Book Review: All Broke Down

All Broke Down (Rusk University #2)

By: Cora Carmack

Published By: William Morrow

Publication Date: October 28, 2014

Page Count: 368

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: Purchased by Reviewer

Audience: New Adult - Contemporary

Review of Book #1: All Lined Up

All Broke Down was another brilliant read from Cora Carmack. I felt connected to Silas and Dylan really quickly - they both had hard luck stories which endeared them to me. 

 Silas came from a broken home, and his mother bounced him and his brother from boyfriend to boyfriend's house, meaning he never had much to call his own. She finally abandoned him for good at age 13, and he grew up fending for himself. Present day Silas is angry, talks with his fists, and uses people without getting attached to them. It's no surprise that he finds himself in jail for fighting one night; he is just lucky that Dylan is there too. 

 Dylan was a very likeable girl. She is determined to be perfect so that people have no reason to dislike her. She is passionate about causes close to her heart, and anything where people have no home to call their own is a big cause for her - one that brings to be arrested for taking a peaceful protest a step too far. 

 So they are thrown together by fate, and it weaves a spell on both of them - Dylan can't stop drooling over Silas's physique, and his naughty boy charm melts her - and Silas finds her refreshingly different. What made her different to him never made much of an impression on me, but I enjoyed reading from both perspectives - drooling along with Dylan was fun! Especially as Silas reminds me of my favourite bad/lost boy ever... Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights! Both boys share very similar problems and deal with them in similar ways. (Perhaps a little too similar, but hey, I enjoyed myself!) 

 When Silas finds himself suspended from the football team for fighting, he uses his spare time to get to know Dylan, and figure things out a bit. It was very enjoyable to read - both the swoonsome hot bits (which were quite graphic at times) and the sweeter moments where he connects with team mates and becomes the bigger person. 

 I have come to expect that at about 75-80% of the way through the novel, the main couple will fall out about something. In this case, I found their fall out pretty predictable and wasn't too worried about them... I knew they would get back together. I think this is why I feel like it wasn't a five birdie book for me; I'd like to feel the tension and be more uncertain if there is going to be a fall out. I'd also like to be surprised by something other than a fall out - do they have to stop talking to each other to create the tension at the end of a novel? 

 At any rate, I gobbled All Broke Down up in extra quick time and loved it. Any Cora fan will too. She rocks.

Summary:

In this second book in New York Times and USA Todaybestselling author Cora Carmack s New Adult, Texas-set Rusk University series, which began with All Lined Up, a young woman discovers that you can't only fight for what you believe in... sometimes you have to fight for what you love.

Dylan fights for lost causes. Probably because she used to be one.

Environmental issues, civil rights, corrupt corporations, and politicians you name it, she's probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail overnight, she meets Silas Moore. He's in for a different kind of fighting. And though he's arrogant and infuriating, she can't help being fascinated with him. Yet another lost cause.

Football and trouble are the only things that have ever come naturally to Silas. And it's trouble that lands him in a cell next to do-gooder Dylan. He's met girls like her before fixers, he calls them, desperate to heal the damage and make him into their ideal boyfriend. But he doesn't think he's broken, and he definitely doesn't need a girlfriend trying to change him. Until, that is, his anger issues and rash decisions threaten the only thing he really cares about: his spot on the Rusk University football team. Dylan might just be the perfect girl to help.

Because Silas Moore needs some fixing after all.