Now and Forever 1, A Love Story by Jean C. Joachim

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars 

Title:  Now and Forever 1, a Love Story

Author:  Jean C. Joachim

Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing

      Cover Art: Beth Walker and Jean C. Joachim

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Length: 227 Pages

Summary:  

Callie Richards was no stranger to heartache. Her parents were killed when she was sixteen. Left with her older sister, she fell into a romance with good-looking, Kyle Maine. They became engaged and Callie’s future was set until he was killed in Iraq. Two years later, she pulls herself together to get her Master’s degree and restart her life on her own.

Working and studying at Kensington State University, Callie meets Mac Caldwell, the handsome dean. Together they fight a deadly campus drug ring with heart-breaking results. This is an emotional story, not a cookie-cutter romance, that will make you laugh and cry as Callie struggles to make a new life, find love and her happy ending. 

Review: 

At the very beginning, the heart of this book exudes a sort of melancholy feeling. Callie is dealing with the grief from the death of her fiance. We learn a lot about her childhood and the things that she had to go through as she was growing up. Her childhood was not an easy or happy one. Consequently, it seemed and felt to her like Kyle was all she had. When he died, she was devastated. In the midst of the grief, she has decided that it's time to move on with her life, but she still has trouble letting go of Kyle.

Callie is a quiet girl that stays to herself. She is believable in her grief and the way she relives things, not wanting to let them go and afraid she will forget. I enjoyed her as a character, as I did most of the characters from this book. Mac is just trying to deal with his life, not really looking to get involved with anyone. The fact that it is a relationship that is not sought out by either party seems to make the feelings more real. 

The biggest problem I had with this book is only that the author did such a fantastic job of making Kyle such a great guy, to make him worthy of the level of grief Callie was feeling even after such a long time (I'm assuming), that by the time I met Mac I didn't care about him. I wanted Kyle! Even after a few chapters of Callie and Mac, and even rooting for them to get together on one level, I found myself still hoping that the military made a mistake and Kyle would come walking in. I will say that Callie's relationship with Mac was probably healthier. She had grown and matured a little more by the time she got involved with him, so he wasn't her entire life the way Kyle was. She was more her own person by this time, with her own identity.

The different things that are dealt with in this book are portrayed very well and realistically. The levels of grief, trying to move on without forgetting, becoming your own, independent person apart from the grief and the person that you are grieving are all a part of the story, but not overwhelmingly so. I loved the box of Kyle's things that Callie keeps, and Mac's reaction to it when he finds it. I could see myself doing something like that in Callie's place.

A very bittersweet love story that will take you through the whole spectrum of emotions. I found myself proud of Callie by the end, as though she was a friend I knew, rather than a character in a book. This is a great read - another win for Ms. Joachim.

Kindle version: 



Paperback:

Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights by Jean C. Joachim

My Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

Title: Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights

Author: Jean C. Joachim

Publisher: Astraea Press 

     Cover Art: Elaina Lee

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Length: 129 Pages

Summary: 

Caroline Davis White is a well-known artist and married to a wealthy, controlling man. She has everything money could buy except one thing: Love. Brad refuses to give her a divorce she so desperately wants. With no money, family, or friends, she flees to the Catskill Mountains where she spent her summers as a young adult.

Mike Foster has achieved success and made more money than he could have thought possible, but it destroyed his marriage and cost him his son. He is wary of every woman he meets, knowing his money may be more attractive than his good looks.

Caroline reconnects with the life she had and friends from long ago. Mike stepped out of her teenage dreams into her life again, looking more handsome and tempting than ever. Caroline knew Mike back then, but is he still the man she fell in love with?

Review: 

This is a sweet and sensual story of a childhood crush rediscovered years later that blossoms into love. It was fun watching the relationship grow between Mike and Caroline (Sunny) so many years after not seeing each other. Naturally they both have memories from when they were younger. Mike had been a few years older than Sunny and had sort of adopted the older brother/protector attitude towards her at that time, never knowing that Sunny had a crush on him. It's interesting watching them both come to terms with who they were in the past, and their feelings for each other back then, and who they are now and their feelings for each other now. It is very realistically portrayed, giving the reader a chance to wonder, perhaps, what it would be like if they were to meet up with an old crush.

Initially, Sunny surprised me. She didn't strike me as the type to run from a situation, no matter how hopeless or intimidating. Once we get to know the character, though, you can see that it wasn't so much running away as it was coming to terms with where she has let her life lead her and the circumstances she has found herself in, as well as giving herself some breathing room to determine her course of action. In a manner of speaking, she needed time to lick her wounds and heal. The secondary character of the butler that first appears in the very beginning had an amusing attitude that had me chuckling. He had a job that he must keep, and duties that he must fulfill, but he didn't necessarily have to like it or his boss.

The author did an excellent job in describing the setting of a small resort town, as well as the feelings associated with the characters situations. The pacing was well done – nothing happening too quickly so as to not be believable, even with a shorter length novel. And you get invested in the characters relatively quickly. This was a well written story that I really enjoyed, about a woman finding herself again after being in a lousy relationship that should have jaded her on men and then finding the one that she should have been with all along. This book is available in e-book format as well as in paperback.

The author has some excerpts on her blog from a prequel to this novel as well as an excerpt from a sequel to this novel. She's been busy! If you'd like to check it out, go here.