Favorite Broken/Damaged Heroes

Two years ago I wrote a blog post listing some book recommendations with broken heroes. Since then, I’ve added a few more to the list and I thought I’d share them with you, today!

If you’d like to see them all, you can check out my booktube video here:

Rhen from A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

I talk about how beautifully broken Rhen is all the time. He’s gone through hundreds of years of torture. He’s riddled with guilt and when you meet him, he has lost all hope. He’s almost despondent. He doesn’t see a way out of his horrible circumstances. He’s accepted his fate, but there is still a hint of who he used to be. A hint of the quick-thinking, strategic, calculating, irreverent prince who thought he was untouchable. Imagine going from feeling completely untouchable to utterly defeated.

Jude from Steadfast (True North #2) by Sarina Bowen

When we meet Jude in the first book of this series, we’re a little unsure about him. He’s a recovering addict who seems like he could snap at any moment. He keeps to himself and doesn’t seem fully trustworthy. When we learn more about him in Steadfast, you find out about the awful circumstances that led him to where he is and how heartbroken he is. He’s an inspiring character in how hard he is fighting for his sobriety. His book is a second chance romance.

Miles from Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Miles is passed out drunk in front of our heroine’s front door when we meet him. He’s grumpy and all-around unhappy. You get peeks into his past in snippets – all of which, even when happy, have this dreadful foreboding because you just know something awful is coming. And it does. Miles has a lot to work through in order to make his way to the heroine.

Luka from Infini (Aerial Ethereal) by Krista and Becca Ritchie

Luka is an example of a broken hero who puts up a facade of holding himself together. His romance is a forbidden, second-chance romance, but he’s dealing with a lot of personal issues. He’s a kleptomaniac and bulimic. In the previous book in this series, his kleptomania almost seems like a cute quirk because he’s such a likeable character. Little do you know he’s hurting deeply inside.