Conditional Love is a raw and unflinching novel that plunges readers into the life of Kris Stevenson-Walker, a woman scarred by childhood trauma, stifled by a manipulative marriage, and desperate for redemption and self-worth. The story kicks off with a gut-wrenching depiction of domestic violence that sets the emotional tone for the rest of the book. Through decades of dysfunction, the narrative follows Kris’s struggle to break free of her past, rebuild her identity, and protect her son, Trent, from the generational wreckage she’s been trying to outpace her whole life.

This book gripped me from the first page with its brutal honesty. The writing is vivid, sometimes painfully so. Arbuckle doesn’t ease you into the story. She throws you into the fire. It’s not just the violence or trauma that makes the writing so visceral, it’s how it’s paired with razor-sharp dialogue and quiet moments of inner struggle that feel devastatingly real. I could feel Kris’s heartbreak and desperation in my bones. She is a flawed and relatable character, and I couldn’t stop rooting for her even when she made choices that made me want to scream. Arbuckle nails the slow, aching pace of healing, the whiplash of old wounds reopening, and the way people cope, sometimes badly, with lives they never asked for.

What really stuck with me, though, was how the book handles generational trauma. The way Kris sacrifices her own dreams to keep her family from falling apart felt too real. And Carl? Arbuckle captures toxic manipulation without making it cartoonish. Carl’s subtle, insidious control tactics hit hard because they’re so believable. You want to shake Kris, but you also get it. And then there’s Neva, the firecracker of a mother who’s both hilarious and heartbreaking. I went from wanting to throttle her to crying over her. Every character is layered. Even the side characters had bite. And the emotional whiplash is exhausting, but in that “I stayed up all night reading and now I’m a mess” kind of way. The best kind of book hangover.

Conditional Love is a story about survival, grief, complicated love, and finding a voice after years of silence. If you’ve ever struggled with your past or felt stuck in a life that doesn’t feel like yours, this book will crawl under your skin. I’d recommend it for fans of gritty family dramas, stories of female resilience, and anyone who’s not afraid to sit with discomfort if it means finding something real.

Pages: 262 | ASIN : B0F31FT54K