Forever With You
Forever With You by Jennifer Armentrout
Description: In the irresistibly sexy series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout, two free spirits find their lives changed by a one-night stand…
Some things you just believe in, even if you’ve never experienced them. For Stephanie, that list includes love. It’s out there. Somewhere. Eventually. Meanwhile she’s got her job at the mixed martial arts training center and hot flings with gorgeous, temporary guys like Nick. Then a secret brings them closer, opening Steph’s eyes to a future she never knew she wanted—until tragedy rips it away.
Nick’s self-assured surface shields a past no one needs to know about. His mind-blowing connection with Steph changes all that. As fast as he’s knocking down the walls that have kept him commitment-free, she’s building them up again, determined to keep the hurt—and Nick—out. But he can’t walk away. Not when she’s the only one who’s ever made him wish for forever . . .
Review: This is a difficult review to write. I just reread the book description to determine how much information to talk about without giving away the plot. However, I realized this can’t be a spoiler-free post. The main plot point and what ties together the relationship between Stephanie and Nick is essentially a spoiler. So here’s the warning! SPOILERS!
Anyone who has been reading my blog knows I love books that make me cry. I’m sure there’s serious psychological reasons behind why I need to experience my emotions through books but this is not the time or place for that. Some of my favorite books are ones that make me sob like a baby. I have favorite books that I reread, knowing that I need a box of tissues next to me. When I discover a new book that makes me cry, it can make me ignore less desirable plot points and characters which would usually cause a lower rating. However, I truly think this book deserve a high rating and not just because it made me cry.
I’m still quite new to the New Adult genre. For a while, I put off reading it because it was too real. I was in college and was intimately familiar with the stresses and trials that go along with it. Reading has always been my escape and I didn’t want to read about problems similar to mine. Then, I slowly started to discover New Adult writers that pulled me into the genre like J.Lynn (Jennifer Armentrout) Cora Carmack, Sophie Jordan, and Erin McCarthy. It helped that I had read some of the authors in other genres. Sophie Jordan writes historical romance and Erin McCarthy writes contemporary and paranormal series which I’ve read. So the genre has familiar authors but just younger characters. Jennifer Armentrout’s Wait For You series has moved out of the New Adult genre a bit. This book and the one previous featured couples who had graduated college. They were in the real world, dealing with real jobs and bills and the stresses that go along with it. What I had initially disliked about the genre, i.e. sharing the same experiences as the characters, is now what I like about it. In this case, I freaked out along with Stephanie, and tried to imagine what I would do in her situation.
Okay, now for the spoiler. My second favorite plot point in romance novels, aside from making me cry, is the pregnancy trope. Ding, ding, ding, that’s the plot spoiler. While the description does hint at it, it doesn’t come out a say that the result of Nick and Stephanie’s one-night stand. Well, I guess the only options are pregnancy or a STD and the hero and heroine in romance novels do not get sexually transmitted diseases. That would be an interesting change in the genre though.
“We need to talk about that night.” She said into the phone, dreading that she needed to make this call to her one-night stand. It was supposed to be just that, a one-night stand. Completely consequence free. Until she started to feel sick. A trip to the doctor had confirmed her worst suspicions.
“What’s wrong?” His heart started to pound. Oh god, this can’t be happening, he thought to himself. We used protection. “Are you… pregnant?”
“I have chlamydia.”
Sorry, totally got side-tracked. And I barely talked about the relationship between Nick and Stephanie. While Nick was used to being the adult one, having to care for someone else, the discovery that she was pregnant was a shock and a life change for Stephanie. Their relationship bloomed from that shared experience. They decided first that they were going to keep the baby and then how their relationship would work. While there were still petty fights, their relationship came out stronger. While I did understand Stephanie’s reasons for wondering if Nick was just with her for the baby, it did bother me that she didn’t ask him. In the end, however, their relationship became stronger because of the trials they had to face together.
I did really like that there wasn’t a stigma on Stephanie for the one-night stand. She was a character who enjoyed sex and had decided that she didn’t need to be in a relationship to have it. It’s an extremely healthy and positive attitude and I liked that Jennifer Armentrout addressed the stigma of it. While Stephanie did feel awkward around Avery and Tess, whose boyfriends Stephanie had previously slept with, they welcomed her into the group and did not pass judgement on her. There needs to be more novels in which the heroine is not shamed for wanting a healthy sex life.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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