Friday, April 7, 2017

Blog Tour & Book Review: Forever by Monica Murphy

Forever
by Monica Murphy
Series:
Friends
Genre: Young Adult
Release Date: April 4th, 2017

Blurb:

She’s all I could ever want…

I have a reputation around school. Cold. Untouchable. Unfeeling. Only one girl could ever make me want to change and that’s Amanda Winters. Too bad I broke her heart and drove her away.

So to get through the rest of my days in high school, I tell myself I need to focus on more important things. Like taking our football team to championships. Get accepted to the college of my choice. And finish my senior year without wanting to run away from my problems.

But your problems chase after you no matter where you go. And it’s a lot harder when you fight them alone. The longer I go without Amanda, the more I miss her. Her smile. Her laughter. The things she said. How she looked at me like I was the only person who mattered. The way she made me feel…

Why can’t I have everything, including the girl? I’m determined to make things right. And make Amanda mine…

Forever.

https://goo.gl/6bJPbN




Excerpt:

I’m walking through the senior parking lot when I spot Jordan standing near his black Range Rover, leaning against its side. He’s wearing a white Henley shirt, his arms crossed and his biceps bulging beneath the long sleeves. The breeze ruffles his dark hair across his forehead and he stares off into the distance, every inch the troubled, broody boy that he is.
He looks so freaking good, I’m momentarily distracted by him. I stop and stare, my lips parted, my breath becoming shallow. It’s still hard for me to believe that this guy, this gorgeous, sweet, annoying, smart, strong, wonderful, awful boy likes me. That he might even care about me.
“Hey.” His deep baritone knocks me from my daze, and I head over, stopping just in front of him. “Where’s Livvy?”
“She made last minute plans. With someone else.” I don’t say anything else. Livvy’s secret isn’t mine to tell, and I’m afraid if I start talking about it, I’ll get really pissed. So I leave it alone. “Guess I don’t need to drive your car after all, but thank you for offering. I sense it was huge deal.”
“It is,” he agrees, tipping his head toward me. “But you’re worth it.”
Oh. He says things like that and I’m left speechless.
“You don’t have any plans?”
“No.” I shake my head, feeling tongue-tied.
Jordan grabs my hand, lacing our fingers and giving them a squeeze. “Then let’s go to lunch together.”
“Don’t you want to stay here?” He usually does. He’s always out at the quad, holding court over his loyal subjects. I used to sit out there with him, with all of them, just basking in his presence. But once we had the so-called breakup of our so-called relationship, I stopped going. One, because I couldn’t stand to be near him knowing he wasn’t mine anymore. Besides, most everyone who would hang out with Tuttle is annoying. Frustrating. Awful.
All of the above.
“No, not if I can sneak off campus somewhere with you.” He tugs me closer, his expression serious, his voice low. “Let me treat you to lunch, Amanda.”
When he talks to me like that, looks at me like that, I tend to give in easily.
“Okay,” I say softly, a jolt pulsing through me when he runs his thumb over the top of my hand. Sometimes the simplest touch has the most devastating effect.


About the author:

Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance.

She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she's not writing, she's reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She's a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.



My review:

This was such a highly anticipated read and I was really excited when I finally had it on my kindle. I was anxious to continue Amanda Winters and Jordan Tuttle’s story because the last book was soo good and I was kind of frustrated at how I was left hanging in the end. When I finally started 'Forever' I was really confused because I couldn't even remember what last happened and I had to check out the last few pages of 'More Than Friends' HaHa. I was so giddy when I finally knew what had me excited in the first place.

Anyway, when I started reading I had a hard time getting into the story. Amanda was kind of annoying and the girl I adored in the first books was nowhere to be seen. She changed her mind from one second to the next, always like 'Oh, I love when he says that' to 'Oh, I hate when he says that' . It happened too often for my liking and especially the first half of the book was kind of dull because nothing much happened story wise and I wondered why there was even a second book when there wasn't much going on anyway.

BUT
it started to get better later on and Amanda kind of came to her senses and became somewhat the girl I liked in the first books and Jordon, oh Jordon. I still don't understand what their problem was besides being teenagers and all their over-exaggerated or rather non-existent drama.

The book was still well written and I guess for a young adult/teenage book it wasn't that bad. There just wasn't enough happening to keep me glued to the pages and most of it felt like page fillers especially in the first half of the book.

The Story:
Amanda knows that Jordan Tuttle means trouble and that he's bad for her. But knowing this doesn't help her heartache and the fact that she'd rather be with him than feel this pain inside of her. She misses him and seeing him at school and football practice all the time doesn't make it easier to forget him.

Jordan made a huge mistake. He let Amanda go despite his feelings for her. It's never been easy for him to show emotions and he knows that he is bad for Amanda. She deserves better but he can't help himself and tries to get her back again. But will she give him another chance? He'd do anything to have her back in his life again.

Thoughts:
I really loved the last few chapters, when the characters were like typical teenagers with their problems every one of us knows so well from our high school time but without being overly dramatic.
Jordon has always been put on a pedestal by everyone and had to meet everyone's high expectations on him. So I really enjoyed the chapters when he seemed like a normal teenage guy with his normal problems and when he was so cute I really wanted to hug him. No matter how popular or how good a football player he was, no matter how hot he looked or what an ass he was to some, he still was a sweet and normal teenage guy in the end. And I loved him for that.
He was just an insecure guy asking a nice girl to love him. Reminds me of a certain movie which I can't remember right now =P

I don't understand why they made such a drama about Jordon Tuttle, and why Amanda just didn’t ask him what was up with him when it bothered her so much that she didn't know? She never asked him straight out and was annoyed that he didn't tell her. Well, duh! Just ask him!! He could have told her or not but still, she can't be mad at him for not telling her something when she didn't even ask.

One thing that bothered me most was something regarding Kyla. It was carelessly thrown into the story without anything else happening further and it bothered me a bit. Either you deal with a topic or you don't, but to just leave it hanging like that just leaves a bad after taste IMO.

Em seemed so different and normal. It was strange that I suddenly kind of liked her. Cannon was such a sweetie though.

So, the ending, it was weird. Don't ask. I mean it was kind of sweet but the gift was a little too weird for my liking.
I was unsatisfied with the ending because I felt like it could go anywhere and I’d have preferred to get the idea that everything would work out long-term (or not) although this is really hard regarding a teenage story. But that’s just my opinion on it. You could see it differently and may like it. So read for yourself and find out. =)

-- This ARC was kindly provided by Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review. --

My Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
View review on goodreads

No comments:

Post a Comment