Review: All Broke Down by Cora Carmack

From the Back Cover:

In this second book in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack s New Adult, Texas-set Rusk University series, which began with All Lined Up, a young woman discovers that you can't only fight for what you believe in... sometimes you have to fight for what you love.

Dylan fights for lost causes. Probably because she used to be one.

Environmental issues, civil rights, corrupt corporations, and politicians you name it, she's probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail overnight, she meets Silas Moore. He's in for a different kind of fighting. And though he's arrogant and infuriating, she can't help being fascinated with him. Yet another lost cause.

Football and trouble are the only things that have ever come naturally to Silas. And it's trouble that lands him in a cell next to do-gooder Dylan. He's met girls like her before fixers, he calls them, desperate to heal the damage and make him into their ideal boyfriend. But he doesn't think he's broken, and he definitely doesn't need a girlfriend trying to change him. Until, that is, his anger issues and rash decisions threaten the only thing he really cares about: his spot on the Rusk University football team. Dylan might just be the perfect girl to help.

Because Silas Moore needs some fixing after all. 

My Thoughts:

I ended up liking this so much more than the first book, All Lined Up. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with All Lined Up, it just didn't turn out to be a particularly memorable or moving read for me. I hadn't planned to continue with the series until I saw the second book was about Silas, a character who did not come across as a very good guy in the first book. When I saw the description, I knew Ms. Carmack was going to show me another side of this bad boy, and the fact that it's a good girl who gets under his skin...well, that's just a magical combination!

I loved everything about this book, from the fact that our couple meets in jail to the way Dylan helps Silas get his life back on track to the way Silas shows Dylan how to take risks and discover what's truly important in life. For all that they're surrounded by athletes and groupies and partiers--an environment of "have as much fun as you can now and worry about the rest later"--their relationship has real depth, as do the characters, and holy cow, the sex is HAWT!

My only complaint is that I think the subplots involving Dylan's issues with her parents and Silas's issues with his mom deserved a little more exploration and closure. They are serious matters that laid the foundation for why Dylan and Silas are the way they are, and since a big part of their transformations lies in learning how to cope with the past to move forward, I felt like the underlying matters got glossed over in favor of expanding on the outcome.

But this is a really great opposites attract story, and unlike many others in the New Adult genre, it isn't just about the sex. While it certainly contains some of the tried-and-true (and honestly, oftentimes overdone) themes of the genre, the strength and development of the characters along with their chemistry lift this book past the rest of the pack.

My Rating:  4 Stars out of 5

*Please Note: This review references an advance copy received from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program. These are my honest and unbiased opinions, and I was not compensated in any other way for reviewing this book.

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