If you enjoy heat and passion with erotica and danger you will find this to your liking. It is riddled with bits of history and twisted into a paranormal tale, full of greed, romance and a beauty that shines through in the form of Cecile…There is a deadly menace as well, creeping forward and devouring all that is pure and innocent. Inexorably the Jews are hunted and their supporters as well. The times were horrible for so many, leaving broken homes and families in the wake of Germany’s fury.
BlogCritics

The story’s background is set during a dark and bleak time in history, yet Alia’s light shines throughout the novel. It will give you a sense of hope that good did exist during that terrible time—that brave souls reached out and helped at the cost of their own safety and even their lives.
Margaret Marr on Nights and Weekends

As the Nazis move into Paris and begin their iron lockdown, a fallen angel moves among the literati and historic counterculture movement…Adult themes, dialogue and scenes, well worth the read!
Historical Novel Society

In Broken by Traci L. Slatton, we are given a view of the times through the eyes of a fallen angel.  Having lost her twin Ariel, Alia makes a choice to become human.  Not sure if her choice of times is intentional, she loses herself in lust and fornication. Parties and orgies are the means of her escape from her pain and loneliness. The danger of the times creates an added thrill, and yet she has inner anguish and questions that drag her down.
Leslie Wright on
TicToc

This is a fantastic book of love and light…
Traci Slatton does a fantastic job of recreating Paris 1939 – 1942 with the fear and torture of occupied France. But the real stars of Broken are the characters: Alia – a fallen angel grieving after the loss of her child, Pedro – a Spanish Jew who becomes part of the resistance and Alia’s lover,  Josef – A Jewish musician who is also part of the resistance and Alia’s lover as well, and Suzanne and Cecile – a  Jewish widowed mother and daughter who live next door to Alia.
All of these characters come to life on the page but particularly Alia. She is the one who suffers the most in this novel all for the sake of saving the young widow and her daughter whom she has come to love in her years on Earth. Alia, after the loss of her daughter Ariel falls to Earth specifically during the time when the world is about to suffer because she wants to suffer herself and drowns her sorrows in the bedroom.
The love she feels for the young child and mother that are her neighbors causes her more suffering but this is a suffering she gladly goes through to keep them safe. She performs sexual favors for a high ranking German soldier in order to keep the little family under the radar as long as possible.  She turns in Pedro, knowing he will most likely die, in order to keep the small family from grieving the loss of Josef. In the end she even sacrifices herself in order to not only save them but also to redeem herself. I cannot even begin to describe the beautiful way this book is written and the deeper meanings held within its pages.
To be honest there was nothing about this book that I didn’t like. It flows beautifully and it is one of those books that stays with you even after you are done reading it. For this reason I give this book five stars! I will reread this book more than once and recommend it to all my friends and, readers; I highly recommend it to you too.

Fickle Fiona on
OneBookTwo

This book follows Alia, a fallen angel, who has decided to spend her mortal time on earth in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Daily she fights to warn and protect others from the atrocities of war. She fights for her good friend and neighbor and her daughter. She fights to protect those that cannot protect themselves.

This book was very good. It had me sucked in on page one. It was full of history and so it was right up my alley. It was also sad. Alia can see the future in small bits, but has no control over the fates of the others. And with a book based in a worn torn country, it is expected to carry some sadness for the character. While yes, it is a story it is also based in real life history.

Overall, the writing was good. At times it seemed wordy. It also had a lot of dialog that I had a hard time understanding, but that is expected since it is written from a Parisians point of view.

I definitely enjoyed the book with its good storyline and its history. The ending was awesome and something I was not expecting.

Stormi on BoundlessBook Reviews

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