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Between Now and Never is a standalone contemporary/realistic fiction romance story. I loved Laura Johnston's first novel, Rewind to You and I really loved it. It was a super sweet and light romance. I am going to tell you up front that Between Now and Never has a very different feel to it than Rewind to You did. It is not as sugary sweet, certainly not as light. I didn't love it as much as Rewind to You, but it was still a good story. (What can I say, I am just more of a happy and fluffy kind of gal.) Between Now and Never had kind of a forbidden romance, Montague and Capulet feuding family feel to it.

Julianna and Cody come from very different families and you can tell that it has impacted the way they grow up. Julianna's family is poor and her brother uses/deals drugs and because of that has money problems. To try and help, their mom committed a crime at her job and got sent to jail. Cody's dad is the FBI agent that sent her there. So you can see where there would be issues.

I ended up really liking and rooting for Cody and Julianna but it didn't start out that way. Cody is a really nice guy, but for some reason whenever he got around Julianna for the first couple of times, he acted like a cocky jerk. I have no idea but he wasn't like that in any other scenes or when she wasn't around. It was like he was putting on a very bad show for her. Not that it worked to impress her. It only turned her more off to him. And then there was Julianna. I get that she has had it rough, but it is a pet peeve of mine that when people get a tough break, that they act overly bitter and entitled to everyone and everything around them. Even the people that are being nice and did nothing wrong. They see the worst in everyone and think everyone is giving them the short end of the stick for no reason. Julianna grated on my nerves at the start and I had no idea how her and Cody were ever going to get a shot at working out.

But that is what kept me reading. I just had to see where the heck this story was going to go from the humdinger of a start that it had. Julianna was a little brat and Cody was involved in something so incredibly dangerous and awful. He was thrown into it. I felt so bad for him because he clearly didn't want to be in that situation but he wasn't given any choice. But Laura Johnston's writing is kind of magic. Even with my character annoyances, she made invested in their story. She made me like them. Which is incredible! When I don't initially like a character it is hard for me to come back from that. But I did.

Between Now and Never was different than my average read. But I liked that about it. It is good to step outside of your comfort zone every now and again. The character growth in Between Now and Then is the most impressive part. For these two star crossed individuals, I can guarantee you won't be able to predict their journey from the first page. Between Now and Never is a good read. Give it a try if you like your contemporaries with a little more drama and grit, and don't mind some darker issues thrown in.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs