Review: Wow! Amazing story you will love to hate or hate to love!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
OH.MY.GOD I.AM.DRAINED. What a heck of a frigging story. Emotional, intense, raw, painful, frustrating and totally overwhelming. This is one story that you will love to hate or hate to love. I promise you that!It is also written from the past and then the present so there is some back and forth for it all to make sense. The first part of the book is a bit slower than the last half but in my opinion, had to be written this way for us to meet the characters and for their stories to develop.Here is your warning~if you cannot handle nor like reading about infidelity then this is not the book for you HOWEVER it is fantastically written and will keep you glued to the pages where you will have any and every WTF moment imaginable. You will question everything and probably understand much of nothing!I will start with the heroine, Cathy. I hated her, more than I have ever hated a character in my life! She is a selfish bi**h, plain and simple! Cathy is also very very broken and she has lost something. I personally, was extremely intrigued by her behavior, as well as the other characters, so I wanted to know why and I sure as hell wanted to understand!!Can I honestly tell you that I do understand? No, not really and at the same time, maybe, just a little, because I haven't been through everything that Cathy has been through. It is heartbreaking and challenges her as a woman, emotionally, every single day. Something that has happened to her more than once and it makes her feel like a failure as a woman!My personal quote which I use a lot and that is NEVER JUDGE WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! Her choices were selfish, they were horrible and they cut deep!Ben is Cathy's husband and I immediately fell in love with this man and not even once did he falter! He loves and adores his wife. Worships the ground she walks on."Tightening his grip around me and pulling me closer to him, he roughly whispers, "For you I will do anything, Anything."Unfortunately the events that take place during their six year marriage have put such a huge strain on it. Does Cathy love her husband, yes, she does, very much so. So who is to blame for some of these events that take place? Well there is no one to blame for some of them because lets face it, shit happens, and we don't always understand it nor do we have anyone to blame for it. There are other choices, however, that are made by Cathy and with them come consequences and she is to blame.Doubts. They seep into your bloodstream, they plague every unused crevice inside your brain with revolving questions and no real answers.She tries, in her way, to be honest with Ben but she feels like he keeps shutting her down. He is a very positive person, he believes wholeheartedly in their love as well as their marriage. He nurtures her, is always there for her and ultimately thinks it is all enough. In my opinion I don't think Cathy tried hard enough so when a huge distraction, one of which is attractive, young and sexy, better known as Arsen, enters the picture, all emotional hell breaks loose and nothing will be the same.So many warring thoughts are running through my head; fear, dislike, shock, but the voice that is the loudest is lust.Arsen is basically sex on a stick, he is young, he is good looking and he's a playboy. What starts out as a working/friendly relationship soon changes when Cathy is faced with something that is what I would consider the last straw.I feel like my world has been infected with darknessMaybe if I couldn't remember one thing, it would stop hurting so much.I've lost all hope.I want to screamI'm done.This is where things with Arsen and Cathy take that nasty turn. I didn't like him either but deep down he had a piece of a heart and he thought he could be there for Cathy, he wanted to be and was her friend until they both realized they wanted/needed more if you will. He called her Dimples throughout the book and this is how he saw her and I believed he wanted to help her.Dimples, though beautiful on the outside, was hiding something shattered, something hard, something that I very much wanted to fix. I want her to be free of whatever still haunts her.Some of these quotes may explain better than I can how Cathy was feeling when things happened the way they did. Is it right? HE!! NO, but sadly it happens.He's my chance to be unguarded and content. To be wildly, incredibly, fiercely happy. With one kiss, he awoke something inside me that had laid dormant for a very long time-the will to live.He's the beautiful painkiller that my broken body and my shattered heart demand to stop hurting.I won't lie it was very hard to read about the things they did, the lies they told and the people they hurt, but it was their story to be told and I give huge kudos to the author for writing this awesome book. She took a chance as all authors do but this one especially due to the infidelity that takes place.While it is fiction, it does happen and while I do understand everyone is entitled to their opinions I don't think a book should be bashed because of it's content nor the characters. Authors have stories to tell, some we will love and some we won't. I live with one so I know lol. They take chances. This is their art.I couldn't wait to read Arsen. I wanted the challenge and I am so happy I read it. I cried and I gasped more often than not. I was devastated, broken, hurt, angry, pissed off. All of the above and it was totally worth it. I highly recommend you read this book and experience what everyone else has, but take my warning seriously because this book is NOT a bed full of roses. It is a broken love story!! One that will not leave you anytime soon after you have closed your ereaderEvery action has a consequence. It doesn't matter if you try to run or hide. It eventually catches up to you. Call it karma if you must, but said karma can totally kick you in the a$$.