Review: Recovered by Jay Crownover
SYNOPSIS:
It was hate at first sight…
Affton
I hated Cable James McCaffrey.
He was entitled, spoiled, a user…and an addict.
He was out of control and didn’t bother trying to hide it.
He had everything anyone could want but still seemed miserable and lost.
Every move he made, every mistake he stumbled his way through, rubbed me the wrong way. However, I couldn’t stop myself from trying to save him from himself when no one else would. In the sweltering heat of the summer, Cable taught me that having it all means nothing if you can’t have the one thing you want more than anything else.
Cable
I was obsessed with Affton Reed.
She was rigid, uptight, and no fun. There was something about her innate goodness that called to me.
She acted like she was above all the normal faults and failures that clung to the rest of us like the scent of smoke after a fire.
I was infatuated with her, but that didn’t stop me from acting like she didn’t exist.
In the scorching heat of summer, Affton taught me that there is always a way back from the brink of despair. She showed me that the trick to having it all was realizing that it was already there, in my hands. All I had to do was hold onto it.
The road to recovery is full of twists and turns no matter who is in the driver’s seat.
REVIEW:
This book called to my darkness more than I want to admit, which is why I think it took me so long to dive into it. I knew going in that Cable had an addiction, which was really just a way he coped with depression. As someone who has lost a family member to addiction, but also struggles with depression, I knew I had to emotionally prepare for this read. So it sat on my bookshelf for almost a year before I decided it was time to go in.
Jay Crownover flawlessly captures the inner turmoil and endless waves of drowning that accompany depression. I could relate to Cable’s struggle as if it was my own, even though our issues are vastly different. This story is so much more than a romance, I felt like it was a raw moment of self-reflection. I loved how unique and refreshing her take on therapy is and how Jay exposes a mental illness but doesn’t paint it in a sour light like so many others do.
Affton was an endless float of compassion and empathy. Her heart was a mile wide and it was easy to see why she kept it so guarded. When you lose someone to addiction, you think about it constantly. Jay paints a picture of how the ghost of lost loved ones seem to follow us around long after they are gone.
In terms of the romance, I loved that hatred eventually bloomed into something else. It made me desperately wish that I had an Affton walking around and noticing me before I hit rock bottom. The two of them are ying-and-yang and once they get past their grievances, I couldn’t find two people more deserving of being together. They compliment and lift each other up. It was the perfect balance of drama, desperation, hope, and love.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
