{Review} Love Forever by Lucy Darling

Title: Love Forever
Author: Lucy Darling
Release Date: January 21, 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Novella

Ethan King has always focused on building his empire, but that endeavor has left little time for much else. When he sees his little brother following in his footsteps, Ethan decides to show him that a life well lived isn’t measured in wealth. But his exercise in “money isn’t everything” sends him stumbling into his own forever. One glance, and he knows he’s finally found the one thing he values above all others. Her.

Amelia Clark has never truly known what it is to be loved or cared for. She’s worked hard for everything she has, and she will keep fighting to make her way in the world despite the hand she was dealt. When it comes to matters of the heart, she keeps everyone safely at arm’s length. Her plan works perfectly until a chance encounter with a hot, mysterious bartender turns her head. When he gets too close, far closer than anyone else, she tries to pull back. When that doesn’t work, she does what she does best... runs.

But Amelia takes more of Ethan than she knows. Good thing that Ethan loves the chase, and this time, he’s going to catch his forever.

What We Liked

♥ We met Mia in Love On the Line, now it's her BFF/former coworker, Amelia, to find her forever to settle down with.

♥ We loved diving deeper and getting to really know Amelia from her perspective and in a different way than we knew of her from Love On the Line.

♥ Amelia and Mia's friendship is (still) as hilarious and close as ever, even more so now that they're both pregnant at the same time.

♥ The fact that this is a standalone novel so you don't need to read the first book to read this (although we recommend you do because it's equally as good).

♥ The girls "stalking" scene was pretty...unconventional, funny and a fail, which made it even funnier instead of turning out creepy as it should.

♥ Pregnancy hormones are all too real. And entertaining to watch (read: read) unfold, especially when you're not the pregnant one experiencing it/a bystander or involved in any way other than as a reader. Poor Ethan.

♥ The epilogues. It was meaningful and a bit heartwarming.

What We Didn't

• Breaking in her apartment and probably scaring the daylights out of her as she woke up and then trying to justify it by romanticizing it, saying it's okay because he bought the building is not the way to go.
• Both the H and h did their fair share of digging and background checks on each other, but somehow getting her debit card statements is a whole other level of creepy, red flags and invasion of privacy. Oh, but it's okay because he did it to find out her favorite dish from her favorite restaurant to surprise her with breakfast.

The Gals

Amelia // We get to learn more about her: her childhood/upbringing, true desires, fears, hangups, why she dated unattainable rich men, and secrets dreams about future family. Little did she know that meeting the hot "bartender" (aka Ethan) at Mia's bachelorette party at a club and a fun night at a hotel with him would lead to her to a future with Ethan and her dreams coming true. We also thoroughly loved hers and Mia's friendship, banter, shared pregnancy journeys and shenanigans.

Mia // Mia is back and pregnant at the same time as Amelia is. She never wavers in her friendship with Mia. We had to laugh and sympathize a bit with some of the things she puts Max through.

Kim // She is a friend of Mia and Amelia's. We wish she was in this more because she is hilarious, straight-forward, ball-busting and tenacious.

The Guys

Ethan // He's done some questionable things, but he's shown that he does want Amelia in his life and by his side for the long run and when Amelia finally told him that she's pregnant with his baby, he doesn't go running. He wants that family with Amelia. And what they build together: adopting kids in the middle of having children, and starting a foster home program/organization for kids (which stems from Amelia's childhood) was amazing and the kindness the world needs.

Max // Poor Max gets dragged into some things by Mia, it's pretty funny. But he's shown that he cares and has Amelia's back. His and Ethan's interactions were pretty...interesting. At least they were civil and cool with each other if not future BFFs.

Lust Factor

3.5 flames