Book Review: Beautifully Broken Redemption

Has Christmas taken over your life yet? Because it has for me and I'm just... plugging right along. I think my office tree might go up today because I want to get the spirit of it now. We might be traveling for Christmas Day and I don't know why, but that makes me not want to put in any effort on other trees, isn't that sad? Ugh. Maybe it's just my mood in general. 

Beautifully Broken Redemption 

Catherine Cowles

She’s hiding secrets.

For Anna, keeping her deepest scars hidden from the world has always been a necessity—from the bruises of her childhood to the mistake that nearly cost her everything. To keep herself safe, she must keep everyone around her at a distance—especially the man who has tempted her since the moment they met.

His demons are taunting him.

Mason has done his best to bury the past by achieving more than he ever thought possible. But even with all of his success, his life feels empty.

When tragedy strikes, Anna is left fighting to protect the only family she has left. And Mason will do anything to keep her and her loved ones safe—even if that means the ring of wedding bells.

But as a new spark ignites between them, someone is watching.

And they’ll do whatever it takes to snuff out that light for good.

Catherine Cowles is an auto-buy author for me. Anytime I see anything by her, it's an automatically click because everything she has written has been so great for me, and this one is no different. Secondly, I am LOVING her Sutter Lake series, I feel like now I really need to buy the physical copies of all of these because I just love them that much. Not to mention that fake relationship tropes are one of my favorites and this was just all of my favorites rolled into a book and I loved it. 

Interestingly, this book begins with Anna being released from prison and I honestly can't say I've read a book where the woman is a convict, but I'm here for it because anything that sets any book apart from everything else on the shelves already is great in my book. She unexpectedly becomes the caregiver for her niece and nephew, but her sketchy past puts legal custody in jeopardy so she does what any normal person would do, marry her co-worker. 

I mean, hasn't that come across all of our minds? 

Interestingly, Mason has always had a spot reserved for Anna in his heart but for lots of dumb ass reasons, she has put him firmly into the friend zone. Well, you know what happens when you fake marry a person, eventually you catch feelings but Anna is absolutely convinced that when it's time, Mason is going to high tail it out of there like literally every person in her life. She's had too much happen in her life and too much is at stake so she's trying to hold out. 

I really loved Mason. He's just that steady but great guy that hangs in the background hoping that the one he wants really takes notice of him. He's just solidly good. As with all of the books in this series, we have a reluctant romance but we also have an element of danger, mixed in with an actual real world problem so many are dealing with. I like how the author can seemlessly blend all of those together and still give us a quality story you'll find yourself flying through. I love that these characters pop up in the previous books so if you read those, you'll have seen more of their personality, at least parts that aren't really shown here, but this book can absolutely be a stand alone. 

The only thing I wish we had more of is Anna and Mason's working relationship/friendship before all of this. We do get some, but not really enough that would make you think them getting married would totally work. I mean, I've made friends at work, I even dated one, but I've literally never had one I'd really go out of my way to help out like that or anywhere near it. I feel like we would have understand why Mason's feelings were the way they were more. 

If you're looking for a series to sink into, consider this one. If you just need an easy, quick read to pull yourself out of a slump, definitely pick this one up. 

Thank you to Catherine Cowles and Social Butterfly PR for having me on this tour! 

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