Broken Shield by Isabella

Publisher:        Sapphire Books 

Tyler Jackson and Ashley Henderson are both damaged women.  Perhaps that is the source of their attraction.  Tyler gave up her career as a paramedic and returned to being a firefighter after witnessing the deaths of her wife and her mother and being unable to prevent either one.  She devotes her life to a series of one-night stands to suppress the pain she feels and avoid establishing a relationship with anyone else.  Ashley Henderson is a police officer who is concealing a secret she fears could have a serious impact on her career.  When they are victims of a common violent incident, they become a support system for each other.  This might be the beginning of a friendship.  Anything else will require both women to grant the kind of trust they have both given in the past and are afraid to grant to anyone now.

This is an example of a book that is damaged by a lack of good editing.  There are a large number of mistakes in spelling and grammar, which many readers find distracting and serious enough that they will stop reading books and may not read more by an author.  While the overall pacing of the book is acceptable, some parts have unacceptable timelines.  Some parts just aren’t realistic.  The women are seriously injured and can hardly move, but that doesn’t keep them from having sex.  A good editor should be able to eliminate these problems.

The book addresses some important issues.  There is the grief that a spouse can become stuck in after a partner dies.  Tyler shows how self-destructive a life can become.  Ashley’s story is about spousal abuse and its ramifications.  This is a topic that isn’t covered enough in literature, but this one has a special aspect since a police officer is involved.  Either of these could have been explored more and made Broken Shield a more significant book.  What happens to Ashley could have been a story by itself and raised important questions with the reader.  Unfortunately, these opportunities were sacrificed to a routine romance.

Isabella has shown that she knows how to create a good story to hold the reader’s attention.  It would be nice to see her turn her work into something with more depth, especially if she’s going to pick important topics.  Anyone looking for a book that provides some entertainment will find this suitable.  It was a story with potential that was unfulfilled though.