[Review] Renewing Forever - Kelly Jensen

Summary: Frankie and Tommy once dreamed of traveling the world together. But when seventeen-year-old Frank kissed Tom, their plans ended with a punch to the jaw and Frank leaving town without looking back. Thirty years later, Frank’s successful career as a journalist is interrupted by his uncle’s death and the question of his inheritance—the family resort where his childhood dreams were built. When he returns to the Pocono Mountains, however, he finds a dilapidated lodge and Tommy, the boy he never forgot.

Tom’s been keeping the resort together with spit and glue while caring for Frank’s uncle, Robert—a man he considered father, mentor, and friend—and his aged mother, who he refuses to leave behind. Now Robert is gone, taking Tom’s job with him. And Frank is on the doorstep, wanting to know why Tom is still there and why the old lodge is falling apart.

But before they can rebuild the resort, they’ll have to rebuild their friendship. Only then can they renew the forever they planned all those years ago. (Pub Date: Mar 20, 2018)

Frank and Tom were childhood friends until one kissed the other, the other punched one in the face and they never met again for thirty years. When Frank needs to go back home because he's inherited his uncle's property, he finds out Tom is still there.

2.5.

I liked the idea of best friends in love with each other needing to figure how to work things out instead of the unrealistic love is enough. Both characters were nice and made me cheer for them. I also loved Tom's backstory and how he cares for his mother.

Still, this fell far from perfect. 

I'm not so into sex scenes so I had even felt more interested when the reviews said there wasn't much. But the truth is not that it lacks sex scenes, it does have a good number actually, though it takes many attempts for them to go to the end. What happens is that there's too much angst, it was hard to believe they were over forty and not fifteen. I know there's a public for that, and I am all for taking time for the characters to get together, but I need better excuses. What really happened here was not the characters taking time but the rhythm going too slow.

I haven't read the other books in the series, but we get to meet some returning characters from those books (if you've ever started a series from halfway, you learn to recognize the cameos). They were all interesting enough and got me curious. I also loved Brian and hope he'll get his chance at a happy ending as well.

As you can see, the story is pleasing enough and the characters are lovely, if only the rhythm could have picked up... This was my first book by this author as far as I can remember, but I want to read more from her.



Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.


Rating: 3 out of 5.