A lost boy. A lost girl. A dark secret.At first Miyu can’t stand Jack, the spoiled delinquent from Britain sent to college in Japan to keep him out of trouble.Then her ailing father dies, leaving behind a mystery which turns everything she knew about herself on her head.Pushed into an uneasy alliance with Jack, together they travel from the seedy underbelly of Tokyo to the rice fields of Nagano, … the rice fields of Nagano, searching for the truth about Miyu’s mother, who abandoned her sixteen years before.
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I read this as part of Barnes and Noble’s monthly Serial Readouts.
Jack is a spoiled delinquent who has been sent to Japan from Britain in order to avoid jail time. Miyu is a girl just trying to survive despite living with her alcoholic father after the disappearance of her mother many years ago.
The two meet in a college course and instantly hate each other. However, when things go bad for both of them, they are thrown together and a friendship starts to grow. Miyu is determined to find out what really happened to her mother and Jack proves to be just the person to help in this quest.
The book was well-written and had enough twists and turns to keep it entertaining. The author is obviously familiar with Japan and its culture and these details added a lot to the book.
Broken by Chris Ward is an emotional story about a young man who is the son of a famous actor. Jack has a problem and he is always getting into trouble. His parents send him to a university in Japan where he been Miyu, another student. They develop a strange friendship based on a strange relationship. Miyu’s father dies and leaves her with questions about her past. Jack helps her through her discoveries and he finally finds himself – or does he? Can they find themselves and deal with their own pasts? This is a well written story that will keep you turning pages to the end. I own the eBook, but Amazon will not allow me to post a review. I read this eBook on a Nook app where a few chapters are delivered each day during the month until the book is complete. It is a great way to meet new authors. I am glad that B&N does this because reading on my Kindle app is slow and frustrating.
A story of two broken teenagers trying to find a path in life and falling in love. They struggle to unveil the mistery that covers Miyu´s past and both find themselves “grown ups” at the end of the story. Beautifully written with great scenery descriptions. Highly recommended!
Broken #1 – I like reading about different cultures. Mr. Ward doesn’t fail to please me with this book about a 19-year-old Japanese woman forced to work, at age 16, to support her family and 20-year-old troubled, rich American boy. 4*
Stolen #2 – Although this book is part of The Tokyo Lost Series, it is very different from the first book, Broken. I’ve read several of Mr. Ward’s books and so far this one stands out, front and center. A well written, substantial story line concerning love between two misfits dealing with a manipulating, criminal manager, and being helped by their two intriguing older, protective friends. The couple are 35- and 39-years-old and both face dilemmas of their past and their wants for a future. The Japanese woman and the British man are interesting and I like their age group. Needs minor editing. 4*
Frozen #3 – Since I started this book right after reading Stolen, I had a little problem getting into the darkness of the main characters. There’s a lot of background material laid out for several dysfunctional characters and I’m only at the 30 percent mark. The story so far is well written, but I want to move on past their problems into the relationship between her and him; they haven’t met yet. There’s a lot of interesting information about Japan and the Japanese, for those not knowing anything about Japan. I was surprised that there were delinquent students and they’re basically ignored in the non-confrontational Japanese culture.
Finally, they met and it’s still dark and a lot to wade through, but the story finally moves along. It picks up the pace almost at the end with good suspense. I like the ending and was hoping that love would win out and I don’t mean with the romance. I do love the fact that the female’s actions made a difference in a very important event.
BUT, I almost stopped reading this book, at 85%, when I came across the ignorant comment the author wrote: “. . . like America, where you can’t step out of your door without getting a gun pointed into your face.” Nothing like expert opinion, is there? Too bad, Chris isn’t an expert on America and American culture; maybe he should live here and see if that remark still holds true then. Yep, even though this well written book was slow out of the gate and I enjoyed many of his other stories, his poorly thought out statement about my country earns him a 3 star instead of the 4 star I would have rated this book. Needs minor editing. 3*