The Broken One

Corisi Billionaires, Book 1

By: Ruth Cardello

Narrated by: Brian Pallino, Summer Morton

Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

In New York Times bestselling author Ruth Cardello’s sexy and emotional romance, a billionaire dares to invest in the riskiest proposition of his life: a second chance at love.

Single mom Heather Ellis would do anything for her adopted daughter, Ava. Even post an online reward for anyone who found the girl’s lost stuffed animal. Who’d have guessed it’d be returned by a drop-dead-sexy man with such sadness in his eyes that she had to reach out to him? To Ava, he’s a hero. To Heather, he’s a fantasy that puts at risk the happy life she’s made for herself.

It’s been five years since billionaire developer Sebastian Romano lost his wife and unborn child in a tragic accident. Now he’s all business. No room for emotion. Until he stumbles across that damn stuffed wolf and the beautiful single mother looking for it. Is he ready to give love a second chance?

But there’s more to Sebastian, his family, and his past than Heather knows. More than even Sebastian knows. Will the life they’re building together be challenged when the truth is finally revealed?

©2019 Ruth Cardello (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

just meh!

There is almost no foundation for the relationship that seems to form out of nothing. The story is extremely unrealistic and painful to endure. the only semi redeeming quality is the narration.

Just ok

Cute story
Easy to listen too and understand
Just boring
Would not recommend to others

Don't Care For the Man

The man in this story is broken. The title of the story will clue you into this fact. But he seems extremely two dimensional in the audio version. This is because the narrator for the part of Sebastian is read by someone so monotone and gruff that he should just be doing crime stories. Any emotion written dies on the tongue of the narrator, Brian Pallino. Summer Morton did a fine job.

What a start to a new series!

Well done Ms. Cardello! I have loved the universes you create, and this new series has started out beautifully. Sebastian is truly a broken man, but you root for him to come out of the depth of his grieve, and Heather and Ava are just the right pair to do so. The narration is perfect, specially Brian Pallino, how much feeling he brings to the story.

Half Cheesy, Half Good

Good and bad points to this story. The best thing is that there's finally a female character who is strong, independent and not afraid to speak her mind. She relies a bit too much on the best friend but it's not a story breaker. Narration was good. Of course, there's the required sex scenes. Seriously, after the first- don't go into all that detail over and over again. It really gets boring. Then there's always a happy ever after with these stories. What didn't really click was where the male kept saying how he was closed off, didn't want to start life over again, etc,etc. The next thing you know, he's pursuing her, wanting a future with her, marry, kids, the whole thing. It didn't really flow well. Overall, for a Cardello story, it was better than some of her past ones. She usually gives the reader a weak, low self esteem kind of female and this was a bit of a refreshing change. Hope more writers keep giving their females more strength.

LOVED IT!

Hilarity and love after tragedy happens.

Broody/Swoony hero, and good hearted/goofy heroine!

Our hero is a broken man with lots of demons. Our heroine is a hilarious, and strong woman with demons of her own that she is not even aware of.

This pair comes together by circumstance, and then start their back and forth dance until they finally click all their pieces together.

This story made me chuckle a few times, and that alone makes it a winner for me. However there is more. There is grief and dealing with losses and the consequences of it for both main characters.

There is a bit of mystery involving a family tree that is left there for stories to come.

I can’t wait for the next book!

The narrators were great, too!

Quick read, light story

Average story about a man whose pregnant wife died. Several years later he is still grieving, mostly consumed with guilt. His wife wanted him to go with her to her OB appointment but he put work first, she died in a car accident. His go to release is alcohol. He has a large, close knit family, which includes three brothers and well meaning parents. Sundays are for a big family dinner at mama and papa's house.
Then there is Heather who is rearing her best friend's child because, you guessed it, the friend died after the baby, Ava, was born. Her friends boyfriend didn't want his baby and had all parental rights turned over to our h.
I feel the central theme was about being a family. Sometimes families are by birth and blood and sometimes they are a child in need, who you bring into your life and surround them with encouragment, guidance, stability, support and love.
There were minor outside angst involving Heather's (h), dad. He didn't want his daughter raising and adopting a child that wasn't his "real" grand daughter. Most of the conflict was between the main two characters in learning to live, love and nurture a relationship. It was refreshing to read a romance that didn't have abuse themes, multiple stalkers, sex trafficing (the worse subject matter made into a romance), maidens needing to be rescued, a sex scene every chapter and so on. In fact the H asked the h if she had ever had desk sex. In another book the H would have "cleared the desk with one sweep of his powerful forearm". No, in The Broken One the H removes items that might poke the h and the h scoots the expensive computer monitor out of "the play area". It was like cleaning the house before a party. Very humorous scene.
The narrators were perfect. I

Is it the narration or writing?

I don’t know what it is, but there was something so immature about the inner monologue... and painfully awkward conversations... which sometimes can be cute, but this just wasn’t for me.

Love it!

This book just made me smile. I loved the writing in it. I cannot wait to read the second book

The Broken One

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and even though this is my first book by this author it will not be my last! I am going to go back and pick up previous series because I am intrigued!!! Onward with this one though. Heather is a single mom, raising her adopted daughter and after Ava accidentally let Wolfie fly out the window on the way home and is lost she is devastated. A social media post for the lost toy and hopefully all is not lost. Sebastian Romano is barely hanging on and when he comes across the scruffy stuffed animal it only establishes everything he has lost...his wife and baby. Asking his secretary to throw it away that is changed when his mother gets involved. What turns out to be a wonderful meeting and melting of hearts when Sebastian returns Wolfie to Ava and meets Heather. I just loved everything about this book and look forward to more!

Thougherly Enjoyed

A great story that I really enjoyed. I can't wait to jump into The Wid One next. 😍

love it

another great book by Ruth, just loved listening to Brian and Summer were great, deserve 5* and more