Book Review: Forever, Interrupted

~ Emily Bourque
“I’m just trying to tell you that your life will be very long with zigzags you can’t imagine. You won’t realize just how young you are until you aren’t that young anymore.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Forever, Interrupted
 
Book Title: Forever, Interrupted
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publication Date: 2013
Genres: Adult Fiction
Goodreads Rating: 4.03 Stars 
My Rating: 4.25 Stars
Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben’s charmed romance with Elsie and Susan’s healing process, Forever, Interrupted will remind you that there’s more than one way to find a happy ending.

1. This book is unexpected. So I picked up this novel from the library, and it was a small little paperback. I figured it would be a quick and easy read without much thinking involved. And I was wrong. This novel starts with Elsie’s husband dying. Then the novel plays out in a flashback, switching from past to present. You get to see how Elsie and Ben met, what their romance looked like, and struggles they faced before he died. You also get to see how Elsie (and Susan) cope with the loss of Ben. It was beautifully written and the back and forth only enhanced the novel.

2. This is a love story worth remembering. Holy moly. Elsie and Ben’s romance was a whirlwind that reminded me of my own relationship with Jeromy (minus the married within six months thing..). So while Ben’s immediate death didn’t hit me too hard, the flashbacks made me see the depth of Ben’s love for Elsie, and there were a few times that when I saw how Elsie was coping with Ben’s death, I teared up for them.

3. This story was so simple, yet so complex. I know, that does nothing to help you decide to read this novel. The best part about this novel was it’s simple, straightforward nature. There wasn’t really a climax, but rather a slow turn of ups and downs as Elsie struggles to overcome this terrible ordeal she’s been through, offset by the unfolding of Elsie and Ben’s love life.

This story was an amazing mix of love, loss, grief, and hope, and I was thoroughly impressed by the writing and simplicity of the plot.


“My eyes are bloodshot. I look at my face and I think that I had someone who loved this face. And now he’s gone. And now no one loves my face anymore.”

“For the first time since Ben died, I look like a widow. For the first time since I lost him, I feel like I recognize the person in the mirror. There I am, grief-stricken and un-whole. Widowed. It’s such a relief to see myself this way. I have felt so insecure in my widowness that seeing myself look like a widow comforts me.”

“He’s never coming back. Whether you go or you don’t go. So get in the car, because it’s the last thing you can do with him.”

Published by Emily Bourque

13 thoughts on “Book Review: Forever, Interrupted”

Comments are closed.