lucyreads_'s Reviews > Beautiful Chaos

"I want you so much, but I don’t want to lose myself either. Losing myself means losing you."

4.5 stars.

This was a beautiful book, it's definitely one of my favourites from these authors. This was such a brilliant hurt/comfort read.

Corey is still struggling after an abusive relationship. He has bipolar disorder and has never really had any friends or anyone to trust. He blames himself for the pain his ex inflicted on him, thinking that he deserves pain he sometimes self harms or engages in rough sex with strangers.

Silas escaped a horrific situation years ago, after which he struggled to return to his normal life. He suffers from agoraphobia and hasn't left his house in years. The only person he sees is his friend who comes to visit and bring him groceries, and his neighbours who he often ends up spying on through his windows.

After Corey moves in next door to Silas these two begin talking through notes they stick in their windows to show one another, then texting, moving on to video-chat and finally meeting in person. I loved how the relationship progressed like this, it felt very natural for their situations.

This is obviously an emotional book, it's very raw and real, but the connection between these two is strong and starts to show them both that maybe their are positive things out there. It's a very character driven novel, there's not a lot of plot or a huge focus on side characters due to Silas' inability to leave the house, but I think it really worked here to just be focused on the relationship.

I always worry when going into books dealing with mental health that there's going to be the whole loves cures everything trope which I hate but that wasn't here. Meeting and falling in love with each other helps these two to comes to the realisation that they want to get better, but it's not a process that happens instantly and the fact that the only person they can get better for is themselves is discussed. I was overall just really impressed with how mental health was discussed here, it can be a tricky subject to get right in a romance and these authors did a great job.

I was a big fan of this book, but it definitely is depressing at times so it's not one i'd recommend to everyone, but if you love a good hurt/comfort romance then this is one not to be missed.

P.S. this book also has some super hot scenes, so it's a win there!!