Unquiet (Ele’s Review)

Title: Unquiet (Resilient Love #3)
Author: Melanie Hansen
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: January 22nd 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 296
Reviewed by: Ele
Heat Level: 3.5 flames out of 5
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Loren Smith has been in love with Eliot Devlin almost his entire life. During their turbulent childhood and teen years, Loren didn’t always understand Eliot, and sometimes he could be a challenge, but Eliot was the only one to ever truly ease Loren’s deep loneliness and accept him. When Eliot’s increasingly erratic and self-destructive behavior culminates in a suicide attempt at seventeen, Loren is devastated.

Upon meeting again by chance nine years later, Loren is enjoying a successful career as a police officer while Eliot’s life has been a constant struggle for stability. In and out of mental hospitals, with a rap sheet a mile long, he continues to be buffeted by the twin storms of mania and depression. Loren’s love and protectiveness for Eliot are deeply ingrained in him, however, and their feelings for each other are quickly rekindled.

Loren has issues of his own he’s dealing with, and trying to understand and cope with Eliot’s bipolar disorder isn’t easy. They believe they’re meant to be, and Eliot brings a fulfillment to Loren’s life that no one else will ever match. But as they both come to realize, love by itself can’t cure all.

“It’s easy to love them when they’re stable,” […] “And it’s when they’re not that they need us the most.”
“When it comes to bipolar disorder, love isn’t just a feeling. It’s an action word. It’s a fucking decision.”

This story did not let me take a breather. It’s harsh and raw, start to finish. Not for the faint of heart.

I applaud the author, for not glossing over the details of mental illness, and for not shying away from the ugliness it can cause to a relationship, just to give the readers a glittery story. Which would have been fake.

Eliot is bipolar, he suffers from depression and is suicidal. Loren is his best friend since they were kids. They fall in love with each other, but Eliot is too far gone on a path of self distruction. And Loren is just a kid; he knows he has to help Eliot, but doesn’t know how. They break apart, but sadly, things are not any better when they meet again, years later.

Loren is an angel. I can’t even begin to fathom what it means to love someone like Eliot. Someone who can get violent in the blink of an eye, someone who is hypersexual and needs to have sex with just about anyone, in order to get a grip on reality. It is not Eliot’s fault, and nobody can blame him. But he breaks Loren’s heart, over and over again.

Having Eliot’s POV was heartbreaking and exhausting at the same time.

It is clear from the epilogue that takes place years later, that Eliot and Loren will always fight an ongoing battle; to keep Eliot in a good place and their relationship working. But their HEA left me deeply satisfied, because they got stronger after each battle.

This book educated me. I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about mental illness and the effect it has on a person and its loved ones. I loved that I gained new insight into the issue.

So, 5 brilliant stars, for Eliot, because he “took Loren’s loneliness away”, and Loren,” for always seeing the moon.”.

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