Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Oliver Ever After
SERIES: 8 Million Hearts
AUTHOR: Spencer Spears
NARRATOR: Michael Fell
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 16 hours and 37 minutes
REVIEW DATE: May 1, 2020
BLURB:
Me, my ex, and a five star hotel room. What could go wrong?
Oliver: It took seven years until I was sure I was over my high school boyfriend, Luke – and just one night to realize how wrong I was.
Not even one night, really. It was honestly more like five minutes of conversation at our high school reunion that made it clear I’d never gotten over him in the first place. And if the conversation by itself wasn’t enough, the fact that I invited him back to my hotel room, dragged him into bed, and then had a panic attack in the middle of the, uh, festivities took care of any lingering doubts.
And that would have been fine, honestly. Completely humiliating, sure, but fine – if only I weren’t stuck at home, helping my father with a health crisis and dodging Luke’s calls – and my feelings about them. Luke’s a player. He always has been. I know better than to get involved with him again. So how the hell do I get my heart to listen?
Luke: Oliver Luna. The guy’s haunted me since high school. Oliver’s the first person I ever fell in love with – and the last. He’s the guy who showed me what I was made of – and it turns out, what I’m made of isn’t pretty. I won’t risk hurting anyone else the way that I hurt him. And I’ve never forgiven myself.
I guess that’s why I decided to go to my high school reunion. I figured maybe, if I apologized, I’d be able to let Oliver go. That’s how it works, right? You say you’re sorry and you get to move on.
Only first, Oliver tells me he’s already moved on, which somehow just makes me feel worse, even though it’s what I’m supposed to want. And then, just when I think I’ll never see Oliver again, he lets his guard down, and all I want to do is pull him into my arms and make his pain go away. Who even am I at this point?
I have no idea how to fix all the damage I’ve caused. All I know is this: I’ll die before I let Oliver walk out of my life again.
REVIEW:
Note: While this is book three of this series, it works as a stand alone, but it does contain spoilers for the previous two books.
Luke and Oliver were high school classmates. Luke was popular – a jock, smart, cute, etc. Oliver was not. He was smarter than everyone else and he was also bisexual and took a lot of heat from others – particular Luke’s jock friends. Luke is going through a rough time then because of things. Mostly he’s struggling with his sexuality. He’s also playing a game with his schoolwork and he an Oliver are forced to work together.
Oliver lives with his dad and he cannot wait to get to college. He’s been bullied for years. His family doesn’t have much money but he’s super smart and he just wants to shake the dust of Long Island off and get on with his life. His math teacher wants more for him. She ends up forcing Luke and Oliver together for “tutoring” that turns into a lot more.
Luke’s “friends” are awful to Oliver and Luke snaps. Oliver is shocked and totally reads the situation wrong. But it turns out that his sort of long time unrequited crush on Luke is not one-sided. Luke shocks the hell out of Oliver by admitting that he has feeling for him and that he’s sick of his so-called friends. This starts something that of course ends badly.
Seven years later, there is a class reunion. Neither Oliver nor Luke plans to go. Luke has been stalking the list and since he doesn’t see Oliver on it, he has no interest. But then Oliver gets kind of blackmailed into it by his father who has health issues that Oliver is in town to deal with. He’s home from California until he can get his dad to deal with his illness so he agrees to go to the reunion if his dad goes to the doctor. So he goes and runs into Luke – in the library which is a “special” place for them.
When Luke and Oliver leave the reunion together, again, Luke is shocked because Oliver has told him he’s been over everything for a long time and Luke doesn’t need to apologize – which of course he does repeatedly 🙂 But then Oliver kind of freaks out so Luke assumes that’s it – they’ll never see each other again. But of course Luke forgets something he needs – so he does see Oliver again and finds out what’s going on with Oliver and his dad.
They kind of fall into a pattern of seeing each other a bit, but neither is “looking for anything.” Yeah, right. Both of these guys are fooling themselves of course – mostly Luke. Luke is in a difficult situation with his work as well. He’s got a horrible boss who is totally taking advantage of him. And then he gets sick and things go from bad to work in that arena. It also kind of throws a monkey wrench into his relationship with Oliver in a couple of different ways – some surprising. Luke has a lot of his self-worth tied to this job and has been promised a lot by a boss that really doesn’t have his best interests at heart. But this latest setback may prove to be too much for his psyche. He’ll never be enough or measure up to what Oliver deserves, no matter what Oliver says.
So this is another very long book. But because this is a second chances story, part of the story is told in flashback to seven years prior when Oliver and Luke are in high school together. This part of the story is crucial because in particular it sets up the story Luke and the way he has always seen himself and Oliver and the way he sees himself. Where they start from is critical to understanding why they continued to cross signals all the time. I felt for Luke – his life after his parent’s divorce had taken a dive and his self-worth was tied to too many other people’s opinions. For Oliver’s part, he’s till a bit stuck in that high school geeky guy who will never be interesting enough for someone to want long term. Neither of them have any relationship experience and they struggle with learning to communicate. I really liked the way both of them grew into themselves – both together an apart. Also Michael Fell did a good job again with all the voice. Definitely recommended 🙂
RATING: 
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