Friday, 14 February 2014

Damaged by Becca Vincenza

Title: Damaged
Author: Becca Vincenza
Series: Rebirth book 1
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal Romance
Source: ARC
Pages: 242 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Available at:

Blurb: (via Goodreads)
There are some beings in this world, long thought to be extinct. Some seek to protect them, others want control, but some . . . some are hell bent on their destruction.

Audrey was taken from her father, hidden away from the world, and tortured for five years. She was rescued, but is she really safe, or is there someone else waiting to betray her? Can she trust those who saved her? Can she learn to accept who she really is?

Stone was on a routine mission to extract valuable information from a rival clan of paranormals. Instead, he and his team find something much more valuable: a scarred, damaged young woman who holds many secrets, and whose power is beyond anything they could ever have imagined.There is much more to Audrey than meets the eye and Stone is determined to protect her.

Audrey and Stone are about to find out it’s hard to know who to trust.

My Review:
I was immediately interested in this book when Becca Vincenza contacted me. The blurb had me enthralled right away and I couldn’t wait to read it.

This was a fairly short book, only 242 pages. I find that with short novels such as this, the plot tends to suffer a bit because everything is a bit rushed. This novel wasn’t an exception to this point. While there was a conflict, it was left on the back burner while the romantic aspect of the novel took center stage. The main characters easily escaped the conflict that was established and very few minor conflicts arose. What minor conflicts did arise was also easily disengaged or short lived as the characters found some semblance of peace within the ‘chaos’.

The main aspect of the story was almost entirely focused on the main characters romance. I would like to point out that while the overlying plot line did suffer a bit, the romantic factor did not in any way. It would have been nice to see more happening outside the romance, but what was happening inside it was engaging and exciting and overall, steamy. I found that because the romantic factor was so well done, it made up for most of the forgotten plot.

The characters themselves were well-written and showed considerable development throughout the novel. I found that, considering the length of the novel, the author did a fantastic job of opening the characters (especially Audrey) up at the perfect pace that made their development believable and realistic. Going back to the love interests, Becca couldn’t have paired the two better. They were both broken and damaged (see what I did there… damaged… like the title ;)) in their own way that complimented the other. They were perfect match and a big reason why I liked the book so much. I would like to point out that the subtle development of another character (that shall remain nameless to avoid a spoiler) was EXTREMELY well done. It was so subtle that you didn’t really pick up the clues until you are thrown a curveball at the end. Well done.

Lastly, we come to the writing itself. I think that the book could have possible gone through one more draft before publication. There were a few distracting grammatical mistakes that you had to read over a few times to understand and a couple typos that caught my eye, but I am a little over observant that way… it is what I am going to school for. However, grammatical issues aside, I found that the writing was very fluid and intriguing. She did a great job of describing settings and people and an excellent job of showing the reader what was going on rather than just telling, which, I may note, I found refreshing. Authors that assume their reader is stupid and have to tell and explain every action are incredibly annoying. Thank you for not being one of them Becca!


Overall, Becca Vincenza caught my attention. I am told that there is going to be a book 2 (there better be after that ending!!!) and it looks like it is in a different character’s POV. I am looking forward to watching this author develop with her stories and I am excited to read what happens next. 3.5 stars!

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