I have to admit that while I preach “don't judge a book by its cover” to my children, I don't always practice that myself...but only with regard to actual books of course, I don't judge people that way...so I'm not a total hypocrite, phew! Anyhow, Forever My Girl is a prime example of that, not that I haven't enjoyed the plethora of bared six pack abs and bulging biceps on a lot of recent book covers too, but truth be told it also makes them all run together a little bit for me, so this one definitely stands out! I'm also both a guitar lover and a photography lover, which is why this artsy picture alone had my mouse immediately hovering over the 'purchase' button during my daily Kindle book perusal...and I only got as far as the first line of the book abstract before clicking the button all the way! I was never supposed to be a rock star....our leading man is a humble rock star?! Yes, please!
Liam Westbury had a perfectly stereotypical life as a football star in small town Beaumont, Texas before leaving his college scholarship, childhood best friends, and high school sweetheart behind to become Liam Page, Hollywood's, newest rock star. Upon the death of his once best friend, he returns to Beaumont for the first time in a decade and realizes its time he reconcile the life he's been living with the life he could have had, and begin creating the life he wants with the girl he never stopped loving. Of course ten years is a long time to be away, and he's not the only one who's changed....and therein lies our endearing story!
The one thing that stood out for me in this book were the flashbacks, which McLaughlin uses to bridge the time span story gaps for the reader, but the added bonus is we also get to know the character of Mason this way, the best friend whose death brought Liam home. Those flashbacks in particular will tug at your heartstrings, I really don't cry...like ever...but I had to swallow around a particular lump in my throat a few times while reading about the little family left to miss this sweet guy! More than that though, its how McLaughlin chose to insert the flashbacks themselves; I'm more used to chapter breaks that bounce readers back and forth across a time frame but I now much prefer being brought along directly with the story in real time with the quick, italicized flashbacks McLaughlin used to portray the characters daydreaming about the past. I felt like the story had a much more realistic feel and was more tenderly written with the characters reminiscing in that way rather than having the past and present written in separate chapters and the readers blending them together themselves.
I truly enjoyed this book and was happy to download the next in the series, My Unexpected Forever, right away too {no worries, Forever My Girl comes to a full conclusion, My Unexpected Forever has another set of main characters}. I did, however, have a wish list when I finished reading!! I wish we'd been given more reasons as to what Josie and Liam loved so much about each other ten years ago to convince me their connection was strong enough to withstand the decade of separation. I felt they seemed like typical hormone driven teenagers in their flashbacks, whereas I was expecting to *sigh* at their deep true love! I also wish the reason for Liam leaving had been a little stronger, the whole story centers around him walking away from everything without ever looking back and the reason we eventually find out just seemed pretty weak overall to be the driver of such a drastic decision, especially given his age at the time. But you know, as fiction goes, it wasn't the most unrealistic pill to have to swallow either and it really was a great light read with plenty more reasons to warrant highly recommending that you spend an afternoon in the quaint little town of Beaumont {for real, I want to live there just so I can keep saying that town name...or put it in a whimsy font on my address label!}.
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