Riven

Riven (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven)

This book is full of so many strong feelings and so much angst, yet bits and pieces of it kept tugging on my mind, so I decided to reread.

“Don’t ever apologize for doing what you need to be okay,” he said. But still the shame trickled through me like ice water.

OOF.

Theo is a rock star. He doesn’t want to be, but he is. What he wants is to make and play music, but what he’s gotten is a band that needed a singer-songwriter.

“They dreamed this whole dream of success together, and I was the afterthought. The one they needed to get big, but maybe didn’t want.”.

Caleb has been a year out of his third bout of rehab. He’s sticking to it, but at times, every single day can be a struggle.

I called Rhys to come and take my truck away, and when he was leaving with the keys, I stopped him, and gave him all my shoes to take away, too, so I couldn’t leave the house unless I wanted to walk somewhere barefoot.

Caleb’s parts are so very hard.

I couldn’t breathe and I was running through every single shitty thing I’d ever done, pulling my mistakes around me like some kind of armor against the hope of anything good.

But so very real.

“Some things you take medication for a week and they go away. Some conditions you take medication for your whole life because that’s how you manage it. Only you can say which you’ve got and which you need.”

And that was why I apparently needed a reread.

This was what I did. Things got bad, I didn’t want anyone to see me weak and broken, so I decided I’d wait until I was just a tiny bit stronger, and then I’d call. But in the space between shame and a public face lay the ocean of demons just waiting for the drop of blood that would set it churning. And I nicked myself with pride every time.

To remind myself that I’m not the only one struggling with demons.

Publisher: Loveswept
Rating: 8.5/10

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