by Emily Krat
Series: Damaged Hearts, #1
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Source: Author
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Two people haunted by their past… The collision of two damaged hearts… Meet Elizabeth Williams. She is at the airport on an important work assignment. If everything goes smoothly, after three years of hard work, she’ll get a promotion and a much-needed raise. Elizabeth is putting her life back on track after it was ripped out from under her feet four years ago when she lost her parents along with all her dreams. Standing here, she believes her life is going to change for the better any moment now. Nothing can go wrong, right? Meet Ryan Price. He came to Moscow on business. Right now, Ryan is standing at the airport looking at a ‘present’ from his brother, judging by the sign a beautiful young woman is holding. Damn his brother for not cancelling this arrangement as Ryan asked. Miscommunications and misunderstandings and a brilliant but painful love story begins. There will be a scary flight, lovely breakfasts, long evening conversations, sharing a secret or two, discovering one another, a lot of laughter, tender moments and some tears, a fight and, of course, the I-am-ready-for-the-end-of-the-world kiss. Somewhere along the way, they won’t be able to fight their feelings any longer. For the first time in his life, Ryan will experience a different shade of lust. And for the first time in her life, Elizabeth will have to trust despite all of the times she has been hurt. Will these two wounded lost souls find love, peace and comfort in each other or will they just break each other more? Is it a train wreck of a love story or a happily ever after?
Flawed and Damaged is the debut new adult novel for Emily Krat and first in the Damaged Hearts series. While dubbed new adult, the male protagonist is slightly older and the female heroine is out in the world force in Moscow. It was a fun, fast-paced novel that while not without flaws kept me entertained.
Caffeinated Aspects:
- The tale tells place in Moscow, Paris and other European locations that I found delightful.
- Our protagonist is Elizabeth Williams an American who found herself orphaned at seventeen and flying to Moscow to live with her maternal grandmother. She made friends and found a home here, despite missing her parents. Instead of college, she entered the workforce when her gran developed Alzheimer.
- Ryan Price has a chip on his shoulder, and now runs his father’s hotel corporation. He is driven, but a misunderstanding introduces Elizabeth into his life and his world, goals and perspective are about to be upended. I love when a focused, goal oriented, stubborn, and driven character sees growth. Ryan was likeable even if occasionally I wanted to slap him. From the beginning we aren’t fooled and can see the soft caring man beneath the cool façade.
- The romance is hot and at times intense but wrapped gently in tender and humorous moments. When you have two flawed characters, things tend to be a little complicated but the relationship was a slow build, which I know folks will appreciate.
- Told from dual perspective this helped create a closer connection to the characters. The series looks like it will continue with the same characters; even though this could have concluded with book one. I am hoping we get stories on other characters, such as his brother *oh-la-la*, and Elizabeth’s friend.
Decaffeinated Aspects:
- Elizabeth was raised in the US with English being her native tongue and speaks Russian fluently. However, in her perspective the writing sounded more like someone who was born Russian-speaking English. It may be that the author herself has another native tongue. Although Ryan’s perspective didn’t have these weird sentence structures, so I am a tad confused. At any rate, it wasn’t a huge issue, it just pulled me from the story from time to time and had me questioning why.
- Both Elizabeth and Ryan at times annoyed me with some of their behavior and interactions. This is what made this NA, and I would have liked to have seen less of this, and have this be an adult novel. At times Elizabeth still acted seventeen, and not like someone who has been through so much and is a fighter. It was a disservice to her as a character.
- Dual perspective is something I love, but Krat often shared the same scene in both character’s perspective slowing the pace. A good editor and some scene cuts would have tightened this up, and taken care of the language issue I mentioned.
Overall, Flawed and Damaged was a moving story with characters I came to care about.
About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram
Tyler H Jolley
Flawed and Damaged sounds like an interesting take on a coming-of-age story. I love the idea of the setting being all over Europe. As always, thanks for the review, Kimba!
kimbacaffeinate
I liked the setting too Tyler.
Amber Elise
Interesting….I’ve got a background in linguistics so I’m pretty sure Elizabeth’s ability to acquire Russian just like that would annoy me to no end. From how you describe it, this one sounds more Adult than NA, would you agree?
Thanks for the review!
Amber Elise @ Du Livre
kimbacaffeinate
No, she grew up learning it from her mother, but she was raised in the US, but when she spoke English is sounded like someone who was Russian speaking. Verbs, pronouns and such.
Katherine
This definitely sounds interesting but I don’t love characters acting like children unless they’re actually children! I don’t think I’ve ever really come across the same scene by both perspectives in the same book before. It sounds interesting but definitely like it could slow the book down. Great review!
kimbacaffeinate
Agreed, but a lot of people act young at this age. I have read books like this before but usually it is a separate book with different pov,
Megan McDade
I dont read many NA but I want to try to read more in 2015 so will be adding this to the list as it sounds intriguing!
kimbacaffeinate
Thanks Megan, I weave a few in, not as many as Adult or YA but I love mixing it up.
Christy
Sounds good. <—- I said that with a Russian accent. 😉
kimbacaffeinate
Good, yes. <-----spoken in Russian back
Kiran J.
Sometimes when I’m reading an NA book, I keep thinking that they are blurring the lines between New Adult and Adult. I pick up an NA book, expecting less graphic details than an Adult one but more often than not, that’s not the case. *sigh* guess I’ll just have to focus on the story part 😛 Nice review, Kimberly!
kimbacaffeinate
I agree Kiran, for example Burying Water by K.A. Tucker to me its adult. I sometimes feel they slip them under NA thinking they will sell more as the characters are under 30..
Braine Talk Supe
That would annoy me, weird sentence structures. Maybe it would’ve been better if she reversed that little tidbit and made English the heroine’s second language. It’s all about setting the right expectations and following through with it.
kimbacaffeinate
Agreed. I think a good editor could have helped with the language issue
Tanja
I haven’t heard of this one but books set in European beautiful cities are always interesting to me. I really love that their romance had tender moments and that’s one feature I like to see in books. But still they would annoy me too. Great review, Kim 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
I loved the settings and that drew me to the book Tanja
PurpleBook
The premise definitely sounds intriguing and I like the cover. Too bad the MC was immature for her age. I’m not a fan with those type of characters either and had the same problem with one of the books I read this week.
kimbacaffeinate
Yeah, but those type of people exist. I was always 20 going on 40..lol Now I am almost 50 with a 30’s attitude 🙂
Sarah
This novel definitely sounds unique to its genre. Glad you enjoyed it, even with the problems you faced. 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
Thanks Sarah, sometimes despite the issues you find a good story
kindlemom1
I love that even though this has its flaws you were still entertained and had a good time with it.
kimbacaffeinate
It was, not perfect but enjoyable.
Angela Adams
Intriguing premise…thanks for the post!
kimbacaffeinate
Thanks Angela, Its always good when the premise is fresh.
Melliane
It sounds interesting but it’s true that some of the points you mention like the language would have bothered me a bit too, or even the way everything is done but it sounds like nice book too. thanks for the review.
kimbacaffeinate
Agreed, but not bad for first book, a good editor could have fixed those small issues.
Jennifer Bielman
I do see that in NA quite often, the characters acting 17. Bugs the crap out of me.
blodeuedd
Is there anything else than NA out there these days
kimbacaffeinate
you are too funny. I read everything, so my answers is yes.