Forever After

Title: FOREVER AFTER
Author: Deborah Raney
Publisher: Howard Books
June 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4165-9993-7
Genre: Inspirational/contemporary romance

A fire killed his best friend and his lifelong dream of being a firefighter. The same fire killed her husband and hopes for a family. Can new dreams replace old?

Lucas Vermontez has always wanted to be a firefighter. But one horrific fire ruined everything, leaving him disabled, and taking his best friend as well as his father in one terrible sweep. Now, Lucas’ mother is remarrying and Lucas is becoming friends with a woman he’s long wanted—his best friend’s widow.

Jenna Morgan never really loved Zach, but she’s tried to pretend that she did. Unfortunately, when he died, she could no longer afford her home or the bills, and she didn’t even last twelve hours living with her in-laws before they basically kicked her out. Now Jenna is homeless, sponging off friends, and looking for a job.

Can Jenna and Lucas forget the painful past and discover new reasons to live?

FOREVER AFTER is the second in Ms. Raney’s A Hanover Falls series. I enjoyed getting to know Lucas and Jenna better (they were secondary characters in Almost Forever) and getting reconnected with Bryn and other characters that appeared in the first book.

Jenna is a poor girl who always wanted to be rich, one who thought she made it when she married into a wealthy family, and now thrust back into the real world where the rest of us live. Lucas is struggling to get his life back together after a fire took away everything he held dear. I cheered for these characters to find new hope, new life, and new love. Discussion questions are included at the end. An excerpt from the next book in the series After All is included at the end of the book. $14.99. 393 pages.