Brooke and Mel get ready to go meet Brooke’s sister, all while hiding it from Remy.

“Because Remington’s got some alpha tendencies.”

“Which is sexy, last I checked.”

“Mel, this isn’t a movie. I don’t want him to be unable to concentrate or get in trouble because of me.”

Mel huffs. “You take away all the romance of your relationship, Brooke.”

Shut up, Mel. 

God, it’s like Brooke is an amalgamation of every objection to romcom movies ever, but the whole point of the book is to prove her wrong.  “How dare you not agree with genre conventions?  HAVE YOU SEEN HOW HOT THIS GUY IS?”

They get to the restaurant, only to find that Scorpion and his bodyguards are there along with Nora.  Scorpion gets all smarmy and says that the only way Brooke can talk to her sister is to kiss a tattoo that’s on his face.

And there is SOOOOOO MUUUUUUUCH DRAAAAAMAAAAA over this request.  I mean, it’s worth getting annoyed at because he’s being an ass, but

My organs halt in pure shock and horror at his request

Um…

Wildly trying to convince myself that it means nothing

Really, gurl?

My stomach roils in protest, and I’m dangerously close to vomiting

What even is this?  It’s a kiss on the cheek.  Grow a pair of ovaries and get on with it.

He smells of fish

Because the bad guys always have to be disgusting, or else how can you tell that they’re bad?  I mean, Remy can do a hell of a lot worse than “kiss my face” and still be considered a poor little woobie and why? 

Killer dimples.

It takes three pages to get through this shit.

Scorpion says it wasn’t good enough and she has to do it again.

Three more pages of this shit.

These are the longest five seconds of my life.

So long they took five minutes from mine!

The two sisters get into an argument.  “Nora, why are doing this?”  “Because Mom and Dad liked you better!”  I mean, valid enough, but does anyone ever say that?  Don’t they usually couch it in other excuses?

You know, throughout this whole thing, all I can think of is “why is Brooke not even bothering to ask what’s up?”  Apparently Nora is Scorpion’s…girlfriend?  I guess?  They’re both talking about this as if it’s a given, but it wasn’t actually obvious.  For all we know, Nora could have been blackmailed or something.  But the book seems to have forgotten that there are any options other than what it intended, so it goes right on along as if there’s no explanation needed.

I HATE when books do that.  I HATE when books ignore obvious answers.  Even if it’s wrong (because there’s usually multiple options for every situation, and all but one of them will be wrong), at least address those obvious answers.

So, after getting absolutely nowhere with Nora (because why would you think you can just talk someone out of being addicted?

“Brooke, I hate to break it to you, but Remington is going to find out about it and he’s going to get majorly, MAJORLY BLACK!”

*checks on google, so take this with that caveat*  While many people with bipolar have moods that come about completely at random, many more do have triggers that are primarily associated with stress and changes in sleep patterns (which contributes to stress, so basically it all comes back to stress).  While a traumatic event can count as stress, that’s more commonly something associated with a prolonged situation, such as a looming deadline, a poor working condition, or college.  Or, in Remy’s case, fighting once a week, traveling cross-country constantly, and having your entire fortune riding on a tournament where you can’t lose a single fight.  Again, that’s a continuing condition.  A singular even would need to be big.

Basically what I’m getting at here is that being angry does not equal the same thing as being manic.  It’s not as simple as just “he’s got an emotion, oh, and he’s bipolar so it’s, like, a LOT of emotion!”  No.  And if he’s using his condition as an excuse to fly off the handle over normal anger, that’s some really scary shit right there.

“He’s done tons of shit for me. For my family, when my parents got ill. Remy is a good. Fucking. Man. He doesn’t deserve…”

Deserve?  Deserve what?  It’s not like she cheated on him!  He doesn’t deserve…a girlfriend who has her own concerns?  No, he doesn’t, he’s not good enough.

I’m sick of all these people treating Remy like he’s some poor woobie and the center of the universe.  It wouldn’t be so bad if only it didn’t come at the expense of everyone else in the story, whether they’re actual characters or just implied (like the other mental patients).

Also there’s some random tension between Mel and Riley that came up out of nowhere.

I barely take a step out of the bath when I suddenly need to return and thoroughly do it all again. For the awful sensation across my skin, I swear I could have a live scorpion crawling up my cheek, and the sensation is eating at me.

From kissing the guy on the cheek.

They have sex.  It’s short.  Moving on.

The next day, Remy is starting to get manic, and Pete thinks it’s from being separated from Brooke for a single evening.  Not because he knew what was going on, just from not hanging out with the girl for a few hours.  Because Pete sucks as a nurse.

Also, whether it’s mental illness or not, don’t get that kind of involved with someone who can’t part from you for a couple of hours.  That’s dangerous. 

The entire week, he’s on high maintenance mode, and I can barely keep up with him, but I really love it. I’m riding the high with him. His smiles blaze. He needs to take sex breaks now from training.

While that does seem to match up with what I’ve read about manic states, I’m side-eyeing Brooke’s chipper tone hard.

“Mania and hypomania can be seductive. You might feel more energized, creative, and interesting. You might be able to get extraordinary amounts of work done. So what’s the problem?

Manic phases often turn destructive. Some consequences of a manic episode can’t be undone. You can wipe out your savings account. You can have affairs that ruin your marriage. You can lose your job. Most dangerous of all, mania can make you do things that risk your life or the lives of others.”

WebMD

Surprisingly, though, the book is classifying his angry behavior and his happy-need-sex behavior as both being manic.  Which doesn’t really jive with some of the stuff that’s been said earlier, but hell, I’ll take it.

Then we get several pages of cutesy cuddling, because ugh.

Also, they’re going to New York for another fight.  While Remy is manic and very likely to lose control of his actions.  In other words, the very worst time to have him be punching people on purpose.

They even fucking know this, he’s gotten kicked out of one league already for punching people more than he should.

He hasn’t slept in long, endless, restless, crazy days.

Even insomniacs still need sleep.  If this is going on, he should also be suffering the consequences of it, not just “yay, doing stuff that’s not sleeping, coolios.”

God, this chapter is just a never-ending parade of “hey, isn’t manic Remy so much fun?” as they continue to cuddle and sex and chat about cutsie things.  Complete with frequent comments from Brooke about how her heart just bleeds for the guy because it’s so sad that he’s had such a hard life.  Because, you know, nothing bad ever came of woobifying violent men instead of trying to actually get them help.

I tell him about Melanie, how she and Riley slept together one night and

Dafuqwhat?

The continuity errors in this book are driving me bonkers.

How could someone so religious abandon the best most complex and beautiful human being I have ever known? How could they?

Remember that time he got so violent that he cleared a party of dozens of people in seconds and then smashed several glass objects?

Probably something to do with that.

And also to do with thinking that a mental institution is there to, you know, help people.  Very few religions are against medical care.

They’re still just making small talk and cuddling.  It’s been…12 pages so far.  And then it keeps going on to the end, just full of mushyness and song sharing and…well…nothing too bad?  I mean, the melodrama is still there, but not as bad as other points in the book.  I’m still carrying my annoyance at the “yay manic” attitude through.  But except for those two bits, really, the only problem is that it carries on a bit too long.  It’s dull, but cute enough for what it is.