​​I almost feel like I can breathe again.  Reading The Unrequited was an experience that kept my stomach tied in knots, my nerves rattled, and my heart aching, breaking, and racing.  I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from this book, but I can assure you that I got so much more. 

I’m at a bit of a loss for what to say in this review.  This was my first time reading a book by this author, and I can honestly say that it won’t be my last.  I love forbidden romances.  Love them!  I can’t help it.  I am intrigued by relationships that should never be.  It’s like watching a train wreck, you know you shouldn’t watch it, but you are drawn to its destructive nature.  Saffron A. Kent has written a romance that should’ve never been.  It’s wrong, complicated, messy, unstable, and obsessive - and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.  In all of the story’s destructive nature, there is an underlying beauty about the author’s storytelling that can’t be denied.

I had so many conflicting emotions going on while I was immersed in this book.  I would teeter back and forth between feeling sympathetic toward the characters and hating them and their actions.  Unrequited love isn’t a foreign feeling for a lot of people.  We’ve probably all been smitten with someone who hasn’t reciprocated our feelings, or maybe we’ve been the heartbreakers.  Either way, someone’s heart inevitably gets broken.  Layla’s too familiar with unrequited love, and when she comes across a new man who she feels could take her mind off of her last heartache, well, let’s just say that this one is not exactly without his own set of complications.

Layla Robinson has been in love before, but it wasn’t returned the way that she had always hoped and dreamed.  She’s an interesting character.  She’s not a stranger to bad behavior, in fact, one might say that she’s a magnet for bad decisions.  She’s a bit of a contradiction.  On one hand, she’s impulsive, brazen, outgoing, and obsessive, but on the other hand, she’s uncertain, damaged, insecure, and very lonely.  She feels destined to be unloved.  I couldn’t help but like her.  Did I agree with all of her behavior?  Oh, hell no!  She made me cringe, shake my head, and curse at my Kindle, but there was something about her that I just felt for.  She seemed so small, hurt, needy, and utterly lost.   At times I wanted to shake some sense into her and then give her a big hug.

Thomas Abrams is everything that I love to hate and hate to love.  He’s moody, dismissive, arrogant, and is not above humiliating or belittling someone.  And yes, while I found his behavior to be harsh and unacceptable, I was also drawn to the broken parts of him.  Believe me, he was broken inside. 

Layla and Thomas were two broken pieces who found each other.  Was it pretty?  Was it perfect, beautiful, sugary sweet?  Absolutely not.  It was complicated, hurtful, needy, and lustful. As I said before, it was a relationship that should have never happened.  It was an inappropriate tryst between a married professor and his student.  And with everything about them that just screamed wrong, I still thought that what they had could be right for them.

The Unrequited is a beautifully written story that kept me riveted to the pages.  This is one of those books that you feel right down to your toes.  It’s certainly not sunshine and rainbows, this story hurts, but it hurts so good!  I felt as though I was living through it all right alongside of the characters.  There is just something special and unique about this book that just hit all of the marks for me.  I am looking forward to reading more from Saffron A. Kent in the near future.  For someone who was at a loss for words at the beginning of this review, I certainly found them!

*5 Stars
 

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