The Broken Road by Melissa Huie

 Megan Connors’s life is not going in the direction she thought it would. With her love life in the dumps,she doesn’t think it could get any worse until her long-time crush, Shane asks to move in. After all, he has no clue that she’s been in love with him for the past ten years.

But fate has a way of turning things around. As their relationship goes from “just friends” to lovers, life takes a turn for the unexpected. Shane isn’t the person that Megan once fell in love with all those years ago. Shane has a past; murder and drugs is a portion of what he’s been hiding and is only revealed once the FBI knocks on Megan’s door.

Secrets, tragedy, and deceit force Shane—and Megan—to make choices that will change their lives forever. Once Megan learns the truth, will she still want to be with Shane? Or will someone else be at the end of her broken road?

I found this book to start out pretty stereotypical, girl engaged with guy, decided it wasn’t meant to be and then admits her heart had always belonged to her friend.  Then the story takes a turn to everything in life that could go wrong goes wrong and there is plenty of suspicion but not real answers.  I found the beginning of this book to drag and rather boring then instantly like flipping a switch all of the action began to happen.  I personally would have liked to have seen a more balanced story, but then that is my personal taste. 

Megan breaks up her engagement with Tommy because his dreams of being in the FBI are more important than she is, and she isn’t willing to leave her family and go that far away.  She sets herself up in an apartment, adopts a dog and works her days away.  Shane has been her friend for a long time and after letting him see her jealousy once he figures out she might have deeper feelings for him than friendship.  After a few years and the death of her father, their friendship evens out and the awkwardness is gone, until he wants to move in with her because he needs a place to stay. 

She thinks this will be a test on her will power, living with him, seeing him date other girls, but he is her friend.  What else is she supposed to do but help him so she agrees.  They do finally get together but strange things begin to happen.  Tommy reappears and he doesn’t want Megan, he wants to warn her about how bad it will get if she doesn’t make some changes now.  The author did a great job at developing her characters well enough that I don’t know who to believe in this story.  Tommy could be right, Shane could be right, both could be misunderstood.  What I do know is the latest development leaves Megan in some pretty harsh situations and a huge mess to clean up.

With all of this drama and suspense going, the ending was even more explosive, leaving the safety and lives of those we have grown to care about up in the air.  Needless to say the last sentence in book one gave me chills.  I ready to see how this ends for Megan.  I said earlier that the author wrote each character in a way that I didn’t know what to think, while that is handy in this kind of plot to keep the shroud of doubt going, it also limits my ability to really invest in the characters and feel for their emotions.  I am hoping the next book will allow the characters to open up more and allow us to really understand them.

 The Broken Road on Amazon

 

Melissa grew up in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay, where her favorite memories took place near the water. Now she lives near Washington, D.C. with her family, dog, and a lot of fish. In between the chaos of laundry, chasing after her three children and trying not to burn dinner, Melissa continues to find her escape by feeding her addiction of reading and writing about love, suspense, and sarcasm. 

 

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