Magnolia James, Maggie, age twenty-three, had her worsts fear come to fruition. She has traveled to Seaside Beaumont Cove, a slightly rundown yet picturesque town, a place almost at the edge of the world, and a place with secrets. She is there to identify the body of her twin sister Lilly, and she is positive Lilly was killed by her husband, Mike. To most people, Lilly’s relationship with Mike seemed “fine,” but from the start, it never felt right to Maggie; Lilly’s death confirmed her worst fears.

The story unfolds in Maggie’s first-person narrative. She is on an emotional roller coaster and shares her despair and guilt with readers. Maggie had abandoned Lilly when her sister needed her the most; none of this was Lilly’s fault; Lilly was her best friend; she was broken, Supporting characters sometimes help and sometimes hinder Maggie’s quest to obtain justice for Lilly, but this is Maggie’s mission alone, her search for redemption for Lilly and her pursuit of peace for herself. She needs to find answers to complex questions surrounding Lilly’s murder, and people are not telling the truth. Details of the past come to light in unusual ways as Maggie searches for both physical and emotional links to Lilly.

“Broken” reveals the devastating consequences of serial abuse. I received a review copy of “Broken” from John Rector and Thomas & Mercer Publishing. It was both poignant and chilling.

The one aspect this book had going for it was it was a quick read....other than that? This is a psychological thriller.....that you keep knowing the twist. A murder happens...or did one happen because the writer had them remove the body and go on with the story...nothing secured and important objects were removed from the scene, people came and went, no murder investigation. Husband said he didn't kill, there was no proof yet he was immidiately in jail. All in all this was a sloppily written book.

Broken by John Rector is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Thomas & Mercer, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

Despite Maggie's efforts to prevent her sister from continuing a relationship with her abusive boyfriend, Lilly and Mike left town and moved to Beaumont Cove over a year ago.   Maggie has not spoken to her sister since.  Now she is headed to Beaumont Cove herself,  to identify her sister's dead body.

Mike is in jail for Lilly's murder, but nothing is as it seems in the small own of Beaumont Cove.  Something doesn't quite add up, and Maggie is determined to find answers.


My Opinions:   

This was a really fast and entertaining read.  It was told from the points of view of both Thomas and Maggie, and it worked well.

Although a rather dark look at spousal abuse, the author examined the reasons why the abused stays in the relationship, as well as the affects on others around them.  As dark the topic was, the book moved so swiftly that you didn't end up feeling dragged into the abuse yourself.

I loved the characters.  Whether good or bad, they all had depth.  The dialogue was well done, as was the plot and pace.  It was told from the points of view of both Thomas and Maggie, and it worked well.

Not much to say about this one.  I liked it!   I will definitely be looking for other books by this author.

Broken is a story of domestic abuse. The news of the twin sister’s demise brings Maggie to a remote place to identify the body. The plot is predictable and doesn’t have any suspense or twist. The characters are self centric and vain. The plus of the story is the exotic location and the fast writing. Nothing much to remember about the book. Okay read

Broken is the first novel I have read by John Rector. I enjoyed several aspects of the story, the twins Maggie and Lily are compelling and the abuse suffered by Lilly which caused the sisters’ estrangement is tragic. While I found some elements of this story to be really good, others feel flat and forced. Some of the violence and perversion depicted are sadly common in abuse scenarios, but they often felt contrived in this version. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

This is a really dark story regarding domestic abuse and murder. Lilly and Mike move to Beaumont Cove and Lilly spends a lot of time reflecting on her life and her abusive spouse. The town of Beaumont Cove seems ideal to Lilly but when her sister, Maggie, comes to identify her twin’s body she doesn’t see the ideal town Lilly did and wonders what her sister saw in the crumbling town.

Maggie assumes Mike killed her sister but even she starts questioning everything and wonders if her brother in law is actually innocent. But one she starts investigating she starts finding out info.

I found the suspense part of the book good. I wondered what had happened to Lilly and liked the way that part was written. However, the abuse part was dark, actually a bit too dark for me.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie and Lily are estranged twin sisters.

When Maggie gets the call about her sister being murdered, she has to go confirm the body is indeed, Lily. Since they haven't spoke in a long time, Maggie plans on getting a few family heirlooms that Lily had and go back home. It would be three days tops. When the heirlooms are missing, Lily is forced to stay and do some investigating herself.

Everyone knows Mike is the one who murdered Lily. He had a history of beating her and he took it too far this time. After a chance meeting with one of Mikes friends, Maggie is more determined to figure out the details of the night her sister was murdered. With Mike in jail for murder she should be safe.

I really enjoyed this read. I read it in one setting. It's constant action but yet easy to follow. I did feel it was a little predictable but I was never bored.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the chance to review this book in exchange for my honest review.

Title: Broken
Author: John Rector
Genre: Fiction, thriller
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Welcome to Beaumont Cove, a slowly decaying tourist town at the edge of the world, and the place where Maggie James’s worst fears for her estranged twin sister, Lilly, have come true.
Lilly is dead, and Maggie has arrived to identify her body.
Lilly’s husband, Mike, is in custody for her murder. With his long history of abuse, no one in town is surprised at the inevitable end to their stormy marriage, least of all Maggie. All she wants is to clean up her sister’s affairs, see Mike punished, and get out of Beaumont Cove.
With the help of the local sheriff, a retired private investigator, and a strange but friendly carnival psychic, Maggie begins to uncover the truth about what really happened to her sister. But the truth comes at a price, and soon Maggie finds herself walking a dark path toward the same deadly trap that killed Lilly.
The more Maggie discovers about her sister’s final days, the more she realizes that nothing is as it appears in this strange boardwalk town.
This novel is technically sound: solid writing, unique characters, an interesting setting. But there was nothing unexpected here. I found it basically predictable—yes, even the carnival psychic—with just a tiny bit of creepy due to the setting (empty tourist town).
Maggie was not a likable character to me at all. Hateful, judgmental, and a liar, to boot. (Yes, I know what Mike was a horrible person to her sister, but still, what she did to him was Wrong.) I ended up feeling little to no sympathy for her, and that made the whole book just “meh.”
John Rector lives in Nebraska. Broken is his newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review.)

I found this to be fast paced, thrilling, and left me with wanting more— all things you crave in a good thriller.

This is the first book I’ve read by him and I enjoyed his style. I thought he did a fantastic job of displaying grief in his writing.

This was a short and sweet crime fiction story, but it packed a punch. Identical twin sisters are the main characters of this book, one who was killed and the other who knows the way only a twin can that things aren't quite adding up.

I was drawn in right away with the issues all the characters in this story had. Not just the main characters, but all of them. The sisters being estranged, one sister being in an abusive relationship, the creepy neighbor with some unknown but shady past that has him being checked up on. The psychic in cahoots with the private investigator, what a set-up, right?

The audiobook book was narrated well and really ratcheted up the serious feel of the story.

Another great delivery by John Rector.
It's so fast paced and engaging that suddenly I realized it was about to end and I wanted more.

I liked how the story unfolded and how we knew most of the mystery right from the start but still the author surprises us here and there.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Some of what I loved about this novel were the author’s portrayal of grief. Many crime novels seem to have a small surface level attempt at portraying what the family of a victim goes through. This author really examines Maggie’s inner turmoil and the experiences she goes through. I did find some of the other characters a little less robust, but was impressed with Maggie’s portrayal.

The novel was a quick read and interesting, but wasn’t “stand out” in many ways for me. It’s a quick summer read with twists and turns, but not overly memorable. It did not leave me with a sense of wanting to return to the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Broken by John Rector. This book is about twins, Lily and Maggie. that ended up on separate paths, to the disappointment of both. Lily has left her home town and sister to live with her boyfriend. Maggie hates Lily's boyfriend and how he treats her twin.

Lily is building a life with her now husband. They end up in a small forgotten town on the coast. She misses her sister something fierce and wants to communicate with her and her hope is to re-connect. They are living in a run down motel, the only other person staying there the owner/maintenance man. Lily is trying to have a smooth happy life, she loves her husband, and he loves her. He however, has a problem with jealousy, alcohol and temper. A temper that gets the best of him and Lily has the bruises to show for it. The reason for the rift with her sister.

The creepy motel owners interference may have consequences..

Maggie must come to this little off the beaten path town to gather what is left and then leave. So many things just aren't right and she works with a sheriff and private eye to figure them out, if she can,

What I liked about this book is the tension of some events that got your heart racing just reading it. The characters were interesting and I felt like I'd like to know them. It did have me on the edge of my seat a couple times. There was no profanity, or sex scenes. What I didn't like in this book is I didn't want certain characters killed off. I didn't like Ava's decision making in the end. There should be more happy events to balance the sad.

I did like how this could be continued to a new series.

The reason I gave this a 3 out of 5 rating is the depressing story without the happy. Real life has a lot of sad so I want books to be a balance of happy sad and drama with enough happy to overshadow the tragic. I want to say well at least this good came out of it but that's just me. The writing was decent and the events could be real life. It has just enough psychological thriller but to too much. I do think you will want to read this if the synopsis sounds good to you. I can't give it a 4 out of 5 because it left me sad.

Thank you John Rector, NetGalley, and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book. This is my honest opinion.

Maggie James makes her way to Beaumont Cover, a small tourist town without tourists. She has been notified that her twin sister, Lilly, is dead ... by the hands of her husband. She is there to identify the body.

This was not unexpected ... it wasn't the first time he had hit his wife ... but it will be the last. What Maggie wants is to take care of her sister's things, make sure her husband stays in jail, and get the heck out of this small town.

Maggie wants to talk to her sister's husband. what she learns is that she almost believes him when he said he didn't murder his wife. But he does point the finger at someone else.

Maggie gets help from the local sheriff, a private investigator and a friendly carnival psychic. What she doesn't realize is that the closer to the truth she gets, the more danger she's in.

There are no surprises at the who or why .... so the story is less suspenseful and more centered on how Maggie and her new found friends go about seeking the truth. It's a page turner, for sure. The ending was totally unexpected.

Many thanks to the author / Thomas & Mercer / Amazon Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

In Rector's latest standalone thriller he delivers realism, a plethora of quirky small-town characters and raises awareness of domestic abuse issues, especially in relation to women. When first arriving in Beaumont Cove, Lilly and her husband, Mike, feel as though it is the perfect place to settle in close proximity to the seaside and the move to the village resort looks to be paying off. She hopes the move will mark a fresh start to their tumultuous relationship but that is little more than optimism on her part. With many an hour spent watching the waves lapping at the shoreline from the safety of the Starlight Pier, Lilly seemed to enjoy her time in Beaumont. Now it's a year down the line and Lilly's identical twin sister, Magnolia, aka Maggie, has arrived to identify and claim her estranged 23-year-old sister's battered and asphyxiated body. When she comes upon the once-bustling tourist destination filled with crumbling buildings, neglected infrastructure with an all-around dilapidated feel to it she wonders what her sister fell in love with about the place.

The sisters grew up close-knit but Maggie began to cut ties when Lilly refused to leave her abusive marriage unable to bear the upset after her sister was repeatedly beaten to a pulp by her drunken husband. She believes Mike, who has been arrested for Lilly’s murder, is responsible and decides to confront him before she leaves to head back home to Manitou Springs and her job as a private investigator. But after talking to Mike and seeing her sister's body she suspects there's more to this than meets the eye. Told in dual timelines with a combination of protagonist Maggie's first-person perspective and third-person flashbacks, we know from the beginning who the perpetrator is although there are plenty of interesting developments throughout. It's a quick, easy, entertaining and graphically violent read but ultimately ends up being rather forgettable. Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for an ARC.

Dark and creepy. It's an edgy compulsive read that won't let go. Will creep you out. Strong flawless writing. Definitely not to be missed Happy reading!

Twins Maggie and Lilly have been estranged since Lilly betrayed Maggie and abandoned their hometown in Colorado with her abusive boyfriend, Mike.

Lilly and Mike got married and settled in the lonely seaside town of Beaumont Cove, but before the twins reconciled, Lilly was violently murdered and Mike arrested.

Maggie made the long trip to settle Lilly’s affairs, but when she sees Mike, something tells her his claims of innocence may be true. Extending her stay to find out, though, might be a deadly mistake.

The build up to Lilly’s murder was slow, yet it was clear who was responsible for her death. The end of the book was full of exciting action but it was so quick and unexplained, it strained belief. I also wanted more backstory into a key character to understand their motivation.

However, Beaumont Cove was vividly presented, and the book had an interesting cast of secondary characters, particularly Ava, the boardwalk psychic and Clayton, the gruff but soft-hearted private investigator.

Honestly there wasn't anything shocking or thrilling about this book. You know who the killer is from the very beginning and the ride from there to the end when he's caught was lackluster.

The writing wasn't bad but the characters were bland and I just didn't care one way or other about any of them. At least it was a quick read.

I received this E-ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. Any opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

Great Book! 5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for an advance copy for honest review.

Two estranged sisters, one abusive husband and a odd psychic. This thriller will have you turning pages for the twist at the end you didn't see coming! Recommend.

I received a free copy of this for review from NetGalley.

It’s like the old gum commercial said about twins: “Double your pleasure, double your fun.”

At least until one of them is brutally murdered.

Maggie and Lilly are estranged twins who had a falling out because Lilly refused to leave her abusive husband Mike. It’s been a year since Lilly and Mike left the girls’ hometown, and the sisters haven’t spoken since then. When Lilly turns up dead, Mike is instantly arrested for the crime. Now Maggie has come to the fading tourist trap of a town they were living in to try and find some personal effects that belonged to their mother that Lilly had taken. However, while Mike admits that he did beat Lilly the night she died he also insists that she was still alive when he left her.

This is one of those plots that sounds like a cheesy Lifetime TV movie when you describe it, but there’s a lot more going on than that. This isn’t just a straight up thriller like it sounds, but instead it’s more of a psychological suspense novel driven by character work. Much of the story comes to us from a the manager of the apartment building where LIlly and Mike were living, and there’s just something off about this guy from the jump that gives the entire narrative an unsettling vibe.

The sequences from Maggie’s POV cover her anger, grief, and loneliness that she she hides behind a veneer of toughness. This is a woman who just wants to do what she came there to do and then get the hell out, but she finds herself drawn to some of the people she meets like a helpful sheriff, a psychic who isn’t stingy with her pot, and an aging private detective.

At less than 300 pages John Rector delivers this with a swift no-nonsense efficiency that still manages to suck you into a moody and atmospheric book that seems seems equal parts crime thriller and tragedy.