Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Forever, Again

SERIES:  Shelby Beach

AUTHOR:  Skylar M. Cates

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  269 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 16, 2022

BLURB:

Their lives didn’t turn out as they’d imagined as boys, but they never forgot each other.

Personal trainer Oliver Knox is strong and graceful, dedicated to his clients, and fiercely loyal to friends and family. But the thing he takes pride in the most, his business, is failing.

Single father and entrepreneur Nico Kastellanos knows success is hard-won and tries to give back to those who, like him, have to fight for their dreams. His one regret is how things ended with his childhood best friend. Their friendship and their secret kisses linger in his mind.

When Oliver unwittingly hires Nico’s PR firm to breathe life into his failing gym, their connection rekindles instantly. The chemistry is potent, the memories heart-wrenching. They’re no longer awkward, troubled kids. They are men who know what—and who—they want.

Will Oliver and Nico finally get their long-overdue forever together, or will the ghosts from their past continue to haunt them?

Note: Although this is a series, Forever Again can be a standalone book

REVIEW:

Note:  While technically book 4 in this series, it works perfectly well as a standalone.  There are spoilers for the previous books however 🙂

Oliver is a pudgy kid with glasses in middle school.  He doesn’t have friends, he’s too intense and he’s been teased a lot.  Then Nico Kastellanos arrives.  He’s friends with Oliver right away.  As they grow closer, Nico kisses Oliver and Oliver kisses him back.  They are inseparable.  They are working on an academic competition together.  But Nico is holding back a pretty big secret.  He and his mother have escaped his abusive father.  But just when they are supposed to be together, Nico disappears.  Oliver is devastated.

Fast forward a couple of decades.  Oliver owns some gyms in Florida.  But he’s miscalculated, the economy has stumbled, his partners in the business have moved on and he’s in trouble.  He goes to the bank, but they can’t help.  They point him the direction of an organization that works with LGBTQ business.  But at what is supposed to be the first meeting, Hawk, the guy who owns the company is not there.  Oliver is furious and gets into an email tiff with the guy.  Hawk, aka Nico, is intrigued and goes to meet the owner of the business, not knowing the name.  But when he meets him, he knows immediately that it’s his Oliver.  Oliver recognizes Nico too – but assumes he’s there for training.  He’s furious with Nico though – has been ever since Nico left without a word and broke his heart so many years before.

So the mistaken identity is yet another stumbling block between them.  Then there is Nico’s young daughter.  Oliver is not sure what to do.  He still loves Nico under all the hurt and defensive walls.  Nico feels the same but he’s worried that Oliver can’t get past all that happened when they were boys and understand why Nico did what he did.  Both men have had trouble with relationships as adults.  Nico is still carrying a lot of guilt over what happened in this family and with his mother and abusive father.  He had an extremely unstable childhood and it’s definitely affected and driven him as an adult.  Oliver is driven in a different way, but he’s just as damaged.  While they both desire to make things work between them, neither is sure how to go about it and it’s a two steps forward, one step back situation for a while.

While there are a few slow moments in this book, I really enjoyed this story of second chances and renewal of first love.  Whew Oliver and Nico had a lot to overcome.  Their relationship as boys was defining for each of them. So when Nico was forced to run just when he and Oliver had grown closest scarred both of them.  Thankfully Oliver was able to recover somewhat and forge a strong bond with his cousin Zane that eventually showed him that he could be more.  It led him to his passion in life – fitness and training – and to his business.  Nico, aka Hawk, vowed that he would be a success in spite of how he was dismissed by his father and in spite of the damage he caused to both Nico and his mother.  He managed to put himself through college and start his own successful business.  Their serendipitous reunion almost wasn’t.  Oliver had tried to hide his damage over the years, but Nico still held the key to his heart and he was angry about that as well.

Both men have to work hard to overcome their fears of being hurt and alone.  Both men also have a lot of control issues that they have to work through.  Nico wants to control his life so that his daughter never has to be afraid and it takes Oliver to convince him that no matter what he does, he cannot shield anyone from some of the pain of life.  Life is messy and Oliver knows that.  Nico struggles with the darkness of his childhood and worries that he will somehow never be good enough for his daughter.  He’s trying to shield her from everything despite how unrealistic that is and when things don’t go his way,  it makes him tense and angry.  Thankfully he has Oliver to talk him off the ledge when he needs it.  Oliver is so worried about being seen as weak or lessor and it takes a bit for Nico to convince him that as a couple they need to balance each other out. That at times not ever single thing will be equal – just like physically they will never be equal. Nico will also be dealing with his CP while Oliver is always going to be strong and fast and capable.  It take some time, but they are able to work out their issues.  Also the epilogues were awesome 🙂  So happy to see such an HEA for Oliver, Nico and all their friends and family.  A very satisfying conclusion to this series – well at least for now 😉  Recommended particularly for fans of second chances love stories!

RATING:

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