Tattered by Brooke O’Brien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

Tattered is book two in The Tattered Heart Duet by Brooke O’Brien. While technically a novella, the two books combined do make a full-length story. It should be noted that ideally this book would be read in conjunction with book one, but it is complete enough to read as a signal novella. Tattered resumes the story between Maverick and Ryan. Readers are whisked four years into the future. The angst has reached a slightly higher level with this portion of the story because so much of the past has been left untold since the lovers have had no contact during their separation and suddenly the lovers are reunited after the passing of a parent.

I loved that Brooke wrote this story in duel perspective. Although we know where the characters stand as individuals on their past with one another, it doesn’t dissipate the pain of rekindling a romance only to have it derailed again. With book one, Mav and Ryan were barely 18, giving it a flair of first love and at least for me that brings both good and bad memories. Your first love as an adult is different and we see that with these characters in Tattered. I love the plot twists Brooke introduced with this portion of the duet as well. I really enjoyed reading Tattered and can’t wait to read more by this talented author.

Now, as for why I chose to rate this as four stars instead of a five-star book. Honestly, I feel like if the novellas had been released as one full length book, Brooke O’Brien could have offered slightly more context in the years that separate the main characters. In addition to offering more context, she could have potentially offered readers an increase of the level of angst and with it the character development would have been greater as well. Absolutely a fantastic read and I think that this book will be very highly ranked amongst readers.