ONCE PERFECT (Shattered Past #1)

ONCE PERFECT                              CECY ROBSON

Evelyn Preston’s future once looked perfect—until her wealthy father was caught in an embezzlement scandal and took his own life. Alone and struggling to pay her college tuition and bills, Evelyn finds a job as a waitress at the ultra-hip nightclub Excess, where she used to have more in common with the privileged private-school clientele than her fellow staff members. But something attracts her to the sexy six-foot-four bouncer and underground MMA fighter Mateo Tres Santos. Although they’ve led different lives, their troubled pasts bonds them in both survival and love.

Mateo is ex-army who wound up in prison for assaulting the man who harmed his sister. Now he’s feeling the same protective impulse for this petite blond waitress. When Evelyn experiences a panic attack at the club, Mateo comes to her rescue. And when Mateo is wounded shielding her from a brawl, Evelyn returns the favor and comes to his aid.

As their attraction intensifies, Mateo is determined to find out what nightmares are lurking in Evelyn’s past—even if that means tackling his own to save her.  
                                         
HUBBY'S REVIEW:                                                                              

Evelyn Preston’s life is turned upside down the day of her father’s death and all of the allegations. Now going from a rich life to living in an apartment with her only true friend. She is working at a bar and is going to a community college trying to get through with her nursing degree, and move on. The bouncers at the bar are like the girls she works with really very little talk they think all the same of her, at least her mind. That is until Mateo the head Bouncer helps her one day and little by little her shell starts to drop. When one of the other bouncers makes a joke about her cookies that she brought in as a thank you she starts slowly feeling like one of the group. She is attracted to Mateo and he is to her, but each of them are tied to their past. When she goes to one of his fights she begins to understand a little because she hears his story and what happened to him when he stood up for his sister. Now the problem is they want to be together but there is no time between work, school, and his nights when he needs to fight for extra money. The real story is how they make the other want to be better and succeed. There is a lot going on in this book but it all works with the story. The characters are good, and they help make this book work as well. Overall this is a very good book. I got this book from netgalley.com.  I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com