Pretty Sassy Cool All Things Pretty, Sassy, and Cool.
Hello Forever by Sarina Bowen Also by this author: Him, The Fifteenth Minute, Us, Rookie Move, Good Boy, Goodbye Paradise, Stay, Temporary, Heartland
Series: Hello Goodbye #2
Also in this series: Goodbye Paradise
Published by Rennie Road Books on July 14th 2017
Genres: Friends to More, M/M Romance, Second Chance Romance
Pages: 213
Goodreads Buy the Book
A SINGLE BASKETBALL GAME CHANGES EVERYTHING...
When they were only teenagers, Axel and Caxton were caught making out in the woods at church camp. And afterward, Cax had disappeared from all the youth group activities.
Six years later, Axel is astonished to spot his first love’s face in the crowd of a college basketball game he’s watching on TV—at a school which has just offered him a job. It’s a thousand miles away, in a tiny rural town. But suddenly, he can’t wait to get there.
Cax can’t believe his eyes when Axel appears in the same Massachusetts town where he now lives. And he’s still just as drawn to Axel as ever. But he can’t let himself go there again, because loving Axel will mean giving up everything else he holds dear.
Both men have so much to lose. But as far as their love is concerned, it's Hello Forever.
Hello Forever is a stand-alone novel with no cliffhangers. Readers of Goodbye Paradise will get to check in on Caleb and Josh and their clan.
Erin: Sarina Bowen is one of our favorites here at Pretty Sassy Cool. Whether it’s MF or MM, her books always deliver. Her stories are never formulaic, the characters are always memorable, and no matter the subject, you’re guaranteed to laugh more than a few times. Hello Forever is a re-release of a book Sarina had previously written under another pen name. New title and a new cover, which is a plus, I didn’t read the first edition so I can’t tell you how this one compares. If childhood friends to lovers along with a smidge of second-chance romance is your thing, then this is definitely the book for you.
Growing up, Cax and Axel regularly attended the same church camp. Lock-ins, camping trips, and other church outings kept the two boys in close contact throughout the year. They texted, emailed, and looked forward to seeing one another. They were best friends up until the day that Axel realized his feelings for Cax went much deeper than just friendship. As often happens, emotions (and teenage boy horniness) overtakes Axel and he kisses Cax, only to be caught by the camp director. After that day, Axel never sees or hears from Cax again … until one night while he’s streaming a basketball game online at the school where Axel’s new job is and sees Cax in the stands. Cax is not the boy Axel fell in love with all those years ago–he’s all gorgeous man now–and with a flutter of excitement in his heart over the hope of seeing Cax again, Axel heads to tiny Barmuth University in Henning, Massachusetts.
The six years since Cax has last seen Axel have not been easy ones. With an extremely demanding and offensively homophobic father, Cax lives his life deep in the closet. His relationship with his three younger brothers depends on it, seeing as how Cax’s father has threatened to cut Cax off from them if there’s even the barest hint of Cax being gay. After his mother’s passing, Cax is the only positive influence in the boys lives and he’ll do anything to be there for them, even if that means living a life of loneliness for the next six years until Cax’s youngest brother will be eighteen. It’s not the life Cax wants, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to stay in his brothers lives and is mostly okay with this…until he and Axel cross paths and old feelings long buried storm their way to the surface.
Oh, these two. Man, talk about an impossible situation. They rekindle their friendship which leads to realizing they’ve never stopped wanting or loving the other. But this isn’t enough to overcome Cax’s fear of his father finding out and keeping him away from his brothers. There are clandestine meetings, dinners and talking where Cax dreams of being allowed to live the life he wants with the person he’s always wanted. There are a few moments of levity throughout the book which helped keep it from being too morose and heavy and of course the intimate times were full of emotion and tenderness … which Sarina is adept at giving her readers. These two are so sweet to and for each other and your heart will ache at the struggle Cax goes through before he stands up for himself. The melodrama with Cax’s father was a bit too over the top for me, but it didn’t detract much from my overall enjoyment of the book.
All in all, Hello Forever is everything you’d expect a good romance to be. Fans of Sarina Bowen are sure to love this one so make sure you check it out!
She's a Texan, though she drinks her tea plain and NOT sweet. She loves cheesecake, strawberry limeade's from Sonic and her favorite color is purple. In her books, she loves an HEA, but she never minds if the road is rough to get there, as long as the reward is worth the struggle.
| Report Card | |
|---|---|
| Cover | |
| Characters | |
| Plot | |
| Writing | |
| Steam | |
| Overall: | 4 |
