I thought this book was so beautifully written. The moments of happiness brought such a smile to my face however it was also devastatingly sad at times.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

The characters were well-developed, and I found myself invested in their lives. The plot was well thought out and had enough twists and turns to keep me on the edge of my seat. I appreciated the attention to detail, and the author did a great job of creating a vivid world that was easy to picture in my mind.
The themes explored in the book were thought-provoking and gave me a lot to consider. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story with well-developed characters.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with this book and would definitely read it again. It was a great addition to my reading collection, and I can't wait to see what else this author has in store.

Broken like me is the kind of book that has so many layers and textures. The trigger warning is heavy and so is the book. But I love books that make me feel things and that's why " Broken like me" will always be close to my heart. I felt like a constant threat was hanging over the MC's and I kept being worried for them. There was a very good mental health rep in the book. We got to see the how a survivor suffers long after the abuse takes place

The found-family trope? A baby? There isn't much to not like with this story. It isn't the kind of book I normally gravitate toward, but I truly enjoyed the experience.

I liked the story and the characters, but the writing style was not for me. As a victim myself, It was almost triggering at times, but I really liked the way it was handled. Will read more by this author

This was a very slow read for me. I almost #DNF this book because it felt entirely too slow. I appreciate the honesty of each character’s trauma and experience. I also appreciate how no one had to save one another. It allowed everyone to be supported in their development. I’m not sure what the parentheses were for in the grand scheme of things in the actual text. All around this story felt unfinished then rushed at the very end.

Rose has finally escaped her monster, and it's now time to make and create a family of her own; people who she can love, depend upon and trust.

But it's funny how when you are broken you attract those that are broken around you.

A very triggering novel!

I cried at nearly every chapter due to the different themes that ran through it.

Howie beautifully explores how although 'broken' strength, family, friendship and love can form.

This novel has many characters, all of whom you come to love, they all have their own individual back story; because of this, it can be hard remembering who's story is who's. However, this does not take away from the depth and seriousness of the novel and its topics.

This novel not only touches on specific triggering themes but also looks at the unfairness, the lack of protection and the worst possible outcomes.
As I said, I cried in many places in this book.

This isn't a novel I would have initially have picked up however, it was on NetGalley as a 'read now,' and I do not regret reading this. However, this novel is not for those who are sensitive to certain subjects as there are a lot of triggers about extremely sensitive issues!

Rose is hiding—from her past, from her own mind, from the world she knows promises no happy endings as she works to make a better life for her newborn daughter. Josh is trying—to make ends meet, to protect his only family from the fears that haunt them both, to keep the darkness from winning while he makes his way through the hurdles life keeps coming.

When Rose and her daughter move into the building Josh and his best friends live in, it becomes clear they’re meant to be a part of each other’s lives—trauma knows trauma, and weary hearts and broken souls grow together. But beyond their newfound friendship, the universe has more in store for Rose and Josh, from falling in love and the baby’s first words to a horrifying court trial.

And when their pasts come back to haunt them, each other is all they have while they face their darkest fears.
Definitely worth a read

3.5/5
In this touching tale, broken souls and friends find love and belonging. Rose is hiding from everyone and everything in the world - from her past, her thoughts, and even her own thoughts. She wants nothing more than to provide a better life for her newborn daughter, and she will do anything for her. Josh is trying to set aside his fears so he can provide a better life for his family. This is a story about love and challenges and the struggles of a family trying to survive.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

There is really only one way to describe this book…a bunch of little ideas, dramatic moments, and coincidences that were smooshed together to form a novel like thing.

I wanted to like this book. I liked the concept of two survivors bonding over and helping each other through their trauma and growing closer in the meantime, but the writing is bad.

There are too many bland/flat characters, too many unrealistic coincidences, too much awkward/stilted dialogue, too many random jump cuts, etc. I forced myself to finish this book, but it was a chore.

This book had a lot of potential, which made me want to pick up this book. I am always interested to see authors tackle issues of trauma and recovery, but I was disappointed by this book in many ways, to the point where I had to DNF the book.

Firstly, let me start off with what made me DNF in the first place. Quite simply, I was bored out of my mind. About 50% of the way through, I felt like nothing had happened, had felt zero connections with any of the characters, and did not care about anyone at all. All of the characters felt flat, including Rose and Josh, whose only common trait was that they both had trauma. I did not care for Bronte nor Evan nor Kai nor any other person in this story, because they were all so bland. Every character interaction felt forced, and for some reason, everyone immediately loved Rose for some reason.

Another issue I had with the story was the story itself. It is filled to the brim with coincidences, to the point where I could only just look aghast. Do you mean to tell me that Rose is reunited with her older sister figure, Bronte, after years of no contact, and that she knows Josh and comes to the apartment all the time? That there just happens to be a person in the building willing to take care of Scar despite having no real reason to do so? That Josh magically understands all of Rose's trauma because he too has trauma?

This gets to my final grievance with the story: it's the treatment of trauma. I understand that this author is new, and this is probably her first venture into such a heavy story. The story, and its treatment of trauma, was written in a very surface level, juvenile way, that it made me annoyed. Rose deals with some pretty horrific stuff, but I am told that, not really shown in her reactions. Her only relationship in this novel is with other people who also have some pretty shitty trauma, and I hate that. I don't think a person can only get healing if they are around people just like them.

I think there is a lot of potential here, it just needs a lot of revising and editing in order to get to that level.

**DNF'ed at 50%**

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for a review.

I have received a digital review copy via Netgalley and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you!

5 stars - A story of found family

CW: Child abuse, rape, domestic violence, gaslighting

Broken like me is heartbreaking and hearwarming at the same time. We follow Rose, who has experienced terrible trauma despite her young age, as she tries to set up a new life in Florida away from her abuser and awful mother. She is a single new mother, starting out with college and giving her all to try and stay afloat. Her story starts intertwining with Josh, also a survivor of abuse, his roommates and the rest of a group of found family - (almost) all damaged in their own ways. They are there for each other when desaster strikes, and together they all try to look forward.

This book was equally devastating as it was uplifting - it gave me all the feelings. I thought that the impact of abuse on your perception and mental health was handled very well and provided quite some insight for me. And seeing those young people, who have gone through so much and struggle so hard to find some happiness be put through the wringer is just heartbreaking. But all the same, they always show up for each other, they treat each other with respect and care and they all know that they can rely on each other. They truly are family for each other.

I also absolutely loved how the relationship between Rose and Josh Progresses naturally, that he is such a profoundly good and gentle person (just like Rose is) and how well they treat each other. The prose is beautiful, the pacing excellent and I just did not want this book to end. I very much that Kaitie Howie keeps writing and will make sure to read everything she puts out.
Oh, and kudos for the beautiful cover! It was the first thing that drew be to this book.

Ah, what a conundrum! It took a lot in me to not DNF but I pushed through!

Things I liked:
+ Mental health awareness
+ Consent. The way Josh would ask Rose before he could merely touch her.
+ Friends become a family trope
+ Sexual violence/ assault awareness
+ The ending was good.

Things that could've been better:
- The writing. I don't know how the final copy is going to be like but the excessive use of PARENTHESIS irked me so much. It could've been a creative decision by the author but IMO, it didn't work as much.
- Info dumps on side characters and then not providing additional information.
- No consistency. Starting a chapter with "Rose" then proceeding to provide narration from Josh's perspective and flipping back again.
- Characters didn't seem genuine at all. I felt like there was a constant need to make them more vulnerable and broken. There was too much "trauma finds trauma" in the book, when more information was uncovered regarding the characters, I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. The impact had been lost. There was no authenticity

Overall, if the book had gone through another round of edits and been a lot more concise, I would've liked it. It does touch upon important concepts which I admire.

I received a complimentary advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rose is hiding a difficult past, one that she can’t forget about because everybody she looks at her daughters eyes she is reminded. However, she is determined to start a new life for herself and Scarlett even if it means doing it alone, in a strange state, with no money and nobody to rely on.

However, moving to Florida wasn’t random. Years ago it was where she had agreed to live with her friends Bronte and Evan when they ran away. She knows there is such a slim chance they would find each other; especially as she is laying low. But she learns to open up to the kindness of strangers and through her new friends reacquaints with her old.

The group of friends who become like family; some of them actually are, all have difficult histories but they are all determined to make something of themselves, and the love they share for one another and Scarlett is heart warming.

Rose also starts to develop a romantic relationship with Josh; one of the boys from upstairs, which she never thought she would be capable of doing. He helps her face down her demons and bloom into a happier person.

However, nothing lasts forever, and their pasts soon come back to haunt them.

YA books or all books really about surviving abuse tend to have a ‘bad boy’ character or a girl who has fallen totally off the tracks. I liked that all of the characters pretty much have their sh** together in this book whilst still scarred and struggling. I feel that this is a more realistic approach although it would’ve been better if at least one person thrown in the mix didn’t have their own disaster story.

This book didn’t sweep me off my feet but I did find myself enjoy it and curious what was going to happen. It’s not an easy read but it’s an interesting read.

To be completely honest this book is completely different to to kind of books I usually read, but I loved every second of it. The ‘found family’ trope is one of my favourites. Everyone in this book has their own monsters to deal with, just like in real life, but the main message that comes from it is that you don’t have to face your monsters on your own. This message resonated with me so much.
Every single character in Broken Like Me is real. Not in the literal sense, but in the way that nobody is perfect, everyone has flaws, and to me that makes the story so much more interesting. Rose is a new single mum who originally has no one in her corner. Josh is her neighbour who wants to help in any way he can. Both of them have histories they’d rather not share.
One of my favourite things about this book that struck me right off the bat is that it realistically portrays the struggles of single motherhood, being a mother isn’t as easy as a lot of media nowadays makes it out to be. Another thing that I love about it is that, through both of the two main characters, just how unfair the justice system really is to the vast majority of people.
But my all time, favourite thing about Broken Like Me was how the author managed to portray mental illness. As a person who struggles with anxiety it was incredibly validating to read about Rose, a character who overthinks and gets paranoid the same way that I do, without her being infantilised or made out to be a burden to others. It was honestly refreshing.
I am genuinely looking forward to reading more books by Kaitie Howie in the future.

Broken Like Me is a story that that both tugged at my heartstrings and made the butterflies in my stomach take flight. It’s a story about Rose and Josh, both with a dark past they’d rather not remember. The both of them are hiding from that dark past, the one still haunting them every single day. But this isn’t just a story about Rose and Josh. It’s the story of their new-found family. Some are from their past, and others from their new life. And all of them with a past just as dark. With no family to call their own, they find one in each other.

Broken Like Me was a beautiful story that kept punching me in the heart. It has everything I usually DON’T read, but things I probably will read more of after this. Every character in this story has their own demons to fight, but all of them are also there for each other. The author didn’t sugar-coat the trauma that the characters went through, and in my book, that’s a plus plus plus.
I love that we didn’t get a girl-with-traumatic-past-gets-saved-by-the-big-strong-man story that usually follows a blurb like this. I love how they were all so supportive, caring and helpful towards Rose and Scar. Josh especially stole a piece of my heart. He wasn’t pushy or needy and respected Rose’s wishes, even the ones she couldn’t verbally express. Whenever he (and the others as well, but Josh in particular) bonded with Scar, my heart did backflips.
But what I really love was the found-family aspect in this book. Family doesn’t have to be related by blood, especially when the bond they have is as beautiful and strong as the ones in this story.

What I didn’t like was the emphasis on the parentheses. They were everywhere and ended up being so distracting while I tried to read. The parentheses made it feel like those sentences were incomplete, or like they were just an afterthought, maybe a scene that the author forgot to write or expand. The book could do without them.
Though I have to say that this book was a slow read for me, at least up until 60%. After that mark, everything went so fast, so quick.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved how this book showed all the highs and lows of everything. The author never once downplayed mental health or the darkness that came along with sexual assault. I’m not going to lie, I did tear up a bit at the end but I wouldn’t change the ending at all! However, I wish there was a little bit more depth on Josh and his feelings on what happened with Evan at the end but it wasn’t a deal breaker.

I also wish there was a little bit more detail on Evans and Kai’s relationship. The author kept mentioning how close they were but there was a confusing scene in the beginning where Kai glared at Evan and it wasn’t explained.

Lastly, I was very confused and annoyed with the vastly amount of parenthesis used in this book. It was used almost on every page for no reason and it really bothered me. I’m not sure if it was out there for editing purposes, but I really hope the parenthesis aren’t published in the final book.