Arsen: A Broken Love Story by Mia Asher

“Falling in love with the wrong person is easy. Falling in love with the right person is easier. But falling in love with your soul mate is easiest.”

What can I say about this book…honestly it made me sick. 

I had heart palpitations…

…Bouts of nausea…

…Feelings of depression and at times full on hopelessness.

Arsen is the prefect name for this novel, because after reading it, I feel like my heart and my brain have both been shredded in to a million pieces tiny pieces by a dull bladed blender, while Mia Asher joyfully saturated them in gasoline, then dropped a match into her masterful concoction, and laughed while I burned alive in it.

Arsen: A Broken Love Story starts out with our heroine, Cathy, letting us in on one of the worst things a woman can ever experience. The failure of her body in regards to safely encasing a child in her womb until they are ready to come earth side. Its gut wrenching to read and feel the heartache that Cathy has been through, while continuing to mourn her latest loss, and see that her feelings of depression and hopelessness are foreshadowing of worse things to come.

The first few chapters of this book rotate back and forth between present day happenings and flash blacks of significant moments of the past. I loved reading the flash backs because I could literally feel the love that Ben and Cathy had for one another.

Which is why Arsen, aka bad boy millionaire, immediately rubbed me the wrong way; I knew he was trouble from the minute he first stepped off his daddy’s private jet, and laid those deceitful eyes, on our girl Catherine. 

There were parts of this book where I loathed Catherine and her indecisiveness, but upon further reflection: I get it.

I get why she felt torn between these two beautiful men.

Each one of them had something to offer her that she was missing her in life; a void that she eventually figures out how to fill properly without hurting others in the process. 

I started out wanting to give this book 5 stars then switched to 3 stars, and almost gave it a 1 star rating at one point, because it affected me THAT much. As you can see I settled with 5 *out of this world* fucking stars because this book was worth EVER penny that I spent on it and probably more.

I think what really hit me the hardest is that I've been in Cathy’s shoes before, in regards to marrying young and finding yourself moving out of the “honey moon phase” and into the more challenging parts of marriage. It fucking sucks sometimes, and Mia does a wonderful job of depicting how you can fall out of love with your soul mate, and just as quickly realize that you can’t breathe without them.

“Arsen became the air I needed to breathe, but Ben was my lungs. What good would air be if I didn’t have lungs to begin with?”

Being that I could ramble on for days about this book, here’s my quick notes version review:

This book hurts.

I hated Catherine.

I despised Arsen.

I felt sympathy for Ben. 

I cried for Catherine.

I still fucking despised Arsen.

I prayed for Ben.

And eventually I rooted for Catherine.

Miracles ARE the consequences of daring to believe.

Oh and Amy is kickass.

The.End.