Date Published: February 2009
ISBN 978-055358838-5
Thriller
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Nestled in Kawarthas, about two hours from Toronto, the Nadia Stafford’s Red Oak lodge is worlds away from the high powered drama of her life as a hit woman. Her profession calls for her to be cold, calculating and never getting too close to anyone. And things were just fine until her mentor, Jack, brought in another professional, Quinn, to the team just months before. Despite her own standards and rules, Nadia has found her attraction to Quinn growing stronger and stronger. The wall around her heart is further chipped away when she hires a seventeen year old single mother, Sammi. Determined not to end up like her mother, Sammi is devoted to her baby girl, Destiny, and brings her to work every day. No cold child care for Destiny, Sammi gives her all for the baby. While she can respect Sammi for caring about her child, Nadia cannot stand by and let Sammi neglect her job at the lodge. After Nadia comes up with a plan to help Sammi meet her job commitments and still do what she feels is right for Destiny, Sammi disappears. Before Nadia can begin a serious search for her erstwhile employee, fellow hit woman, Evelyn calls—apparently Jack has had some sort accident and needs a place to lay low for a bit. Loyalty wins out and Nadia goes to pick up Jack and bring him to the lodge. Once there, despite a broken ankle, Jack jumps in to help Nadia find Sammi. What they uncover will brutally throw Nadia into the very past she’s been running from.
She also finds herself having to decide which side of the fence she is on when it comes to Quinn. Bit by bit she confronts her feelings for the blond haired, green eyed federal agent only to be blindsided by overhearing Evelyn’s diatribe to Jack about how he is losing the only woman who is his perfect match. Layer by layer the safe and emotionless world Nadia has built for herself begins to unravel just as she is pitted against the very nightmare that led her to the world she now inhabits.
Kelley Armstrong’s Nadia Stafford is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever read. I have read many authors who cross genres, some who write under different names, yet with each of them there is a tone that takes the reader into the world of the author’s real self. In the Nadia Stafford books Ms. Armstrong’s voice is so incredibly different it is as if someone else has penned the stories. Ms. Armstrong generally writes in the first person and while in some of the Women of the Otherworld books there was a fine line where one character came close to another. In both EXIT STRATEGY and now even more so in MADE TO BE BROKEN this amazing author is truly another person. There are so many layers to Nadia, all of which make her such a rich character to read. I was intrigued with all of the characters in EXIT STRATEGY and ever more to in MADE TO BE BROKEN. There is a tangible growth in Nadia’s personality and her conflicts have changed and grown with the steady peeling back of her self-made protective wall. At the end of EXIT STRATEGY I pondered which man, Jack or Quinn, would make his way to her heart. In MADE TO BE BROKEN she resolves that dilemma, yet the decision remains unsettled. The chemistry between the threesome with the added blend of Evelyn’s meddling, is the kind which will endure in story after story.
If you do not read another book this year, MADE TO BE BROKEN is your must read.
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