Kindle Price: $3.99

Official Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

“I broke the surface and gulped in air, running my hands over my face to push the water away. A raindrop splattered on my cheek. He did not rise. Seven more raindrops in quick succession splattered against my skin. And still, he did not rise. The heavens opened and rain fell like a sheet, blanketing me, cutting me off from the rest of the world.

I thought it was the end of everything.

But I was wrong.

Brothers, Ruben and Judah Mitchell, used to be close, but that was before they met Cara Armistead. Once she moved in next door, the brothers grew further and further apart until the tension between them led to an event which left one dead and the other branded by the aftermath.

One year later, after the death of her baby brother destroyed her family, Lennon Donnelly has moved back to her home town of Puruwai. While visiting the cemetery she finds a boy sitting on a gravestone, a boy with secrets in his past, but someone who finally sees her. Accused by the town as a killer, he reaches out to Lennon, but as their relationship deepens, the events of the year before present themselves in a way no one could have imagined.

In this compelling ya romantic mystery, Forever Blue tells of the intertwining relationships of Lennon, Ruben, Judah and Cara. Spanning over two years, Abby Wilder creates a story of intrigue and suspicion that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

This story contains mild use of strong language and references to underage drinking and smoking.”

My Review:

What…did I just read? I truly have no clue as to what I just read. What??

There’s weird. And then there’s upside-down-turn-around-backwards-sideways-and-insane weird. Forever Blue was the latter.

It wasn’t really the characters. But it was. I’m going to do something a little different and break down each character.

Lennon. I didn’t hate Lennon. I don’t love her, but I think she was a realistic character and I liked her. I couldn’t relate to a lot of the things she went through, but she was a true teenager and I can appreciate that. Most of her decisions were actually pretty sound, which was surprising. Usually authors have teenangers making the dumbest decisions possible for whatever reason, but Wilder had Lennon have a good head on her shoulders.

Ruben. I hated him. At first he had my curiosity and my interest, but then he became controlling, rude, and mean and I quickly dropped him. I wanted nothing to do with him after his true colors showed and I’m really disappointed in him after what he did in the end.

Judah. If I had read more about him and got to interact with him more, he’d probably be on the way to being my friend. I could see some potential in him and I wish I could have comforted him throughout the Book.

Cara. She probably got the least book-time in the entire book, so I really didn’t care about her at all. Cara wasn’t very important in my opinion, but I didn’t hate her. Wilder gave her some cliche lines, but nothing I would gripe about.

Lennon, Ruben, Judah, Cara, and all of the other characters were complex and I liked that about them, so no true complaints.

I think the plot is what bothered me the most. I can’t say, really, anything, because it would all be a spoiler, but the ending just wasn’t good for me. It felt like it was tragic just for the sake of being tragic and I don’t like that. I was intrigued as the plot unfolded and even though I was kind of predicting everything, the ending was something I didn’t predict. If I had predicted it, I wouldn’t have continued reading, just because what happened would have turned me away immediately.

I also needed more information. An important part of the book, which is really what the entire book is based on, is kind of glossed over and I needed it to make sense of things. I could kind of grasp the concept, but there needed to be more information, I felt.
I do think I like Wilder’s writing style, and I have to give her some serious props for using flashbacks as a way to tell a story. They were woven in quite nicely.

Would I Recommend Forever Blue? I wouldn’t, to be honest. It isn’t because Wilder can’t write or anything of that sort, but I just didn’t enjoy this particular book because of the ending.

I received this book for free from the author via Xpresso Book Tours in exchanged for a review.