Review ‘Broken Beginnings’ by J.L. Beck & C. Hallman

Authors: C. Hallman, J.L. Beck

Genre: Dark Romance

Publisher: Beck & Hallman LLC

ISBN: B08NPH1LDV

Goodreads Rating: 4.47

The night I saved her eight years ago I knew a choice had been made. Years later and I can’t manage to let her go. She’s barely eighteen, virginal, and kind. Touching her would be a sin, but letting another man have her would destroy me. Every time I close my eyes I see her, standing there, she’s afraid of me, afraid because of that fateful night… she doesn’t know the lengths I’ll go to protect her. The blood spilled, the words said. Nothing deters my obsession… it’s wrong, immoral, to follow her, and watch her at every turn but I can’t help myself. Her safety, her life. It’s the only thing of importance to me. When an enemy lurking in the shadows challenges that I’ll do whatever I can to protect her, even turn my back on the only family I have to save her. **This is a complete full length standalone dark romance. Please be advised it contains mature themes."

When I first saw the sign up for ‘Broken Beginnings’, I was immediately interested in this read. These are both new authors to me, so I didn’t really know what to expect. And that cover definitely has its charms I think.

In ‘Broken Beginnings’ we meet Claire and Lucca. Claire and Lucca met years ago when Claire was his living with her abusive father. Although they have an eight year age difference, they have been close from the start. And Lucca always told Claire he would protect her no matter what. And he did in his own way and will continue to do so. Even if Claire doesn’t want him too.

Well, ‘Broken Beginnings’ was definitely a book unlike any other I read. I didn’t realize it was a Dark Romance novel, and I probably wouldn’t even have known what that meant if I did know. But it sure was dark. And unfortunately it wasn’t a book for me.

The romance between Claire and Lucca was rather sudden to me. In the beginning they just had a brother/sister bond. And later on Claire just wanted Lucca to leave her alone. But somehow, somewhere in the story Claire decided she wanted more from Lucca. And I just didn’t really understand that decision, or followed where that change of heart came from.

There’s also a lot of violence in this book. And although we don’t necessarily get to read about the violence in detail, we as readers do get the picture and I just didn’t enjoy it in a romance novel. What I also found a little frustrating was that a lot of time passes in this book.

Overall, this book just wasn’t for me. I did finish it, because I kept wondering what was going to happen. So that’s definitely a good thing, but I didn’t like the story or the characters all that much. I guess Dark Romance just isn’t my thing.

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J.L. Beck and C. Hallman are a USA Today Best Selling author duo who write dark romance as well as contemporary romance.

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I received this book in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are my own.

Maureen Bakker

Maureen is a mom, wife, nurse, and Ravenclaw living in the Netherlands. She spends her days juggling mom-life, reading, blogging, planning date nights with her husband and working as a nurse. Maureen also is a big Anglophile, loves cooking, Gilmore Girls, Bridgerton and Harry Potter.. Always!  Facebook | Instagram