Two Halves of a Broken Heart by Jade Royal. Published on March 13, 2018 by Miss Candice Presents | MCP Standalone or Series:  Standalone Page length: --- Crown rating: Liked it. 4 crowns (maybe add in a half one too)! Reviewer: Bella How long did it take to finish? About 4 days Sometimes craving something, will make you cling to what you want... even if it’s not good for you. Lucien Ray and Irys Black knew well of this sentiment. Despite being complete strangers, both Lucien and Irys desperately craved the same thing. Love. They both wanted to feel that undeniable love with a partner that would stick by their side no matter what. But they were looking for love in all the wrong places.

Lucien, as someone diagnosed with a disease, felt his chances at love was minimal. Irys, a confident and curvaceous woman, comfortable with her weight, but as a larger woman, her options for love were slim. Eventually reality sets in, and the both of them realize that the love they clung onto wasn't as fulfilling as they had hoped for it to be. But then fate intervened. Lucien and Irys stumbled into each other’s lives. The first encounter was so subtle, yet the both of them couldn’t deny the enthrallment they felt towards each other. When they both realized they had broken hearts that needed mending their connection further strengthened. But like a virus, the insecurities of their past failed relationships rooted itself into their new relationship and threatened to corrupt what they were trying to build. In this standalone novel, take a journey with Lucien and Irys to see both halves of a broken heart attempt to come together in order to be whole again.

What I liked:
First of all this review includes a couple of spoilers. Kind of. Okay so, I thought the book was overall written well. I enjoyed the flow and build up to their love story. Lucien and Irys really were what each other needed and they complemented each other well. I was all smiles by the end of the book because they deserved it. I really liked that though Rosa and Luna had some side stories, it never focused on them much. They were really side characters that impacted the main characters. Luna was annoying but I still liked her even though she was too damn nosey and overprotective. I loved that Lucien's career aspect of his character felt so well developed. Made me want to find me a chef to date. Anyway, the book did have its good moments for me!

What I did not like:
Okay so... I can't tell y'all how many times I rolled my eyes while reading this book. I, personally, felt the author went overboard with Lucien's illness. I'm aware that some people can have much more severe cases of the disease but also I felt Lucien didn't do well taking care of his ownself. He seemed to need someone to make sure he did what he was supposed to do. After 20 years with said disease, I would think he'd have a better handle on it. But he didn't. That aside, what bothered me was how insecure it made him - maybe because I'm someone who is familiar with the disease that I find it absurd that people would be that shallow - that it almost made it unbelievable for me. It really irked me the most though that everything always boiled down to the disease. Nothing was just because he was stressed or wanted to be an ass. It was always because he had this illness. He couldn't be separated from said disease. I understand that the disease plays a big role in his life but it isn't WHO he is and that is how I felt the author made him to be.

Irys character irked my nerves. She was so annoying to me. Honestly I can't tell you who Irys was. One minutes she's supposedly this confident BBW and the next all she does is complain and be negative about herself. One minutes she's slapping someone silly and the next she's crying and being walked over. I also didn't like they we never really got a solid description of Irys besides her being a bigger girl. I couldn't tell you if she was a size twelve or a size twenty. That bothered me because the way she talked about herself I'd think she was about 350+ pounds but others didn't seem to see her that way.

Also this might be personal preference but I thought Derek's reasoning for getting with Irys was the dumbest thing ever.

And one more thing... a pet peeve of mine is the incorrect use of the phrase 'I could care less' in writing. We usually say this when speaking but it's not correct. It should be 'I couldn't care less'. Unless you do mean that you could indeed care even less than you already do. I usually let certain things slid but the amount of times the author used the phrase in the book... I had to say something.

Would I recommend this? Read it again? Read the next book in the series?
I'm on the fence. I would moreso recommend it to people with said illness and ask them if this is how they feel. However, I'm interested to check out at least one more book by this author. Like I said, I thought the book was written well for the most part. I just wasn't a fan of the way the storyline was executed.

Rating:
I found this book quite annoying at times but the romance part of the book kept it afloat for me. As mentioned before, I just felt it was overkill when it came to Lucien's health issue and Irys was as annoying as they come. But it did give me some feels at time therefore I give it 4.5 crowns and 3 stars.