I’ve been looking forward to the latest entry in Rebecca Zanetti’s Deep Ops series for a while. Broken is a very reluctant (on Clarence’s part ha!) friends to lovers romance that opens with Clarence and investigative journalist Dana trying to sneak their way into an underground sex club to solve their respective cases. When things turn sour Clarence wants to protect Dana without acting on their attraction for each other. He’s dedicated his life to vengeance.

I love how Dana reacts to his speech (and of course how they ignore it so they can act on their attraction later). The relationship dynamic between Dana and the overbearing Clarence feel realistic—even if not entirely attractive to me—as they try to figure out a balance between Clarence’s desire for control & Dana’s for independence and the dangers & demands of her job. Finally, Broken is super sexy and that’s much appreciated.

But I had some big problems with how some plot points are executed. A big event happens to Clarence & Dana and the possible implications of it are barely touched on. Also I found Dana’s continued desire to go to a cousin’s wedding—a cousin she doesn’t even like—in the face of the grave danger she’s in kinda strange.

Overall I really enjoyed this one—it’s so steamy and high octane that I couldn’t help but be sucked in—but I also couldn’t forget what feel like some plot/execution missteps for me. Looking forward to the next book in the series!


CW:




Both leads are drugged and have sex with each other. They’ve had sex before but had no immediate plans to have sex together again.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for complimentary ARC; all opinions provided are my own.