Rating:
/5
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Read also: Review of Love Always, Kate (Love Always #1)!
After Ms. King innocently ripped my heart out on Love Always, Kate, she finally stitched it back neatly on Love Always, Damian.
There are times when I so hate myself for reading a few reviews before I read the book. This time is one of them. I made a huge stupid mistake by doing so that I ended up getting spoiled by bit and pieces of the plot. Thankfully it didn’t quite ruin my emotion for the whole book (though the twist became not that surprising).
‘Because it’s easier to be broken and feel nothing than allow the guilt and hurt to overtake me.’
(Chapter 14; Love Always, Damian)
I have this love/hate relationship with Damian. After Kate, Damian seemed to get it together but apparently he’s not that strong to move on with his life. Four years had passed yet Damian still got on such dull go-with-the-flow kind of life. Memories of Kate still became his personal torture day by day. He dealt it by stay drunk most of the time and not to forget his meaningless intercourse with countless women. It’s sad and disappointing at the same time. This behavior of his reminded me on Gus from Gus. I read that book not long before I started this Love Always series so I couldn’t help comparing both characters. Damian and Gus lost their beloved ones to cancer and it’s obvious that both of them had it so hard.
‘Becoming attached to someone isn’t worth the pain you suffer when they’re gone.’
(Chapter 23; Love Always, Damian)
It’s the thing when you love someone too much, you will most probably lost yourself too when you lost them one day. Just like Damian, Gus went straight to self-destructive path. Gus’ was way darker than Damian’s even though later Gus’ recovery was considered fast than Damian’s. Damian was still going back and forth to his ‘way to numb the pain’ when another blow hit his face again and again. When I hoped he would stop, he did it again. It’s not until around 80% when he finally stopped the immature move.
With all that, it should’ve been easy for me to dislike Damian. But the fact is I fell in love with him throughout the book, too. It’s as if I fell in love with flawed Damian because during that time Damian didn’t entirely lose himself to his bad side. There was one person that anchored him to the steady ground under his feet. It was such poignant moments seeing him working so hard to do things better ever since that person appeared on his doorstep. It felt so good, really, seeing Damian grew his good side and became more and more responsible time to time.
If Gus was saved by a new love, Damian was saved by a new life.
I really didn’t expect that kind of twist to appear in this second book (I think I’d be much more surprised if I didn’t read those reviews before starting this book!). I didn’t remember how many times I cried, how much tears I shed while reading. I just remembered I had to hide my face lest people around me noticed my swollen eyes. The twist was over the top! After I finished Love Always, Kate I actually had no idea how things would turn into on the sequel. I sincerely wished for Damian to get his own happiness eventually but again, I didn’t know what kind happiness would fit him best. Ms. King answered it for me through a non-cliché plot in this book. How she chose those people to be Damian’s turning point of letting Kate go was beyond my imagination but turned out it perfectly suited them. The person that I kind of disliked in the past turned out not as bad as I had thought. In fact, the characterization in this book changed all my perspective upon characters on book one. Isn’t it amazing when reading the sequel makes you love book one even more? That’s what I feel exactly about Love Always, Damian.
In the end, Damian finally understood what Kate actually meant about him granting her five wishes. The last wish became the hardest one but Kate believed that Damian could do it. And he did, he did it with help from amazing people around him. Damian finally realized what letting someone go really meant…
“Letting someone go doesn’t mean you forget them. It means you love them from here and move on with your life like they would have wanted.”
(Chapter 25; Love Always, Damian)
I had little expectation for this series when I first started it. Ms. King was a new author for me back then, and with catchy and cute title like Love Always, Kate, I could only imagine that that book would be another cute teenager –kind of cliché- romance story. It feels amazing when you don’t expect anything from something then it gives you such astonishment, it feels like getting a diamond ring inside your cereal box.
I recommend this series for everyone who’s in searching for great emotional reads about losing someone and finding a new hope. Kate and Damian would take you to journeys of finding a real meaning of life through this awe-inspiring series!
Love, read, and review,
Cynthia D.
Thank you so much for reading and enjoying this series! It makes me so happy to know you loved it!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteGreat reads always make me feel grateful to be a bookworm. It makes me want to share the feeling with others through my reviews.
Love Always series did it for me :)