series features different couple so if this caught your atention, you can read it right away.
I love how you write your reviews with those graphics, I could imagine what the novel has in store :) Lovely review, the cover is catchy <3
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1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
That is exactly the reason why I make graphics! I want to give people a glimps of what will be in store for them when they read this book. I am glad you like it, Benish :)
I do like it when romance books don't use sex as a filler and there's an actual plot involved. The banter in this sounds really good! Lovely review!
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1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
Thanks, Jeann :) This author is perfect at writing heavy-on-plot romances, that's why I love her books so much.
Great review Lucia! This one sounds right up my alley, I love it when normal situations carry such a punch in fiction, that's my favourite type of contemporary! I'm absolutely adding it to my list (both books in the series! Why not lol)
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1 reply · active 525 weeks ago
Thank you! And I hope that you will enjoy both, Coming Down and Broken Chords :)

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