Review also posted on Let’s Say It’s A Blog.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!
This is the second book in the series, and I strongly strongly recommend that you stop right here and go read Love Always, Kate (I think it's still FREE). You’ll cry your fucking eyes out, but I think you need that base of knowledge as a foundation before you dive headfirst into the clusterfuck that is Damien’s head.Ok, now, let’s go:good freaking lord. I may have cried every time Kate’s name was even mentioned, but let’s not dwell on that. This book gives you all the feels. Every single one. Damien’s pain is palpable, his joy is contagious and his love for Lia is tremendous. I oscillating between giggling, crying and gasping.Damien’s incapable of getting over Kate and he doesn’t want to. His heart will always be with her and his refusal to allow any other person to come near it is both heartbreaking and endearing. It’s been almost five years since Kate lost her battle with cancer, but to Damien – it happened yesterday. He’s never allowed that wound to heal because he thinks that it will allow him to forget her. Instead, he rips it open constantly, drowns himself in the pain, and then drinks and fucks to attempt to alleviate it. God, Damien. It hurt to read this.Obviously, Damien’s in a bit of an unhealthy spot. So when people from his past show up and shake up his life, his emotions scatter. He’s provided an opportunity to get his life together and his attempt at taking it is laudable. Of course, he has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s determined to figure it out. I was incredibly proud of him and I swooned all over myself as he interacted with Lia.I have to admit, even as Damien started to move on, I felt like he was cheating on Kate. I hated myself for feeling like that – how could he be experiencing so much joy when he was totally in love with Kate? But there are different kinds of love. I rationally know that, but I’m so protective of Kate it’s like a knee-jerk reaction to flip anyone off that even tries to come between Damien and her memory. SIGH.This book takes you on an emotional ride laced with hope that Damien might get the life he deserves. And I WANTED him to find happiness. This is another ugly-cry book and King, once again, knows how to hit me right in the emotions. Five Stars.This review looks prettier on my blog: http://obsessedwithmyshelf.com/2015/0...
What do You think about Love Always, Damian (2015)?
Well shit. I was a mess after Love Always, Kate, but this one tore me to shreds. It was so hard to read after the events that took place in the previous book. I wasn't sure how things were gonna be resolved. However, I didn't give two shits because I got Damian's story. And it was just beautiful and tragic and gut-wrenching...and bittersweet. I loved this book more than the first, which I couldn't see how or why I would. I can't say much since it'll be very spoilery. All I gotta say is anyone who has read LAK will understand. And those that haven't-NEED to!!! Both stories are spectacular and filled with lots of hot steamy sexy times and a romance that'll break your heart and piece it back together. Damian is god dam incredible in Love Always, Damian, even though at times I wanted to sucker-punch him in the junk. But once he got his shit together and realized he was about to lose the best thing...or things that's ever happened to him, I applauded him and wanted to kiss him senseless. He was such a broken soul and being in his head made it that much more unbearable to witness. When he spiraled out of control, I was right along with him. My emotions gave me whiplash, but it was worth every damn second to see the changes he made for his family.Gah!! I loved this story so much. One that'll definitely be on my top reads of 2015. Bravo, Mrs. King. Bra-fucking-Vo!!!!
—Annie Brewer
This book is a roller coast of emotions; a beautiful story of love, despair, hope, self-destruction and redemption. And wow, just wow. There is so much happening in this book, more than any one person should go thru and so many up and downs. This book follows "Love Always, Kate" and while it could be read as a stand alone, you will get so much more from this book if you read Kate's story first.Damian is broken. Broken and damaged in more ways that anyone person could count. Ellie is just as broken but she is on the mend and they have more in common than Damian knows. Can that one thing they have in common, that one big secret Ellie kept from Damian save them both?Well you are going to have to read it to find out and you won't regret it.
—Crazy Love
***** 5 Tear filled Cranky Stars *****Grab the tissues and curl up for an emotional roller coaster ride. Actually, if you haven't already, first read Love Always, Kate and Eight Days so you can truly understand what you are walking into with Love Always, Damian. And we cranksters may need to re-evaluate our initial review of Eight Days as in light of Love Always, Damian takes on new finesse. This cranky one didn't fully appreciate it until now.We rejoin Damian four years later as this begins and find that he has not been able to grant Kate's last wish for him - that he let her go. His self destructive tendencies are still intact, but I found them much easier to sympathize with this time around. In my curmudgeonly ways, I do not usually cry over books, and though Love Always, Kate broke through those walls, I believe the tissue count was even higher on this one.Damian has found a way to balance a routine of college, self destruction and heartfelt visits to the cemetery as we meet up with him. Readers of the previous book (and novella) will recall that he also left Elle behind as he said goodbye to Kate. He has not heard from her since, but she visits with secrets she has kept, and this will turn Damian's world upside down and inside out once again.This is when the emotions really start spinning. And what a lovely whirlwind it turns out to be. A disclaimer should be made that this book/series are for mature audiences only for explicit sexual situations, but the entire series comes with our highest recommendations for love, loss, light after the darkness, and, overall, hope.
—Thetwistedbookcurmudgeon
