Fractured Honor by Kaylea Cross

Posted on by Dísir
Fractured Honor by Kaylea CrossFractured Honor by Kaylea Cross
Series: Crimson Point, #1
Published by Kaylea Cross Inc. on 25th September 2018
Pages: 251
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four-stars

An elite warrior struggling to find his place in the civilian world.

Weary from his years on the battlefield, SF Captain Beckett Hollister has returned home to Crimson Point to take over the family business for his dying father. But adjusting to life outside the military is harder than he imagined, and being back home forces him to confront things he’d rather not face. Including the one woman he shouldn’t want and can’t have—his best friend’s little sister.

A love that was always meant to be.

Town vet Sierra Buchanan has known Beckett her entire life. She’s crushed on him for years, but because of his relationship with her family, the stubborn man refuses to see her as more than the girl he grew up with. As tragedy brings them together, neither of them realizes that the sins of Beckett’s past have come home to haunt him. When Sierra becomes the target of his unforeseen enemy, Beckett must vanquish his demons to save her.

After all these years, Kaylea Cross’s paramilitary romantic suspense books are probably quite an institution in this small corner of the romance fiction market and it’s always exciting to step into a new series Cross begins.

‘Crimson Point’—as exotic sounding it might be—doesn’t really refer to some deliciously mysterious conspiracy theory or some covert military operation despite the very posh-sounding CIA-type name for a series, but rather, the small town where military vets come back to and find their own HEA, with a slight dose of suspense woven into their stories. It’s sort of a departure for Cross given the more contemporary romance focus but there’s enough drama to keep me occupied throughout as ‘Fractured Honor’ deals with an older hero and younger heroine, with the forbidden sister of the best friend trope coming into play here along with the introductions to the supporting characters and potential pairings that will be written into her future books.
Beckett/Sierra’s history stretches over years, though neither have been available throughout their lives (the age-gap probably contributes to this) for this to happen, along with the part where neither Beckett nor Sierra are sure of themselves and their feelings they hold back from each other. Still, Cross writes about two fairly relatable and likeable protagonists who ultimately, do decide to fight for each other without too much pushing and pulling, even if I’m not sure I particularly understand why the best friend’s sister is always a forbidden trope unless the male protagonist is an utter arse, which Beckett certainly isn’t.
All in all, it’s quite an emotional read, though the heartbreak is spread out amongst the individuals in the story that we’re introduced to, so much so that I thought Cross’s attention on the supporting characters—much more than usual—did take the pedal off Beckett/Sierra quite a bit which I hoped to have more of. The resulting slow burn did get frustrating at times, but as an establishing book, ‘Fractured Honor’ does well in weaving in the potential complications to come—there are sufficient hooks after all, to keep us coming back.
four-stars

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