Review: Beyond Bruised by Annie Hughes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Broken Girl #2
Release - March 4, 2017
Genre - Contemporary Friends-to-lovers romance
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat - 3 out of 5
Length - 238 pages
Review of book 1, Beyond Repair

Lydia Baker has been fighting a war in her own mind for as long as she can remember. Until now. She's given up. Deemed by herself as beyond repair, Lydia can no longer take on the demons in her mind. She's closed off and thinks her only way out is to change. Change herself, change the opinion of others, and squash down the very things that make her Lydia Baker.

Callum Reeves messed up. He took the most beautifully damaged girl he had ever seen and handed her off for other people to deal with. He let her trust him, after everything, and then let her down. Racked with guilt, he does the only thing he can. He fights her biggest demon for her.

Will it be enough?
Can Callum weave his way back into Lydia's heart?
Can Lydia find her self again?

They're both bruised, but can they heal each other and finally find the love they've been craving?

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MY REVIEW

Lydia Baker was a trip and through this story, I was along for her ride. In Beyond Repair, she was living out loud, but due to her father's torment and what she factors in as her burden on those she loves, in this book she starts hiding. She says and does and is the "normal" person she deems that everyone needs her to be. And she's slowly dying inside.

Between her and Callum, who in my opinion was a changed man, one I came to really like and respect, I didn't know who I cared for more. They were both phenomenal characters in this book. Lydia with her own brand of crazy and Callum with his compassion and understanding, loving her right through it all.

My only real disappointment with this story was the lack of details with regards to the horrors Lydia faced growing up with her father. It's alluded to but it was still too vague. Then again, I have a dark and depraved mind and hungered to examine each wicked facet of her father's cruelty but not every reader is looking for that. Also, some of the language used kind of threw me off pace. For example, every time I read the word "whilst" instead of "while", it would cause my brain to stutter. I literally had to pause for a second, get my bearings, and then continue.

Overall, this was an enjoyable journey with amazing characters and I'll definitely be on the lookout for more books from this author.