Broken Pieces by Riley Hart

Can three broken pieces make a whole?

Josiah Evans is the orphan who lost both his parents. He’s sweet, shy, and all heart. He wants nothing more than to be loved.

Mateo Sanchez is the son of a gang leader. He’s seen it all, and never hesitates to do what needs to be done, no matter what it is.

Tristan Croft is the wealthy attorney who clawed his way up from the bottom to rule his own world. He’ll never depend on anyone but himself again.

Three men who couldn’t be more different…and yet, as their lives intersect they find an uncommon balance that calms the storms inside each of them, and ignites fires hotter than they ever thought imaginable.


Told uniquely in three parts and spanning over ten years, BROKEN PIECES is a journey of healing for three fragmented souls, finding love in the unlikeliest of places—with each other.

The author gave us a story of three men, each coming from a different back ground, with different demons, who face the reality that they need to be together.  While we see each struggle for a place in this world, we witness the quiet strength of Josiah as he heals the others broken hearts and solidifies these relationships with nothing more than acceptance and love.

Josiah was in foster care at the age of 16 after his parents were killed.  He was quiet and shy and couldn’t even look at others in the eye.  He just went through life being prepared to be the victim of someone’s mistreatment of him.  Living with his foster parents, he found it was easy to let the mother baby him, to make sure he was never alone in life but he knew at some point he was going to be on his own, he needed to find his own source of strength and his own voice.

Mateo was the 17 year old son of a leader to a gang.  His mother had died years ago and when his father was sent to prison, Teo was sent to the same foster parents Josiah had.  Being a year older in age, but many years older in street smarts, he took the role of protecting Josiah in school and in life.  When they finally were able to admit that each were gay and falling for each other, they had to hide it from everyone or they would be split up.  Teo had nowhere else to go since his “gang family” wanted him back to do more drug runs and murder. He couldn’t believe anyone would want him after the crimes he had committed and the people he had hurt, but Josiah continued to remind him of his worth in this world.

Once the secret was out about their relationship, Teo was forced to leave but Josiah wouldn’t let him go alone.  After many months of life on the street it was clear that Mateo wouldn’t be able to keep his boyfriend safe so he sent him away so he would have a chance to follow his dreams of college and owning a coffee shop, because Mateo’s future was surely going to land him in jail or dead.  It was the hardest thing he ever had to do and he was sure Josiah would hate him forever but he was wrong.  Josiah never stopped loving Mateo and praying he would find him again one day.  Josiah went to the one place he had talked to Teo about, the beach, feeding the birds and owning a coffee shop.  He was sure if he stayed there Mateo would find him one day.

Tristan enters the story now as the man Josiah meets once he has established himself in college.  Tristan is a professional man who is making money and caring for his mother who has had a horrible past that keeps her in fear of leaving her house.  Tristan has his own demons to battle and refuses to let anyone take care of him or have any amount of control over him.  Although Josiah wants to be equal to Tristan in the relationship, his personality allows him to be what Tristan needs and never demand more.  When Tristan was able to see how deep Josiah’s compassion was towards others, he knew he wanted him in his life forever, but he knew it would never work unless he could allow Josiah to have some control in the relationship.

Upon graduating college, Tristan takes Josiah to a place to give him his present, but what he didn’t expect was Josiah’s dream would come true.  Mateo came to find him again, just like he knew he would.  From this point on in the story we see the journey of how Josiah’s love for both men will bring them all three together. 

I really liked the story and the sex scenes were done very tastefully.  It was clear the love and emotion each had for the other was driving their needs and actions.  While I thought the back ground story for each character was a bit long and dragging, the overall story was very heart warming and engaging for the reader.  We can see where the quiet “weak” ones in society are usually the ones who can heal the most broken soul of another.  The quiet strength, acceptance and unconditional love Josiah had for those two men, opened the door for each of them to bond and trust that they would be taken care of and loved.