Cam Crawford, brother of Palm Beach homicide cop Charlie Crawford, just checked himself into a ritzy rehab facility in Connecticut. Admitted the same day were a drunk, an addict, and a psychopath.With little in common except deep psychic scars are Avril, a drugged-out actress, Rachel, a 18-year old self-destructive wild child, and haunted, pretty boy, Cam, just trying to piece together their … their tormented lives.
All they want is to learn how to cope, find peace of mind, make a few friends…but better watch out, because there are a few twisted people inside the ivy covered walls of Clairmount. And not everyone’s going to make it home.
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Broken House – a review by Rosemary Kenny
Cameron ‘Cam’ Crawford checks into Clairmount (aka Broken House) House, where he meets and gradually befriends, fellow drink and drug addicts, Ted, Rachel and Avril who each has their own issues on the ‘outside’.
Cam runs a hedge fund with elder brother Evan, and once there, needs to sneak out of the clinic to do a hard sell with a smile to a rich potential client.
Getting back into the clinic and up to his room unseen is a harder task than Cam expected, due to his hours-long, celebratory bender, that leaves him addled and unco-ordinated.
Yet gradually the booze eases its stranglehold and helping others at the House gives his mental well-being a much-needed boost.
Later, sadly, a tragic event leaves him, (and the others) devastated, but Cam’s determined to get justice for Rachel, peace of mind and a new beginning, for bipolar star of screen and now stage, Avril, a fair settlement for his own soon-to-be ex-wife and a family reunion and new purpose in life, for his (vertically challenged), pal Ted.
No longer such a ‘broken’ house, but a mended slowly one, Broken House by the perspicacious Tom Turner, will draw you into a web of wonders, full of his great characters, heart-achingly poignant storylines and believable redemption, for those who determine to face and overcome their inner demons.
A wonderful stand-alone story, Broken House by Tom Turner, reveals Charlie Crawford’s (star of the Palm Beach Thrillers series), family background and familial relationships in a realistic way, that tells you what you need to know to enjoy the book, without detracting from Cam, as the unassuming hero of his own epic tale.
Get your 5-star copy soon – and tell all your friends!
Disappointed
*** I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review. ***
After reading The Soul Reaver, I thought this was fitting as my next read and was feeling a little pleased. However, once I started reading the book that feeling changed. This book was extremely hard to continue reading. I actually DNF it and only got to page 86. What I did read of Broken House was full of duplicated sentences and grammar issues. The book would jump around a lot and was hard to keep up with which character was doing what. You had to wait for a name to drop or a description and try to guess which character that was. This got really confusing and frustrating quickly.
I mean sure, since this was about a rehab facility there were characters like that in there, but it didn’t really go into depth about that. It should have represented that better. There were patients that were mentally unstable and that part was represented well, especially with this character named Arthur. I am pretty sure he is the psychopath mentioned in the blurb, but I felt like the story was dragging BIG TIME. Like the worst I have ever seen for a book. I wanted to do anything other than read it and that is just when I knew I couldn’t finish reading it any longer.
There were some moments where the characters were funny, but it wasn’t enough for me to continue reading the book. I can’t get past how the blurb mentions Cam’s brother Charlie, like he is going to be a huge part of the book when the only thing he had done so far in what I had read was call Cam. It was to check up on him.
I feel like the whole blurb was misleading and I really wish this book would have been better.
I am really disappointed right now. This was supposed to make me feel better after reading my last book, but now I feel worse. I am still sad about The Soul Reaver and irritated about this.
If I hadn’t laughed at what some of the characters said in the beginning, mainly Avril and Rachel’s conversations and some of Arthur’s. This would have been a one star review.
I am somewhat mind-blown how there are so many high reviews for the book. I am not sure how others got past the book going so slow and the odd character issues.
To each their own I suppose.
Slow moving and a bit boring.