If You Stay (Beautifully Broken #1)

New YA
Source: Kindle

by Courtney Cole (Goodreads Author)

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.
Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.

But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.
So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?
Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay? 

From Goodreads

My Review... 

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. I am a big fan of books about second chances and for Pax this is the biggest second chance he was going to ever get.  Once Pax meets Mila his world is changed forever and vice versa. 

I liked the concept of the story and I loved the beauty of Pax and Mila.  The only thing I didn't connect on was the speed that Pax changed for the better.  Pax was an asshole - meets Mila than BAM! new leaf turned and no longer an addict or an asshole.  Again loved the idea of Pax but in reality I think that this transition would take a bit more time and have more of a struggle but besides that I really did enjoy this love story. 

I can't even imagine what it would feel like to have what Pax went through it blows my mind to even think about it.  Mila was a gift to Pax from the moment she saved him the first time to every time she saved him after. She saved him in so many different ways it is hard to even keep track. 

I love the idea that Love Never Fails and the more and more I think about this I realize it is such a true statement.  I think Courtney Cole did such a great job embracing this concept in the story.  

Even though Pax and Mila are basically complete opposites they fit together like peanut butter and chocolate an odd yet beautiful pair. Loved it and I can't wait to find out more in this series.

4 Beachy Thumbs Up!

Lauren