Best Kind of Broken by Chelsea Fine

The Basics:
Best Kind of Broken by Chelsea Fine
Forever
Book One of the Finding Fate series
New Adult, Romance
Published March 4, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:
I liked the connection between Pixie and Levi that was suggested in the blurb. Particularly Levi's desire to protect Pixie and his need for her.


Blurb:

SOMETIMES MOVING ON MEANS MOVING IN

Pixie Marshall wishes every day she could turn back time and fix the past. But she can't. And the damage is done. She's hoping that a summer of free room and board working with her aunt at the Willow Inn will help her forget. Except there's a problem: the resident handyman is none other than Levi Andrews. The handsome quarterback was once her friend-and maybe more-until everything changed in a life-shattering instant. She was hoping to avoid him, possibly forever. Now he's right down the hall and stirring up feelings Pixie thought she'd long buried . . .

Levi can't believe he's living with the one person who holds all his painful memories. More than anything he wants to make things right, but a simple "sorry" won't suffice-not when the tragedy that scarred them was his fault. Levi knows Pixie's better off without him, but every part of him screams to touch her, protect her, wrap her in his arms, and kiss away the pain. Yet even though she's so close, Pixie's heart seems more unreachable than ever. Seeing those stunning green eyes again has made one thing perfectly clear-he can't live without her.

My thoughts:

Complicated, tangled thoughts.

Best Kind of Broken is narrated by chapters from Pixie and Levi, back and forth - easily my preferred format now for this type of book.

It's easily slotted into the New Adult Contemporary Angst (NACA) subgenre - if this isn't a thing, it should be. We've got two young adults who share a tragedy that was made infinitely worse by everyone's inability to cope with it. They're suddenly pushed back together after a period of silence and it opens up all these wounds and provides an opportunity for healing.

So, I didn't love that we didn't get an explanation of the tragedy right away. Maybe the mystery of what had happened was supposed to drive the reader to read the early chapters out of curiosity. I did like how everything unfurled alongside the friction between Pixie and Levi. So... I don't know. I've definitely read NACA books (Deeper by Robin York, e.g.) that put it all on the line up front and that does bring a certain rawness to the story, but is it fair for me to complain when the way Best Kind of Broken reveals the past in a way that I ultimately enjoyed reading.

Levi and Pixie also suffer from a lack of communication. Completely warranted in this case, I believed the reasoning behind it all, and it felt honest. But I still couldn't help thinking... geez guys, just get really angry and let it rip to clear the air!

Loved the ending. So good. Sooo good.

Levi is excellent book boyfriend material. Pixie seems like the kind of girl you want to be friends with. They work as a couple - their shared history makes the everything more poignant. Levi as hero might not sit right with some readers, I think the repetitive use of that language and the possessiveness of Pixie obviously suggest it, but for me, in this specific case, it all worked.

Sidenote: Why doesn't the girl on the cover have curly blonde hair?

Bottom line:

I loved reading this book. Best Kind of Broken doesn't reinvent the New Adult genre, but it does do the familiar elements really well. I've already started investigating what else Chelsea Fine has published - definitely recommend this book!

5 stars
For fans of New Adult / New Adult Contemporary Angst (NACA), angst, young love, friends before lovers stories