Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: When Love is Not Enough
SERIES: Unconditional Love #1
AUTHOR: Wade Kelly
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 320 Pages
BLURB:
Unconditional Love: Book One A six-year downward spiral into a world of lies and deception leads to the end of one man’s life when self-discovery crosses the line between being the perfect son or following his heart. Jimmy Miller never intended to lead a double life starting the day he fell in love with Darian, but his parents’ divorce, fighting in school, and constantly keeping secrets for his closeted best friend and protector, Matt, force his hand. Jimmy finds the demands too great to withstand and ends it all prematurely, leaving behind an angry best friend and a shattered lover. Matt and Darian cling to one another in the aftermath of their loss, forging a new friendship immediately tested by the truths of their relationships with Jimmy that are hidden in the pages of Jimmy’s journals. Will Matt and Darian discover what truly happened to their friend? And will this tragedy birth something beautiful between them as they learn the balance between life, family, and friendship when love is simply not enough? A Bittersweet Dreams title: It’s an unfortunate truth: love doesn’t always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.
REVIEW:
The author did a great job telling the story of Jimmy “Jamie” Miller, and the two loves of his life. One of those loves was Matt Dixon, his lifelong best friend. Jamie had known that Matt was gay for years, and had realized he had secretly been in love with Matt but never told him. The other love was a young man that Jamie met 6 years previously. Jamie never faced the fact that he was gay until he met Darian Weston and they became friends. Along the way that friendship became much more, and as we learn more about their relationship, we find they were engaged and to be married the Monday before the book starts. The only two people in the world that called Jimmy “Jamie” were Matt and Darian. Matt gave him the nickname one time when he was crying and Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Crying” was playing on the radio.
The book starts with a funeral. Jamie’s funeral. As the book goes on we find that Jamie took his own life. It isn’t until the very end of the book that we discover why. In between we have a series of present day sections intermixed with flashbacks and journal entries from Jamie’s journals, which Matt found after the funeral. They tell the story of a conflicted young man, struggling for acceptance from his mother, and never feeling like he is good enough. He also hid who he was from most of the world, except his Dad and his Dad’s side of the family. While Darian has heard all about Matt, Matt has never heard of Darian until he meets him at the funeral home.
I won’t say this book is an easy read. Not only do we have a suicide, we have homophobia; we have a male on male rape which is mentioned without a great deal of detail; we have an abusive mother that beats her child with a candlestick at one point; and we have drug addiction, both parent and child.
I’m giving this book a 4.5 star rating, because it was a powerful read that really made me face Jamie’s story. His story could be any gay man’s story. Way too many of my friends over the years have had parents like Ms. Joan. To say I loathed her character would be an understatement. This book didn’t leave me in a happy space. In fact, it left me pretty darned depressed, thinking this sort of thing occurs all the time, and we so rarely hear about it.
Thankfully, as I’ve already read it, I know there is a book two with resolutions. I recommend this book, but also recommend you read the sequel immediately afterwards for some happy space. Don’t skip to book 2 though, because you will want the background, no matter how painful.
RATING: 
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