The Broken Note by Nelia Alarcon (Redwood Kings Book #3)

The Broken Note Book Review

The third book The Broken Note by Nelia Alarcon feels a little underwhelming.

Dutch Cross has changed his mind and now wants Cadence on his side rather than making her life miserable. Despite his efforts to make her life easier, she continues to reject him and even enlists his father’s help in doing so. Cadence Cooper has a lot going on at home without having to deal with the added tension that Dutch creates. But he won’t give up on getting her since he knows he needs her.

I’m sorry to ask, but does Dutch seem to be completely sane in this book? That’s horrible. To begin, he makes Cadence’s life hell in both volumes one and two. He’s completely off his rocker in this book, and all he wants to do is marry and impregnate her so he can inherit her fortune.

I knew this dude was crazy when I read that he forgot the condoms on purpose so that she may have his children. Dutch was a weirdo and Cadence had better chemistry with Sol, therefore I didn’t care about this novel. It was all about the inheritance, therefore it made no sense for Dutch to be so protective of her and Vi.

Don’t forget that Dutch and Cadence are just teenagers; yes, people do get married at a young age, but it didn’t apply to them because they were at one other’s throats in the previous novel.

Dutch has been trying to aid and protect Cadence from the beginning of the novel, when he first started calling her “Cady.” The evolution of their connection was peculiar, especially considering that he had repeatedly expressed a desire for her to leave Redwood.

Dutch had no reason to like her, thus he was only interested in her for financial gain. I can’t understand why he proposed to her without letting her know where their relationship was. It’s completely random that she even said yes to marrying him. I don’t even want to bring up how much I detested this book.

The previous two volumes did such a great job of setting up a genuine enemies-to-lovers dynamic that I pushed through two novels of them hating one other in the hopes that it would all be worth it in the end. Here’s a spoiler: it wasn’t. In my opinion, these two stories may have been combined into one.

After three books of Cadence and Dutch loathing one other and trading barbaric deeds back and forth, we finally get them together for one short chapter. Even then, a cliffhanger cuts it short. The fact that there isn’t an epilogue to fill in the blanks is particularly disappointing.

Like Hunter, Sol deserved to have his story end satisfactorily. Can we confirm that Cadence is expecting a child? How much did chemo cost for Serena’s mom? What exactly transpired to cause Cadence’s mother to stage her own suicide?

We also managed to skim over the fact that Dutch had misled Cadence into becoming pregnant in exchange for an inheritance he didn’t need because of his considerable musical success. He would have a child only to annoy his father and doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

My fourth and greatest gripe is that a narrative is being written about Zane, probably also starring Miss Jamieson. Despite my feelings for her, I can’t bring myself to believe in their alleged romance because Zane lied about his age and engaged in illicit sex with her. If the fmc is about his age, I might be willing to read another three books simply to catch a glimpse of them together.

But if Jinx and Finn do end up together, I would definitely read their story. I can’t shake the sense that Jinx is actually Serena and that the app was created so that she could pay for her mother’s chemo. I’m hoping we get to see Finn and Jinx have their own happily ever after since even when he was in the background, he was still the star of the show.

If this was the final book from Dutch and Cadence’s perspectives, there were many loose ends that needed to be tied. The pregnancy of Cadence, why Sol would stare at her like she was his entire universe, and what became of Jared Cross were all unanswered questions. It was a jumbled mess in the last book from their POVs, and I don’t know why.

More Books by Nelia Alarcon

• The Darkest Note by Nelia Alarcon (Redwood Kings Book # 1)
• The Ruthless Note by Nelia Alarcon (Redwood Kings Book # 2)
• The Forbidden Note by Nelia Alarcon (Redwood Kings Book # 4)