Author: Heidi McLaughlin
Publisher: (September 2nd, 2013)
From: the Author
Format: eARC
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK
Synopsis: ***IT'S SUGGESTED YOU READ MY EVERYTHING BEFORE READING MY UNEXPECTED FOREVER***
I expected a life of music.
I expected to raise my son.
It took one look to make everything change.
I never expected happiness.
I never expected to find her.
I never expected to feel desire.
I never expected I’d be a family man.
I never expected to be loved.
I never expected to fall in love.
They say you should expect the unexpected, I didn’t realize my unexpected would be the forever kind.
Review: 5 Stars - Sequels and companion novels can often have a rough time with readers in living up to the first or original book. With author Heidi McLaughlin’s second Beaumont series title My Unexpected Forever there is absolute nothing to worry about. It’s emotional and consuming, rich with everything that I’ve come to love in Heidi’s writing and characters from the first title.
In My Unexpected Forever we have a chance to spend some quality time with Harrison and Katelyn. Both single parents with baggage on top of baggage. As the two attempt to find their footing dealing with painful issues new and old and attractions new and old, Heidi does a fantastic job continuing to make her characters realistic and honest.
I loved Harrison right from the start. He had nothing but honorable feelings for Katelyn. He included her and her daughters in his worries and went above and beyond to make sure that Katelyn had everything she needed after her heartbreaking loss.
Katelyn is a headstrong woman who can see all the things wrong with her thoughts and with the pain she’s healing from, and her daughters who are also suffering from the loss. She doesn’t know how to help herself even with looking it in the face day after day. Still hurting too much to move on she doesn’t know how to help her twin daughters and its salt in a wound when she see’s both girls going to someone else for comfort. It might be painful to watch her daughters drifting away in their pain, yet she wouldn’t take that away from them, ever.
And the two as parents! While I’m not a parent if you ask me Heidi didn’t hold back when it came to all the parents in this book. They were true parents. They worked with their kids; they worked at being families on their own and then in turn one huge family that leaned on each other time and time again. This was another part of the story that made my heart melt. I loved seeing these musicians taking on the task of being parents and the active role they played with their kids and each other’s kids.
One thing about this story as I mentioned above is it’s filled with emotions. The characters run through each and every one more than once. While there are parts of the story that are heartbreaking there are others that’ll make you cheer and laugh and others that’ll make you want to yell at someone for being an idiot. It’s all of these things that make some fantastic characters and story telling. I was so invested in what would happen that I couldn’t look away, didn’t want to put my Kindle down and didn’t want their story to end.
While this might have been the second in a series it was fun to have a chance with Liam and Josie from the first title Forever My Girl. There were enough of them in this title that I felt like they were still a HUGE part of the story and in all honestly they were. All the characters are so interwoven into each other’s lives that having Liam and Josie there as Harrison and Katelyn navigated some rough waters was welcomed because it gives readers a chance to again see just how honest and real these characters could really be – Rock Stars or not.
I loved this title. I loved it so much more than I thought I would. I knew when I started reading that I’d be in for one heck of a story, one filled with heartache and Heidi gave me that and so much more. I fell in love with her characters all over again!
Oh and let me tell you… there are some extra steamy scenes that I blushed. Some that I melted, some that I swooned over and some that I wondered if my Kindle was going to burst into flames!
All in all, Heidi writes a fantastic set of characters that offer so much to the reader from beginning to end. While this can be read as a standalone I believe for the full experience of the writing and the overall plot from one book to the next you should start reading in order with Forever My Girl, then the novella My Everything, which yes, it’s important and then My Unexpected Forever. I love these books, these characters and Heidi’s writing. I can’t wait to see what she writes next, where she takes us next and what might be next for her characters. Happy Reading!
Fabulous review. This is the second glowing review I have read on this book. I have the first book, but haven't read it yet, now I am anxious to find the time to start this series.
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