JavaGirl's review posted at Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews 
 One of my favorites writing teams, Kit Rocha, have a brand new pen name, Joelle Knox. They created Joelle to write contemporary, new adult books. As excited as I was to hear this news, I admit I rarely read New Adult. I'm not sure if it's because I prefer to read about older characters with whom I might have more in common, or if it's because I have two new adult daughters and I deal with the angst on a personal level. Probably both. Regardless, it's a sub-genre I rarely read but I was willing to give Joelle's debut book a try. I was pleasantly surprised and ended up liking this book and these characters quite a lot. There was plenty of the dreaded angst and drama, but the more I learned about Hannah's childhood and her dysfunctional family, the more I understood and sympathized with her and her choices, even though I didn't necessarily agree with all of her decisions and actions. Hannah has returned to her small hometown for the first time in five years for her father's funeral. It's the end of her family, but it can be a new beginning for her if she is willing to take the risk and open herself up to old friends. She reconnects with her older sister's former boyfriend, Sean. Sean is from a blue-collar, hard working, tight knit family; the polar opposite of Hannah's family. He now owns his own business and races cars at the local track, with a couple of his close friends. I found Sean, his family, and even his cranky best friend, Gibb, extremely appealing. Even though Gibb wants to keep Sean and Hannah apart, his reasons are based on past experience, and for me, were understandable. There are a lot of residual emotions, predominantly guilt and anger, from past events that shape the way these characters relate to each other. 
 There are some pretty dark subjects in Anything But Broken; alcoholism and the way families of alcoholics are affected, keeping up appearances and secrets, mental illness. Even though coming back home, confronting the past, accepting it and moving on felt like an impossible task for Hannah, it was absolutely necessary for her to ever have a life and find out who she really is. 
 Hannah has been keeping so many family secrets, sometimes it was painful to read about the devastating toll it took on her. I wanted so badly for her to learn from her painful past, grow up and let people in. Joelle Knox did a wonderful job of making me feel the emotions of all the major characters-Hannah, Sean, Gibb, and Evie (Hannah's old friend and new roommate). For the first time ever, I'm looking forward to reading more in a New Adult series! 
 Review copy provided for an honest review.