Review: Will Love For Crumbs by Jonna Ivin

Will Love For Crumbs by Jonna Ivin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this up a few years ago when it was free on Kindle. The synopsis sounded interesting, and it had a ton of good reviews. I never got around too it, and I probably wouldn't have were it not for the reading challenge I'm working my way through. The prompt was to read a book about a difficult topic, so I thought this would be a perfect fit. This is a tale about emotional abuse, a traumatic childhood, dysfunctional relationships, addiction, her strange relationship with God, and poor decision making.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a memoir, but it read like a fictional story. Many of the situations are very dramatic, and I just can't relate to drama like that. To quote a like in the book "No one's life is that dramatic" kept popping up in the back of my mind as I read the story Jonna painted as she tells the story of her life. Jonna says this to a group of Red Cross volunteers she is working with in reference to Chris, after hearing about his crazy yet very sad life. Chris and Jonna end up having a whirlwind relationship, and eventually end up together. Jonna learns that Chris is not who he says he is and he's been lying to her about everything. She stays with him because he makes her feel taken care of, which makes you want to shake her and yell at her because she is too old to be this immature and irresponsible. Her sister actually does this at one point and she still doesn't do anything. Many of Jonna's mistakes and poor decisions stem from growing up with an alcoholic mother and no father in the picture. She just wants some one to love her and take care of her like her parents never did. Chris enters her life like a freight train, large and in charge, and gives her the sense of stability and care she was always missing. Yet after she learns of his betrayals and bad behaviors, it takes her a long time to leave even thought she writes about doing it for several chapters. Its like she was addicted to him and his lies. I just can't relate to not learning from my mistakes and being in a position like this. I give Ivin credit for writing her story, it takes guts to put your story out there for people to read and criticize. I don't want to criticize her life and her choices,, but I do have thoughts on the actual technical writing which I think is a valid critique.  I wish she had a support system to tell her to get her act together and help her. I hope that she's gotten that since writing this.

I didn't care for the writing style at all. This was written in a disjointed chronology, which I really don't care for in general, but as the author is telling her life story it jumped around and she never closed the story. It just abruptly ends, leaving so many pieces of her life unexplained. Like whatever happened to Adam, he was in her life then he wasn't. What happened with Greg? A memoir usually closes with what the author learned as their life went on or where they ended up in the present. This just ends and you are left almost with a cliffhanger. There are alot of holes that left me scratching my head. As many other reviewers mentioned, this book could have used a good edit. There were so many mistakes, it was sometimes hard to read.