Book Review: Forever, Interrupted (author Taylor Jenkins Reid)
(reviews on Goodreads)

Ben and Elsie’s chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped. Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Don’t take my word for it — many, many reviewers are big fans of this book. However, I found the dialogue to be poorly written and I didn’t particularly like either of the characters. Some of the “oh-so-romantic” things Ben says just make him sound like, well, a tool. Elsie is of course one of those women who of course is so attractive but is so down-to-earth that she doesn’t realize it and can’t get over her “clumsiness” and is so self-deprecating that it’s a turn-off. The connection between Susan and Elsie seems forced (maybe rightly so).

The circumstances surrounding Ben’s death are horrible and sad and heart-wrenching, but I was so removed from the story that the full impact never came.

2 out of 5 stars

Marleah Augustine is the Adult Department Librarian at the Hays Public Library

You can see more of her blog here http://hayspubliclibrary.wordpress.com