Breaking Giants

By: L.M. Halloran

Narrated by: Charlotte North, Aaron Shedlock

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The greatest love songs break your heart.

When I meet Julian Ashburn, the reclusive frontman of indie-rock legends Breaking Giants, I do what any sane woman would do. Embarrass myself, then insult him. Because you only live once, right? Besides, keeping my distance from the enigmatic songwriting genius is an act of self-preservation. Julian is dangerous - a pool of kerosine to my pyromaniac. I have a weakness for broken men.

But sometimes the stories we tell and the songs we sing - about family, love, and ourselves - have to be rewritten in order for us to grow. Call it fate, or stars aligning, or cosmic accident, but I'm about to find out that of the two of us, Julian isn't the broken one.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 L.M. Halloran (P)2018 Tantor

STARTED GREAT...BUT WENT DOWNHILL FAST

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

I loved the way this book started, but it went steadily downhill until it hit rock bottom for me. I finished it because I had invested enough of my time listening to it, and I wanted to see if there would be a worthy HEA. They got a HEA, but it was not enough to erase all the negative situations they went through.

How many times can a woman hear *I am sorry* and *I need to make amends* before she says ENOUGH!? Not as many times as Rose (the heroine) did. She keeps forgiving the hero time and time again. Where is her dignity? How many Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry can she take? This is an emotional roller coaster, and not in a good way. Too much happens to get *the feels* for their HEA.

He cheats/ghosts/leaves/abandons/drops her several times, breaking her heart, and every time she is getting over him, he reappears, and does it all over again.

The hero is a famous Rock Star. He pushes the heroine's buttons since the first time he meets her. After they meet, and their chemistry ignites, he starts the push and pull game with her. To me that got intolerable fast. Pull, push, leave, repeat. But when the heroine needs a bit of time to make sense of her feelings, the hero screws up yet again. He swears to the heroine that they are great together whenever they are between the sheets, but afterwards he always leaves and she if left hanging yet again. He always puts others (specially two good for nothing women, and everything else in his life) before Rose.

The hero is a selfish, self centered A$$hole, who has one excuse after another for why he behaves badly towards Rose, but he lets other women walk all over him. And Rose, although she has issues, she starts as a strong *I know what I want* woman, to slowly devolve ending up as an undignified doormat.

After everything Julian have done to Rose for 3/4 of the book (and she has taken him back), he finally tells her that he loves her. Rose freezes and remembers each and every thing he's put her through, and now she can't go back to him again. At this point she needs time to sort herself out. Julian tells her that this time he'll make things the right way and that he will show her how much he loves her. but guess what... he can't! Not even 6 stinking weeks! after she has given him months at a time!, and then *in* comes another woman!, and he almost blames Rose for it! And Rose only finds out about the woman because she sees an incoming text on his phone, otherwise I don't think he would have come clean about her.

Nice guy, huh?

Narration was very good. Charlotte North does almost all of it. Aaron Shedlock does the epilogue. This is becoming a more frequent thing with audiobooks, and it is deceiving. It happened in this book with Aaron Shedlock, but I have encountered it in other audiobooks I have bought because they had Zachary Webber or Joe Arden as narrators, to later find out they only read a few lines.

Oh well...

Sorry, sorry, sorry...... Nope, not for me.

I LOVED IT.. AND HATED IT

Because of an audible glitch, I am replacing apostrophes with *s.

This rockstar romance was a very slow ebb and flow because Julian, the sexy frontman for super-band Breaking Giants, wasn*t free to pursue the instant attraction he felt as soon as he met Coffee Shop owner Rose when he performed incognito at her open mic night. Their bad timings continued for well over a year and, during that time, there was plenty of angst, drama and heartache.. but it wasn*t all down to Julian - because Rose had emotional baggage too from her deceased rockstar parent*s toxic marriage and lifestyle. And, other than brief *stolen moments* in time, these two soul-mates would have to wait long and hard for their HEA.

+++ SPOILER ALERT +++
I really liked this very addictive listen but.. and it*s a big BUT, I was torn.. after eventually proclaiming his undying love to Rose, begging forgiveness for hurting her so badly and promising he would wait for her for however long she took, Julian couldn*t (and didn*t) even wait six weeks before he was cheating.. and may have continued if Rose hadn*t found out. This really didn*t sit well with me.. I like a hero to be a hero not a cheating a$$hole.. and the second *other woman* angst and drama left a bitter taste. So I loved then loathed Julian.. and his actions pressurized Rose who went from being a strong heroine into a self-sacrificing one.

Worth a credit? Yes.. or maybe no. One star.. or maybe four. This emotional rollercoaster could*ve been beautiful and epic.. and it was so heading that way, but, (IMO) it sadly went off the rails at the 85% mark after the gut-wrenching revelation and I just couldn*t get my happy back. It was told from Rose*s PoV and Charlotte North did a great job narrating it - with Aaron Shedlock only doing the Epilogue. I*m torn by my mixed feelings on this one as I wanted the sweet fantasy not the bitter sucker-punch of reality.. however you may well see beyond and love it.

Should pay more attention to reviews

I do love romance, love the angst etc, but this just gave me a slimy sick feeling. I couldn’t see any redeeming qualities in Julian. Everything is her fault, or anyone’s other than him?
I usually don’t leave a review but still trying to shake the sleazy feeling away,

Wow!

Excellent! Did not want it to end! The characters were well developed throughout the book and it was like I was there. Can’t wait for the next audiobook from the author!

disappointed!

I was so very disappointed with this book. the story was so boring and I found myself annoyed and wanting to scream at the lead female to stop being so pathetic . the whole I like you but... don't waste the credit.

⭐️F⭐️I⭐️V⭐️E⭐️ Hell Yeah stars, ‘WITH A BULLET’

First off let me say, I got this book because I love Aaron Shedlock and Charlotte North is also one of my favorite narrators! But... Aaron only gives the epilogue!!! I really hate when audible does this , it is so deceitful !!!!
That being said, Charlotte is truly amazing with all voices and really makes a story come alive with her talent!
Wow this story has so much real life stuff going on. L M really knows how to pack in all the emotion, desire, shame, guilt, love, loss and life lessons packed in with hot as f**k rock gods, and well...... you really just need to spend the credit or coin to see for yourself!! I promise you won’t be disappointed!! Thank you L M for another great can’t put it down story!!

#RecommendedRead

5+++ Stars

It's hard for me to express in words just how much I loved this story. From a tentative acceptance to review a book from an unknown author to complete and total love for the story is relatively unheard of but for me, Breaking Giants is one of the closest books to rival my love for SC Stephens’ Thoughtless series.

If I ever wanted to hug the life out of an author, and a book, then this would be it! The developing story between Julian Ashburn and Rose Cunningham may just have ruined me and my love of rock star romance stories for life. Their carefully constructed story is full of painful reminders of why love is hard and trust is even harder.

Despite their immediate attraction for one another, and how their future may just have been written in the stars, Rose finds it difficult to commit to Julian. Her past reminds her on a daily basis why she can’t let her heart rule her head when it comes to musicians, especially following the tragic loss of her mother. With Julian resurrecting painful reminders for Rose, she finds it near on impossible to see his love for her through her clouds of despair. I know angst, drama, frustration and fighting against inevitable love isn’t to everyone’s taste but when you finish this book and reflect on the reasons why it took so long for the key protagonists to accept their feelings for one another, you’ll understand their reticence to commit, well on Rose’s part anyway.

Breaking Giants, in case you haven’t realised, is the band that Julian Ashburn fronts. When Julian walks into Rose’s cafe for an open mic night, incommunicado, life as Rose knows it is about to change, forever. She of course immediately recognises Julian and her body quickly reacts to his presence. Rose is also a singer but only performs for her patrons and despite her amazing talents, she doesn’t want to walk in her mother’s doomed footsteps but with her family and friends all watching over her, and with some serious meddling into her life, Rose soon finds herself a pawn in a game that she has no control over.

With its unique and, at times, heart-wrenching highs and lows, this story is the epitome of a romance roller coaster but one which will delight, reward, challenge and possibly tear you apart before putting you back together, stronger, happier and altogether more complete for having witnessed such an epic romance.

For me, I am left with a huge, gaping hole in my heart and I fear this story may have ruined me for life (ok, slight exaggeration)! I am so happy that out of the many review requests that I receive, I chose this author and this book to read. It’s got to be right up there in my top 30 all-time favourite stories and easily falls into my top 10 rock star books.

Thank you, LM Halloran, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing Julian and Rose into my life and I can only hope and pray that another story from Breaking Giants can be penned in future.