We Found Love

When you talk about an excellent combination of writers Kade Boehme & Allison Cassatta are an explosive one. Sit and read We Found Love and you will understand why...
How do you take care of two broken spirits? How do you make them understand they could be good together?
Riley and Hunter needed to understand something first, they needed to individually take care of each other. Riley needed to learn how to placate his demons, his tragic past ... his fears.
Hunter needed to stop the guilt, the recrimination, the hiding behind the bottle and confront his reality head one.
Then ... it is when you can think of making them a pair ... with struggles but pushing forward to a future they both deserve.
Well done!

uh, wow.
after reading this book, my emotions were all over the place so i had to collect myself before i could write this review.
first let me say that i am a huge kade boehme fan and i always love his work. trouble and the wallflower was my favorite until reading this one (i think they may be tied as favorites). the writing was as good as always. i'm not going to lie, there is a ton of heartbreak in this book. i mean the kind where you ugly cry (gut wrenching sobs even)...more than once (like during the prologue!!! - yeah, you know it's going to be rough when you don't even make it through the prologue). BUT, there is also some pretty amazing happiness too.
i don't want to give any spoilers and ruin the book so i won't say too much about the story. riley and hunter are both extremely complicated, messed up guys that need a lot of work. they've both been through a lot of really bad sh!t. and they really need each other. they are amazing together - even during the bad times. i will say, the irony of the book riley reads during his stay at hartfield actually made me guffaw (while spitting out my drink).
the supporting cast was pretty amazing too...a couple leave the possibility open for future stories. all-in-all, this is an amazing MUST READ book.

We Found Love is one of those books where the second you finish it you want to do it all over again. As I sat in bed at 1 AM crying like a baby I couldn't help but think how brilliantly Kade and Allison did writing a tender tale. Yes tender. These characters are battered. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Hearts covered in scars and torn souls. Lives are lived and lives are lost in this story that touched me so deeply. Brilliant!

\"We found love in a hopeless place...\" Ain't that the damn truth.
This book was about facing your past demons and realizing that until you do that, head on, the past is where you will continue living, with no real hope for a future.
Riley has been living in fear and isolation since being kidnapped from ages 6 to 10, then being abandoned by his mother and bouncing around, unloved, in the system until he eventually attempts suicide.
Hunter hasn't been living since losing his first love to a partying lifestyle and drug use that began when they started college at Tulane in New Orleans, 4 years ago. And on the day of his mother's funeral, a drug and alcohol overdose land him in the hospital.
The book does not focus on explicit details of Riley's kidnapping or of Hunter's experiences as Cody's life spiraled into drug addiction, infidelity and ultimately his life-ending overdose.
I would have liked a few more details into both those backstories, but they weren't essential to the story as it was told. So that's just me being greedy and wanting more than the \"once upon a time there was a boy\" styled run down that the book delivers.
The first half of the book focuses on how Riley and Hunter meet at Hartfield, a mental hospital, and each begins their healing process by being one another's rock (and then heart) during those few short months.
--_ Riley immediately returned the kiss, but shyly. Hunter forced himself not to go trying to tongue smother the guy, but he was overcome with the need to show Riley how much he liked him. But this wasn’t a bar, and Riley wasn’t a hookup. This was Riley, and those soft lips moving against Hunter’s were enough to make his heart try to sprout wings.
Once Hunter is released, he and Riley stay in contact through letters, but they don't discuss happily ever afters because Riley still believes that he is a \"lifer\" and won't be getting out. Ever.
--_ I wish you’d help yourself too. You need to help yourself too.
But eventually Riley realizes when a mutual friend commits suicide after being readmitted to Hartsfield that he doesn't want to die. That he wants a real life.
--_ “None of you really care. He’s just another nutcase who offed himself. Just like Andy. Well, fuck y’all. Hartfield can’t have me.”
One of the best parts of the book for me was when Riley admits to his psychiatrist that he doesn't want to die any more, either inside the walls of Hartfield or out.
--_ “I don’t believe you, Riley.”
“You don’t matter, Doc. I believe it.”
So Riley begins doing the hard work he's avoided to help himself heal and get released.
Then nearly a year later, when it is possible for Riley and Hunter to actually *be* together, I liked the fact that the story didn't take the clichéd route of Riley and Hunter running into one another's arms in a field of wild flowers as cherubs flittered above their heads.
They both realized that they still had to work on themselves first, which was the only way that anything real could happen between a manic depressive and a recovering alcoholic reestablishing their places in the world.
The book handled that part very well and we do get our happily ever after, but not until they've each sledge hammered the huge boulders of their own individual problems into much more manageable sized rocks.
This was not a *fluffy* story and for a large portion of the book, this was not what I would call a happy read, but I'm extremely glad that I read it.
4 1/2 very solid stars for this book and I highly recommend it, but only if you're in the mood to read something more substantial than glitter and rainbows.