The Forever Girl: A Novel

A return to Jill Shalvis' Wildstone is always an adventure and this time she delivers like always. Maze is returning to Wildstone reluctantly but she can not ignore the request from Cat who is the sister of her heart and her BFF, although currently estranged BFF. Maze grew up in the foster care system and for that one wonderful year lived with Cat and her family plus a motley collection of other fosters who all became their family by choice. But "Mayhem" Maze has shut herself off from her family because she is afraid of hurting them and being hurt herself. Childhood traumas do have long term effects and need to be healed. And this is a book about the power of love and healing. Everyone in this novel has issues they need to address due to childhood trauma. It is handled with a very delicate hand and well done. Plus we are able to see how love really can conquer all when we are willing to let down our wall and let someone in who may have the power to hurt us but they really love us. It is something that not only Maze learns in this novel but everyone in her misfit family. Yes, there is a real love story in this wonderful novel but for me, it is secondary. What mattered the most to me was how everyone was finally able to start the healing from their childhood traumas. Healing is a life long process but it is also freeing. And watching the transformation of Maze as she started to heal was amazing. Like all of Ms. Shalvis' books, the characters and storyline are well…

Jill Shalvis has a way of writing that pulls you in and engages you in the story from the outset and The Forever Girl was no exception. This book touched on so many different things from family, family of the heart, friends, second chances, love and forgiveness and it was definitely not short on emotion, humor or heart. Maze has come back to Wildstone for her friend Caitlin's (Cat) wedding and in the process, she reunites with the other two, Heather and Walker, who as teenagers made up the foursome that spent so much time together and were bonded by both wonderful memories and hardships. While the four of them have been apart for many years, when they find themselves under one roof again, many things revert back to "normal" pretty quickly, while there are other things that time has changed about each of them causing some issues and bringing things to the surface that weren't dealt with years before. Will they be able to re-establish the connections that they once shared or has time separated them too much? You really get a bit of everything with this book; romance, friendship and family. Each of the characters, along with the secondary characters, are well defined, so you find yourself rooting for each of them to end up exactly where they are supposed to be. This is another fantastic addition to the Wildstone series!