Review: Between Now and Forever by Adriana Locke

Between Now and Forever by Adriana Locke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided  both an ARC an ALC of this book via the author and Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is a complete standalone and doesn't connect with any of Adriana's prior series.  If you are a fan of hers you know she is well known for her interconnected family series.  She also has some excellent standalones, and this one is amazing!  I wouldn't be surprised if we get spinoffs from this one for the friends in the future.

This follows single mom Gabrielle, who has just moved back to her hometown from Boston.  Her new neighbor is a grumpy carpenter, but he is nice to look at.  They have an interesting first meeting, and he does not want to get involved.  Since Gabrielle likes to do DIY projects and her house needs some TLC, and Jay just happens to fix houses for a living, he finds himself offering to help her out more often than he probably should.  They quickly develop and attraction to one another, and he quickly becomes invested in the lives of her two boys.

Both Jay and Gabrielle have some hang ups when it comes to relationships, and neither one of them want to hurt the two boys who are still grieving the loss of their dad and trying to settle in their new town.  Jay and Gabrielle fall for each other fairly quickly, but we get alot of sweet moments between the two of them and alot of good conversations about hard topics like relationships, family, grief, and more in the short time they get to know each other.  Gabrielle also has some great friends in her corner who are hilarious and she is a wonderful mom who like all moms is asking if she is doing the right thing or did she just screw up royally.  I really enjoyed Jay's interactions with Dylan and Carter, the sons, they were genuine and realistic.  This is on the shorter side, so if you are looking for a grumpy sunshine romcom that you can get through pretty quickly this is a great one to pick up.

The narrators were excellent.  They both did great handling the various characters within their chapters and I really enjoyed how they brought Gabrielle and Jay to life.  There are some really emotional scenes and some great comedic scenes and I thought they both did a good job with the emotional side of the narration.

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