Review of "Broken Image, Book 2" by Kay Brooks

​Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

We don't remember the first book being this good.

Broken Image, Book 2 had us on the edge of our seats!

This novel combines romantic suspense, domestic-abuse recovery, small-town drama, historical mystery, and paranormal intrigue.

It opens with the unidentified serial killer from the previous book stalking another young blonde woman in Richmond. He remains obsessed with Abby Adams, who escaped him and is now protected by her fiance, TJ Bennett. Unable to reach Abby, he kidnaps Ivy Kane as a substitute, holds her in a remote cabin, repeatedly drugs and sexually assaults her, and assumes that she will eventually become another disposable victim.

The central protagonist, however, is Sage Grimes, a grieving woman who has recently moved to Edmondsville after the deaths of her four-year-old daughter, Grace, and her beloved great-uncle Joe. Sage inherited Joe’s cluttered house, historical possessions, and local connections. She is also attempting to divorce her controlling and abusive husband, Walter Cooper. And herein lies what makes this book so tense and thrilling. Walter is a terrifying villain. He reminded us of Desirae from Perfectly Imperfect by Darlene Winston. Like Darlene, Walter is this creepy possessive controlling ex (or soon-to-be-ex) who seems designed to just give readers chills.

Sage believes she caused the automobile accident that killed Grace. Her memories are fragmented, and her guilt has almost destroyed her. She is withdrawn, frightened, and accustomed to believing that she deserves very little. Uncle Joe’s old friend Sheriff Duane Peterson and the Bennett family welcome her into the community, while Jay Bennett, the family’s cheerful technology expert, begins encouraging her to research Joe’s antiques and write historical blogs for Bennett Auctions.

The relationship between Sage and Jay becomes the novel’s emotional center. To be honest, we enjoyed the romance in this book way more than we did in the previous book. It's hard to put into words why we feel that way, but we just... feel that way. Sage and Jay just seem to be a lot less contrived as a couple.

Abby and TJ repeatedly irritated each other, concealed information, and recycled the same friction. Their romance felt like an interruption between the more interesting supernatural and criminal mysteries.

Jay and Sage have a gentler and more constructive connection. He encourages her historical research, supports her writing, helps her remember her value, and gives her a healthier contrast to Walter. Their disagreement over Jay hiding the online comments also has thematic relevance because Sage must distinguish loving protection from abusive control.

Their romance still develops too quickly, especially considering Sage’s trauma, grief, unresolved divorce, and recent loss of her daughter. However, it contributes more directly to the protagonist’s development than Abby and TJ’s romance did.

Jay treats her opinions as valuable, supports her writing, takes her walking along his woodland trail, and helps her create a journal addressed to Grace. Their friendship quickly becomes romantic and sexual. For Sage, the relationship represents something almost unfamiliar: affection without cruelty, appreciation without humiliation, and intimacy without fear.

Sage also discovers that Uncle Joe had been deeply worried about her marriage. Walter had intercepted Joe’s letters, blocked Sage’s access to him, and prevented Joe from helping her escape. Joe had even contacted a secret organization that assists abused women and children. Finding his hidden letters forces Sage to confront how thoroughly Walter isolated and controlled her.

Meanwhile, Ivy proves to be far more resourceful than her captor expects. She pretends to cooperate, waits until he loosens her restraints, kicks him, and escapes through the woods. She eventually reaches Deputy Wade Draper’s isolated house. Wade contacts Duane, who places Ivy in protective custody and deliberately keeps her survival quiet. They hope that the killer will continue believing she died in the wilderness, giving law enforcement an advantage.

The serial killer’s chapters are among the book’s darkest. He continues watching Abby, sending her unwanted gifts and flowers, and resenting TJ. He also grows increasingly nervous because Ivy’s body has not been discovered. Ivy has seen his eyes and remembers enough about the woods to potentially lead investigators back to the cabin. However, this entire storyline remains unresolved by the ending.

A second mystery develops from the historical objects in Joe’s house. Sage finds an ornate brass skeleton key decorated with symbols. Her research leads her and Jay to a hidden room in the courthouse containing old records and the diary of Judge Reuben Novak. This investigation connects with Isabella, the ghost residing in Abby and TJ’s house. Isabella remembers her forbidden relationship with artist Anthony Novak, the birth of their daughter Rose, and her own murder by a cloaked figure. Evidence, including a nearly identical birthmark, suggests that Abby may be descended from Isabella and Anthony. Like the serial-killer plot, Isabella’s murder and the fate of her baby remain open for another installment.

Walter, meanwhile, has secretly followed Sage to Edmondsville. He breaks into her house, moves her possessions to frighten her, steals her journal, watches her from parked cars, makes a false report claiming she sold alcohol to a minor, and posts malicious comments beneath her blogs. His goal is to destroy her confidence and public reputation while searching for money he believes Joe left behind.

Jay initially hides Walter’s cruel online comments from Sage. She reacts badly when she discovers this because his protection resembles Walter’s habit of deciding what she should be allowed to know. This produces one of the book’s more thoughtful conflicts. Jay eventually explains that his high-school friend Eileen died by suicide after manipulated photographs and online-style harassment destroyed her reputation. He was not trying to control Sage. He was terrified that sustained cruelty might break her as it broke Eileen.

Anyway, this book does share a slight weakness with the previous book: it deliberately closes with several dangers unresolved. You can escape one monster, but the other is still out there, which we guess is fine for a series. You need to leave readers craving more somehow.

Sage has a meaningful, satisfying transformation. She begins the story believing she killed her own daughter and deserves neither happiness nor independence. By the end, she is writing publicly, standing up to Walter, assisting with a police operation, planning a community project, and recognizing that surviving abuse does not make her weak.

The book also understands something important about abusive relationships: leaving physically does not immediately remove an abuser’s voice from a victim’s mind. Walter has trained Sage to doubt herself. Even after she escapes, she keeps expecting kindness to turn into ownership. That internal struggle gives the novel more emotional substance than a straightforward stalker thriller.

In the previous book, "Broken Image" alluded to how Abby is essentially the living mirror image of Isabella, the ghost. In this book, “Broken Image” can apply to Sage’s distorted and damaged image of herself, but it reaches further than that.

Walter attempts to destroy Sage’s public image through false complaints, online comments, and insinuations about Grace’s death. Jay’s friend Eileen was destroyed by manipulated images and cruel rumors.

It's a reminder that what's reflected back may not actually be the truth, and we need to be discerning.

The story repeatedly asks whether people are what they appear to be. Walter looks like a respectable financial professional but is a violent criminal. The killer can adopt a pleasant, ordinary expression while hunting women. Sage appears fragile but proves extraordinarily brave. That thematic layering may be the smartest element in the book.

Check it out on Amazon!