TMP Books, $4.99, ISBN 978-1370385140
Contemporary Romance, 2018
Ella Moretti visits her father, who is in jail, every Friday. She’s the only family member that still keeps in close contact with him, and that’s because she still holds out hope that one day, hopefully soon, everyone will come back together and be a family again.
It is while on her usual trip home on the bus that she encounters a hot guy that takes her breath away. He’s newly arrived in Willow Cove, he loves black jellybeans just like her (eeuw), and… oh right, he’s Lucas Prescott, and Prescotts and Morettis are supposed to hate one another, forever and ever, amen. Can they bump uglies to make their families feel beautiful and harmonious again?
Does this kind of star-crossed romance still work in the present day? I find it hard to believe that grown-ass adults these days will dutifully obey family dictates to hate this person or that person because an ancestor looked at another ancestor funny and it was war ever since. Perhaps in a country where family-arranged relationships are the norm, I’d think, but Theresa Paolo’s Forbidden Lover is set in present day America, so I’m just going to press F to doubt.
That aside, this story is actually on the sweet and adorable side. Sometimes the author can get wee too precious for my liking—black freaking jellybeans, ugh—but the chemistry is fine and the conversations are charming and convey very well the developing sense of comfort and ease Lucas and Ella have between them. I can believe that these two are falling in love, and a part of me will always wish the author has picked a different plot for them.
Still, the whole family feud thing never really becomes a credible conflict anyway, as in the end, most people just wave away the whole thing far more easily that the build-up of the story has led me to believe. While this is probably the best way to treat such a plot in the first place, it also makes Ella come off as a silly worrywart that makes a big fuss out of things.
Also, I wish the author hasn’t just laid out the entire back story and inner workings of the minds of our lead characters on the very same page that each one shows up. I don’t know why so many authors these days don’t want me to experience the thrill of turning a page and discover more new things about the characters and the setting. No, everything is revealed in one giant exposition dump, leaving me with nothing much to do other than to turn the pages and passively follow the characters as they do things.
This can be an issue because, let’s be honest here, this plot has been done many times before, so this one is not exactly a new or exciting story that will have me teetering at the edge of my seat.
Likewise, the romance is cute, but it’s not something that I haven’t come across before. If the author had hold some cards to her chest a little longer, letting me learn new things about the characters and their history more gradually as the story progresses, this one would have been a far more memorable read.
As it is, I’m in the back seat, don’t mind me, as I’m just watching the characters do their thing and trying not to yawn at times.
Anyway, Forbidden Lover is a readable, cute story. I just wish it will give me more reasons to remember it, say, a week or two from now.
