Blog Tour & Book Review: You Promised Me Forever by Monica Murphy

You Promised Me Forever

by Monica Murphy
Series: Forever Yours #1
Genre: New Adult Romance
Release Date: August 29th, 2018

Blurb: 

I’ve got it all, they say. I’m the starting quarterback for the best NFL team in the league. I’m rich. I’m famous. I can have any woman I want, any time I want.

Yeah, I’ve got everything—except for the one who got away. How do you move on from loving the same girl since you were in the seventh grade? She promised me forever until forever got too hard and at nineteen, she dumped me.

By text message.

Now she’s walked back into my life. Just as beautiful. Just as sweet. Just as smart. More grown up and incredibly sexy…

We’re older now. Supposedly wiser. This time, I’m going to fight for what I want, no matter how hard it gets.

This time, I’m going to make her mine.

Forever.

Buy now:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2vIZhKg
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2Be2LcL
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2BmHaiK
iBooks: https://apple.co/2BeFEz0



Excerpt:

Jordan
Of course, I’m not going to shake Amanda’s hand.
Instead I grab hold of it, that unmistakable jolt of electricity sparking when our skin connects, just like every other time we’ve touched. I pull her to me and wrap her up in my arms because I can. I’m the one who offered up the tickets so I could…what? Show off? Let her know exactly how great my life is?
I can’t lie. My life is pretty damn great. I have everything I could ever want—except for one thing.
“Hi Jordan,” she breathes against my neck, and I swear she melts into me a little. Like she can’t help herself. Like we somehow still fit together even after all these years.
Either she got smaller or I grew bigger since the last time I touched her, and I’m guessing it’s the latter. She smells familiar, yet different. Better. I recognize the scent of her shampoo, but nothing else. Her hair is longer. Thick. Dark and wavy, up in a ponytail and a little disheveled, like she’s had a long day. Her body is curvier, something teenaged Amanda would’ve never believed could happen. She still has those sexy long legs, though.
Finally, she pulls away from me, her lips curled, her eyes sparkling, nervousness written all over her face, and I watch her carefully in return, my expression as neutral as I can make it. Honestly, I’m still a little pissed over that garbage game we just played, and I’m tense like I usually am after. Her understanding gaze meets mine and I know she knows what I’m feeling. We’ve always been in tune with each other…
She’s my Mandy, all grown up. But not my Mandy anymore.

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.

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My review:

I felt like meeting my high school crush again after many years. I was that giddy and excited to see Jordan and Amanda again!

YAY!! More of Jordan Tuttle!!! I can’t even tell you how excited I was to get my hands on this book!! I fell in love with the characters in the Forever Series – no matter how much drama went down. It was a teenage romance so what else did I expect?! Anyway, now they are all grown up and six years had passed!! Wait! What?! Six years?! Oh my… I was a little bit shocked to that news because what the hell happened after the last book ended that so many years had passed?! Well, as it turned out, Amanda broke up with Jordan because their lives just took different paths, what with them being at college and him playing football and being famous. So it’s understandable that it was a tough time for them to adjust to so many changes in their lives and at the same time strengthen their relationship. Theirs obviously didn’t survive, so Amanda made the decision for both of them and broke up with him via text!

'He was totally my fist. Not my last though. He promised me forever and that so didn't happen.'

I was in love with the story and its characters. And no matter the imperfections, it's a perfect ending - very cute and fitting for their love story which started in the forever series.

The Story:

They haven’t seen each other for six years, but he’s everywhere. Wherever Amanda goes, there’s Jordan, the one she let go of so long ago. He’s famous and his life is so much different than hers. She has always been just the normal next-door kind of girl. People wouldn’t believe that they had been in love once. But that was their story. Though now it doesn’t seem to be the end of it. Does fate give them a second chance?

'I broke up with him. What the hell was wrong with me?'

Thoughts:

I was very curious as to what happened afterwards. But sadly, except for a few explanations on what went down, there was no deeper insight on how they lived through the break up, how they really handled and felt about it. I would have liked to know why or if he never even tried to contact her after her text.

What bothered me a little bit was that after they reconnected in this book, it felt as if no time at all had passed. Their feelings were as strong as ever and I never felt as if they led a different life in the last six years. Did they not grow up? Did they not change at all? Was there never another person in their lives? How could they just start were they left off? Of course they changed and lived and had people in their lives but it just felt as if life didn't go on and was not important without them being together. Which is very romantic when you think about it, but it was missing the realistic feel. I needed some more explanations and more reservation from both sides. Except for Amanda's insecurities, everything else happened very quickly in this fast paced story.

They should have needed to get to know each other again in my opinion because usually people change especially with the famous life Jordan led. How did it not feel like six years but only a couple of weeks or months had passed? I was a little bit bothered by how easy they made it seem to reconnect. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that they reconnected and I was really giddy about them seeing each other again but it just did not feel right the way it happened and I wondered how they even survived the past six years?! How did they not get in touch sooner but wait so long when they were still thinking about each other all the time?!

'All those old insecurities come rolling back, forcing me to remember how different we are.'

Amanda acted selfish and was very indecisive in the first half of this book which I really didn’t like. She used the people around her and I was very disappointed how she behaved at times. Especially since she was supposed to be a grown up now and I expected something different to the prior series where her and Jordan’s story originally began. There didn't seem to be a lot of development in regards to the time between the last book and this one. The characters felt at times as if they were still their teenage selves from the Forever Series which was a bit weird but at the same time had some familiarity.

'”T and W aren't too far away from each other in the alphabet, you know.”'

I absolutely loved the beginning and the ending. There were some ups and downs in the story with Amanda not knowing what she wanted which annoyed me at times. The story moved very fast and wasn't deeply emotional but was a great story nonetheless. I just wish we got to know more about how they managed their lives with him being away so much with his career and stuff. Some things were only touched briefly but never elaborated or really picked up into the story. Like the paparazzi and famous stuff kind of things. It focused pretty much only on their feelings and reconnection.

You don’t need to have read the Forever Series to enjoy this book, although it’s where Amanda and Jordan’s story really began and it would be a shame to miss it, also because it surely gives a different feel to this book when you know their backgrounds and what they went through to be together. If you want to read it though you should definitely read it before starting this book.

-- I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book given by Social Butterfly PR. --

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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