Cora Carmack

In this second book in New York Times and USA Today bestselling 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, education—you name it, she’s probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail for a few hours, she meets Silas Moore. He’s in for a different kind of fighting. And though he’s arrogant and not at all her type, 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.

A Rusk University Novel

All Broke Down

Lover of Romance 

As searching through my goodreads reviews, I noticed that I hadn't review All Broke Down or All Played Out so I decided to do some re reading for the Holiday and do some reviews for these treasures. There is something very unique about All Broke Down and as a whole the Rusk University series. 

The Key Players of All Broke Down 

 Silas Moore: The running back "bad boy" of the team, always tending to get into trouble, but his talent is football.
 Dylan---is motivated by protests and believing in what is right. She doesn't involve herself in the athletic circle.

All Broke Down begins when Silas, reluctantly joins up with his ex best friend at a bar after he gets released from jail. But soon realizes that he doesn't care for his ex friend anymore and through a fit of anger he ends up in a bar fight and now is in jail and he meets up with Dylan and her friend who ended up there over a protestation they had participated in. 
“You’re really hitting on me? After we just met in jail?”
“Is it working?”

So we then see the strong connection that they have from first meeting and even though they are so different from each other, they have a connection they want to explore. Silas is dealing with some drama. His mother is causing problems for him, the team has been completely changed since their head QB ended up in prison over drug dealing and Silas is dealing with some difficult anger management problems. Silas knows that he will need to change and soon or he could lose the one thing that he is good at. He struggles with his classes and has hardly any family to support him, but he is good at football and its what he loves. Dylan is completely different from Silas. Dylan is sexy and sweet and at first they become good friends and some sizzling chemistry erupts between the games and the books.
Except I’m starting to think that the idea of “belonging” anywhere is false. We go through our whole lives thinking that we belong in one place and not in another. We think certain ideas and actions have to be relegated to the tiny little boxes we place them in. What if we just react instead? What if we take whatever the world gives us and instead of focusing on what it isn’t, we enjoy what it is?

What I have always tended to enjoy about this book is the depth of growth in our characters. This is where Cora Carmack's talent truly lies, is making these characters come alive off of the pages. And boy Silas and Dylan together is pure poetry. They just seem to click in all of the right ways and its interesting to see these unqiue dynamics come into play. We also see some great effort from Silas to change his life. In book one, I will admit he is not my favorite side character. He definitely likes to party and tends to get into fights. So we see how he deals with his issues from the past and change who he is to become who he really wants to be. There is so much vulnerability in Silas and we see a completely different side to him and I was totally cheering him on in the beginning. And boy I love seeing his team and his coaches push him but also the way they believe in him despite the mistakes he makes is simply breathtaking and riveting at times. 

I will never get enough of this author or this series who breathes new life into New Adult Romance!! SUPERBLY WRITTEN!!

In life, 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, education—you name it, she's probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail for a few hours, she meets Silas Moore. He's in for a different kind of fighting. And though he's arrogant and not at all her type, 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.

Sven Test

Cora Carmack is an outstanding writer. She knows just what to write about to capture the reader's interests and keep them reading until the book ends. 

I loved reading this story so much. God knows how many times I fanned my face, thinking "this is so hot!" I can't believe I am jealous of a fictional character...over a fictional character. I want Silas for myself, pretty please!

This story introduces a new character, Dylan who is a reserved person and she loves to help and save others. Silas is in need of saving. When he meets Dylan, he is immediately captivated by her and can't stop thinking about her. Silas reaches out to Dylan, asking to be fixed and she gladly agrees--she goes out of her way to help him. 

They create a friendship but each one knows about the feelings they are having for one another. 

Silas is a very bad, troubled boy who the reader can't help but love. The reader can feel the sadness and loneliness he is really feeling and it is so sad to read about. He reaches out for a lifeline and that lifeline is Dylan. The two are amazing--as friends, as lovers--and I am so glad they got their happy ending. I'm glad Dylan stood up to her parents and made them listen to how she was feeling all those years. 

Silas was looking to be fixed, and while Dylan was helping him, Silas helped her to become more out going, to stand up for herself, to confront situations she wouldn't have confronted before. Each character grew and developed before the reader's eyes. 

Once again, Cora, amazing story!

Samantha 

Kelly Casey

I'm not sure why I liked this one less than the first. It might be because I don't like when characters self-sabotage because they feel unworthy. I also don't like when characters end the relationship and are miserable without each other, and then all of a sudden they're back together. Despite those things the relationship itself was definitely something I enjoyed. I thought it was cute and steamy. However, I just didn't love anything like I did with the first book. Still enjoying the series though and plan to continue it.

b.andherbooks

Meh. This was ok for me. I enjoyed the chemistry between Silas and Dylan, but as compared to other Carmack books I've read their back-stories didn't catch my interest. The football lesson given to Dylan was especially snooze worthy, and the last minute shock to a peripheral character felt unnecessary to the main story.

Find this review and more at 
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I’ve put off writing this review for quite awhile just because I’ve had a difficult time deciding how best to address my feelings without spoiling the book. Not only is Cora one of my favorite authors, but I’m lucky enough to consider her to be a friend, too, which has made it that much more difficult for me to write this one. 

If you’d have asked me how I felt about the book anytime up until about the 90% mark, I would have said it was Cora’s best work yet. I love how Cora finds a way to mix sweet and sexy, awkward and endearing and funny and serious together in her writing. And, there is no doubt, All Broke Down is her sexiest work to date. *Fans self* But, more than sexy, All Broke Down was a very real look at college life. And, you know, it made me fall in love with a character I didn’t really like going into the book. It’s in the last 10% of the book that my feelings changed drastically, but I’ll get to that.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Silas in All Lined Up. I thought he was a real jerk and a player and just not someone I could ever have any respect for. But, there was so much more to his character than met the eye and I fell in love with him during All Broke Down. He didn’t have a great past and his family was awful. It’s no wonder he behaved like he did. I loved to see him try to put all that behind him and become a better man once he met Dylan. I’m definitely Team Silas now. That is one swoony and sexy man. 

I have to be honest and say it took awhile for Dylan to grow on me. There wasn’t anything particularly off-putting about her, but I just didn’t feel the immediate connection with her that I often do with characters. There’s no denying, however, that Silas felt that immediate connection. The chemistry between them was there from the start and they went with it. As you do when you have nothing to lose. I really did love the two of them together. The sparks between them jumped from the page and I loved how Dylan challenged Silas to be a better man… and how he rose to the challenge. 

I was loving life, loving this book and anxious to see how it would all end for Silas and Dylan when I hit the last portion of the book. (view spoiler)[This was when the rug was totally pulled out from under me with a most unwelcome turn of events. And because of when it happened, there just wasn’t enough time to rectify the situation and take me back to the time when I was in love with All Broke Down. Instead of the hearts and flowers and puppies I was expecting from Silas and Dylan, a much-loved character in the book was the victim of a crime. I was angry. My heart felt like it had been ripped out of my chest and, to be perfectly honest, it ruined the book for me. I just can’t separate out the parts I loved from the part I didn’t.  (hide spoiler)]

What happened to this character is something that, sadly, happens in real life. I’m not naive. But, in my opinion, it was totally out of place in this book and was completely unnecessary. It didn’t further the plot or help redeem Silas in any way, which was, to me, the overall theme of this book. If anything, I feel it took away from what should have been time spent focused on Silas and Dylan and their relationship. I’m greedy. I like seeing couples I love doing coupley things. That’s not what I got here. 

Now, all that said, I have faith that Cora will find a way to pull the story back around and lessen the pain of what happened in this book. I’m really disappointed the next book in the Rusk University series is not this character’s book, though. I hate to have to wait even longer to find out what happens to her. 

I’ve seen lots of reviews written by people who absolutely loved this book. I wish I had been one of them. If I was writing my review solely on the first 90% of this book, it would have been a solid five-star rating. I loved so much of it, but I just can’t with that ending. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

This book was jointly reviewed by myself and my co-blogger, Becca!

THE STORY:

Becca: I just finished this book last night and I am still tingly from the feels this book has given me. I absolutely loved this book from start to finish I was totally engaged in the story of Silas and Dylan. I enjoyed this one even more than it’s predecessor All Lined Up which is the story of Dallas and Carson. This book just had all of that Cora Carmack magic that I love!! At one point Lisa and I just started asking each other if we had caught up so that we could keep reading! It was so good that we did not want to put it down for a second! I loved the opposites attract vibe that this story had… and let me tell you in this case… opposites DEFINITELY attract! I give mad props to Carmack for the electric connection she grew between these two throughout this book!

Lisa: Well said, Becca! This is what I love most about buddy reading books with Becca… we get to fangirl together over these amazing stories!! We just kept texting each other, hoping to read more and more as we just couldn’t get enough! So much fun to read this type of book with a buddy. And I have to wholeheartedly agree, this story was incredible! Becca and I also buddy read All Lined Up together. We both really enjoyed it, though it lacked an oomph that we often find with Cora’s books. We were hoping this one would have that extra oomph, and it SO did! I remember texting Becca saying “Cora’s back!!” and she totally agreed. We were smiling from ear to ear reading this story.

“He might not have a good head on his shoulders, but he has good shoulders, so that’s close, right?”

THE CHARACTERS:

Lisa: This couple! They are right up there in my favorites group along with Max and Cade. I loved how different these two were, yet how much alike their thinking was. Both had gone through a pretty troubling path, and here they were, both completely lost and looking for answers. I think it’s so common for people to shut down and not address their issues, which is exactly what these two were doing. But with each other’s help they were able to figure out what their issues really were, and work on addressing them.

The chemistry between these two was HAWT!! I’m not big on books with a lot of sexy scenes, but these were so well done and not at all awkward. Cora has a great way of showing us the story rather than just telling us it. She makes us feel all of the emotions, whether they be happiness, sorrow, disappointment or even lust. The emotions between these two throughout the entire story were all over the board, and I felt them all right along with them.

Becca: Once again Lisa and I agree… imagine that LOL :) I was seriously giddy because of the electricity between these two! The fact that Silas and Dylan rivaled Max and Cade (our fave Carmack couple) says a lot! All Broke Down is told in dual POV and I honestly don’t know who’s POV I liked more! I loved the dynamic that Carmack created between these two… just when you think they couldn’t be more different, she shows a way in which they are quite the same. I absolutely loved Dylan! She was so feisty and not afraid to stand up for what she believed in, at the same time she was insecure and so sweet. Then there is Silas *sighs and swoons, hand to forehead* do not judge him on his brief appearance in All Lined Up, there is so much more to this man than muscles and fists (although we enjoy that too!) My heart broke for this broken boy who felt he could never outrun his past. I loved how these two… not to sound cliche “completed each other.”

The entire Rusk University cast of characters is so loveable <3 We get to see Dallas and Carson in this book and the crazy and fun Stella is back as well. We also get glimpses of Silas’ roommates/teammates the ever serious Isaiah and the very cocky and conceited Torres. Each character is so perfect and completes the entire world of Rusk U for me!

“There’s a faint sheen of sweat across his muscled back, and I swear watching the way his muscles move could give reality TV a run for its money as far as entertainment goes.
Why isn’t there a reality TV show filled with hot guys doing sweaty, mouthwatering tasks?
Oh, right. That’s called sports.”

OVERALL:

Becca: I was so lucky to meet Cora Carmack at the CBC Book Rave and she was so excited as she talked about All Broke Down. Now I know exactly why! Everything that I love about her writing is exemplified in this book! Her amazing characters, the chemistry she creates between the MC’s and an epic cast of characters. I am eager and excited for the next book in this series All Played Out… I am eager to see who it is about!! I am hoping that Stella gets her own story some day!

Lisa: Oooooo, yeah, Stella getting a book would be AWESOME! I second that! :D

Another fantastic book from Cora. If you haven’t started this Rusk University series yet, it’s definitely one you don’t want to miss. A fantastic group of characters and a story line that will have you laughing out loud one minute, and grabbing tissues the next. Full of ups and downs, this story is a home run. Or maybe a “touchdown” would be more accurate. ;)

(Thanks to William Morrow Paperbacks for the review copy!)


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All Broke Down A Rusk University Novel

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