Without order, without the rules, she’ll go mad. Amy has issues, but she’s organized her life in such a way that the Noise will never reach her again. No one understands it, understands her, except for the one who writes her messages with perfectly counted words. Equilibre, whose name is French for balance, made up of nine letters. Three times three. And he wants her. Forever. Note: This book … times three.
And he wants her.
Forever.
Note: This book discusses OCD and may trigger some readers. Please read with self-care in mind.
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WOW! Ms. Bene has certainly gotten into the mind those living with OCD. This is beautifully written, so insightful. While it is definitely a love story, it certainly challenges our typical ways of thinking. What is broken, anyway? Are we broken if we live by threes and rituals? Does that make us less than? Can we be enough and still transcend? You definitely won’t regret reading this book. This book is perfectly AMAZING!!
“The world may not understand them…”
This book was oddly sweet to me. Even though it had non con in it there is something sweet about Colton and Amy! This book is about OCD. The way that Jennifer Bene has Amy describe her disorder was very descriptive, which meant it took me a little longer to get hooked into the story but boy was I ever hooked!
I don’t have OCD but throughout the book there is one symptom of Amy’s OCD that I just had to continually check! And I thought that I would be able to quit once I had done it once or twice…. nope I had to do it throughout the rest of the story! My favorite part was the very end where they are doing laundry together! That scene to the end just makes my heart melt!
This is a very OCD in the extreme read that will show that everything needs to be in ordered at all times. This was a hard read for me as i see this every day and it also gives me more of a idea of how some people work. This is a fast pace short read that will show that is was a hard life for some people.
Amy and Colton’s story is such an unconventional love story!! These two damaged people were meant for each other, they needed each other. I loved this story when it was in the Just Breathe Anthology, and I love it even more so now in its expanded form. It’s well worth reading!
This read maybe familiar if you read the Just Breathe anthology, but is as been re-titled and lengthened. Amy has OCD and it controls her life. Most of her interactions are on a computer screen where she meets Colton. He falls for her but she takes a turn for the worse, when she wakes up, Colton is their and he has moved her to a special house that may help her. Will she let Colton love her? Intense read with loads of suspense and drama. Both characters are amazing and really draw you into the story. I was hooked from beginning to end. I loved it!
The amazingness of this story should not be missed. While Jennifer Bene does write a lot of dark stories, and excels at writing them, this is not one of her dark books, at least not in my opinion. There are touches of dark about it, of course, but not overwhelmingly so.
Amy has OCD. She has her rules and rituals, and they keep her safe and sane. They keep the Noise at bay and make everything make sense. If she doesn’t have everything straight and square or in 3s, the needle scratches and everything is going to go wrong. Amy has spent years working out what she needs to do, and those things help her.
One of the things that helps her is talking to Equilibre on a forum for mental health. He has become the most important person in Amy’s life, and she talks to him when she can.
The way that Bene handles OCD and mental health is fantastic. She makes it feel real and lets you really experience what it’s like to be Amy without glorifying it or turning it into something stereotypical. That’s not an easy task, but it’s really well done here. Truly fantastic.
4.5 stars
4.5 stars
One of the best things about this author is that she is never afraid to step outside the box in regards to the stories that she creates. Regardless of what the topic is, she will craft an unusual story. Often times, it will push the boundaries of what is considered ‘normal’ and toes the line with taboo. I thought I had her figured out as a writer despite this but after reading this book I am not sure I can ever say that again.
This book was not like others that she has written. At first, I was uncomfortable. Not for the normal reasons of her pushing me out of my comfort zone by giving me something dark and twisty or that made me posit a plethora of things, even though she, in fact, made me do that. It made me uncomfortable because I am very familiar with OCD personally. Not to the extent that Amy has in this book. No, it was for a different reason. This book took some serious skill to write. To not only explain the mental impacts of having this disorder but also to write it in 3’s and 7’s. While this book is not my favorite that the author has written I still have to give her accolades for what she has done here. I am not sure of many other authors that could have done what she did by not only creating a perfectly imperfect couple a story but by doing it within the dictates of this often times debilitating condition.
This book pulled me in all different directions.
Feeling constrained, threatened by outside influences, ruled by strict rituals, wanting to help Amy, make her better.
Then outraged by the lovingly arranged, but oh so wrong, ministrations of Equilibre.
But then realizing that my perceived “wrong” became their “right”. Together their world made sense, the fight against chaos turned into a deep, sensual and quiet love.
Again Ms Bene mesmerized me with her uncomfortably accurate description of harrowing circumstances.
And still, I always come back for more!
I originally read this story as part of an anthology (no longer available). The story, which has characters dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, has had more words seamlessly added. I loved it before, and I have fallen in love with it again. This story of Colton and Amy is a glimpse at two people, living their best lives, negotiating, and compromising. This is a Jennifer Bene novella, so you know that some stuff that happens in the name of love is going to have a weird twist in it. And she makes it work spectacularly.
I received a copy of this book. My honest review is voluntarily provided.
My friend Jennifer Bene has a new release out! This looks very intriguing!!! And the cover art is beautiful! Be sure to snap this one up!
In Jennifer Bene’s “Crazy Broken Love”, I will readily confess that the story gave me chills. I am in absolute awe of what Ms. Bene wrote. As someone with family members with varying intensities of OCD, I’ve had long discussions with them about “the Noise” and this story brought it home for me far better than all the discussions we’ve had because I now realize, they were tempered for my benefit. But this…this was stark. Raw. Intense. When the noise and the fear take over for Amy, I felt it far stronger than any horror story. And then she balanced it with the symmetry and safety of numbers, which become like a cool towel placed on fevered skin. And as I read the story, I found myself counting along with the characters, which might be a bad thing, but it gave the story a measured pace that I hadn’t noticed before in other books I’ve read. It also, for some reason, made the ending that much more satisfying.
This is definitely not your run of the mill love story. It is obsession taken to the nth degree, strange connection of two people who are not broken but just wired so very differently. You can’t help but be a little creeped out by Colton’s view of Amy and the lengths he will go for her. But, maybe at the same time a little envious of how perfect he thinks she is. I loved this story.
Forever and always.
I read and reviewed a copy of this book.
Will Colton’s protectiveness of Amy be too much for her
Jennifer Bene is one of my top ten authors so was happy to pick Cocoon up to read. Amy has OCD where everything she does needs to be in threes. Amy chats in an online OCD forum with Equilibre who really understands her. But when Equilibre messages that he loves Amy, Amy’s disorder takes a landslide. When Amy wakes up, she is met by Equilibre, aka Colton who has taken her to his special house built for her. But will Amy let Colton love her? Will living in the special house, help Amy with her noise issues? I read this in one sitting hoping that Amy and Colton could have their happily ever after!
Powerful from the first page. If you’ve experienced the effect OCD has on family you are warned. However, no matter how uncomfortable one may become it is worth it. For me it added to the dark quality and just kept giving. Exploring OCD from the first person POV was harrowingand thought provoking. The novella is about a broken couple that finds love in what some would find a crazy set of circumstances.
Crazy Broken Love- absolutely loved it!
This was originally in the Just Breathe anthology, but has been expanded and re-released under a different name.
They are both so damaged, but I don’t think anyone could understand the other better, as they both have the same issues. To an extent. Colton isn’t as bad off as Amy is, but he has OCD as well, and that alone, allows him to understand her like no one else does, or has even tried to.
Colton has done so much for Amy, more than even she knows at first, but even so at one point it seems as though it won’t make a bit of difference. Colton did something pretty unforgivable so things are touchy.
Amy knows him as Equilibre. He’s only introduced as Colton after. You’ll see what I mean by, after. After, is a whole different story, and nothing she’s accustomed to. But, maybe exactly what she needs. To stop the panic, to stop the noise, to stop the counting.
While this is about OCD and may have triggers for some, it’s still very much a love story. Question is, can they overcome what happened and move on to something better? Read to find out.
This was incredible the description was beyond words it touched my heart hard I cried happy and sad tears, Colton and Amy were so beautiful and expressed so much feeling you have to love every part of them.
Yes the OCD and the imperfections was quite serious and Amy had a very well down routine but what Colton did was sort of wrong but right for her I was so proud of him he was so so brave but brought so much peace and that ending the biggest smile from me it made me so happy I’m so proud of them. This was just written with so much feeling you cant look away , it was perfect.
Crazy Broken Love by Jennifer Bene is the story of two damaged, suffering, struggling young people. Through unusual circumstances, they somehow manage to find each other and connect. Will they be able to overcome their own issues and facilitate healing or will their interaction cause harm?
For me, reading this story was challenging, because I could empathetically feel their pain and confusion and the overwhelming need for control and relief. It was so well written; it shook me to my very soul!
This book by Jennifer Bene is so good. It deals with OCD and its many complications and idiosyncrasies.
Crazy Broken Love is such an original story and makes the reader needing to keep going and counting in threes and sevens.
I love the ending. Such a perfect finale!
I read this originally as Cocoon in the Just Breathe anthology and was keen to re-read and find the added extras. It is about OCD in the extreme, where everthing in Amy’s life is about order, routine and the number three. She must not deviate or the noise will come back and break her.
This story is heartbreaking at times when you think about all the possibilities of life Amy is missing out on whilst cocooned in her home. Her OCD is on the highest part of the spectrum, but actually her strength of character shines through as she is determined to make the best of her life as it is, despite her Doctors seemingly non-sympathetic attitude. She has an online friend, Equilibre, who understands her as he lives a similar way, but with sevens. Life is in balance…..until it’s not.
I don’t condone the way Colton went about things, because in my normality it’s all kind of wrong, but in his normal he thinks Amy is perfect and what can be better than the one who loves you accepting you exactly as you are without wanting to change a thing.
This novella shocked, surprised and intrigued me with it’s depth and insight into this mental illness. I admit I found myself counting words as my brain couldn’t see the patterns automatically. It did demonstrate however that one persons normal is another’s crazy, but if that normal makes you happy and you can share it in love, why would anyone want to change it? With the right person, anyone can find love, happiness and acceptance.
Another well written, emotional, thought provoking book from this wonderful author. Keep them coming please Jennifer Bene ****
Amy and Colton, aka Equilibre aren’t your typical romantic couple. After a lifetime of feeling less then, feeling thrown away they cross paths in an unexpected way.
This one touched me as the shorter version in the Just Breathe anthology, I wanted more of their story then! And now we got the rest of it and it was just as emotional to read as the shorter first story was……expanded version filled in some holes for me.
This is a subject that’s close to my heart, I’ve seen family members deal with OCD that wasn’t nearly this bad and it was tough. It’s a challenge you have to live with every day and there is no “magic” cure to make you “normal”.
This story wasn’t nearly as dark as Jennifer Bene has gone but it in no way lacks the emotional depth. One of my favorites from her.