4.25 STARS ✮ EMMA SCOTT ✮ FOREVER RIGHT NOW

FOREVER RIGHT NOW

Emma Scott

✮✮✮ 4.25 STARS ✮✮✮

Darlene Montgomery has been to hell and back…more than once. After a stint in jail for drug possession, she is finally clean and ready to start over. Yet another failed relationship is just the motivation she needs to move from New York to San Francisco with the hopes of resurrecting her dance career and discovering that she is more than the sum of her rap sheet. As Darlene struggles in her new city, the last thing she wants is to become entangled with her handsome—but cranky—neighbor and his adorable little girl...

Sawyer Haas is weeks away from finishing law school, but exhaustion, dwindling finances, and the pressure to provide for himself and his daughter, Olivia, are wearing him down. A federal clerkship--a job he desperately needs--awaits him after graduation, but only if he passes the Bar Exam. Sawyer doesn’t have the time or patience for the capricious—if beautiful—dancer who moves into the apartment above his. But Darlene’s easy laugh and cheerful spirit seep into the cracks of his hardened heart, and slowly break down the walls he’s resurrected to keep from being betrayed ever again.

When the parents of Olivia’s absentee mother come to fight for custody, Sawyer could lose everything. To have any chance at happiness, he must trust Darlene, the woman who has somehow found her way past his brittle barbs, and Darlene must decide how much of her own bruised heart she is willing to give to Sawyer and Olivia, especially when the ghosts of her troubled past refuse to stay buried.

Forever Right Now is my sixth read from Emma Scott and once again she has impressed me, creating a memorable story focussing on friendship, trust and hope, driven by two individuals who are coping with the hands life has dealt them, the best they can.

Whilst entirely a standalone read, for readers who have experienced The Butterfly Project, Darlene Montgomery will be no stranger and, having battled the worst of her demons, she’s starting afresh in San Francisco where she soon meets her guarded, grumpy and gorgeous neighbour, Sawyer Haas who is juggling caring for his year-old daughter, Olivia along with studying for his bar exam.

The way he cares for her only adds to his ridiculous sex appeal.”

This story was true to Emma’s beautiful storytelling style—the slower burn, the way her characters compliment each other, their determination despite their circumstances, how they remain true to themselves, and those moments which make you feel—these are the elements that make her characters and their journeys so captivating. Sawyer, understandably, has a tougher exterior with those he doesn’t know and I adored how Darlene works her way through it with her bubbly nature, unleashing his softer centre by showing him she can be trusted by simply being herself around him and Olivia, despite harbouring her own vulnerabilities.

…you’re like this whirling ball of energy that sweeps people up so they…can’t help getting caught up in you.”

I have to be honest though, as much as I loved Sawyer and Darlene, they didn’t pull a huge amount of emotion from me—it’s so hard not to use Full Tilt and All In as a benchmark—but some aspects here just felt a little too easy. That said there’s no denying that my heart did go out them, I was left with a lump in my throat a couple of times in the latter stages and I was completely smitten by Sawyer’s beautiful baby girl: her interactions with him, and Darlene, melted me.

If I could have just one moment, one feeling, and live in it forever, I would choose this one.”

Forever Right Now may not be my favourite from Emma Scott but it was a pleasure to read and I struggled to tear myself away from these characters when I had to be a responsible adult and go to work. And I’m certain readers will fall in love with Darlene, Sawyer, Olivia and all the secondary characters we’re introduced to along the way. Some of whom I hope we see again *coughJacksoncough* somewhere, somehow in the future.