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When Love Is Not Enough (Unconditional Love, #1) (2011)

by Wade Kelly(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1615819843 (ISBN13: 9781615819843)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

series

Unconditional Love

review 1: This sure was one roller coaster ride full of emotional running high. Tearing up come up towards the end which was good because usually i cry a few time throughout the books.The story is in the frame time of 2004-2010 There are flashback and journal entry not in the order but you get the story even though its not going in order of the time frame.Present 2010 Jimmy best friend of Matt and partner lover of Darian has killed himself and he leaves the people love him and wonder why!.Grief stricken Darien and matt meet under not the best circumstances one night turns to a few nights, They don't know who they are until after the fact. But they still continue they relationship. It could be grief feeling lonely Just to need someone or it could be love.Matt and Jimmy AKA Jamie when... more they were kids they formed a friendship and became the best of friends. Matt has always been gay but in the closet. Jamie didnt find himself gay until Darien come into the picture when he was 16 years old. Jimmy you can say lived 2 worlds one with Matt and one with Darien they never met. Matt never knew Darien And never knew he was gay. It not that jimmy didnt try to tell him but he never believed him., but darien did know matt exist. Jimmy's family life was not really good his dad is a good guy but his mum not so.Matt is about to learn the truth of what lead to the death of Jimmy but first he will find out some secrets he never knew. Will life be the same again. Story is sad touching bittersweet but also full of hope for the better.
review 2: This story was so multi-faceted, so painful, so wonderful, and ultimately such a tragedy, but one that leads into a new beginning. It was hard to read this and assimilate the different parts of the characters over the years. But that was the most amazing thing about this book, that it drew such deep reactions from me. This book ranges so much, and shows so masterfully how Jimmy's life splinters over six years from good intentions and an open future to lies and painful hope, leading to devastation. I have a lot of anger for many different things in this book, not just the horrible characters, but all the missed opportunities and all the choices Jimmy could have made up until the very end that would have saved his life. He had a support system, he had beautiful plans...and I can't go into detail without spoiling the book...but it's very hard to write this review, because I want to condemn a lot of choices people, especially Jimmy, made. But you cannot truly comprehend the way others feel and think, so I can understand the reasons and actions, although I do not condone. (From this point forward there are some allusions to some general things that happened in the book. Not exactly spoilers, but they give hints.)In all honesty, I practically hated everyone in this book besides Darian, Jimmy's dad, and then Matt in 2010. Darian was beautiful, tragic, and the sweetest person. He loved purely, forgave many times, and did his best through the many challenges. Jimmy's relationship with Darian is one of things I hated Jimmy for the most. I know Jimmy was young and always had loved Matt, but the way he treated Darian, never putting him first (or second, or third, or in any position of priority for the most part), lying to him, keeping him separate from most of his life, and being willing to cheat on him, even in 2010...Darian deserved so much better, he deserved whole-hearted, unreserved love and truth. I could not forgive Jimmy for only really feeding him crumbs for six years. Another character that was amazing was Dan, Jimmy's dad. The way he unconditionally accepted, loved, and helped Jimmy and Darian from the beginning, I appreciated him so much. And Matt. I really didn't like the way he was a selfish friend and put his beliefs on Jimmy and wouldn't listen to him during all their years as friends. I understood his fear to come out and his lifestyle choices. But then when I read of him in 2010 with Darian, I just melted and fell for him. He really stepped up and changed, seizing his chance for happiness, deciding what he wanted and then FOLLOWING THROUGH within just a couple of days. Other than those three, the rest of the characters, from the high school bullies to the church-going folk to Jimmy's mom, were horrible and destructive people. Especially his mother, I think she earns the award for worst mother. From her symptoms, she must have had some dissociative personality disorder. But that does not excuse her extensive abuse of Jimmy. She wore him down, filling him with pain, yet he still wanted her approval. That's one thing that I did not understand. With all the people Jimmy had that loved him, and all the plans he had for his joyful future, he just instantly forgot about all that and let the bad consume him until he actually believed the hatred his mother inflicted upon him. Which was strange, because no matter what his mom had spewed in the past, he had never actually believed her, so that little bit was a bit unrealistic to me, that it would get so far into his mind, although he never agreed with her before. But I do know that many people keep returning to their abusers, and that is what happened with Jimmy. In high school I was with an abusive boyfriend myself for two years, so I know how that feels.This story is filled with so much pain and compartmentalization. Jimmy had the different parts of his life that he kept separate, and he didn't let anyone see how bad it was for him. The journal entries and forays into the past were very well done, short enough not be tedious, and slowly explained how his life unfurled. This book really shows how his life was torture sometimes, bliss other times, but since he kept parts secret, how disjointed and wearying it was, and how he couldn't get what he wanted from either side fully. This book coaxed emotion out of me through showing me the steps his life took and how all the good and all the hope failed. My favorite parts were the 2010 scenes after Jimmy's death, but I appreciated all of the preceding scenes because that was how I got to know Matt and Darian. Those two were my heroes. Darian had been through so much and came from an even worse home situation that Jimmy, and Matt really transformed at the end to become the type of deserving protector that I love.Although I have mixed feelings about the characters and situations, I still know a hundred percent that this book was amazing and so well written. It explains the choices and path to Jimmy's death clearly and pulls on your heart with everything that Jimmy, Darian, and Matt have to go through. I have an uncle who slit his wrists, and I saw the bloodstains, so Jimmy's death was particularly poignant for me. I don't understand why my uncle killed himself either, because although I know the reasons why, he had ways out and family to support him, not unlike Jimmy. But I guess the suffering in the moment is something nothing but the person in the moment can ever really comprehend. Regardless of my disparate reactions, this story was beautiful and well worth the five stars. I recommend it to everyone, because although it is a tough subject to read about, things like this happen every day, and more people need to understand so they can stop the cycle. People need to accept, to love, and to stand up, and that's what this book is about as well. I am taking the good parts and the ending that is full of hope and opportunity, all of the pain and missed chances before that ending, and all of the lessons in this wonderful work, and I am reaffirming my compassion for people in general and my wish to help to help others with all of it. This book is powerful, and I will not forget it. less

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