Unbreak Me

By: Maria Vickers

Narrated by: Andrew Joseph Perez

They were supposed to be together forever. That was the plan, but through a cruel twist of fate the night before their three-year anniversary, Tex Davis lost the one man he would ever love, Memphis King. A year has passed, and he still hasn’t been able to move on. Everyone tells him it’s time, but what do they know? Memphis was his partner in love and life. Losing him broke Tex.

Tex has been given an opportunity to move from New York to Seattle. His friends and family are encouraging him to take it, but he has already decided to decline the offer because that would mean leaving Memphis behind.

Then, something happened.

Whether it be fate or something else, Memphis came back to him. Tex’s first love is supposed to help him move on, but not even Memphis can bring himself to force Tex to let him go.

Is it so wrong to want to spend forever with the person you loved most? Both hearts are begging to be unbroken.

©2019 Maria Vickers (P)2021 Maria Vickers

Unbreak me

Thank you for the ARC, I voluntarily give this book an honest review. Narrator Andrew Joseph Perez brought this book alive with such a emotional and physical struggle  of each side of characters that you can feel Tex's pain and Memphis's frustrations. Okay wasn't excepting  the emotional impact right from the start. The overall book was very well written that keeps you interested from page to page, as you get to know all the wonderful if irrational take from side characters. After all everyone grieves in their own different ways.

I Don't Know Where to Begin

I guess let me start off with the narrator who I absolutely loved. He's voice is like a lighter version of Micheal Ferraiuolo but it's missing something I can't put my finger on.

The story is third person and switches characters a lot. I got a little confused from time to time but it didn't take long to figure out who you're seeing the story through. I loved the neighbor and would have loved to see more of her.

So this is the story of Tex (AKA Barney) and Memphis. A once in a life time soul mate match. In the beginning of the story Memphis is killed (this really isn't a spoiler.) and the rest of the story is how Tex is dealing with that, which is not well. One day a huge job opportunity presents itself which happens to be the day of what would have been their fourth anniversary and the day after the one year mark of Memphis's death. Friends and family are all over Tex to move on with his life but Tex is tried of no one understanding. Memphis has been with Tex since the day he died but was only able to offer comfort in the darkest of times. Now that Tex is at a cross roads Memphis is suddenly becoming more corporeal and is able to communicate fully with Tex. Knowing this has an end date they are trying to let each other go but it's not going so well. There's is just no moving on from one another.

I want to go on but I'd ruin the book. I was not a huge fan of the ending. I would have gone a totally different way, but it was heart warming and happy. The story made me cry at parts. Get very angry at family members in other parts. But most important there was a happy ending.

Entertained

Well, I was entertained, but there was a lot of character POV hopping. Also, for two characters that professed to be soulmates, they bickered an awful lot.

Polarizing book

3.25 Stars Overall
4 Stars Narrator
2.5 Stars Story

I’m gonna start by saying this book is going to be a bit polarizing. You’re either going to love it, or you’re not. Spoiler alert: I did not.

This is an emotional story. It will gut you. It will leave you feeling strongly one way or another. The fact that an author can do that, have such power in their words, should be applauded—no matter which way your emotions land. I cannot go into why I dislike it so much because it would absolutely spoil the story, and I refuse to do that. I will warn you that the way the third person POV is used, could be jarring at times, unnoticeable at others.

This is the first time I’ve heard a book narrated by Andrew Joseph Perez. I felt like he did a good job portraying the emotions in this story. I would be interested in hearing from him again in the future.

Interesting!

I liked the storyline and setting of the book but the multiple character POV'S left me a tad bereft at times.

I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between the MC's which was disappointing.

The dialogue was interesting enough and the narration was smooth and enjoyable overall.

3.5 stars- Different and definitely memorable

I’m not even sure where to start with this one. I do love hurt-comfort romances and was intrigued by the blurb as well as the opportunity to try a new author and narrator. Overall, I enjoyed the story in Unbreak Me. If you’re looking for a cathartic cry, this one could definitely be the read to provide just that.

The story makes a sudden impact early on, then details a loved one trying to cope with the loss of their soul mate while braving the mundane aspects of day-to-day life and the barrage of family and friends encouraging him to heal and move forward. The pain Tex experiences without Memphis is understandable and in many ways palpable. I liked that Unbreak Me was raw and went a different way than many of the romances that deal with a partner’s death tend to. I also liked the couple together, at least in the pieces where we got to experience their relationship when it was healthy and vibrant. And yet…it took me a while to sink in and finish this one.

While the story itself is emotional and definitely makes you appreciate the days you have with your loved ones, I didn’t feel as in touch with the book or characters as I expected given the subject. For one, the writing and point-of-view style was a little different for me. I don’t have a specific preference for first person versus third person, but the omniscient third person point-of-view switching midway through a scene often left me with a “who/what was that” feeling or even rewinding to make sense of a poignant part. The story also felt a bit disjointed at times. Though it made sense to a degree given Tex’s grief and random memories of happier times, the interjections of silly or cheesy parts into emotional scenes would jar me out of the experience. All in all, none of this was bad or made me reluctant to continue in the least, I just think it prevented me from being fully immersed in the emotion of the story. Narrator wise, I was happy with the tone, style, and performance, and wouldn’t hesitate to pick up more of his works in the future.

Then there’s the ending. It totally threw me. While I hadn’t quite fully connected to the story, Unbreak Me had me in tears a few times, particularly toward the end, meaning the resolution held a big surprise I hadn’t anticipated. At first, I was a little confused and on the fence about the direction it took, but as I reflected and the epilogue ended, I realized it made the entire story that much more powerful. Unbreak Me is certainly unique among hurt-comfort romances or those detailing a character’s grief in a number of ways and I would recommend it to those readers who seek out such tropes.

*ACX promo code received by Gay Book Promotions. The PA, author, and narrator had no influence over this review*

A Ghostly Romance

I received this audiobook as an ARC and have now written a voluntary review. I like a romance with a tinge of the paranormal, so thought this ghost story would fill the bill. Unfortunately, in the end, I didn’t like this one.

Even with the author’s melodramatic writing, I still wasn’t convinced that Tex and Memphis were soulmates. The very first scene is an argument in which Tex is distrustful of Memphis and, even worse, not allowing Memphis to explain himself. There are many instances throughout the book that Tex’s behavior crosses the line into abuse (not physical, but definitely verbal). The author also shows Memphis exhibiting traits of how a person with ‘battered partner syndrome’ would behave.

The POV was all over the place. It constantly ping-ponged from character to character during the same scene. This style of writing makes the flow of the story extremely difficult to follow. Plus, once readers reach the ‘twist’, they realize that the story should have been entirely from Tex’s POV.

Throughout the book there is an emphasis placed on Tex and Memphis ‘moving on’ that gets completely negated at the end. There is no pay-off from all that they went through prior to that point.

This is my first experience listening to a narration by Andrew Joseph Perez. His performance was great. I look forward to hearing more works from him.

Thumbs down

Honestly I didn't like the book. The book was told in multiple third person POV. The POV would change mid chapter without any warning. The narrator's voices for each character were so similar that I could only tell the POV when it was the sisters. I expected a book that would rip out my heart and stitch it back together. This is not that type of book. It has a twist that I didn't see coming.