If by Nina G. Jones

                                                      🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:
If…
Someone hadn't scarred my face.
I hadn’t followed my dreams to LA.
That tweaker hadn't attacked that homeless guy.
I hadn't invited a stranger over for Thanksgiving.
I hadn’t fallen in love.

If I hadn’t lost him.
------
If…
I hadn’t gone for that drive.
I saw the world like everyone else.
My “genius” wasn’t slowly destroying me.
I had just walked away before I could ever know her.
She hadn’t ignited the spark.

If the spark didn’t ignite the madness.

I thought that this book was very well done! This is my second book that I have read written by Nina and I have to say that I am quickly becoming a fan of her work. While this book was very different from Take Me With You, I enjoyed it just as much! In the beginning of the book, the author speaks about how she did a lot of research pertaining to this book particularly mental illness. She also stated that she wanted to promote awareness and decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness and getting help for it. I believe that she was successful on all accounts! 

This book wasn't a "pretty love story". It was what real love/relationships that involve mental illness can look like. There are ups and downs in the relationship that require work on the part of both people.  In this book, one of the characters is dealing with more than one disorder and the author beautifully captured how it affected not only him but his loved ones as well. I appreciated how the author included characters in the story that didn't see symptoms that one of the main characters exhibited as being a part of a disorder and that while in the midst of the symptoms that the main character seemed to be out of control. It made the book very realistic in my opinion and I hope that by reading it that people with these disorders will know that it is okay to seek help and that it doesn't make them weak or less than others. 

I think that it is clear that I loved this book but I will share a few more things that I loved about this book. The characters each had issues that they had to deal with and I liked that the author did not write the story in the typical fashion where the characters fix each other. They realize that they need to work on their issues but can support each other through it. I thought that each of the main characters were beautifully crafted and each had depth to them. They each made me cry at different points because they became so real to me and I felt for them. 

I do think that the author tortured the characters a bit in the last 20% or so in the book. I almost felt like telling the author to leave them alone because didn't they each have enough to deal with already. It still seemed believable to me and I think that they each needed to go through it in order to understand each other even better.