BOOK REVIEW⎜ Forever Right Now by Emma Scott

Do you ever wish you could take a moment and keep it forever? Like right now… how you taste in my mouth, and your hands on me, and your eyes, God, Sawyer the way you’re looking at me…

Forever Right Now came to me at the most opportune time, having just finished my most intense read prior to start this review copy, I needed something light to follow and it totally hit the spot in that regard.

This is my second read by Emma Scott and I understand a lot of the appeal many of my reader friends find in her stories. (Although I was told her earlier books were much more emotional than her two latest releases, Forever Right Now included.)

Having previously read The Butterfly Project I found Forever Right Now to hold a common pattern: lost and damaged young people find love in the most unexpected ways with the clear and intent focus on the author’s part regarding their pursuit of happiness.

It was there, that urge to sing for the world with my entire self.

Hold iup right there though, lost and damaged people could imply this book gravitates toward melancholy when it’s quite the contrary actually. Emma Scott manages to deliver a lighthearted tale about friendship and new beginnings and effectively waving in an instant-like love interest between two very much opposed characters. A single dad and a recovering addict.

Seriously? Do not tell me Mr. Mom is my neighbor.

Now… What pushed me to actually read the book? Honestly?
The single dad’s trope.
It’s my weakness. I guess I’m just another whimpering hormonal mess of a woman regarding this trope. I just love to read about a man taking care about his kid(s) and knowing he needs someone to fill the sadly unintended spot in his heart— bed. I mean heart, really. 😉

The way he cares for her only adds to his ridiculous sex appeal.

Sawyer Haas was a great single dad! The job fell onto him unforeseeably as a hookup from the past dropped a few months old baby into his lap and ran off. I know he’s pictured as a jerk with a cold facade—we love aloof and inaccessible heroes, right?— but you’ve got to know a man this young and facing this kind of situation, doing everything possible to provide for his little girl, has got to have a huge heart underneath that seemingly distant appearance. So, yeah, Sawyer The Lawyer had all the qualities of a great romance hero. 

I’d traveled three thousand miles, and the deep longing to have someone see me trailed after like a shadow I would never shake.

If you read The Butterfly Project, you’ll recognize Darlene, the former dancer with addiction problems. Well, she decided to get her life straight and start fresh in San Francisco where a job, a NA sponsor—Max, whom I wouldn’t mind reading more about in the future *hint*,*hint* — and a six month sub rental in a beautiful unicorn of Victorian house await.

There she meets her two other neighbors, a single dad working to pass the bar exam, Sawyer and Elena, a mother of two, babysitting occasionally Sawyer’s daughter, Olivia.

You’re like this whirling ball of energy that sweeps people up so they can’t help getting caught up in you.

I really enjoyed reading about Darlene waltzing her way into Sawyer’s and Olivia’s lives, she was a great heroine, selfless, with her heart and mind set on breaking habits that failed her in the past. Her greatest weakness—and quality— is her craving for human connection, she just can’t help herself reaching out and helping out, Sawyer didn’t stand a chance against her and her tuna casseroles, cold and impassible facade be damned! Darlene is the complication Sawyer doesn’t need right now, so close to finish law school and get his daughter legal custody. 

She’s the exact opposite of me in every way.

Another point I really enjoyed was the constant and right portrayal of Olivia, the kid. See, I have a weird thing with kids in my romance books, more often than not, they’re used as an accessory to the story—which pisses me off— and offhandedly taken care of whenever the author remembers there’s a kid or are written in the most unrealistic way, especially when it comes to the dialogue parts and authors either make them talk like dumb little humans only in cutesy phrases—did you know kid can’t talk properly?— or address to adults as if they were impersonating Stephen effing Hawkins. So between cutesy kids and geniuses, I’d really like a kid in the middle. You know… Average. And Olivia with her thirteen months grand age, fit the bill. She was cute through her actions and her language skills were in adequacy with her age.

I wanted to feel without thinking or stopping myself. I let my body speak for the music and there was no shame, in these words. No loneliness. Only myself, and I was alive.

Thanks to Emma Scott’s pleasant and smooth prose, falling into Forever Right Now and devouring it in one afternoon was an evidence. It provided a much needed escape in the most satisfying ways. Charming characters, uncomplicated plot between two people feeling an instant connection, at crossroad between a slow burn and insta-love.

I didn’t feel this story on a *deeper* level, but would rather gladly put this story on my “feel good books shelf“, the very story any romance reader would enjoy for an afternoon! 

With a very very very happy ending which delivered ALL THE FEELS—maybe too saccharinely? But don’t mind me, I’ve just left a very intense and complex world, so I might be biased and reluctant to that kind of sugar right now— I’m sure this book will melt romance reader’s hearts!

I can only regret, the constant “skimming” feel I had throughout the book, as if something was missing for me.
I wish the author would have given more time for the two main characters to get know each other properly, as sometimes it felt I was being told the connection was there, happened, but I wasn’t there to witness it. Almost as if her intention was to keep things superficial. It’s perfectly fine if you’re looking for an easy and light read, but it did leave me wondering when and where all the feelings were coming from. But enough with my nitpicking already, if you’re looking for happy feels, Forever Right Now is what you need.

-Everything good in my life is because of you. How do I thank you for that?
-You don’t, silly. Just love me, Sawyer.