2.5 Stars (Outliner)

(1.5 for the book and 1 star for Haydn)

One Liner: Okay, I'm disappointed!

(NGL, the review wasn’t supposed to be this long)

Ophelia thinks she has moved on and found love in Haydn, a handsome and kind hockey goalie. However, she is still weighed down by her past and the man she loved with her everything.
Keane, the rockstar, was supposed to be dead. But turns out he was in a coma for five years and woke up just when Ophelia takes the next step in her life and looks at her future with Haydn.
Haydn found love and everything in Ophelia but if her happiness means she needs to go back to Keane, he’ll give her that.

The story comes in the first-person POVs of Ophelia, Haydn, and Keane.

My Thoughts:

So, I grabbed this one only because I liked the excerpts the author shared in the newsletters. I hate love triangles but ended up reading two books with them in the same month (talk about planning). 

Anyway, here are a few good things about the book: 

The FMC has fibromyalgia. This is neither over-utilized nor under-utilized. Since the author has the same condition, she did justice to it by incorporating it naturally but the condition doesn’t become the only highlight of the character. 

Haydn is a gem. Sure, he has a few issues. But he is so caring, consistent, supportive, and loving! Perfect book boyfriend material. His pretty words always align with his actions. 

Lots of angsty quotes about love, forever, heartbreak, etc. If you enjoy quotes more than character development, you will like this one. 

No real opinion about Keane. He was in a coma for five years, so naturally, he is struggling to make sense of everything. We are told a lot of things but see only a little. 

Now, to what didn’t work for me: 

I said I liked the excerpts. However, I realized the book has mostly pretty words and repetition. Essentially, it uses a lot of tell. The scenes that should have been shown are also told. Haydn gets the ‘show’ part so we naturally gravitate towards him. 

Ophelia’s character is tricky. She’s got a shitload of trauma and survivor’s guilt is always living with one foot in the past even when with her current guy. I wonder why she thought she didn’t need therapy (until the end). She needed it like seven years ago. 

When I should have been empathizing with her dilemma and confusion and feeling her heartbreak for the pain she suffered, I felt nothing but annoyance at her.

I can’t see her love for Haydn because it’s not shown. Haydn tells us she sees the real him and understands him like no one else and that she is his best friend. Does her POV show us anything to support this? Nope. Moreover, her POV makes her sound selfish.

All her love declarations mean nothing because as a reader, I only saw that she needed what he gave her rather than the man himself. And that is where the book tanked. If I’m not convinced, I’m not satisfied with the results. 

When Haydn tells her words should be followed by actions, I don’t see her doing anything for him.

When another character says Ophelia is using Haydn, I should be offended on her behalf. Instead, I agree with him and say yes.

What we need is her POV showing how much she loves Haydn rather than how much he does things for her and cares for her. 

It’s like a drip. Haydn drains himself to charge Ophelia who drains herself to charge Keane. Poor Keane doesn’t even know what to do with all of it! 

When reading the excerpts, I decided I’d read the ending to see who the FMC would choose and then the rest if I liked the ending. Well, after reading the whole book, I feel Haydn deserved better.

The FMC claims to want to meet him halfway but even by the end of the book, I don’t see it. It’s still him giving her his everything and being deliriously happy that she is taking it. Weird dynamics, I tell ya. It’s still not an equal relationship.

Now, it could have been better if we got a couple more chapters from Ophelia’s POV about her and Haydn’s life together and the love she feels for him. But she is too busy loving her past

almost throughout and needing her present to sustain her so that she can continue to love her past. After a point, I could no longer empathize with her. Also, we need a chapter to see why and how her relationship with Keane was toxic. Dialogues are not enough. There isn’t enough emotion.

Keane’s epilogue works because we are told on the next page that his book will be out in Feb. So, ending the story with his POV is like a connector between this and the sequel. A similar approach didn’t work in another book I read because that one doesn’t need a sequel. And yeah, I’ll read his book and hope the girl he finds is better written. 

To summarize, The Fault in Forever could have been a great angsty romance but ends up being a pile of lovely quotes (and Haydn; he saved the book). There are loose ends and unanswered questions, likely to be addressed in the next book.