Review: Forever Loved by Deanna Roy

Genre: New Adult Romance
Series: The Forever Series #2
Publication Date: 10th January 2014
Pages: 275
Book Source: from author for review

Synopsis:  

“How do I tell the woman I love that I fathered a son with a prostitute?”

After four long years of separation, Gavin has finally reunited with his childhood love Corabelle. She’s forgiven him for leaving her during the funeral of their seven-day-old baby, and also for where he ended up — in Mexico to get a vasectomy.

But a message from Rosa, a prostitute he met the day of his surgery, brings his life to a crashing halt. She claims Gavin has fathered a son, now three years old and living with her cousin in Ensenada. He doesn’t know if he can trust Rosa, who never mentioned the boy before, or if his delicate reconciliation with Corabelle can withstand the shock if it is true.

Corabelle believes their future together is the right thing despite their past. But when she learns of this other child, the one thing she lost long ago and might never have again with Gavin, Corabelle’s faith that her life will ever follow her old dream is shattered. To make things right for Gavin and his son, she just might have to let go of the only person she always believed would be her forever love.

Forever Loved is the heart-wrenching conclusion to Gavin and Corabelle's passionate story.

Karen's Thoughts:

After being emotionally drained by the depth of the first book in this series, Forever Innocent, I was thrilled when approached to receive an ARC and review the second book, Forever Loved. When I was provided with the ARC I was also given the correct synopsis that was not being promoted until the release of the book. 

“How do I tell the woman I love that I fathered a son with a prostitute?”

I will be completely honest and tell you that I almost choked when I read that first line.  I was instantly worried about what the author had planned for Gavin and Corabelle. They have both been through so much in their young lives and haven’t really dealt with their grief at losing their baby boy Finn when he was only 7 days old. 

I thought ... do we really need to go down this path?  Surely they will never recover from this and I desperately wanted them to have some happiness and joy in their lives and finally deal with the grief of losing their son together, heal their hearts a little and move forward.  

It wasn’t pleasant to be reminded how Gavin dealt with his grief, running out on Corabelle without explanation and staying disconnected from life. I should be annoyed with him but at the end of the day he’s an 18 year old young man and it’s not entirely implausible that he react the way he did.

It was refreshing that Gavin was honest with Corabelle about possibly being the father of Rita’s little boy, Manuel. Deanna could have taken a predictable path here but she didn’t and I couldn’t be more pleased about that. With me, authors win extra points by not following the predictable. It was refreshing to have Gavin deal with the situation in a mature way and it made me believe if they love and trust each other completely they’ll get their HEA.

I don’t want to go into great detail in my review because I don't want to spoil anything for other readers. I do really feel a connection to Corabelle and Gavin and it isn’t often that a book will make me cry real tears, but these two certainly have. The flashbacks to the funeral made me feel like I was there right alongside the characters. Having had a very close friend who suffered the loss of a stillborn baby, I felt like I’d been given insight into what she was dealing with behind closed doors.

Had we not been told that there’s another book in this series, Tina’s story, then I would have been disappointed in the Epilogue. I do feel like Gavin and Corabelle’s story isn’t quite finished. I feel such a connection to them that I want to know where they are in a year’s time … 2 year’s time … 5 years time … 10 year’s time!

I highly recommend this series to readers, it may hit too close to home for some readers, particularly those that have experienced infant loss themselves, but one thing I found supporting my friend through her loss was that she needed to talk about her beautiful baby boy and what she was feeling.

Guest review by Karen

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