To appreciate the sun, you have to withstand the storm.
Free-spirited, poetic Casey Loughlin has had her fair share of rain, and she always manages to see the silver lining. During her teenage years, when she met Toby Cardona, she learned everything she ever needed to learn about love and loss—all in one year.
When Toby lost Casey, everything changed for him. The once caring and endearing boy, with dreams and hopes of his own, became the cold, broken, money-hungry man he swore he'd never be. Now, with Casey back in his life, it's up to her to show Toby that the second time around, love can still hurt, but it's worth every painful prick. Will Toby weather the storm, and embrace a second chance, with the woman he’s always loved?
I suggest you read Summer Love before reading this book, it follows years later but it’s the same characters. I read them back to back.
I’m giving this book a 4.5⭐️. I felt the beginning was a little slow, although well done, I’d liked for it to be a little faster. But once Casey and Toby come face to face again the story picks up. I loved these characters and the supporting characters were a lot of fun. This story made me laugh and cry, it’s a slow burn and a HEA.
This story can be best enjoyed by first reading SUMMER LOVE (novella). Between Summer Love and Forever Love, my one word description would be “warm”. But the word can only be described as: wa-------rm. There is so much heartache, unanswered questions and lost time between the characters. I fell in love with Toby and Casey and had been waiting on Forever Love to continue their story. Best advice is don’t make decisions for other people and don’t try to fill in the blanks without knowledge. But best advice is sometimes hindsight. Not only were Toby and Casey fun, loveable characters, but all the secondary characters were enjoyable and added so much to the story line! Jamie and Ben cracked me up at times! Truly looking forward to more in the Forever Series!
When people think of teenage love more often than not they think its a crush just teenage hormones. Fast forward 16 years & we get to see how a teenage love feels when now as adults Toby & Casey’s world collides.
Will the pain the pain and loss they both felt be enough to bring these 2 back together especially when theres hurdles in the way that could easily tear them apart, or do they have one of these kinds of love that a second time around they hold on tighter?
Absolutely loved it! I love being able to see the growth of an author. J. Lum writes another wonderful story about Casey and Toby. I fell in love with them in Summer Love and now they are adults. I love where she took them in their journey and look forward to her next book.
Forever Love gives us hope that true love is never lost. In Summer Love, we first meet Toby as the brooding image of every teenage girl’s dreams. In Forever Love Toby is still that brooding boy, just all grown up. He is focused on his career, and women are just a hobby. That is until Casey comes back into his life. Sweet, caring Casey has been focused on running her new business. After leaving the cutthroat business world, she is happy running a quaint bookstore surrounded by her close friends. When fate brings them both back to the same beach where they fell in love as teenagers, will they be able to put away the pain and realize real love is forever? The push and pull between Toby and Casey was a bit maddening at times. I found myself yelling at them to just get back together already. You could feel their obvious attraction. Their HEA was exactly what I was hoping for from the start. Ms. Lum set up some amazing supporting characters, and I can’t wait to get to know their stories as well.
A fantastic story! Jen truly captures the struggles of a young first love. Forever Love holds secrets, laughs, struggles and romance. It’s a second chance romance with ALL THE FEELS!
The blurb says it all. No need to pump it more. It’s perfect and had me in tears! Like what the heck! So freaking good!
I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This book takes place after Summer Love and although it can be read alone I would suggest reading that book first. It is a novella and introduces us tot he characters in this one. The difference is they are now grown after having gone through the whole teenage love thing. This was one of the sweetest second chance romances I have read in a while. We have all had that summer, teenage love and then years later maybe wondered.
For Toby and Casey they get a second chance. They are brought back to brings them both back to the same beach where they fell in love as teenagers. Now they must face their past and their attraction to one another.
While the story was a little slow in places for me and I got frustrated with the characters a few times it was everything a second chance romance should be. I can't wait for more in the series!This review was originally posted on A Lucky Grace
I was impatiently waiting for the conclusion to Toby and Casey’s story. Their young love with all its deep felt emotions in Summer love touched my heart. It was fantastic to read how their love never died. Life just sometimes gets in the way and forces you apart. So, what happens when their lives once again collide? Life has certainly thrown these two a few curve balls along the way. Will the love they once felt for each other still be there? If so, will it be enough to extinguish all the pain and hurt ? Intrigued? You need to one click ! Well done Jen xxxx
Absolutely loved it! I love being able to see the growth of an author. J. Lum writes another wonderful story about Casey and Toby. I fell in love with them in Summer Love and now they are adults. I love where she took them in their journey and look forward to her next book.
Wow, this was not what I expected! After reading Summer Love I thought things would be different in this book, but OMG it was so not what I thought. Jen keeps you on the edge of your seat through the whole book. It is angsty and sad, and it has you wanting to throw your Kindle.
After book one Toby has completely changed, and the Toby we get in book 2 is completely broken and very unlikable. There were so many times he pissed me off. Casey really shattered him, and even sixteen years later he never recovered. He never found love and never sought it out.
He is cold, withdrawn and broody whereas his brother and best friend are these great supportive and outgoing guys. Which kind of shows you that he's not really as he seems. Casey is just as broken, never recovered from her parent's accident and never stopped blaming herself. She thought she saved Toby from herself until she comes face to face with him again. And let the angst begin. Toby won't have anything to do with Casey, and she just wants to explain. Too much time has passed, and Toby is numb.
"She took a piece of me when she left. It's like feeding an addict a drug, both potent and addictive. Once you have it, you immediately want more."
I loved seeing Toby slowly (very slowly) come to terms with everything and give Casey a chance. If I had one thing to say, it would be that I wanted more of them. I wish their reconnection didn't take as long and we got to see them together more than fighting.
This was very well written and a heartfelt story about two broken people finding their way back.
I can be such a contradiction, I love emotional reads but hate it when the female is a crier. smh. Anyway I can see why the author broke this up into 2 books although I kinda wish she didn't. It does help separate the time span but it could have been done in other ways. That being said it is a wonderful story and I absolutely loved it. The impact on both of them from the separation and all that has transpired is clearly taken a toll on both of them but it feels like she had the hardest time. It's touching and emotional and mostly it just squeezes your heart and closes the throat gives you that itchy scratchy feeling because it touches that way. You feel the pain and the loss they have had from being apart from each other and for the other losses they experience. Once the anger of betrayal and loss is done the healing can begin.
I loved this story and while he wasn't always nice I still loved his grumpy angry persona. The author plays this out very well showing the love and support around them both that watch over them and love them through it all. Love Jaime and the man he becomes. Can't wait for his book.
So I liked how this started. It gave you a small reminder about what happened in the prequel. I thought it showed how much trama Casey had experienced after everything really well. I could understand how she thought leaving Toby was the right decision in her mind at the time. I enjoyed seeing how differently they both grew up and the people they turned into. It was frustrating how Toby refused to just listen to Casey's explanation, but I understood that he was hurt. I did find it pretty unrealistic that he never looked her up after he never heard back from her. The reason I took a star away from this is for 2 reasons: 1) once they talked their relationship went from zero to 100 REAL fast and 2) his overuse of the nickname shorty. I couldnt stand that nickname in the first book, and its use here is just insanely annoying. Everytime I saw the nickname I ended up just skipping over it. These people are supposed to be in their 30s and it's just frustrating whenever I see it.
Overall though, I liked this one better than the prequel and am glad I read it.
As a new author, Jen Lum hits all the marks maybe because she is a voracious reader herself and knows a great story thereby writing it herself. This is a story of young love 💘 that hadn't faded but so how hot tossed aside because, life! Life happens, thanks for making this story happen. AJM💋💞🐕🐕