Review: The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis
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Title: The Forever Girl (Wildstone #6)
Author: Jill Shalvis
Date of publication: 12 Jan 2021
Genre / Themes: Contemporary Romance / Small town
My rating: 3,5 Stars
Blurb
When Maze returns to Wildstone for the wedding of her estranged bff and the sister of her heart, it’s also a reunion of a once ragtag team of teenagers who had only each other until a tragedy tore them apart and scattered them wide.
Now as adults together again in the lake house, there are secrets and resentments mixed up in all the amazing childhood memories. Unexpectedly, they instantly fall back into their roles: Maze their reckless leader, Cat the den mother, Heather the beloved baby sister, and Walker, a man of mystery.
Life has changed all four of them in immeasurable ways. Maze and Cat must decide if they can rebuild their friendship, and Maze discovers her long-held attraction to Walker hasn’t faded with the years but has only grown stronger.
Review
I haven't read the previous books in the series but this works perfectly as standalone. I'd say this story fall between romance and women's fiction - there is a central love story and a HEA but also a lot of time and focus is dedicated to the other characters (found family of the MCs).
I enjoyed the world Jill Shalvis, one were friendships and family matter, where people try to do their best despite the circumstances, where they make mistakes and take wrong turn along the way but are ultimately led by kindness. We get usual dose of pets and babies, mostly for comic relief without overshadowing the romance.
On the negative side, I felt too much of the conflict was based on misunderstanding. I realise why the Maze ad Walker couldn't discuss things openly from the start. The trauma of their childhood is a serious one that has marked them and it was not easy for them to overcome their fears and to see themselves as worthy of love.
There were some unexpected plot twists which I liked even though the story more or less went in the direction I expected it to go from the start. It's this familiarity, knowing what is coming, that makes these books comfort reads for me.
I found this to be a comforting, hopeful story, making me buy the romance between the MCs, leaving me convinced they are right for each other and are good for each other and can make each other happy. It's this hopefulness, the promise of a better future together, that's the reason I read romance.
CW: Child abuse, neglect (in the past), fire, lost of a loved one
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