The Broken One

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.

Great story and great narration

I'm a fan of Ruth Cardello, so I scooped this up day one since it was available in KU read and listen for free. This book was great - it did not disappoint at all. At the beginning, Sebastian starts off as a cold fish, but with reason. He lost his wife and unborn child years before and he never really quite recovered. Enter Heather and her daughter, and a rogue wolf stuffed animal, and his heart begins to beat again. This was such a well-written story. Really has a lot of depth, and a broad range of emotions going from humorous to heart-breaking to swooney. It was such a great listen, too. Brian Pallino and Summer Morton do a great job expressing emotion and bringing life to the words on the page. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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

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!

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.

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!

Started out interesting, then turned sex inuendos

I come upon one really good book about once every other month. This wasn't the month. I was hopeful about this book, and although it started out intriguing, it became unrealistic to go from acquaintance to sex innuendos. The storyline couldn't keep pace with the sex. It was so disjointed. Writing style was immature and lacked emotion. The characters were one-dimensional and their growth could not be measured by the end of the book, which was flat. The idea was excellent, but the filler fell short. Good books, quality books with intriguing characters and storylines are such a rarity. I'm hopeful one comes along soon...

love it

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