Novels and Necklaces: ARC Review: Always Forever Maybe

About The Book:

Title: Always Forever Maybe

Author: Anica Mrose Rissi
Pub. Date: June 5th, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 256

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Rate: 3.5/5 stars

Synopsis :

When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart. Betts already knows the two of them are infinite. Inevitable. Destined to become an us.

Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend, Jo, but suddenly there’s a long list of things she won’t tell her, things Jo wouldn’t understand. Because Jo doesn’t see how good Aiden is for Betts. She finds him needy. Possessive. Controlling.

She’s wrong. With a love like this, nothing else matters.

Review:

"I didn't even know this boy, but I knew I would let him take me anywhere."

Always Forever Maybe is a contemporary YA that explores abusive high school relationships. I was hesitant to start this because the last few YA novels I read regarding this topic were very similar and kind of just varied with the main characters' backgrounds and personalities.

I was very surprised that not only was Always Forever Maybe different in terms of characters, it was also a bit in different regarding plot and context. For the first half of the book, I honestly was thinking that this is just another variation of abusive high school relationships that I've read numerous times already. However, when I got to the second half of the book, I realized it was different and didn't take the path I was expecting it to take. Yes, you can tell from the beginning that Betts is not going down a good path with Aiden and that this is going to end badly for her and you just want to shake her and say "STOP MAKING EXCUSES"!

Another thing I really liked about this novel was the characters. I loved the relationship between Betts and Jo. This was a big part of the novel and I think their friendship helped you to better understand their motivations and characters. I also really liked Eric, Jo's brother. I thought the romantic interest, Aiden, was kind of plain. He was not really that different from any characters like him. He could have been replaced by any character in a novel similar to this and it wouldn't have made a difference. He was abusive and used his sad past as an excuse to act like a jerk, which is pretty typical for characters like him.

"Even the very worst version of you deserves nothing but love."

I want to thank my friend Heather at Harper Collins for sending me this book! I pretty much enjoyed it and I was actually surprised because a lot of abusive relationship YA books tend to be very, very similar in context. I do wish that Aiden was a little bit different than your typical abusive boyfriend character and I wish it would have went into more detail regarding how Betts' mom knew Aiden, but it just kind of left you wondering what situations happened to make her mother dislike him so much. Anyway, I think fans of YA contemporaries will enjoy this. If you think this book sounds interesting, you should definitely give it a try!