Title:
Author: Andrew Grey
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase
Publisher:
Buy Link: Unconditional Love
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Length: 200 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Andrea
Review Summary: An extremely well done story of two young men coming together and learning the painful lessons of conditional love and the blessings of receiving unconditional love.
Blurb: Can a person’s life change in just one day? How about seven?
Donald Pottier and Jason Greene are barely more than boys when they meet on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. A day of crabbing soon turns them from strangers to friends, then to something more, but the boys’ time is limited: at the end of the summer, Jay will leave Don and the island behind.
But Fate has more in store for Don and Jay than a summer of might-have-beens. Through eleven years of friendship, pain, love, loss, sickness, and misfortune, seven days stand out. Seven days define and shape the people they are and the relationship they share. Seven days of reunions and separations, accidents and serendipity, rejection and acceptance, disappointment and hope lay the foundation no romance can survive without: unconditional love.
Review:
I picked this book up because I was intrigued by the concept of just seven days throughout the course of an eleven year relationship being able to define and shape it. If you read as much as I do, you start to notice that a lot of storylines are very similar. When I read the blurb I thought Unconditional Love looked like a book that would be different.
There were a few hurdles I had to overcome right off the bat. I usually don’t care for young adult or teen love stories. I have my reasons, but I don’t really think you care so I’ll spare you the details :). Anyway, the book begins with Don and Jason meeting when they’re 16 years old. The first half of the book, three of the seven days, covers their relationship over the course of two summers. Normally that would be way too much time spent with underage boys for me, but this book was different.
I was immersed in their lives. The boys were dealing with some pretty difficult situations that a lot of adults wouldn’t be able to cope with. The depth of their love and the complexity of their struggles drew me in. I loved the innocent naivete they had even while their pain had me wiping away a couple tears. The last half of the book covers their relationship through adulthood where they were still dealing with the aftermath of events from those first two summers. I don’t want to give anything away about the exact nature of their problems. I’ll simply say that the love from unexpected sources and the lack of it where it should be expected was brilliantly depicted.
Unconditional Love is the perfect title for this book. A lot of M/M romance can do passion, hot sex and angst but this book brought them all together in a beautiful story showcasing the many versions of love. It was as if their bond was strengthened and tempered as they drifted in and out of each others lives over the years. At times their story was heartbreaking and at other times it was uplifting. I love books like this!
