"Broken Falcon" by Rachel Grant is a thrilling adventure that will take you on a journey of action and discovery, keeping you hooked from start to finish.

We are reading about Chase, and finding out how he is doing after Dr. Parks abused him and wiped his memory. While on a case he runs across Eden and their chemistry is off the charts; except she has secrets and chase knows them. With Eden being part of the case and possibly a threat, Chase has to be careful. Through twists and turns, Chase’s brain finally unlocks. Definitely more twists than I thought there would be. And the ending that I didn’t see coming!

What’s great read. Chase has issues, deep dark issues. While attempting to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring he meets Eden who has her own secrets. Can Chase trust the feelings he’s has for Eden or will his secret get in the way?

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

3.5 Stars

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Sometimes you just have to buckle in and hold on for a wild ride!

Rachel Grant was a new-to-me author a little over two years ago when I discovered her through NetGalley after requesting an ARC of Poison Evidence…which was actually three years old (at the time) and the seventh book in the Evidence series.

While most of the in the series books are standalones, Broken Falcon is about a hero whose tragic backstory took place in a previous book - which I knew this because things relating to Chase’s past were referenced in book 10. However, I wasn’t able to figure out which book had his "origin" story. Did it make a big difference? Eh, not really - we get a general idea of how Chase was previously used for sinister purposes. But I think this book would be more meaningful if I’d read book four (Incriminating Evidence) before diving into this one.

That being said, Broken Falcon continues Ms. Grant’s style of perfectly balancing the suspense and steamy sides of the stories. At first I was a little concerned this one would lean more heavily on the steamy side - the heroine is an online sex worker and we get a front row seat to her online activities with the hero. Quite a bit of it actually, which made it seem like this story would have less substantial suspense than what I look for from this author.

But things picked up at about 40% and became the non-stop, action-packed story I was looking forward to reading. The heroine was great - strong, smart, feisty, and the hero’s past was heartbreaking and compelling. But most of all I loved how their relationship developed and that the author didn’t take their conflicts the cliched routes, which is especially great because Chase and Eden are in their late twenties - an age where romance characters frequently let their emotions drive their actions. I’m a big fan of mature characters, and in a story when both the hero and heroine had plenty of reason to act irrationally, it was refreshing to not see that happen.

I still need to read the second through sixth books in this series. When will I get to them? Who knows. But I fully intend to…eventually!

* thank you to NetGalley and Janus Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a little hard to read. The disclaimer at the beginning should defiantly be heeded. That being said it is a really good story. While the theme of sexual abuse is hard to read about, I thought this story conveyed the truth of moving past it. As usual the story is well written with amazing characters and story line. Well done.

BROKEN FALCON is book twelve in Grant's exciting Evidence series, and it’s a bit of a revelation as we circle back around to Chase Johnston. I thought it would be difficult to have any connection or empathy with him because in Incriminating Evidence, which happens to be my favorite in the series, Chase was a colossal jerk and one of the main antagonists. But reader, read on, because as it turns out, he was another victim of the abusive experiments that occurred at Raptor’s Alaskan compound.

To read the full review, go to All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/broken-falcon-by-rachel-grant/

This is Chase Johnston's story finally been waiting for his story since he was introduced in a previous book. Chase is leading a double life after years of psychological torment the Raptor operative now has a dark side and is wanting to bring human traffickers to justice by any means. The only escape from his mind is a woman he will never meet in person.

Eden O'Keefe also has a double life. By day she's a grad student and batista. By night she sits in front of a camera to provide companionship to those seeking it. She enjoys being a siren online but she must hide her identity. When Chase walks into a coffloop pee shop and comes face to face with the one person who can make him feel something again it seems like the nightmare he has been living might finally be coming to an end.

This was a great quick read. It was a little different then Rachel's normal stories but I sat down and finished it in one sitting. I enjoyed finally getting to see Chase's story I highly recommend this series and book. It is more erotica then suspense that we usually see but still enjoyed and is well written.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and this is my honest opinion was given a copy from publisher.

This is book 11 in the Evidence Series and is finally Chase's story. Both Chase and Eden lead double lives, Chase works for Raptor but is also on a personal quest to bring human traffickers to justice. Eden is a grad student and barista but a night she is Desiree, an online sex worker who provides companionship and entertainment or simple conversation to those who engage her. Chase walks into the coffee shop and comes face to face with the woman who makes him feel again after his abuse and control by Dr Parks when he was bombarded with infrasound, but she is unaware of who he is. His quest brings danger to her doorstep. Grant does an excellent job of intricately weaving Chase, Eden's school and job and the sex traffickers together into a tangled web that is difficult for the reader to unravel before the end. She also handles the intense story matter with sensitivity and keeps it within the realm of the story. It is a compelling and complex romantic suspense novel that is well crafted and included the Raptor Family as well as a reference to Trish in Toni Anderson's Colder than Sin. Given the complexity of the story, I would not recommend it as a stand alone.

I really enjoyed the latest installment in the Evidence Series by Rachel Grant. Eden and Chase are both dealing with the darkness of their past, but as soon as they interact with each other, the light between them is apparent. The story keeps them moving toward that light in the sweetest ways. Eden is intelligent, warm, and caring while Chase is a damaged hero with such a sweetness about him. You can't help but want only the best for these two fighters.

Dear Rachel Grant,

Broken Falcon is book 11 in your Evidence series. It features Chase Johnston who has been a fan favourite for quite some time now having first appeared in book four, Incriminating Evidence. He also had a pivotal role in book eight, Silent Evidence. While I think it’s possible to read Broken Falcon as a standalone, I did actually read Incriminating Evidence and Silent Evidence prior to jumping into this book and I think that benefited me. There is some recapping of what happened to Chase in the earlier books here but you don’t get the full context. And it’s best, I think to read the other two, first. With that in mind, there will be spoilers for earlier books in the series in this review. And if you don’t want to know, please look away now.

I should also mention content warnings/notes for this book. There’s some very heavy topics covered and some graphic descriptions. Chase has suffered sexual abuse and there are some detailed descriptions of it in the book. The story itself also deals with human trafficking and sex work. (Not all of the depictions of sex work are negative. In fact, the heroine of Broken Falcon is a sex worker. Her experience, for the most part is very positive. She’s proud of her sexuality and the work that she does. I appreciated that. The narrative made it clear that sex work in itself is not evil or bad but that it can be ripe for exploitation.)

Broken Falcon is unashamedly a sex positive book and it is by its very nature hotter than other books in the Evidence series with many explicit scenes.

After Chase was sexually abused he found it difficult to get in touch with his sexuality again. In fact he has little memory of his sexual history before the abuse. Then he found. Desiree, a cam girl, online. For the first time in a long time, he was able to feel sexual desire that he knew was his own. It felt healthy and right and real. When he meets Eden in real life even though she’s not wearing a wig and her makeup is different, he recognises her at once as Desiree.

As an abuse survivor himself, Chase has a side gig with certain members of the Raptor team locating trafficking victims before they are abused and getting them into a shelter. Isabel Dawson, heroine of incriminating evidence and now-wife of Alec Ravissant, the Raptor owner, has set up a confidential shelter for these young, (mostly) women.

One night after rescuing one of these women Chase meets Eden. This brings Chase and Eden’s respective online lives into their real lives in potentially dangerous ways, and puts Eden’s life in danger. Chase recognises Eden straight away. But he doesn’t tell her that. And, because Chase disguises his voice online, she doesn’t know that he is also Falcon, one of her online regulars.

Even though Chase is not entirely honest with her straight away, he does make quite a deal of effort not to invade her privacy and to try and be as honest as he can. When it reaches a point where he knows he has to confess, he doesn’t hesitate. Of course, it does take her a little bit of getting over.

There are POV sections from both Chase and Eden in third person, past tense. And there are also POV sections from Falcon and Desiree told in first person, present. Because of the way Chase and Eden met online, and because of his history of abuse, much of their initial bonding is through sex. It is through some of their explicit scenes that we get to see their developing romance. So I do think this book is best categorised as an erotic romantic suspense.

Eden had been working for a camgirl business, but about 8 months earlier she went out on her own and has set up her own channel, which means she can control her clientele more easily, be more secure online and make more money. She also works part time as a barista, mainly for the health benefits. She’s studying her Masters in Psychology at university too.

Because of the circumstances of Chase’s abuse, he has a healthy mistrust of psychologists and this is another barrier that they have to get past to get to their happy ever after.

The suspense plot itself has a lot to do with infrasound, which is something that was first introduced in Incriminating Evidence. I haven’t looked it up. I don’t actually know if it’s real or not. Perhaps I’m naïve, but I’d rather think it’s fantastical than actual. I’m generally not a conspiracy theorist and mind control kind of falls into that conspiracy theory bucket for me. For me it took a fair bit of suspension of disbelief to really buy into it. (Maybe it is real though. I don’t want to know, don’t tell me.)

Infrasound, what happened to Chase, and villains from previous books rear their ugly heads again in this novel, and really it’s for that reason that I think it works better if you know the context of the series. The Evidence series doesn’t need to be read in order. You don’t need to read all ten books prior to this book to understand what’s happening, but I do think you need to read books four and eight to really get who Chase is and how he got here.

I do think that by the end of Broken Falcon Chase is in a much better place in all the ways and is finally free.

I had a couple of questions about Chase is extracurricular activities as a Raptor employee. The little sub-team that was trying to help trafficking victims was a sub-team because what they were doing wasn’t strictly legal. Everyone in Raptor knew what was going on by the end though. So were they in trouble? Did it just get hand-waved away? What were the consequences?

I liked the depiction of sex work when done by a consenting adult. I liked how Eden enjoyed her work and was unashamed of it. I liked that Chase didn’t put any pressure on her to stop. I liked that none of the Raptor team were at all troubled by Eden’s work as Desiree.

You warned me that this book is a lot hotter than your previous books. So I knew that going in. Even so, I admit it took a little bit of mental adjustment for me, to put this book in my mental “Rachel Grant bucket”. Still, even though it was something of a departure for you, Broken Falcon was hot and creative. It showed the connection between the characters and it showed a positive depiction of sex work, which, in the context of this book, I think was really necessary.

Some elements of the suspense plot didn’t quite work for me. But I certainly bought into the romance. And I’m very glad to see Chase finally happy and free.

Grade B

Regards,
Kaetrin

Chase is a human guinea pig, who is controlled psychologically and physically by a sadistic doctor. He is also an operative rescuing sex trafficked girls. He goes online at night and meets a woman, Eden, who is a chat room "entertainer" he can actually converse with, and bond with. They eventually meet in person, and his hidden world brings danger and violence to them both. This book was disturbing in some elements, while well written, I wouldn't recommend it to my more sensitive reader friends.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this copy. The opinion in this review is solely my own.

I’m a huge fan of romantic suspense, and when Rachel Grant hit my radar eight years ago with Concrete Evidence, I knew I’d found a new favorite. Everything about it appealed to me, from the archaeology to the deceit. Much to my delight, it was not a fluke.

Broken Falcon is book twelve in the exciting Evidence series, and it’s a bit of a revelation as we circle back around to Chase Johnston. I thought it would be difficult to have any connection or empathy with him because in Incriminating Evidence, which happens to be my favorite in the series, Chase was a colossal dick and one of the main antagonists. But reader, read on, because as it turns out, he was another victim of the abusive experiments that occurred at Raptor’s Alaskan compound.

You might think being an experimental lab rat in the development of an infrasonic weapon and having an implant turn him into a sleeper agent was the worst part of Chase’s traumatic experience, but you’d be wrong. Over the course of those two years, he was raped repeatedly by his psychotherapist, Dr. Parks. His implant forced physical compliance, but his mind was always aware. And it nearly broke him.

He wanted to be normal. He wanted to be attracted to women who weren’t pixels on a screen. He wanted to walk into a bar and see an attractive woman and feel something, even if it was nothing but a mild attraction to a pretty face.

Chase’s story picks up about a year after being freed from the clutches of Dr. Parks, and he’s working at Raptor’s DC site while moonlighting to save runaway teens from being swept up in the sex trafficking market. Helping them gives him purpose and a way to exorcise his own demons. “One foot in front of the other” is his mantra, and it’s working.

The other thing that’s working is the camgirl he’s met and fallen for online, Eden O’Keeffe. The safety of anonymity, distance, and an online presence has given Chase the confidence to begin delving into his psyche and begin to reclaim his sexuality. And as it turns out, it’s that same sense of safety that allows Eden to work through her own demons as her alter ego, Desiree.

Eden was raised by ultra-religious parents who forced her into marriage at fifteen. But she was smart and found a loophole in the law that helped her escape from her husband before he could rape her. That same loophole helped to establish her as an emancipated teen, which let her uncouple from her abusive family. She found an attorney who helped with a divorce, and a therapist who helped her get the mental health care she needed. A dozen years later, she’s found her way to the small screen as a camgirl, where she considers her work to be sex-positive therapy for the clients who maintain digital relationships with her.

But to have successful interactions with clients in her camgirl role, Eden must put it all out there. It’s public and intimate and makes her own real-life relationships more difficult. She’s as safe as possible, altering her appearance on screen and blocking local network traffic with the hope of reducing the potential of running into anybody in the general DC metro area who might recognize her. But IPs can be masked, and the internet is forever. And one day Chase meets Desiree, in the coffee shop where Eden works part-time.  But rather than celebrating his good fortune, he curses his bad luck. This was no romantic chance encounter—this was bringing his fight against sex trafficking to her front door, literally. And that sex-positive therapy she’s meting out? Turns out Chase isn’t the only one with a masked IP address.

At its core, Broken Falcon is a story about the healing, redemptive power of love, and two lost, broken souls who take refuge in one another. This was a rough book, y’all. There’s a lot to unpack, and a lot of emotion and angst. Grant presents an interesting twist where a strong, deadly security operative is the victim of repetitive rape. Chase’s trauma and recovery is treated with respectful grace, but I wanted Eden to be more sensitive to his trauma. She’s a harder, tougher character, shaped by her emancipated years and the desperation she felt as a runaway. It’s clear that she’s a sex worker by choice rather than by desperation, and at times it feels like she lacks empathy toward Chase’s healing process. I found myself wondering - if the roles had been flipped and Eden were the rape survivor and Chase the camboy, would he be sensitive enough to her healing?

There’s a lot of good questions here; it gives you a lot to think about.  Despite my reservations about Eden, who’s dismissive of Chase’s trauma and whose independence comes off as unpleasant at times, I enjoyed the book. Fans of Rachel Grant’s exciting pacing, robust characters, and IQ-raising content will enjoy it, too.

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Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an fair and honest review.

First, let me say that Rachel Grant is one of my favorite authors. She always has a hot romance and a great suspense/mystery plot. This book, however, has several elements that I just don't care for and it seems that the author doesn't really care that longtime fans are very uncomfortable with the leftist ideology portrayed here.

Chase Johnston, a character from "Incriminating Evidence", is a tragic, broken hero who just calls out for an HEA. He is a hand-to-hand combat expert for Raptor who suffered untold agony being used for a nasty villain's guinea pig for mind control experiments. He survived, but has deep scars. As these experiments became sexual in nature, Chase lost control of his free will in regards to his own body. Now, he pays an online sex worker known as Desiree and only feels in control during these erotic online encounters as Falcon.

Eden O’Keefe is leading a double life. By day, she is a graduate student and research assistant and part-time barista. By night, she is an online sex worker online, Desiree. Eden has had a very hard live and finds that by being an online sex worker, she can regain and profit from her body as she chooses.

Chase has a secret vigilante mission to rescue young girls from sex trafficking and it is after one of his rescues that his online life smacks up against his secret life when he encounters Eden at a coffee shop. He immediately recognizes Eden as Desiree, but she has no no clue that Chase is Falcon, her favorite online customer. When Chase's quest for the traffickers puts Eden in danger, he will do whatever it takes to keep her safe and make her his own.

This is actually the first book I read from this author and I have to say that I enjoyed most parts of this book. This was the story between Chase and Eden. This was an intense ride and oh so steamy. A great read overall in my opinion. I would certainly read more this author has to offer.

This book has it all. Action, intrigue, sex, emotional connection. Chase's story reminds me of Jason Bourne, if you got to see more of his emotional and sexual side and a healthy dose of vulnerability. Eden is a great character and the perfect match to help Chase/Falcon heal. A page turner with an excellent balance of character development and plot movement. Even though this book is linked to others in the series, the background is well explained and you won't get lost if you're jumping in here.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Grant's Evidence series gets me every single time!! Somehow the tone she hits and the characters are just perfect every time. Chase Johnston has been a character in almost all of the books - and he has NOT had an easy time. He has been recovering from his treatment at the hands of a very evil therapist who controlled him and abused him sexually. The experience's Chase had caused serious damage to almost every aspect of his life. Throughout his recovery Eden (in her guise of Desiree the cam girl) have been his main lifeline.

Eden has a complicated background. She has been working as a Camgirl for the last few years to support herself. She embraces her work as a sex worker as a means to demonstrating her own control over her life and body. She's very good at it - and extremely smart. She truly is perfect for Chase and when they meet in person when their lives collide - they are immediately drawn to each other.

Overall this book is very sexual in nature. Between Eden's job as a cam girl and Chase's past - there is a lot of sex in this book. The consensual sex - is very very sexy - and I think this is purposeful to show how absolutely different it is from the treatment of Chase by the therapist and when others want something from Eden she isn't consenting to.

Rachel Grant provides her own disclaimer as to the content of this book as part of the forward -and reader should not go into this book if sexual abuse is a sensitive or triggering topic for them. But seeing both Eden and Chase reclaim their lives is wonderful.

This evidence series is definitely some of the best romantic suspense out there - especially for readers who love those books heavier on the side of romance and lighter on suspense.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

BROKEN FALCON is a roller coaster of powerful and complex emotions. It’s intriguingly slow build toward suspense, as well as within Chase and Eden’s relationship, gradually draws you in deeper until you can hardly put it down. This is an extremely compelling tale with heart-stopping action and heartbreaking drama that will keep you enthralled from beginning to end. There are continuing threads from previous novels that only add to the overall entertainment and in no way make this difficult to read as a standalone. Although this intense storyline deals with difficult and possibly triggering subject matter, it is handled in a sensitive manner and within the concepts of the narrative. It’s an engaging romantic suspense with well-drawn characters who will capture your hearts while their story captures your mind.

When I first started Broken Falcon, I was intrigued, and a third of the way in, I thought this could even be a 5 star read for me. Eden, having had a difficult past that makes financial security a necessity for her, has taken up a job as a "cam girl" to earn money to help pay for her townhome, save for a car and tuition to finish her graduate degree in psychology. Chase works for Raptor and is still recovering after having been brainwashed and abused as part of a psychology experiment that also infiltrator Raptor. At some point along the way he ran across Eden on the cam site and has been following her since, but their worlds collide one night when an off the books assignment puts him in her path.

I loved how different this was with the heroine being a sex worker(online), and the hero being someone who had been raped. It's a twist on what you usually see, and I was really enjoying that. However, the suspense part of the story was incredibly complex and hard to follow, and Chase, alpha in some ways, was almost too vulnerable for me to enjoy. I have no problem with heroes who are sensitive and vulnerable, but it felt like too much at some points and there were some inconsistencies in the story that didn't work for me, such as anyone not realizing the danger Eden was most likely in much sooner than they did. Didn't make sense for such elite security.

I still think this is a great story and worth reading because it is so different, and it intrigued me enough that I plan to go back and read some of the previous books in the series and I'm sort of now hoping that "mothman" gets his own book next.

I had an Advance Reader Copy and have voluntarily left an honest review.

I keep repeating this in every review but Rachel Grant is the gold standard for me when it comes to romantic suspense, so it was pretty much a given that I'd enjoy this book. And I did! I love how incredibly sex positive this book was and that the author was not afraid to write a book with a sex worker heroine who feels no shame in her chosen profession. I'm also glad Chase finally got his HEA after everything he's been through - this is one of those books that wouldn't really work well as a standalone, FYI. However, I have to say I never fully bought into the relationship (more on that below).

Chase is a Raptor operative who's been through hell and back. I've read all the previous books and still I didn't know the depth of his abuse. He's been mentally and sexually abused and he's been forced to hurt some of closest friends and coworkers. At the beginning of Broken Falcon, he's still recovering from the abuse he faced at the hands of his therapist and struggles with trust, relationships, and sexual attraction. The only attraction he feels is when he visits the site of a camgirl named Desiree, our heroine Eden's alter-ego, and he feels comfortable with her because he knows they'll never meet in real life. Except of course they do meet when Chase's vigilante side job helping teenage girls escape sex traffickers brings him face to face with Eden.

There's a lot going on in this book. Chase's psychological torment is deep-rooted and affects not only his ability to form relationships but also his logic and memory. When Chase and Eden meet in real life, he immediately recognizes her of course, but she doesn't, which leads to a multitude of issues because they keep seeing each other - and pretty much falling in love - online in her cam room. Eden also used to work for a site called CamDames, a legal company that Chase believes is involved in the sex-trafficking ring. It's a testament to the author's skill that the she could weave such an intricate plot, but personally, I was a little overwhelmed. There's a lot to unpack here and I'm barely scratching the surface.

All that is fine because side plot is a given in romantic suspense, but I think my biggest issue with this book is that most of the development of Chase and Eden's relationship was mostly done off-page. By the time we meet Chase and Eden - or Falcon and Desiree - they're pretty much half in love with each other already and so from the very beginning I just couldn't fully connect with these characters and their love story. It felt a little too insta-lovey, something that rarely works for me. Some chapters were written in first person POV and were a little jarring. At times it felt like reading NA circa 2014 and were not really necessary imho.

TL;DR: This was a smart, engrossing romantic suspense but I didn't think the romantic relationship was fully developed and the book suffered for it.

TW: sexual and mental abuse, sex-trafficking

3.5 stars

What a thrill ride!
Engaging from beginning to end. I couldn’t get enough of this suspenseful romance.
The hero and heroine had great chemistry, I mean the fireworks!
The plot was so interesting and well planned (I would expect no less from Rachel Grant).
I initially wasn’t crazy about the cover but it has grown on me. I mainly like the color palette but don’t like the broken glass. It feels like too much is going on but that’s just my opinion.
Otherwise super fun, romantic suspense!
Would recommend for fans of Karen Rose, April Hunt, Cynthia Eden and Laura Griffin.