REVIEW TOUR: Forever With You (Wait For You #5)

I'm so excited to kick off the review tour for Jennifer Armentrout's latest addition to her Wait For You series, FOREVER WITH YOU. She continues to wow me with this series - I'm always anticipating the next awesome addition, and Forever With You did not disappoint.

Forever With You (Wait For You #5), by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publish Date: September 29, 2015
Publisher: Avon Books
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4.5 STARS

(From Goodreads) Some things you just believe in, even if you've never experienced them. For Stephanie, that list includes love. It's out there. Somewhere. Eventually. Meanwhile she's got her job at the mixed martial arts training center and hot flings with gorgeous, temporary guys like Nick. Then a secret brings them closer, opening Steph's eyes to a future she never knew she wanted—until tragedy rips it away.

Nick's self-assured surface shields a past no one needs to know about. His mind-blowing connection with Steph changes all that. As fast as he's knocking down the walls that have kept him commitment-free, she's building them up again, determined to keep the hurt—and Nick—out. But he can't walk away. Not when she's the only one who's ever made him wish for forever . . .

I am impressed with Jennifer Armentrout's story-telling abilities. To be honest with you, in the first two books of this series, Stephanie was not my favorite character. She had set her sights on the men that were meant for other women that I loved (no matter that, at the time, those men didn't technically belong to those women yet), and therefore, to me, she was the enemy. I was skeptical that I would be able to like her enough to want to be with Nick, who I've had a fascination with. 

Stephanie has always set her sights on that Big Love - the one that changes absolutely everything. The one her parents shared. She's holding out for the right guy, and she passes the time waiting for him by engaging in casual hook-ups. It's a sort of cynical and yet slightly romantic way of looking at things. She sees Nick tending bar at Mona's thinks he's hot and decides he's the lucky guy that night. 

As luck would have it, Nick has a similar outlook on life, except, he doesn't think that his perfect match is out there. He's content to screw his way through his 20s, and as long as the girls don't ever come back to Mona's again, he's happy with things. And, he's VERY happy with his one night with Steph. They were very WOW together. And, truthfully, I thought that both of them had felt something a little more than they usually do with others that night. But, of course, both brushed it off as nothing, and went about business as usual. 

Until the night Steph wanders back into Mona's and Nick loses his crap, and his manners, and says some really stupid stuff to Steph. She's definitely a take-no-crap kind of girl, and I was internally cheering when she let him have it. It was really an epic moment. It kind of was for Nick too, as he decides that maybe he CAN be friends with a girl. 

Except soon after that, things get real. And these two have to actually start adulting. Together. After initially being really pissed at Steph for how she started off handling the situation, I started to really like her. And, while I always really liked Nick, I started liking him even more. As he opens up to Steph about his past and his present, we see that there is so much more going on with Nick than what he lets on about. And, there's a huge surprise in his past that I didn't see coming, but absolutely broke my heart for him. 

Although I was impressed with Steph and Nick and how they each handled the challenges that were thrown at them (for the most part - there were a few times there where I wanted to shake Steph), the one character I was blown away by in Forever With You was Katie. She's kind of been this running joke for a few books now - the bedazzled, psychic stripper. The best part about her is the unapologetic way she lives her life. She does what she wants to do and she says what she wants to say. I love that about her. And, when Steph needed someone to stop coddling her and tell her to suck it up, that person was Katie. That was my favorite scene in the whole book. 

This book had a lot of heart. It dealt with some really tough subjects, and it was done well. Despite my reservations about Steph, Jennifer made me love her. And I ended up really loving her relationship and chemistry with Nick. We saw plenty of Cam and Avery (and witnessed some big stuff between them too), Jase and Tessa, Jax and Calla, and even Ollie and Brit. I'm now waiting impatiently for Brock's and Jillian's book, so as long as Jennifer keeps writing books in this series, I will keep reading them. 

And don’t miss the previous titles in the Wait for You Series!

WAIT FOR YOU (Wait for You #1)
TRUST IN ME (Wait for You #1.5)
BE WITH ME (Wait for You #2)
STAY WITH ME (Wait for You #3)
FALL WITH ME (Wait for You #4)
DREAM OF YOU (Wait for You #4.5)

 

# 1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA.

She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Links:  Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Novel Goodreads ** Author Goodreads