Find out what a big city musician and a lonely cowgirl have in common in Michelle Hazen’s UNBREAK ME from Berkley Publishing.
Andra Lawler must decide if she’s brave enough to leave the shelter of her family’s ranch for an uncertain future with Haitian-Creole cowboy, LJ Delisle. Fans of Emily Giffin and Colleen Hoover will devour this sweet, heartwrenching yet hopeful diverse romance.
UNBREAK ME was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of the month of August and was the winner of RWA’s Lonestar Award.
“A seductive, slow-burn romance brimming with tenderness, hope, and
transformation.”—Tammara Webber, New York Times bestselling author
“Hazen writes with grace and compassion about life after trauma, smoothly addressing racism,
sexual assault, and large-scale disasters without pat answers or platitudes. This is a sure tear-
jerker for any romance fan.” —STARRED Publisher’s Weekly review
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Blurb
What could two troubled souls from different walks of life have in common? Maybe everything.
Andra Lawler lives isolated at her family’s horse ranch, imprisoned by the memories of an assault in college. When she needs help training her foals, she hires a Haitian-Creole cowboy from New Orleans with a laugh as big as the Montana sky.
LJ Delisle can’t stand the idea that Andra might be lonely—or eating frozen TV dinners. He bakes his way into her kitchen with a lemon velvet cake, and offers her cooking lessons that set them on the road to romance. But even their love can’t escape the shadow of what they’ve been through. Despite their growing friendship and his gentle rapport with the horses, LJ is still an outsider facing small-town suspicions.
Before they can work through their issues, LJ is called home by a family emergency. In the centuries-old, raggedly rebuilt streets of New Orleans, he must confront memories of Hurricane Katrina and familiar discrimination. And Andra must decide if she’s brave enough to leave the shelter of the ranch for an uncertain future with LJ.
Review
3.5 stars!
This is my first book by this author, an emotional and dramatic love story between two people from very different lives, but both struggling to move on from trauma in their pasts. With strong themes of trauma recovery and social inequality, this book is more than just a romance, and is a really well-written character-driven story that kept me engaged from start to finish.
Andra Lawler lives and works on her family’s horse ranch in Montana. Still deeply traumatised by a terrifying assault that occurred five years previously while she was in college, she lives an isolated life where she mostly avoids the company of others – in particular, the presence of men outside of her family.
LJ Delisle is a 28 year old Creole cowboy from New Orleans. He’s a man running from his past, and from the small-minded prejudices that he lives with as a 6’5” built, black man, but he’s looking to make a life for himself doing a job that he’s passionate about, and Montana and the Lawler ranch is the best place to do it.
Andra and LJ don’t get off to the best of starts, but from the moment she sees him with her horses, she recognises him as a gentle soul, and she knows that he is the right man for the job. She advocates for him to stay, and he becomes a part of her everyday life, living and working alongside Andra and her family. It doesn’t take long for him to recognise that all is not well with his new employer, and he goes out of her way to befriend her, facing her issues head on and working to bring her out of her shell, and it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Despite their differences, and the issues that they are dealing with, there’s something very special about these two together. They both feel the connection, and LJ is such a sweetheart, with a cheeky wit and a sharp intelligence, it’s impossible for Andra not to fall for him, and I fell right along with her! He is gentle, kind and caring, and infinitely patient, and the progression of things between them is beautifully written.
His knuckles skimmed down the back of her arm so lightly that the rough yarn of her sweater woke up her entire body, her skin rippling with goose bumps. “Now that might be flirting.”
“Might be?” she asked breathlessly.
His breath stirred her hair, as if he’d bent a little closer. “Depends on if you want it to be.”
But all that they feel for each other isn’t enough to erase the pain of their pasts, and they have a lot to work through. It’s sad and it’s painful, and my heart ached for them, but wow, they handle it well! Patiently, openly and honestly talking about all that they are feeling and taking things slowly. But just when it seems like they are getting somewhere, a family emergency calls LJ home, switching the action to his New Orleans neighbourhood, still devastated by Hurricane Katrina, where he is forced to confront all that he has been trying to move on from.
I really like the way that this book is very much focussed on the characters’ individual journeys, with the romance effortlessly blended into that. We have three stories which seamlessly intertwine as Andra and LJ share their pasts, leaning on each other as they deal with it and all the while falling harder and harder for each other despite it all.
“I know it ain’t right, but I can’t stand the idea of letting you go so you can look for somebody better.”
“I don’t know what I need,” she said, her voice breaking. “But if it’s not you, I don’t want it.”
There is a strong focus on social themes such as racism, culture and class, and it’s really beautifully handled. I’m sure every country deals with its own versions of this, but I found it particularly horrifying reading about LJ’s experience, especially as he recounted the events that occurred during, and especially since, Hurricane Katrina. Hearing about it from his perspective and watching him still deal with the fallout and try to make the best life he can for himself against almost impossible odds is heartbreaking.
“Look.” He held their hands up in front of her face, her fingers starkly pale against his. “Just look, for once. They’re never going to look the same. And when white people claim they’re color-blind, they don’t notice the difference, it’s a lie. My history is not your history; my culture is not your culture. I don’t want them to be. I’m proud of who I am and where I come from. All I want is to not be the last one rescued in a flood but the first one to wind up in handcuffs.”
It’s a really well written story with lots of heart and a beautifully sweet romance. I really enjoyed this one!
3.5 stars.
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Excerpt from Unbreak Me
Copyright @ Michelle Hazen 2019
Andra opened her front door, and the frown froze on her face as LJ’s shoulders filled the doorframe.
He was holding . . . a cake?
“Um, hi,” she managed.
Oh crap, she’d promised to talk to him about the horses.
“Look, I’m sorry. I know I said I’d come talk to you a couple days ago, but then Socks kicked one of the grooms, and Mary Kay lost a shoe, and I completely forgot.” She hadn’t forgotten, so much as she was . . . working up to it. Giving him a few days of seeing her around the ranch when she was in control of herself, before she got close enough she’d have to see his opinion of her in his eyes.
He shrugged, careful not to tip the tall cake off its platter. “I think we got off on the wrong foot the day we met, and our do-over didn’t really stick.”
Oh God. Apparently, he wasn’t tiptoeing around anything today.
LJ grinned—a playful, twinkly-eyed one that made him look like he was just having more fun than everyone else. “Besides, nobody’s afraid of a guy with a cake.”
A smile tugged at the edges of her mouth. “I’ve never heard that.”
“No? It’s completely true. Not to mention, bringing a cake is the best excuse to eat some. I mean, it’s yours. You don’t have to share. Of course, if you don’t, you may want to pass a tissue or two my way, is all I’m saying.” He widened his eyes mournfully.
She glanced at the cake, the white icing whipped into gorgeous swirls. “Did Stacia make that? She used to be terrible at baking.” She gripped the edge of the door a little tighter. Maybe her friend had been practicing. It wasn’t like she knew what Stacia was up to these days.
“I’m a little offended. A man doesn’t bring a borrowed cake for an apology.” He lifted the platter and gave it a waggle. “We’ve got lemon velvet with French buttercream here. You oughta get it out of the heat soon, though. The sun melted the frosting some on the way over. It’s a hike to get up over here, you know it?”
Oops, he was feeling around for an invitation. Duh, and she was still standing in her door like some kind of freak. “Um, come in.” The least she could do was feed him some cake and try to act like a normal person. She stepped aside and racked her brain for small talk that didn’t involve anything on four hooves. “You know, I can’t quite place your accent. You said you were from Louisiana, but I’ve met lots of people from there at rodeos, and they didn’t sound quite like you.”
“Well, you can tell I’m from the South because I interrupted your workout with dessert.” He tipped his head toward the yoga mat she’d left by the couch. She smiled, and his grin brightened a couple more watts. “Seriously, though, I think I’ve got a little bayou country from my days on my uncle’s horse ranch, cut with the rhythm of the Lower Ninth, maybe some southern drawl creeping in from the Mississippi border. And New Orleans has a sound all its own, always has.” Between one word and the next, his words straightened to all square corners instead of luscious curves. “Then again, if my mother is listening, I sound strictly like the Yankee university she helped pay for.”
“Your mom doesn’t like your accent?” Andra frowned. “Doesn’t she have one?”
“Mama thought I wouldn’t get a decent job unless I talked like a white banker from Wisconsin.” He shrugged.
Her eyes widened. “That’s not fair. Why should you have to fake an accent to get a job?”
“That’s the way the world works. People have ideas about what intelligence should sound like, and I don’t expect I’m going to change all of them on my own.” He winked. “I tutored English composition for work study all through college, so I can play the game. I have to admit, though, sometimes it’s nice to sound like home.”
Andra laughed, a little self-consciously. “I don’t think I even realized we had an accent up north until you imitated it.”
“Oh, it’s an accent all right, sweetheart. And you’ve got it thick as anything.”
Heat crept into her skin at the endearment, though she didn’t get the feeling he was really flirting with her. She glanced away, the afterimage of him seared on her lids. His deep-brown eyes were a couple of shades darker than his skin, and they always seemed to be laughing. He was handsome, with high cheekbones and sensual lips. The kind of man she would have looked twice at, once.
About Michelle Hazen
Michelle Hazen is a nomad with a writing problem. Years ago, she and her husband swapped office jobs for seasonal gigs and moved out on the road. As a result, she wrote most of her books with solar power in odd places, including a bus in Thailand, a golf cart in a sandstorm, and a beach in Honduras. Currently, she’s addicted to The Walking Dead, hiking, and Tillamook cheese.