Breaking Josephine by Marie Stewart - Book Review

At 22, Josephine Sinclair thought she’d finally closed the door on her past and was moving on with her life. With a stable job as a waitress, a small apartment in town, and scenic Cannon Beach a two-mile jog to the west, she was getting by. In a mansion on the beach, Dex Hartley felt just the opposite. After years of living the fast life in New York and L.A., he’d come home to bury himself in the ghosts of his past and his grief. When an old obsession comes back to life, Josephine finds herself face-to-face with Dex, turning her ordinary world upside down and igniting a burning desire in them both they can’t deny. As Jo opens herself up to Dex, his passion, and his body, she unearths a lifetime of lies and deception that threaten to destroy the normal life she’s managed to start. As her hard-earned life collapses around her, will the truth break her or set her free?

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About the Author:

Although a long-time native of Northern California, Marie currently resides in steamy Atlanta, Georgia with her college-sweetheart-turned-husband and their three daughters. A recovering lawyer, Marie recently stepped off the legal train to write fiction full-time. While her clients miss her, she couldn’t be happier. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her family and sweating her way through the hot Georgia summer.

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Excerpt:

I looked up at his face and his rugged beauty set my heart fluttering in my chest like a caged bird. His eyes poured over my face as rivulets of water ran through his hair, over his forehead, and down his cheeks. Part of me wanted to reach up and trace their pattern with my lips, taste the water mixed with his sweat, drink him in with every raindrop. My hands were still on his chest, feeling his hard muscles tense beneath his soaked shirt. He must have been running the forest trail, I thought to myself. I could feel his heart beating, still rapid with recovery from his run, alive and strong under my fingers.

He released my hips and in an instant his hands were on my face and his lips were pressing fiercely to mine, there, in the forest, as if he needed to capture and mark me as his own. I kissed him back, without hesitation, my hands running up his chest to his neck, through his wet hair, pulling him towards me and prolonging the moment. And then he was pushing me away as if I’d burned him with my touch.

“I’m so sorry,” he stammered, running his hand through his soaking hair, his eyes still on icy fire with lust and desire. Then just as suddenly as he’d appeared, he was gone, running back the way he came through the pine trees of the state park. I watched him disappear through the rain, powerless to stop him, powerless to stop a force I felt coming, colliding into us both.

Review:

Be prepared for a very dark type book but with a great ending. Both the main characters Jo (Josephine) and Dex (Declan) both come with dark pasts and are really have broken spirits. Jo grew up in a orphanage after her mother passed away in a car accident when she was 12. She didn't know of her father or any other family. Dex suffered through the passing of his mother a then his father a couple years later. Jo breaking into houses to feel in control of her life as she didn't have control. Dex took to drinking and sleeping with any women that came around.

In a chance meeting Dex and Jo fall for each other, two broken souls. They both are from totally separate worlds - Jo a waitress trying to make enough money to keep a roof over her head and food in her belly, while Dex comes from a very wealthy family and doesn't worry about anything when it comes to money but both are very down to earth. As the story progresses we learn more about all the characters in the story who have had tragic loses.

The author does a great job in detailing each character that you feel you get to know each one well. I found the characters to be very mature for their ages but after what each has been through it would be understandable as each were forced to grow up faster than they should have. This is a dark story with mature scenes. In the end the author had a smile on my face and I was super happy on how things worked out for Josephine and Dex.