For Never & Always follows Hannah and Levi who were once lovers and now are reconnecting over the hotel they inherited!

I didn’t know this was technically a sequel before I went into it and although I don’t think that harmed my reading experience, there was definitely some extra angst that I probably missed regarding a certain side character.

I really enjoyed the start of this! I just wrapped up a few stories about unlikeable main characters and this was a great change of pace with two messy characters but who were both still likeable and able to pull me into their relationship.

I think the things I didn’t really love were related to the drama that they both thrived and loved as people. Both that either Levi or Hannah search for or create drama, they just both love being a part of things and their overall lack of communication skills lead to more pain for them both

Both Levi and Hannah seemed to really self-analyze in different ways and look towards a way they can both be full people separately while also trying to figure out how to be in a healthy relationship together. You’re definitely rooting for them to get their shit together throughout though!

For Never & Always
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Helena Greer

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Hannah Rosenstein should be after a lonely childhood of traipsing all over the world, she finally has a home as the co-owner of destination inn Carrigan’s All Year. But her thoughts keep coming back to Levi "Blue" her first love, worst heartbreak, and now, thanks to her great-aunt’s meddling will, absentee business partner. 

When Levi left Carrigan's, he had good intentions. As the queer son of the inn's cook and groundskeeper, he never quite fit in their small town and desperately wanted to prove himself. Now that he’s a celebrity chef, he's ready to come home and make amends. Only his return goes nothing like he his family's angry with him, his best friend is dating his nemesis, and Hannah just wants him to leave. Again .

Levi sees his chance when a VIP bride agrees to book Carrigan’s—if he’s the chef. He'll happily cook for the wedding, and in exchange, Hannah will give him five dates to win her back. Only Hannah doesn’t trust this new Levi, and Levi’s coming to realize Hannah’s grown too. But if they find the courage to learn from the past . . . they just might discover the love of your life is worth waiting for.

My Thoughts: This was a sweet romantic read. This was a follow up book to The Season of Love and some readers of this book may not know that and feel a little lost. To get the most character enrichment and backstory, it is better to read The Season of Love first, and then dive into this book. Initially, the beginning of the book, I was confused with the storyline but a few chapters and everything cleared up. Hannah Rosenstein spent most of her childhood all over the world, with never living in the same place too long. Her great aunt bestowed Carrigan’s to her, a destination inn. Her great aunt also made Levi part owner. Hannah and Levi were each other’s first love and when he left, she was heartbroken and wrecked. Levi has returned, now a famous chef, and nothing goes as planned. The governor’s daughter is having a wedding at Carrigans and will only do so if Levi is the chef. Well Levi sees this as a way back into Hannah’s graces, he will agree to be the chef for the wedding if she agrees to five dates with him, and if by the conclusion of the dates, he does not win her over, he will sell his shares of Carrigans. Will he be able to win her back over? Or does the hurt run too deep? This follows the tropes of second chance romance, small town, and friends to enemies to lovers.

The story is narrated in a dual narration by Hannah and Levi, in their respective perspectives, with flashbacks to the past. Our heroine is plus size and represented well. Hannah is a fun, spirited woman that is loyal to a fault, and cares deeply. Levi was confused when he left, he never felt like he fit in, for those he loves, he is all in. There was a lot of supporting/side characters in this story. Now in the end, they did enhance the story, but it took some time to get there. The characters were well fleshed out, had depth, had tremendous growth through the storyline, witty banter, chemistry, angst, and tension. The author’s writing style was complex, endearing, closed door, intriguing, and kept me invested (once we got to the halfway mark). I held on reading because I know this author writes very talently and there would come a point when everything made sense.

Trigger warnings: childhood trauma. The author did a fantastic job with representation of LBGTQ+, Jewish culture, customs, and tradition, as well as mental health. The story started a little confusing and no where did it label it a follow up, or sequel book to the Season of Love, which is why a lot of readers were confused by the beginning. It felt like starting in the middle of the book; and then the middle of the book felt like it was the beginning of the book. However, saying this, I still enjoyed this novel and would recommend to other readers.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this book. got a bit lost with a few of the side characters with their stories as well as the back and forth of things. I almost feel I would have liked it better if I would have read the first book of the series.

I found the characters difficult to like and deal with. They were all so whiny and annoying. It felt sad and unhappy.
I love a good redemption story but unfortunately this one kind of missed the mark for me, but I hope to have better luck with this author in the future.

The premise was really promising, and I'm sure there are plenty of readers who will love these messy, queer characters and their childhood friends to lovers, second chance romance, but something about the writing style just didn't mesh with my brain and made it difficult for me to read.

Thanks to Forever and Netgalley for my copy to review.

✨ Review ✨ For Never & Always by Helena Greer

The sequel to Season of Love, this book picks up where that book ends with Levi (Blue) returning home to Carrigans and his relationship with Hannah. The book alternates between this present day story and short flashbacks providing their back story. Blue convinces Hannah to go on several dates with him in an attempt to woo her back, but really they both identify things they need to work on along the way.

I loved learning more about Blue and Hannah in this book -- the highs and lows of their relationship and what makes them tick. The book is filled with Carrigan's All Year events, including several events for the governor's daughter, and it gives us a chance to settle into Carrigans.

While this book is a second chance book, it feels a lot deeper than that. Instead of the two basically same characters coming together or decades later coming together, it truly felt like them working on themselves and each other in a healthier way than many second chance books feel to me.

It did start to drag a bit in the second half and could have been a bit more snappy, but overall I enjoyed this one, and can't wait for the next!!!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.75)
Genre: contemporary F/M romance, queer & Jewish representation
Setting: Carrigans Tree Farm, rural NY
Pub Date: Nov 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ Christmas trees & Jewish holidays
⭕️ lots of delicious food
⭕️ second chance romances

Thanks to Forever and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Loved this. It was great to read a romance with characters in their mid-thirties trying to figure out anxieties, relationships and life. Looking forward to book 3.

This was the first book I have read by Helena Greer and I really enjoyed it. I didn't realize this was the second book in this series and because I didn't it did leave me confused figuring everything out. I got there and really enjoyed the book. I will be going back to read the first one. The setting and the characters are really good. This is a sweet small town romance and I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

This took me some time to get into it, but once I did I flew through it in less than a day. I ended up purchasing the audiobook and really enjoyed the narration. I loved being back at Carrigans and seeing Miriam and Noelle from Season of Love. Levi and Hannah get their second chance when he returns home after Cass’ death. I appreciated how everyone finally heard him in how Cass mistreated him and how it allowed him some peace. There were a lot of healthy aspects to Levi’s relationship with Hannah as they tried to rebuild their secret marriage. I loved that they went to therapy together. There were lots of sweet moments and plenty that made me laugh out loud too. I loved the ending. Im excited for more books from Helena Greer.

I believe this is marketed as a standalone but I really think you need to read Season of Love, Helena Greer's debut novel, before this one. You'll definitely have a better understanding of some of the major characters who play important parts in this story.

That said, I enjoyed this book more than I did SoL. And it made me look at one of the main players in SoL, who also plays a big part in this book, a lot differently. But I really liked the two main characters in this book, Levi and Hannah. I liked getting to see things from both their points of view, as well as the flashbacks. These two had so much history- most of it good, until it wasn't. I'm so glad Levi came back to Carrigan's, they really, really needed to work things out and to make things right between them. There was just too much good and wonderful between them, for it to all end.

I loved the epilogue!!!

DNF

I rarely ‘do not finish’ a romance novel. But, as I found myself hating more and more of “For Never and Always”, my absolute disgust with this book forced me to stop.

Hannah and Levi have been friends / in love with each other all their lives; they haven’t seen each other for a number of years after Levi asks Hannah to leave the farm/hotel where they all live to explore the world and Hannah refuses because her aunt (who owns the property) is sick, and the hotel is her happy/safe place. Levi’s back and wants to reunite.

Levi hates the farm and small-town for various reasons I won’t get into. But what is important is that everyone dismisses or doesn’t know about how bad it was for him. Hannah says something to the effect of “I guess we should have believed you instead of thinking you were an exaggerating, moody teenager”; everyone is shocked at how poorly the perfect aunt treated him. Did these people not have functioning eyes or ears?

I stopped reading when a side character says to Levi (I paraphrase) “I thought you were a just a whining cisgendered white man, but now that I know you’re queer, your trauma is real / justifiable.”

Hannah is terrible. She and Levi are having dinner, and she wants to know about why his childhood was so bad, and Levi explains some of the ways the aunt treated him. Her response: “I can’t believe you’re trying to ruin the memories of someone I love.” And then she runs out of the restaurant.

Levi is described as "selfish" or self-centred, but I saw little evidence of it. He is a person who filters events through his own experience - not sure that makes him selfish or simply human? And, when he's spent most of his life not fitting in and told he's a drama-queen, all my sympathy was for him. I could only think - you can do better!

I found all the "best friends" immature and similarly terrible, and I just could not bring myself to finish this book. I received an ARC of this book, but the review is my own.

You don’t need to read the previous book to understand this one but I would recommend her other books. This one felt a bit flat to me simply because e the characters weren’t my favorite.

Helena Greer’s Season of Love was one of my favourite holiday books last year (review here) so I was really looking forward to getting to hang out at Carrigan’s All Year again with Hannah, Miriam, and Noelle in For Never and Always. But, while I was happy with some of the themes of the story, I was ultimately left disappointed. I didn’t buy the romance and if I don’t buy the love story in a romance novel? Well, that’s a hard thing to come back from.

Here’s the book’s description:
Hannah Rosenstein should be after a lonely childhood of traipsing all over the world, she finally has a home as the co-owner of destination inn Carrigan’s All Year. But her thoughts keep coming back to Levi "Blue" her first love, worst heartbreak, and now, thanks to her great-aunt’s meddling will, absentee business partner.
When Levi left Carrigan's, he had good intentions. As the queer son of the inn's cook and groundskeeper, he never quite fit in their small town and desperately wanted to prove himself. Now that he’s a celebrity chef, he's ready to come home and make amends. Only his return goes nothing like he his family's angry with him, his best friend is dating his nemesis, and Hannah just wants him to leave. Again .
Levi sees his chance when a VIP bride agrees to book Carrigan’s—if he’s the chef. He'll happily cook for the wedding, and in exchange, Hannah will give him five dates to win her back. Only Hannah doesn’t trust this new Levi, and Levi’s coming to realize Hannah’s grown too. But if they find the courage to learn from the past . . . they just might discover the love of your life is worth waiting for.
I was so sad that I didn’t love this love story more than I did. I just found Hannah and Levi’s relationship to be so incredibly toxic. I was with Noelle, who also didn’t think they belonged together. Hannah explained her feelings by saying that Noelle just never got to see Hannah and Levi together and happy. By the time Noelle came along, cracks had formed and it wasn’t a great relationship. Well, I didn’t see a great relationship either, not even in some of the flashbacks. And I love a good romance between childhood friends but I couldn’t see past their toxic past. Especially when they kept saying that they used to just “fight or fuck.” I’m supposed to root for them after that? When neither of them were actually, you know, TALKING to each other? “He’s just not understanding!” Well, sweetie, it’s because he can’t read your damn mind. Of course he doesn’t understand. As for Levi, he wasn’t telling all his truth that completed affected his teenagehood and something he sure as hell needed to resolve before he could have a healthy relationship.

Speaking of that secret of Levi’s…it had to do with Cass and it made zero sense to me. It was a huge truthbomb that affected Hannah and Miriam so much but I was left scratching my head a bit. Not necessarily because of what happened. But more just how the narrative was being put together. It seemed like this truth should have caused more…problems? Maybe? It’s hard to say without spoilers but it was a big part of why the story didn’t work for me.

This story also kind of dragged for me. I didn’t really feel like there was much movement in the plot. It was just back and forth of Hannah and Levi trying to figure out their lives and being kind of whiney and kind of self-centred the whole time. I’m pretty sure there was a lot of skimming happening.

Even though I didn’t enjoy For Never and Always, I still want to check out the next book in Helena Greer’s series. I think she has good stories to tell - this one just really missed the mark for me.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, via Netgalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

I did not finish this I just couldn’t get into this book.I was not interested in anything about this book

Thank you @readforeverpub for a copy of this second chance romance. I was happy to be back at Carrigan's and seeing all the characters. This one centers on Hannah who loved the farm growing up when she visited when she was not traveling with her parents. She grew up with Levi who was raised on the farm which his parents running the inn. There was so much angst in this story between Levi and Hannah. The back of forth anger got a bit exhausting for me. I did enjoy seeing them work together and the flashbacks of the story.

I was so excited to return to Carrigan's and to meet Hannah and Levi in an in-depth capacity! I enjoyed Hannah in "Season of Love" so I couldn't wait to read her own story. I loved their chance at a second chance romance and observing them each growing in their own personal way. The friendships and family in this story are overall positive and supportive and what everyone needs in their lives! Being able to watch the transformation of Carrigan's over the year and to watch Miriam and Noelle grow in their relationship was also fun! Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Pub! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Dnf ~ 20% I didn’t realize it was a second book in a series, and wasn’t connecting with the characters. May come back and finish if I read Seasons of Love at a future date.

I appreciate the Jewish and queer representation but I was just not connecting with Levi and Hannah quick enough to keep reading, especially with all the other characters being introduced. Too many books, so little time.

3.5*

I believe this is marketed as a standalone but I really think you need to read Season of Love, Helena Greer's debut novel, before this one. You'll definitely have a better understanding of some of the major characters who play important parts in this story.

That said, I enjoyed this book more than I did SoL. And it made me look at one of the main players in SoL, who also plays a big part in this book, a lot differently. But I really liked the two main characters in this book, Levi and Hannah. I liked getting to see things from both their points of view, as well as the flashbacks. These two had so much history- most of it good, until it wasn't. I'm so glad Levi came back to Carrigan's, they really, really needed to work things out and to make things right between them. There was just too much good and wonderful between them, for it to all end.

I loved the epilogue!!!

Thrilled to return to Carrigan's! I love the setting and the cozy little cast of characters. Needed more Kringle tho.

I absolutely adored Helena Greer’s debut, Season of Love, and could not wait to get my hands on Hannah and Blue’s second chance romance in For Never and Always. This is a book full of complex history and an exploration of sorts of the fallible nature of memory and how different people have totally different experiences. It was such a trip to see Cass through Levi’s eyes while he grew up because in SoL she’s so beloved and seen as such a guiding force, but for Levi she was this person who constantly made him question his value and especially his right to space at Carrigan’s. I really loved that complexity and nuance. I also wholeheartedly believe this is one of the best second chance romances I’ve ever read! The way their history was shown with interstitials and the contrast of the people Hannah and Levi had grown into was so well executed. It really showed how sometimes the perfect person for you isn’t perfect *right now* and needing time and space apart to grow and mature can make such a difference in a couple’s ability to have a healthy relationship. I just really loved this so much on multiple levels, and I absolutely cannot wait for Tara’s book next!

EXCUSE ME more people need to be screaming about FOR NEVER & ALWAYS and also its predecessor SEASON OF LOVE, set in the magical world of Carrigan’s Christmas tree farm turned year round upstate NY destination, run by a Jewish family - yes that’s right. The characters are all kinds of queer, some have anxiety, they have messy family dynamics, they are EVERYTHING. (The Veronica Mars references are great too. #LoVe) If you are going to do any holiday romance reading let it be this one, I beg you.