Broken Things to Mend (Power of the Matchmaker, #1)

by Karey White

Celia is in desperate need of a change--a change of scenery, a change of pace, and a complete redo of all relationships. Not knowing what else to do, she opens a map, closes her eyes, and lets fate decide her future. Then she packs her meager belongings and buys a one-way ticket to a little town on the fringes of Oregon's Deschutes National Forest called Sisters. She's wanted a family for years. Will she find one in Sisters?

What Celia doesn't plan to find is a strange Chinese woman whose meddling ways keep throwing her in the path of a handsome, but reserved, forest ranger. But no matter how kind or dependable Silas seems to be, there are some things in Celia's past that neither of them can escape, and this time, the damage might be too much to mend.

***This book is part of a multi-author project that features one recurring character--the match maker--but it is a STAND-ALONE novel.***

• ISBN10: 1941898106
• ISBN13: 9781941898109
• Publish Date: 9 December 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Karey White
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 296
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

Read more about this review and others on my blog Freyja Eats Books

REVIEW.
This is the first book in the Power of the Matchmaker series, but you can read this book as a standalone as well.

I read If We Were a Movie a week ago and noticed it was part of a project ! So I did some research and come to the conclusion that I wanted in. I want to read this entire series that comes out every month this year by different authors. But since it is already the end of March, I have some catching up to do. Starting with this book.
So yeah, I never heard of this author before, and never read anything from her to compare this one to.. But I was not very impressed. Not that it was a very bad novel, it was easy to read and I finished it very soon. But it was all so predictive and well, kind of boring sometimes.

The main character, Celia, is not really my kind of person. Yes it is horrible what she went through.. but people react to this kind of things different. Her way of dealing: running and acting like a victim. And even though she felt more at home in Sisters, she kept everything to herself until she no longer could and kept running away from her problems instead of dealing with it. She had people surrounding her who really cared about her and are willing to help, and she still kept everything from them. She didn't let anybody in.

Everybody kept saying she was doing so good, and of course she was.. but I have a thing against people acting like a victim. Yes, of course, she is a victim. But, to me, there is a difference between being a victim who rises above that and being a person who keeps victimizing themselves.
English is not my first language, so I don’t know else to explain it, but I really thought she kept too long in the role of the victim instead of doing something about it. It made me like her less, and I had times I really wanted to shake her to step up and do something about it.

What I also did not like, what I felt very strongly about, was that she did not press charges. Yes she wanted to be done with it and did not know his entire name.. But still. Not only for her, but what if he does it again to someone else ? That could have been prevented by doing something about it. But she just kept it all hidden away and I didn’t like that.

And the ending was just so predictable that I saw it coming from the moment she became aware of her new situation..

But, I did like Silas, he was really cute and just adorable. Not really the kind of man I would go for, but he was attractive in his own way. And not just that, but also how the stuttering played a part in the story. I liked how she made me more aware of that and how it is for those people. It is not like he is dumb or mentally ill, he just has trouble speaking. But still do other people mark him as “different” and that is totally unfair. It does not make him less of a man, and I really wanted a happy ending for him.

And also.. I did not really feel it. Yes sometimes I felt a bit for a character, but I had no strong feelings for the story and the romance. I love it when I feel with the characters and fall deeper in love during the story with the romance.. but I did not happen. I don’t know why, maybe her writing style ?
Because that is something I do have to bring up as well. I did not really like how she wrote things. It felt sloppy and thrown together. I did not really flow well so to say.

And last, of course, I should talk about the part of The Matchmaker Pearl in this book. I might have been (okay I am) kind of biased because I thought she was really kickass in If We Were a Movie. She had like awesome mystical powers and stuff.. but in this book she only introduced them. That’s all. And then she left. In the other story she stayed to intervene every now and then.. but here she did not really do much. I would have liked more Pearl, since well, this is part of The Power of the Matchmaker series and she should play a bigger part.

FINAL THOUGHTS.
So, all in all I did not really like this book a lot. It had some good things in there and it was not very long.. but it didn’t really appeal to me.. So I would like to give this book 2.5 Freyja’s. I would not bother reading it again and I didn’t really move me.

[sstaley]

It's very rare that you read a novel where both main characters are so incredibly vulnerable. In Broken Things to Mend both Celia and Silas are broken in some way from tragic things in their past.

The beautiful Pearl, The Matchmaker, brings them together and then let's them get to know each other. Pearl only has a small part in the novel, but she is still one of my favorite characters.

Celia, a runaway, has had a hard life and then finds out the consequences of what an act of brutality has done to her. Silas lost his parents as a child and also lost his confidence, as he became a loner with a stuttering problem. Both Celia and Silas have a hard time trusting each other at first, but after many months they can't help but feel the attraction that is pulling them together. After things are revealed from Celia's past, Silas has a hard time dealing with them.
Celia has to make a very important decision in her life and is very confused. This part of the book made me have such mixed emotions.

The ending of the book could have gone in different directions. The end also felt a little rushed when the two main characters make a decision. If I had been Celia, I truly can say I'm not sure what I would have done. As a reader you get so emotionally involved, and depending on your own experiences, you hope for Celia to make certain choices. I know that this may seem very confusing, but I do hate to give things away in a review. Let's just say, this book will have your emotions bouncing all over the place. This book is a fast read and I kept reading every spare second I had. Broken Things to Mend is a beautiful first book in The Power of the Matchmaker series. It is a story showcasing redemption, acceptance, and love.