Review: 3 awesome 5 star reviews!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 2, 2013
I don¡t even know where to start with this review.  This book left me so utterly broken but I loved every moment of it.  I am going to write this a little different from my normal reviews and I¡m going to get a little personal with it.  If you don¡t want to read a long-winded review, than don¡t read any further than this paragraph.  Should you read this book¡..YES!  Is there cheating involved¡..YES, it is a broken love story! BUT it does not glorify cheating in any way. It shows you that marriage is work and sometimes no matter how hard we try, things happen. Cheating is a fact a life. Do I condone it, absolutely not.  Would I ever cheat, I certainly hope not.  With that being said Arsen is absolutely a must read and I can guarantee you will love every emotional, gut wrenching, hot, agnsty and frustrating minute of it.  If you want more from this review than please read on.  If you don¡t, I take no offense, the rest of the review is therapy for me.I felt so connected to this book.  Have I ever cheated, no. Have I ever been cheated on, no.  Cheating is the ultimate deal breaker in my marriage.  So how did I relate¡¡Cathy and Ben are characters that everyone can relate to.  I have been with my husband since I was 19 years old.  We have been together for 17 years (eeek don¡t do the math) and have endured many mountains over the course of the years.  We are the parents to an amazing little boy who is our dream come true.  While I had no problem conceiving, had a wonderful pregnancy and we dreamt of the family we were going to have. Life has a funny way of showing you whose boss. While you may be planning on the 2-3 kids, your plans really mean nothing.  Fate decides everything. I discovered while in labor that I had a rare blood condition triggered by pregnancy.  I was able to safely deliver my healthy baby boy but things did not go to smooth for me.  With in a week of having him, I was in a coma and my husband was told to be prepared to lose me.  Doctors could not figure out what was going on.  Fortunately for me, the doctors figured things out, the ¡only¡ treatment available worked and here I am 7 years later.  But that ended our dreams of more children. And frankly it sucked.  Making the decision on your own is one thing but life telling you this is it hit me hard. I made poor decisions after words, and my marriage hung on by a thread.  I am grateful every day that my husband stood by me, he is my Ben.  Do I see why Cathy was tempted and ultimately cheated¡..ABSOLUTELY.  To be so broken by life you do things you regret.  You feel like no one understands and to have that someone catch your eye and make you forget, is sometimes a dream come true.  While I may not have had an Arsen to take away my pain, I completely understood why Cathy needed him. To this day I still have a problem with sharing my feelings,  I am always ¡fine¡.  I make a conscious effort each and every day to share how I am truly feeling but it is never easy.Arsen, oh Arsen.  You could tempt even the most loyal woman.  I was completely enamored by him and could understand Cathy¡s draw to him. I could see how much he really cared for Cathy.  Although he put out this bad boy, womanizing persona, deep down he was a broken man.  I think that was the draw between the two.  The were both broken souls.Ben¡¡I loved him from the first kiss in the rain.  He was a rock solid man and I was utterly heartbroken for him. He was strong yet sensitive and completely smoking hot!!Cathy¡.There were times when I wanted to slap some sense into her but completely understood her actions.  I am not saying that I agreed with her actions but that when you are completely and utterly broken, you do things you would never expect.Arsen is a gut wrenching, chew you up and spit you out kind of read.  It left me utterly broken but I only wish I could relive that feeling over and over again. Am I a glutton for punishment? No, it was just that good.  To have a book have that much effect on a person is something rare and special. To suck a reader in and make them feel as this was their own, is simply amazing.  To write such a difficult subject matter with such grace and emotion, is un heard of.  Mia Asher is a master storyteller and I can not wait to find out what else she has in store for us.5+++++****** Sophie*******I am going to be honest Arsen was on my TBR list but it wasn¡t at the top, and all of my book lovers out there know how long our TBR list can be! I had a little bird in my ear telling me how amazing this book was and that it gave her the biggest book hang over EVER! So of course this caught my attention and it become my next read.I was sucked in from the moment I started reading it. Cathy¡s story was so close to what people go through in life as a married couple. Marriage sucks, marriage is amazing, it is so many things that sometimes everyday life gets in the way and we don¡t realize some thing that is so beautiful is slipping away because we don¡t make an effort to fix it. Just assume the other person doesn¡t want to hear and we shut them out. A marriage is something that is taken for granted and is known in this day an age not to last. Divorce is more common than people being together for 30+ years.At first Cathy had the whole world in her hands she finds her happy ever after and doesn¡t need anyone but Ben to make her feel on top of the world!¡I effing love you, you know that? You stole my heart.¡ -BenCathy and Ben made me sigh, they were so in love and happy. But just like I said life happens years pass and hiccups come into play. And stuff keeps getting pushed under the carpet till the hill is too big to get over.¡¡Ignorance is bliss, right? Well, knowledge is misery. And the truth hurts.¡Then when you feel like the one who used to make you shine isn¡t doing that for you anymore and someone else wants to give you that you go even though you know it isn¡t right. At least that is what Cathy kept trying to tell herself.¡Arsen¡ He¡s my kyrptonite.¡ -CahtyEven though she knows it is wrong she can¡t walk away from him.This is an insane rollercoaster ride that you MUST read. You will want to beat Cathy up, you will want to comfort her, lecture her, and feel sad for her all at the sametime.¡Love is never supposed to hurt. Love is supposed to heal, to be your haven from misery, to make living effing worthwhile¡Love has the power to destroy you. Love has the power to bury you alive in a coffin full of pain and despair robing you of air of the will to live.¡I give this book 5 stars and I will definitly be re-reading Arsen many times!-Harper******Have you ever read a book that when you are all done you just sit there and think ¡Oh my gosh, now what?!?!¡ Arsen has provided the hangover of all hangovers.I read an article the other day about people rating a book poorly because there is cheating involved. That it can negatively impact the sale of a book, and can pigeon hole an author¡ Well, those people are just plain crazy, or have never been married. I am not okay with cheating, but anyone who has gone through any kind of tough struggle in their marriage knows how easy it can be to let your marriage slip away from you.Ben is quite possibly the most amazing man ever. He clearly cherishes Catherine and loves her so deeply that it leaves you in a state of awe. Reading the passion he loves her with and the devastation he experiences because of her, you cannot help but just fall for him. He really is the total package.Catherine is a character that even though you may not agree with what she is doing you cannot help but love her. She has gone through some unimaginable loss and heartbreak. As much as she loved Ben, she was so hard on herself about being unable to carry a baby. There were some parts of the book I just wanted to yell at her to open her eyes and see what was in front of her, and it seemed like a few pages later I was completely understanding why she felt the way she did.Arsen¡ As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn¡t help but love him. If we are being completely honest here, what happened isn¡t really his fault. Yes her pursued a married woman, and Yes he may have pushed her, when he should have walked away¡ BUT he wasn¡t the one married and in many ways he did good things for her. As mad at him as I was near the ending of the book, the last chapter absolutely gutted me (who am I kidding, many parts gutted me!). I want so badly for Arsen to find his happy ending, because he is not a bad guy at all¡ and there really could be a great story there! (hint hint)Mia Asher I think you may have ruined me for a short time¡ I am not really sure what I am going to read next because I am still in survival/recovery mode from your book!! The talent that was shown in this book is beyond incredible, its truly a gift! You have a fangirl for life now, and I cannot wait to see what you have for us next. This book deserves far more than 5 stars! It was AMAZING!!!!!~Camryn