Review: Broken

By CJ Lyons
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy
Read my interviews (old) and (new) with CJ and my review of Lifelines

Sheltered Scarlet Killian wants a chance at the life of a normal high-school girl.  But she's barely convinced her overprotective parents that she'll be alright, especially her nurse stepmom.  But Scarlet has spent her life in the hospital due to a rare heart disease, and she wants to live.


I loved the depiction of Scarlet's high-school life.  It was a nice balance of the better parts of high school and the bad parts.  She gets bullied by some jocks due to her portable defibrillator, which she carries in a wheelie backpack, and her mother frequently popping in to make sure she's taking her vitamins.  (Did I mention her mom is the school nurse?)  At the same time, she makes some friends in her support group and biology class.  Two of them are cute boys, of course.  But Scarlet talks about her attractions to a friend and decides to pursue only one of the boys.

My main complaint is that the thriller elements take a bit too long to come into play.  It makes since on a character level, since Scarlet is quite naive.  But when the tension ratchets up in the last quarter, any less naive reader already has a good idea about what's going on.  Most of the actual suspense comes from whether Scarlet will reach the police in time.

I enjoyed BROKEN quite a bit, and didn't mind the shift in tone to a thriller too much because I knew it was coming.  Just go into the book aware that much of it reads like a straight contemporary.  And that's fine, because Scarlet's journey to independence is a good story.

Interview with CJ Lyons

I'd like to welcome author CJ Lyons back to the blog!  This New York Times bestselling author is making her YA debut with BROKEN, about a young girl with a heart condition beginning to attend high school after years in hospitals.  Stay tuned for my review later today.

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1. Hi CJ!  You were the first author I interviewed for my blog, about your first book.  What has changed for you as an author since then?

CJ: I remember, hi again! LIFELINES was such a fun book to chat about. Hmm…what’s changed since that first book? I’ve written over twenty more (in fact, book #21, AFTER SHOCK, is being released January 7th), won a bunch of awards, hit #2 on the NYT Bestseller list, and am having the time of my life!

Perhaps most importantly was finding my YA voice—so much fun! I’m so looking forward to adding YA to my repertoire of Thrillers with Heart.

2. BROKEN is your first YA novel.  Did you know you were writing for a YA audience when you started writing, in the middle, or after you finished?

CJ: I’ve always loved reading YA and everyone kept telling me that as a pediatrician, I should write it. But honestly, I never found a story that I thought was worthy of my kids—my patients—until BROKEN, so I knew it was YA as soon as I began.


Writing for kids is tons tougher than writing for adults. Most grownups read for entertainment, but kids read for so much more. They want to vicariously experience the world and the choices they’ll be expected to make as adults as well as learn who they are and how they can fit into that larger universe once they’re the ones in charge.

3. Do you think you'll write more YA novels now that you've dipped your toes in the pool?

CJ: I just turned in my second YA Thriller and this one was so hard to write! It deals with two kids, Jesse and Miranda, being black mailed by a cyber-predator using capping (screen capture images) and how they find the courage to stand up to him (with the help of their parents). They go through hell and some of the things that happen to them were so painful to write that I was weeping as I typed—but then I was crying again when I wrote the ending as they rose above it all and triumphed.

Despite how difficult that book was to write, I loved it! Unlike my adult thrillers, I actually find that I can go deeper and darker emotionally with YA, which is a lot of fun—just goes to show that you can still have the thriller pacing and adrenalin rush without it all being car chases and explosions.

4. You have personal experience with Scarlet's rare disease, Long QT, through your niece.  Was it more difficult to write about a tough subject you're so close to?

CJ: Not the medical aspects, no. But waiting for my niece’s seal of approval before sending it to my editor—that was murder! Thankfully, she loved the book and really felt I’d nailed that whole first week of a new school vibe. Of course, she made me promise to tell everyone that she’s nothing like Scarlet, the main character of BROKEN. Scarlet is very sheltered and naïve, while the best adjectives to describe my niece are “fiercely independent.”

5. Now that you have a number of books available, do you have a favorite?

CJ: Actually, it’s DAMAGED, the second YA I mentioned above.  It’s honestly the best book I’ve ever written and as a pediatrician, the one I’m most proud of as I think it might actually save lives.

I thought it would be a stand alone, but after I finished it I realized there aren’t many books out there that tell you the rest of the story, the price to be paid for defeating the bad guys, so I’d love to tackle another book with Jesse and Miranda and show how their courage, strength, and relationship continue to evolve.

About CJ:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-one novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart.

Winner of the International Thriller Writers’ coveted Thriller Award, CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday).

Learn more about CJ's Thrillers with Heart at www.CJLyons.net.




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I don't know about ya'll, but I'm already excited about DAMAGED and its sequel!  I love books that explore consequences.

Review: Broken

First in a trilogy
By A. E. Rought
Available now from Strange Chemistry (Angry Robot)
Review copy

I've been meaning to read basically all of the Strange Chemistry books, but BROKEN is the first one I got to.  A. E. Rought's debut young adult novel is an update of FRANKENSTEIN, with far more romance, fistfights, and high school gossip than the original.

Emma Jane Gentry is still recovering from the death of her boyfriend Daniel.  He fell to his death right in front of her, which definitely left an impression.  Then Alex Franks transfers to her school.  He's got a weird disease and his dad is creepy, but Emma is still drawn to him.  He reminds her of Daniel in the strangest ways, but he's also a decent guy in his own right.

The fact that BROKEN is based on FRANKENSTEIN diffuses some of the tension.  The dark secret behind Alex's connection to Daniel is pretty easy to deduce.  Fortunately, Rought doesn't focus the story too much on Alex's secrets.  Instead, Emma's recovery and her romance with Alex drive the story.  And it's a good romance.  Their relationship builds throughout the story, and they actually talk about making it official.  It's very high school, and sweet, but still driven by an intensely physical attraction.

I also liked how much time is spent within the walls of the high school.  Emma goes to class, she hangs with friends, she avoids the guy who tries to get her attention in all the wrong ways, and she has homework when she goes home.  She also has two parents, both of whom are involved in her life.  Her mother isn't afraid to ground her for getting up to standard paranormal romance shenanigans.  And when she fractures her hand, it continues to be a problem throughout the story.  These things aren't present enough to interrupt the momentum of the story, but it's nice to actually see them in a paranormal.

I enjoyed BROKEN.  I'm curious as to how Rought will launch a series from this title, as it stands alone just fine.  But I'll definitely read the next book, because BROKEN is a good start.  I feel like I haven't read much paranormal fiction lately, so it was nice to start the year off with a fun example of the genre.