Raise your hand if you feel personally victimized by Madeline Kay Sneed?

Gosh dang it, I hate when a book makes me cry. I suppose I should be grateful it’s happy tears and I didn’t stub my toe or anything.

I’m a ball of emotions and I think I might just have to call my mama.

I chose this book because I’m shallow.

I loved the cover and the title so I thought id give it a whirl.

Today, Tonight Forever, isn’t a book you zip through. Take your time, absorb all the details.

The narration is done by alternating six points of view. These characters are “imperfectly, perfect” and will have you rooting along side of them and pulling at your heart strings.

Check out this teaser :

When thirty-three-year-old Athena Matthias is asked, yet again, to be a bridesmaid, she’s not exactly enthusiastic about the idea. Still reeling from a messy divorce from her wife, she’s never felt less inclined to celebrate love. But Athena can't say no, especially to one of her oldest friends, and at least it's a destination wedding, which means three days of sun and sand.

As the wedding weekend commences on the gorgeous beaches of Watercolor, Florida, for the first time in ages, Athena finds herself surrounded by people who know and love her. There’s the bride, nervous about an old relationship; a groomsman grappling with a big mistake; Athena’s mother, ready to date again; and even a potential new romantic interest.

But just as Athena begins to feel herself opening up again, an unexpected guest from the past throws the entire wedding party into chaos. By the time the cake is cut and the ultimate betrayal is revealed, Athena must find the courage to forgive—both others and herself—and embrace the beauty of a chance to move forward.

Even though the pace of this novel is a little slower than I'd anticipated, I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written story and each of its delightfully complicated characters! I often struggle with multiple characters being introduced at once but the author did a fantastic job of separating them quickly so that I could move along with the narrative. Another tricky element - multiple narrators - was deftly handled, as well; in fact, I appreciated the way in which the author provided multiple perspectives on significant moments of the story. While grief is often a heavy topic, and easily mishandled, Madeline Kay Sneed writes lovingly and beautifully about the struggles and heartbreak of these characters. I enjoyed this novel so much more than I'd expected and will be thinking about it for months to come!

I was interested in this book because of the wedding and found family aspect. What I ended up getting was a whole lot more, and in my opinion not in a good way.

Told in six different POV's, this book got to be way too much way too fast. Athena's story is the main one, and is honestly the only one that's even needed. The rest were just filler? I'm not sure what I'd call it but they added zero to the story as a whole. We got basically none of the promised wedding content. This book took me weeks of off and on reading to finish. And I hate that so much. I hate I can't rate this book an amazing rating. I generally like most things I read and this one was just so not good to me at all. Honestly, it may just be me. Every book is not for every person. For that reason I'll refrain from posting this elsewhere because I don't want to harm the authors rating anywhere simply because it wasn't a story for me. I feel terrible and I'm truly sorry.

I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Madeline Kay Sneed. ❤️

I had not read anything by Madeline Kay Sneed and was very impressed. I've been in a silly romance rut and this was the perfect title to get me a little bit out of it. I enjoyed reading about the characters and the pitfalls they were each experiencing. Well written and a nice read. Thanks Netgalley for providing this title.

This review contains Spoilers.
The back cover of the book leads you to believe you will be getting Athena’s story. Which is not what you get at all.
I was misled when I picked up this book which made it so hard to read. It took me a month to finish it. There are way too many different POV shifts. There are six, and half of those, if not more, add absolutely nothing to the story at all, other than words on the page. Especially when diving in and expecting only one. The back cover says nothing of the other characters at all. It took me so long to read it because I honestly disliked it because I was misled from the start.
I think this book needs to have a sensitivity read as there were a couple of spots where it read as racist. I do not believe that was the author’s intent, but that’s how it came across.
The entire story is a lead up to this big wedding, that’s going to be blasted all over social media, and when it arrives, we see none of it. We don’t even get a good description of the bride’s dress because the character who tells us about it… is a man who knows nothing about dresses.
The ending where the pastor breaks onto the stage, completely fell flat. Was completely not believable. Any man who would wait five years to confront the “love of his life” would not go down without a fight, especially one has awful as this man/child predator.
Some of the paragraphs were entirely too long, filling up entire pages at points. It’s hard to read when there are no breaks.
The ending fell flat. The fact that the wedding started at 5:05, you don’t even get to experience the wedding that you’ve been waiting for, you get zero satisfaction about this big event that you’ve waited to see, because you see none of it. You’re pulled to the reception, where two people give toasts, and the preacher guy does what he does. Which was a lost opportunity, because this could have been punched up with some true pastor filled hate and it was just nothing. Then Athena and Sydnee go out to the beach, screw for the sake of screwing, and then all of a sudden, it’s well after midnight even though the only thing that had happened was two toasts.
It was off putting.
I wanted to like this book so very much. But again, I was deceived by the description of the novel. I can’t rate this book the way I like to rate books, because it was just flat the entire way through. I do not like giving books less than 3.5 stars. I hate this so much, but I’m only going to be able to give this book 2 stars. It just didn’t work for me as a reader at all. I was not properly prepared for what the story actually was. Which is six different POV’s that never really come together to form anything other than different POV’s about Athena and Sydnee who broke up because Sydnee cheated after Athena was heartbroken because her father died and Sydnee wouldn’t give her any grace for it, or even try to do anything to help Athena out.
The back cover should’ve read something like this…
“Athena and Sydnee’s marriage was over when Athena couldn’t stop grieving the loss of her Father. Athen’s mother Mollie, the loss of her husband has overwhelmed her for years, but hopefully at Daisy’s wedding that can all change. Leo who’s in from out of town, to watch the love of his life marry another man, keeps his hopes up by praying his agent will call with good news. Daisy wants her wedding to go perfectly, her first marriage was far from it and now her half million followers expect a party that glistens. Deacon just wants his sister’s wedding to be all she ever dreamed of and doesn’t want to come clean to Athena about the role he played in her messy divorce. Sydnee just hopes that Athena won’t ruin the wedding she helped Daisy plan, when Sydnee brings a date with her.
It’s a destination wedding, where six people have to put aside their own desires to make sure the bride has her perfect day. As long as nothing else gets in the way.”

Or something like that. In this description the reader can clearly see that they’re getting more than just Athena, and truly know what they’re getting into.
Due to my 2 star rating, and the fact that I understand how books can be changed and edited before publication, I do not want to post this review anywhere apart from my personal blog until it has been completed and fully edited. I will give it a re-read at that time and then post reviews where appropriate. I hope that the racism will be fixed so that I can give a proper at least 3.5 star review, if not more.

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

I love a good wedding and if the character happens to have been in multiple weddings as a bridesmaid, I am in. This book does not disappoint. I also love when the author focuses on the chosen family and not just the family we are born into.

A longer review to come closer to the pub date but I enjoyed this exploration of a group of deeply connected characters over the course of a wedding weekend in Florida. A stronger sophomore book than the author's debut, for me personally.

I really loved Sneed's first novel and couldn't wait for this one. A wedding brings family and friends back together for the first time in long time. Athena is a bridesmaid coming off a messy divorce. Her ex wife is invited to the wedding with her plus-one who also happens to be the woman she cheated with. Leo is forced to watch the bride, for whom he still has romantic feelings, walk down the aisle for the second time. The bride's ex, a conservative Christian youth minister, insists upon imposing his views on gender & sexuality in the midst of it all. This was an entertaining story about what it means to love & be loved no matter your gender or sexual orientation. It's about not just the family you're born into but the family you choose and make for yourself in this crazy life. There's something for every reader in this novel.