This book did exactly what it was supposed to and it left me breathless. I say this because this was one historical fiction that sucked me in throughout the book. As she spun this historical fiction in Paris, starting in 1939, she made it possible to walk side by side with the main character Alia A. K. Mercier. These are the type of books that grab my attention, she nailed it.
When reading I find it rare that a writer holds my attention through the book. When I have a book that my nose is glued to and my eyes don’t stop moving until the pages run out, I keep that author in my favorites stash. Because of how well this book was written and the historical significance this book holds, I give this book a 5 out of 5. It was well edited, well written, and the plot was very engaging. To say that I didn’t have a swirl of emotions that went with the end of the book would be a lie, but to tell you what happens at the end would defeat the point of reading the book wouldn’t it?

Sarah Oliverson on Highlighting the Mind

Here are the facts about Broken, Traci Slatton’s newest historical fiction: Its protagonist, Alia, is a fallen angel with a voracious appetite for sex who descends to earth in German-occupied Paris, where she drinks and hobnobs with the profane, cultured elite: Andre Malraux, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Albert Camus, Edith Piaf. Her beloved Archangel Michael questions why she has chosen to live in such an evil time, as will the reader.
While the French citizens feel the increasing oppression of the Germans—it is the Jewish residents and political activists whose lives hang in the balance. Alia suffers her fair share of pain as she sees those humans she has come to love—including a Spanish bullfighter, a Jewish engineer and a Polish butcher and a neighboring Jewish mother and daughter–are threatened. By the book’s end, Alia’s experiences of compassion and sacrifice compellingly answer the archangel’s—and our—question.
Zelda Shluker on
Hadassah Magazine

Broken opens with the narrator having a violent war-like dream. Waking from the dream, she speaks to the reader in metaphysical terms, speaking of “grace” and “light,” dropping clues of where in the physical world the reader might find her: “stormtroopers,” “tanks,” and “Europe.” It is a disconcerting start to a novel.

Eventually, she tells us who and where she is: It is Paris, 1939. She, Alia, used to be an angel, but because of some great personal tragedy, she lost her faith and left heaven to live on Earth in a human form instead. She could have picked any time in human history, but she picked one of the worst. Soon, we learn, she picked it on purpose.

The book covers the years just before the German invasion of France, then the years of the Nazi occupation and the Resistance. It engages with the very worst crimes of the Vichy government. It also provides a cast of characters straight from history: if you majored in French or literature of the modern period, you’ll recognize Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Malraux, and more. Even Edith Piaf makes an appearance. The author’s adherence to historical accuracy is impressive. Later, as the Vichy government collaborates with the Nazis, the author’s description of Paris under occupation is both accurate and terrifying.

Throughout it all, the author manages some truly gorgeous turns of phrase. In explaining why she can speak any language with perfect precision and accent, Alia refers in this fashion to her former ethereal status: “I am exempt from Babel.”

Although the history provided in the book is fascinating, at times the plot and structure seemed to get buried beneath it, as did the main character’s motivations. Although readers will likely be drawn to Alia (she is magnetic, no doubt), it is unclear why she would turn her back on Heaven and her angelic self only to then act selflessly (mostly) on Earth. Early on, there is mention of a motivating event—a loss—but then that loss isn’t brought up again until the very, very end of the book. It was disconcerting that the very loss that drove her from heaven was not more of the story.
The book is beautifully written. The history is magnificent, and if you want to learn about occupied Paris from the perspective of persecuted Jewish families and Resistance fighters, this book is a fun way to do so. 

Katie Rose Guest Pryal on Underground Book Reviews