Raffaella's Reviews > Flawed Heart

So, if an author writes about trauma, ptsd, addictions, she should at least know what’s she’s talking about.
The part about his trauma, he saw an accident and couldn’t save a child was quite good. He slides into depression, he’s unable to find some peace. He doesn’t feel anything, typical depression. He behaves abominably, but then again, typical, and sadly, a man in his situation is unable to save himself, and gets even worse. He’s harsh, he gambles, he drinks, these are all dysfunctional coping mechanisms and very realistic, so it was ok for me.
Then after some time, he pushes the heroine away telling he needs a break because he doesn’t love her. Again, unhealthy defense mechanism that we can’t blame on him. People with these disorders are sick, and they don’t have to be considered jerks, selfish, pricks or whatever. They do what they can because they live in constant pain and don’t have the correct strategies to overcome their pain. I wasn’t feeling angry with him but I was feeling sorry.
The heroine I must admit, tried very hard to help him but, poor darling, she didn’t have the means to help him and she should have tried to find help outside, that is a therapist. He needed therapy, and she needed therapy too because she was hurt and scared. People don’t know how to deal with mental disorders, they often think that mental disorders are imaginary and not real but sadly they are real. The heroine is shattered and thinks the hero doesn’t want her anymore, so she leaves him. He also had some kind of fight club, where he spent time fighting other people. Duh.
So, this part was ok.
Five years later.
She was pregnant when she left him and she didn’t tell him, she went back to her mother who helped her with the kid. Even if the woman was good and ok, she never tried to mend the breakup of the young couple, she wasn’t a help in this sense, even knowing the hero had a trauma he wasn’t willing to deal with.
Now, the hero and the heroine meet again and the heroines mother tells him she’s sick. But he doesn’t do anything to meet and talk with the heroine.
They meet because she goes to his club where she meets also some women who had sex with him.
Apparently he wasn’t celibate and has many women.
So, the couple don’t know what to do with themselves.
Here is where the story goes downhill.
He’s angry that she never told him he had a daughter. She tells him he was an addict and she didn’t want her child near him.
He blames her because she left him and she apologizes.
This was wrong.
Yes, she should have helped him before he spiraled into addiction and should have tried to send him to therapy, this is for sure. But she wasn’t equipped for recognizing his disorder, since she’s not a psychologist or a counselor.
She thought he was simply tired of her.
So why didn’t I like it?
Because of his cheating?
Well, that was a part of it, but since he was sick it is not something that, as the other behaviors of addictions, I can blame on him.
I wasn’t fond of this hero to begin with. He was weak when he was at college, he was with shallow people and was shallow and inconsistent himself. I shouldn’t have given him a second glance when I met him because he’s the typical selfish, immature, self absorbed guy I always avoided in my teen years. And this made me good because I always had long and healthy relationships even when I was a teenager. Because I knew that bad boys, selfish boys, shallow boys are just that, and they are not charming, good and supportive partners as in, ever. So when I read a story of a girl who is fascinated by that kind of guy I remember all those girlfriends of mine who came to me crying because those bad boys had broken their heart, and I thought to myself, well what did you expect from someone like that?
Back to business.
So, I didn’t like how the story went because the hero never had therapy, he never understood what was wrong with him and blamed the heroine because when she couldn’t help him anymore, she left him. No, that is absolutely wrong.
He needed help, as addicts need help, as depressed need help, as all the people with mental issues need help.
This doesn’t mean their family has to put up with all their issues if these issues are unhealthy, toxic, and dangerous.
The hero was spiraling and yes, the heroine should have told him to ask for help, but, if he reused it, and it looks like he wasn’t that keen on getting help, she was never forced to stay, especially with a child on the way.
I’ve seen too often what life means for those poor partners who decide to stay with chronically addicted people, or chronically disturbed people. It’s impossible after some time. And if these people don’t leave they risk having mental issues themselves.
So the hero’s accusations reflects his inner selfish and coward character that he had still at college. He still was that entitled, shallow, selfish prick who always blames other people for his failures.
He should have apologized and apologized and apologized, and he should have gotten therapy, that he never had.
The heroine is a weak pushover, because let’s be honest, who fall in love with such a character? He had nothing to love to begin with, and I’m speaking about college, before the accident.
Basically, no therapy, no talk, no nothing. So a story that should have been based on mental issues is solved when the characters have sex, and more than once, and decide they will give it another try? That’s all. Really? Where’s therapy? Where’s conflict resolution? Where are addressed all their issues, when do they talk about what went wrong and how he coped with his ptsd? Because it seems to me nothing is changed.
So no, had he had therapy I would even have forgiven him many things, but he didn’t and in the end it looked like another cheating story where a weak heroine takes back the hero and even apologized because she left when life became intolerable and she tried to save herself and her kid from a toxic situation.
Zero stars.