Racial Tensions Flare as Hot as the Passion in RULE BREAKER,a Modern-day Romeo and Juliet StoryLeilani Kealoha wants to be set free. Of family expectations. Of generations of prejudice.Chafing at rules made by the proud Hawaiian men in her family, she yearns to discover herself and hungers to explore the world. Her adventuresome heart? Longs for something even greater, deeper.The last thing she … greater, deeper.
The last thing she expects is an East Coast haole surfer to hold the key to everything.
Mason Price is done walking his parents’ path. Done with social acceptance—with cold politics.
On a surfing quest to reinvent himself, Mase finds an exotic beauty standing on his towel. But it’s her feisty bargaining that catches him off guard. When he challenges her with a “Truth or Shots” drinking game, she unwittingly reveals more than she’d intended about herself…and him.
The raw truth stuns him: She’s suffered like he has, is lost like he is—keeps secrets like he does.
But will young love and shared situations be enough to conquer racial and cultural divides?
Lines in the sand…were meant to be crossed.
RULE BREAKER is a standalone, full-length new adult romance told in dual POV. Due to mature themes and adult language, this book is for those 18 and older.
The Unbreakable Series:
Standalone novels of beloved characters from The No Weddings Series:
Heartbreaker ~ 82,000 words
Rule Breaker ~ 81,000 words
Lawbreaker ~ Future Release
Ball Breaker ~ Future Release
Icebreaker ~ Future Release
The Best of 2014 No Weddings Series:
No Weddings ~ 65,000 words
One Funeral ~ 67,000 words
Two Bar Mitzvahs ~ 75,000 words
Three Christmases ~ 82,000 words
For Valentine’s ~ A steamy nightcap novella ~ 27,000 words
more
It was fun watching the character reveal themselves little by little. Surprise ending. Really enjoyed reading this book.
I loved it, characaters seamed real and had to dill with their own problems and the problems of being together.
Rule Breaker is beautiful and poetic, just like the islands where it’s set. I must confess to only knowing Hawaii from when I went to Maui for my honeymoon 13 years ago, but every word about the Hawaiian culture felt and sounded authentic. Leilani is a woman who has been raised from birth to know that she must live and breathe her Hawaiian heritage. She must act a certain way and be a certain way. And she’s alright with that, sometimes. But, she wants more, she wants to experience more. She wants to travel and experience the world, not just the islands she calls home. Then she meets Mase when her brother calls on her to cash in a huge favor she owes him. He’s so different than she is. He’s an adventurous soul who is laid back with a charming personality and he’s intrigued by this fierce, beautiful woman he sees in front of him.
Their journey is a hard one, though, set amongst racial and social tensions from her family and his. Her family is traditionally Hawaiian and a haole boy is certainly not someone they approve of for Leilani. Just as a beautiful Hawaiian woman is not one Mase’s high brow, political family approve of for their son. Their love is fierce, though, enduring. I knew they could make it through all the obstacles they faced. And the way they did it is so poignant and so beautiful. I love the two of them and their relationship.
It’s not often I read books that make me recall the racial tensions I experienced growing up as a Filipina adopted into a white American family in a small, backwards farming community. But, this book makes me recall it all. It was a little painful to recall while reading Rule Breaker, but it was such a beautiful story that it still left me with good feelings after reading. Kat and Stone Bastion have a fan for life in me and I am looking forward to reading so much more from them.
Wow! I just read one of the reviews for the book which said they lost interest early in the book. So did I, but I revisited it some time later and the story was absolutely wonderful. My first time traveling in quite some time was in the fall….to Hawaii. A friend of mine is stationed there who mentioned these same conflicts she’d encountered. I loved the contrast between outsider and native, the conflicts between two opposing groups, and the chemistry between the characters.
I was interested in this story because it featured a dictionary for the Hawaiian language/terms used in the novel. I was intrigued about the conflict that was keeping these two love birds apart. However by the end of chapter 1 I was losing interest. I trudged through the adolescent flirting and the race issues that the couple were dealing with but not talking about. About halfway I decided I could not read anymore, skipped to the end and read the HEA. I don’t feel I missed anything by doing that. Others may find the novel intriguing, however it was not enough quick wit flirtation from the beginning for me, so I lost interest.
Rule Breaker is the second book in the Unbreakable series by Kat Bastion and Stone Bastion. The first book is called Heartbreaker and I read it earlier this year. I enjoyed that one and when I was asked to read this one, I couldn’t have been more excited. Unfortunately, it was just not my thing this time.
I really wanted to just fall in love with this book and I almost did at first. When I got started, I enjoyed getting to know Leilani and Mason and I thought that the heat between these two was almost palpable. Leilani is a bit spunky and that made her a fun character to get to know. Mason is devastatingly handsome (how all leading men should be, of course) and he marches to the beat of his own drummer. That’s also a great quality for a character to have because you really get to see what makes them tick and that just makes for an entertaining story. These two together was awesome. I liked the chemistry between them and it’s what pushed me to continue reading.
The story line should push readers to keep going but this storyline was just not one that I connected with at all. I don’t know if it was because of all of the Hawaiian words and slang that made the book difficult to read for me or what. It’s not like the authors didn’t explain what these words meant, they did. But the words and explanations happened so often that it felt like the story was being put on hold each time there needed to be a definition. I won’t even bring up all of the times that there were words that had previously been defined and I had completely forgotten what in the world that they meant and then I had to stop and either look it up or search for it in my book again. To top it off, I found myself trying to read things phonetically because I was subconsciously reading these character’s words with a Hawaiian accent. Again, it just slowed the story down to the point where it felt like you’re trudging through some Louisiana marsh and your shoes keep getting filled with mud and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take a step. That sounds super harsh but the marsh thing was exactly what I made a note of as I was reading.
In the end, after taking all of that stuff into account, I just couldn’t find it in me to enjoy the story. Eventually, the characters became stale because I felt like I couldn’t just read about them and their situation and instead I was trying to decipher what they were even saying. Either I’m too old to read this one or too closed minded with my books. It’s probably a little of both, I guess. Don’t take my word for it, read some other reviews and check this one out yourself because I did enjoy the first book and I know that these writers know their stuff. We just didn’t mesh this time. So on to the next one!
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *