Forever Yours: A Forbidden Second Chance Romance (The Temptation Series Book 1) is a wild ride of a book from start to finish.  The things it does well, it does really well.  The things it does terribly, it does even worse.

Normally I would start on the positive for a book, but there is so much negative, and so little positive, I have to start at the reverse.

I HATED this book.  I would never read it again, and honestly, I disliked it so much, I wouldn’t read anything by this author again.  The three main characters of this book, Stephanie, Callum, and Justin, are so incredibly unlikable that if you met them in the street, you would go out of your way to avoid them.  All three of them are selfish, and rude, and terrible people. 

To help you understand the plot, here is the gist of it.  Stephanie and Callum dated approximately twenty years ago.  Callum dumped Stephanie and she went on with her life and married Justin.  They had two kids, and a happy marriage.  (The happy marriage part is important, especially since the main character Stephanie says it more than once.)  Stephanie starts a new job, and who should work there?  If you guess Callum, you get a sticker.  In their FIRST meeting together at this company, WITH all of their other coworkers, they sample chocolates.  Stephanie gets some caramel on the corner of her mouth, and Callum wipes it off with his thumb, and then sucks on it.  IN A WORK MEETING!  ON HER FIRST DAY!  SHE IS MARRIED! 

And yes, I do understand that the point of this book is “forbidden romance” but at this point it is kind of gross.  She is cheating on her husband that loves her, and she is lying profusely.  In case you didn’t guess, yes, they do start an affair.  One that includes quite a few disgusting moments.  When Callum and Stephanie have sex in his car, he uses the same unwashed sweater to wipe off in between her legs three times I think, but for sure at least two.  She spends the night at his house, after telling her husband she was staying with a friend, she sleeps with him while they are in London on a business meeting, so on and so forth.

At one point in time, Callum actually says probably the cheesiest worst line I have ever read.  “In your heart I know your married to me. You always have been. Don’t you feel guilty about what we have”.  When did this line happen?  Directly after they had sex in his car on a lunch break at work.

The last bad thing about this book I want to discuss, is weight.  If you have an issue with your weight, or cannot stand books that focus on a person’s weight, do not read this.  Sincerely and truly, don’t.  Stephanie is a plus sized girl, and I promise you will not forget that.  It is brought up constantly.  How she feels about her weight, how her husband feels about her weight, how her mother feels about her weight.  It is never positive, it is always derogatory, and I found myself cringing reading it. I have times where I am by no means kind to myself, and how weight was discussed in this book, was crueler than anything I have ever said to myself.

Now that the bad (and there is a ton of it) is out of the way, lets talk about the few good things.  The writing itself, isn’t that bad.  It was an easy-to-read book, and if you are not bothered by any of the above then you will finish it fairly quickly. 

While I don’t like the characters themselves in the book, the relationship between Callum and Stephanie, while toxic and terrible, is written well. 

The best part about this book, is that the author is from Europe, and you can tell.  So many times, I read books by authors not from the United States, and I barely notice the difference.  But in this book, there is British slang, there is phrases and speech patterns that are not familiar to me, and I loved it.  It added so much realism to the characters, and it was done so well.

Overall – I would like to say the core plot of the story gets better from where I left off above, but it doesn’t.  That being said, if you want to know what happens next, you should read the book.  I almost did not finish this book more than once; but sincerely once you start it, its kind of like Stockholm syndrome, where you have to keep reading to find out more.  That being said, if you choose to read this book, it does end on a cliff hanger where you will have to read the sequel that comes out in May.

Plot – 1/10

Characters – 0/10

Originality –  2/10

General Joy of Reading – 1/10

Overall Score – 4/40

Forever Yours: A Forbidden Second Chance Romance (The Temptation Series Book 1) – Annie Charme

Cost* –  Kindle is $3.99 Paperback is $13.72.   Book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published