Craves The Angst: NEW REVIEW! BORN TO BE BROKEN (Alpha's Claim #2) by Addison Cain:

TITLE: Born To Be Broken
SERIES: Alpha's Claim
SERIES PLACEMENT: #2
AUTHOR: Addison Cain
AGE GROUP: Adult
GENRE: PNR, Sci-fi
RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2016
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
PAGES: Approx. 209

COPY PROVIDED BY: Purchased
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: 4 Stars!
CLIFFHANGER: Yes!

BOOK BLURB:
Claire has a score to settle.
Unwilling mate to the brute who viciously conquered her city, she has fled her Alpha. Hardened by betrayal, cold as the ice outside the Dome no matter how warm her savior’s embrace might be, Claire becomes the mission. The Omegas must be freed, no matter the cost.

The price on her head will not deter her; after all, she knows her life retains no value. She can’t eat, she can’t sleep, and she’s running out of time before the inevitable end.

She’d rather die than return to her captor.

For once, Shepherd finds himself facing an adversary he cannot simply crush, and a situation far out of his depth. Desperate to draw his mate back, racked and restless, he is forced to acknowledge that his pregnant Omega is willing to sacrifice her life for her false notion of a greater good.

He holds the key to her compliance and his dying mate’s survival – all he must do is give her exactly what she wants.

The Omega must be rejoined with him, because he loves her... though he knows she’ll never love him back.

Born to be Broken is the second book in Addison Cain's bestselling Alpha's Claim trilogy, an unabashedly dark tale with explicit sexual themes and complete power exchange. If you enjoy gritty fiction and suspense that sticks long after you've finished reading, this series is not to be missed.

4 “Alpha-Omega” Stars!

The Review:

After the huge cliffy the first book leaves off on, I was anxious to start reading book two. I wasn’t disappointed either. Gritty, profound and almost dismal, but so so good! Claire was inspirational. Even when she feels she has nothing left, she’s courageous and martyr-like. I loved her in this book!

Story/Characters...

Claire is on the run. Having escaped the prison Shepherd forced her in, she’s hiding out in Enforcer Corday’s house. She’s scared and hurt and trying to find some of her old self and strength inside the broken Claire she has now become. When she realizes the Rebellion can’t help her and the pair-bond Shepherd forced on her will soon take over, she decides to become a one woman army and do the one thing she set out originally to do. Help her Omega sisters. The same sisters who betrayed her.

Claire’s bravery and her ideals were so genuine. After everything she endured, she still believed in good and held tight to her values. She refused to see the world in the same sinister light Shepherd did. She wanted her people to stand up to the tyranny and fight for the peace she craved. There were several scenes that stuck out in my mind. Walking around the destroyed Thólos, the “flyer” scene and the “ice” scene. I got chills reading them. This author created visuals in this story that will definitely stick with me for a long time to come.

Shepherd was desperate to get Claire back and though he is still very much set in his way of thinking and determined to create some sort of twisted Utopia in the world he’s torn apart, you start to understand his madness. Through all he’s done, the author intelligently creates circumstances that make you sympathetic to his character and to his plight. It was brilliant, really. I actually started to really like him and I didn’t think that was possible.

This book, like the first, had very vivid sexual encounters and forced captivity. There’s complete power exchange and forced situations that some might consider dark. But there’s also a hopefulness to this book. Things are changing. Claire and Shepherd are both different. She knows the only way to get through to him, is to play the game by his rules and she sets out to try and enlighten him. And though he’s trying much harder to please Claire and he starts to see things a little differently with Svana, he’s still very much in denial and set to change the fraudulent world he was forced to live in. It’s going to be intriguing to see how things end for him... and for them as a couple.

The Wrap Up:

The author did a fantastic job of making me see both sides of the coin. I understand Shepherd. I even agree with him on a lot of his points. I also understand Claire and understand her disappointment when she realizes the world she thought she knew, didn't really exist. My heart broke for her as her eyes slowly open to the darkness Shepherd lives in. I can’t wait for book three to find out how this all plays out. There’s definitely a trader in their midst and I think before it’s all said and done, everyone is going to have to see things a lot differently.