Book Review: Arsen, A Broken Love Story, Mia Asher

Reading Level: Contemporary Romance/New Adult Format: Ebook Publisher: Self Pubbed 8/23/2013 Rating: 2

Hmmm... How to state this. Arsen is a sick, misogynistic 24 year old. Cathy is a tool. So pretty much Arsen is Heathcliff and well Cathy is Cathy. Ben, is the ever-loving, annoyingly perfect cuckolded husband.

There is not one redeeming quality to Arsen. Not a one. I'm not one to break out the feminist manifesto, but this book is a case-study on what not to look for in a guy. Pretty much same as WH. Which, I hated vehemently.

If you have a Mr Darcy, why in the world would you turn to the moody, ever-volatile Heathcliff? Like his counterpart, Arsen is full of himself, he's a shame to his family. Can't keep a job, but has money coming out the ying yang. (implausibility #1). He immediately sets his sights on Cathy and when she rebuffs him, he becomes downright mean and nasty. Oh, so why not fall for him. Cathy decides that she'd rather keep Arsen around as a friend. Because why the hell not? (implausibility #2). Of course Arsen has already set in motion what he wants and that is Cathy. He doesn't care that she's married and pregnant. Nope.

In talking with a friend, the voice of both Arsen and Ben is hard to differentiate. They sound exactly the same. There's no demarcation with these two. They both want to own Cathy. The ping ponging between two guys isn't romantic, it's sick and twisted. Especially with the way that Arsen treats Cathy. One minute he can't breathe without her and the next minute, he's screaming at her because she won't tell him if she's sleeping with her husband.

There is one very graphic, very disgusting scene between Arsen and Cathy that in my mind should have women up in arms about it, not swooning. Arsen is a beast. There is absolutely no redeeming quality to Arsen or Cathy. Personally, like Heathcliff and Cathy, they deserved each other because they were so miserable to each other.

I'm seeing a lot of 5 star reviews, but there were some grammatical errors, some transitional errors and just the story line was depressing. What could you possibly love about this story? I know there are people who LOVE WH. But, I just cannot. Self-deprecating, self-degrading characters are not romantic.

I'd take Mr Rochester and his bigamist ways over Arsen (Heathcliff) any day.