My 5-star review of Shattering Her Illusion by Mackenzie Madden. I really enjoyed this book. If you like betrayal, grovel, second chance romances this one is for you…

Shattering Her Illusion by Mackenzie Madden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Shattering Her Illusion by Mackenzie Madden. If you like betrayal, grovel, second chance romances this one is for you.

SPOILERS BELOW

When the story starts, Charlie, the FMC and Dillon, the MMC, have been in a relatively long term relationship (described as not even two years) and have been living together for the last six months. Well Charlie is living in what was originally Dillon’s apartment and you get the impression that maybe there’s not enough room for all her stuff there. But I digress…essentially at the beginning of the story they are in a loving relationship and all is good.

Then they go out to dinner with Dillon’s old friend group and the safety and security that Charlie thought she felt with Dillon is dealt a harsh blow. She comes back from the restroom to overhear one of the women in the friend group, Bliss, saying extremely hurtful things about her - everything from insults to her appearance to how she is not right for Dillon. And that their other friend, Marisa, would be a much better choice. And she does not hear Dillon defend her - even worse she thinks he may have even laughed at something Bliss said.

Now, Charlie could have confronted the evil shrew, but that was not really her personality. Charlie sadly has lived her whole live dealing with the people who were supposed to love her the most - her parents - talking down to her and never really shut it down. So it’s not surprising that when it comes to something this stranger is saying she is loathe to have a direct confrontation. Instead, she calls her childhood best friend, Barrett, and he rescues her from the restaurant with no fuss. Charlie not only doesn’t set Bliss into her place, she doesn’t even tell Dillon that she’s left or what is going on.

The next day Charlie goes to her apartment with Barrett and it is the first time she has seen Dillon since the incident. He is understandably concerned since he did not know the reason she left the night before. And unfortunately when Charlie confronts him about what she overheard, instead of apologizing right away and saying that nothing like that will ever happen again he doubles down. Dillon decides that he’d rather make Charlie feel bad for overreacting and says something designed to cause maximum damage. End result - Dillon shatter her illusion even further and Charlie packs up all her stuff and is done with him at this point.

The reality is that both Charlie and Dillon are imperfect people. Charlie will have to learn how to survive and thrive without Dillon, stand up to bullying and confront things like the parents that always make her feel less than. And Dillon is going to have to face that why, when he should have been apologizing and making up with the woman he loved, did he instead decide to say something that would the most damaging when he knew her insecurities? Dillon will have to overcome bad habits ingrained from watching the way his father has treated his mother his whole life.

I feel like there’s so much I’m leaving out of this review but I don’t want to spoil any more of the story before you read it. There’s just a whole cast of side characters that are very vivid and interesting and I’m sure will be getting their own books before too long. Enjoy!

Tropes: Betrayal, Grovel, Bullying, OWD

Note: I received this book as an ARC. However, betrayal & grovel are my favorite tropes and I would have borrowed from KU if I didn’t get a chance to read it in advance!

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