Loved this one. I laughed and cried the whole way through. Very realistic about marriage and family life.

This book hit me in all of my feels. As a young mom myself I relate to June in so many ways. And there’s a part of me that feels like all moms go through a phase like she does. I absolutely loved this book from start to finish and couldn’t put it down!

The relatability to this book, to June, is off the charts!

This is my first to read this author and while I found the book to be a bit slow-moving at times, I could not get over how much I related to it. It is told in June's POV. She is a stay-at-home mom in her early 40s who has essentially lost herself along the way when life hasn't gone as she had anticipated. This book follows her realization that she doesn't have the life she thought she wanted and so she goes after more. I have to give credit because just as I thought I knew how things would play out, it went a different direction. And I have to admit, as she is realizing what she wants in life, things are beautiful and a bit emotionally raw. It was definitely an eye-opener, but also reassurance that the way I feel, is actually not all that uncommon.

I loved this story that focused on a mom who felt like she had lost herself to her family. As she tried to figure out the best way forward she grappled with loving her husband and kids, but wanting more for herself. I think this is a common dilemma for many women and the author did a great job portraying her emotions. Those who have raised a family or have given up a part of themselves for their marriage are sure to identify

Y’all! First let me tell you all about how sweet and amazing Ashley is! When I read the blurb for this book, I just knew it was a book I needed to read. So I slid in Ashley’s DMs and she was kind enough to send me a NetGalley widget for this book.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 ♥
✨ That dedication? It had me in my feelings from the start.
✨ The raw, unfiltered exploration of motherhood and marriage. Ashley doesn’t sugarcoat it! She captures the messy, complex, and deeply emotional reality of it all.
✨ June’s character was so relatable! As a mom and wife, I saw so much of myself in her. In my previous marriage, those roles were my entire identity, and I struggled to be anything beyond them.
✨ Scotty! Because every girl needs a bestie like her!
✨ The emotional rollercoaster this book put me through! I laughed, I cried, I cursed, I shouted, then cried and laughed some more.
✨ And let’s not forget that shower scene 🚿🥵🤌🏾 … whew!

Ashley is a phenomenal storyteller, and the way she incorporated the self-help podcast element was *chef’s kiss*. It perfectly highlights how easily we take advice from so-called "experts" without considering whether it actually applies to our unique situations. Such a brilliant touch!

I feel like this book will really hit home and resonate with a lot of women who are struggling with feeling seen. Being a mom is hard work, being a spouse is hard work, but love works harder. I’m glad we got to witness June grow from being an unconfident, stuttering mess into a proud woman. And I can’t wait to read Scotty’s story, that’ll be a fun one!

I was totally blown away by this book, this author has such an electric feel to her writing and every time I read a book by her that magical feeling occurs.
I absolutely loved our FMC June, she was so real and alive I feel like I could go visit her in real life. I appreciated the fact that she was dealing with real life problems that anyone could go through, but she still had this mysterious and sexy side of her that kept the book really exciting.
I also typically don’t like reading about kids in books, but this author did a fabulous job with the kids and I felt they gave a lot to the over all story and found myself routing for them.
I was obsessed with the little love triangle we ended up with and enjoyed seeing where/how everything ended up with that.
There were so many surprises in this book that had me feeling all the things, I also actually laughed out loud a handful of times. The author has a spunky sense of humor similar to my own and I enjoy her jokes that come out of left field so much!
I also loved our side characters and am on the edge of my seat waiting for the follow up book that I feel will just have to dig deeper into their lives.
I am so entirely honored that I received an arc copy of this book and my opinions are my own.

I am torn on this one. I started off loving it. Is June not all of us? Crazy busy, underappreciated moms unite. I was fully in until about 70% through. But then I feel like everything turned around and it was all blamed on June. Camp was the hero once again. He did so so so many things that required huge decisions without including her so he could feel like some martyr and eventually hold it over her when she lost her mind. It isn't her fault that he didn't tell her all of this stuff out of some manly need to protect her from the truth. And it doesn't change the fact that he didn't appreciate her enough not to leave his nasty dirty cleats everywhere while she was doing EVERYTHING for him. So I went from loving it to being a little annoyed by it. I would still try this author again.

I have found a new favorite author!
Forever and Back by Ashley Manley was just so beautifully written.
I absolutely adore Ashley Manley’s storytelling.
A thought-provoking read. That held such amazing characters.
First I just loved Manley’s writing. She did an absolute stellar job creating this story and really setting the scene.

Ashley Manley is quickly becoming a must-read for me! This book is emotional, sentimental and is full of relatable characters lost in the monotony of life. Can’t wait for book 2 of this duet.

Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

3.5 stars. It’s not often that I read a self published book but this book was so highly recommended that I decided to try it out.
Forever and Back tells the story of June, a tired wife and mom, who is overwhelmed with life and feels that her husband no longer loves or appreciates her. We watch June find her voice and herself and learn to communicate and love her husband again.
This story was very sweet and I definitely enjoyed aspects of it but it was predictable, and I was pretty irritated by June’s actions. It took her 17 years to express herself and communicate with her husband about her feelings? I find that hard to believe. I am intrigued to read about Scotty’s story and will be looking forward to the next book in this series.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an advanced copy of this book.

Book 1 of Life on the Ledge Duet

June is a stay-at-home mom of three who isn't feeling the love anymore - from her children, her husband or her life. She is feeling tired, undervalued, overwhelmed and could really use her husband, Camp, to be present. He seems to have checked out and is very busy with his work. She decides, after listening to a podcast, that she wants a divorce.

We, then, follow June as she tries to find herself and what makes her happy. She wants more from her life and I don't blame her. The way her teenage daughter puts her down was just terrible. I wanted June to stand up to her daughter more than she did.

As soon as she tells Camp she wants a divorce he starts to show up more and make an effort, but like June says, he should have made an effort without being told to. Communication is really key for them.

This book is so well written and will be so relatable to many women.

Thank you to the author for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

✨ Review: Forever and Back ✨
By Ashley Manley

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Women’s fiction, romance
Format: 📖ARC
Steam: 🌶️🌶️
Published: 4/1/25

In Forever and Back, June Cannon, a wife and mother, grapples with feelings of lost identity and undervaluation, forcing her to confront the state of her marriage. She wrestles with past secrets, rekindled romances, and the agonizing choice between a liberated life and the familiar complexities of her existing family.

Forever and Back resonated with me from the moment I read the opening dedication: “To the moms. The ones who struggle and the ones who don’t. To the ones who nursed for years and the ones who gave bottles on day one…To the gentle moms, the tired moms, the stressed-AF moms and the happy moms…”

To say I loved this book would be an understatement. It was raw, relatable, spicy, funny, messy in a real life kind of way, and thought provoking. June is a middle-aged, married mother of three who grapples with loss of identity, motherhood, and a stale marriage.

The main characters are complex with layers slowly peeled back as the story progresses building a love story that is both beautiful and captivating. I loved following along on June’s journey of self discovery. While the character of June' was very relatable, her actions and the situations she put herself in were at times very uncomfortable to see play out.

June is on a journey of self-discovery after feeling lost for so long. As the reader, I loved the little nuggets of wisdom/inspiration/validation sprinkled throughout the book in such an organic way. I found myself reflecting on my own experiences and relationships as I read June’s story and thinking how I can apply some of the lessons learned to my own life. Overall, I was profoundly moved by this book and felt all the emotions when I finished.

After reading Forever and Back, I'm a Ashley Manley fan. I have her last book, Every Beautiful Mile, sitting on my nightstand waiting to be devoured! I'm also excited that we’ll be getting a duet book to Forever and Back this fall, featuring June’s best friend Scotty! I'm so excited to see her personal story play out, and am hoping she finds love along the way!

📖 Read Forever and Back if you like:
- Second chance romance
- Character layers and growth
- Rediscovery of self
- Marriage struggles
- Examination of Identity & motherhood
- Love triangles
- Slow burn romance

⚠️ Trigger Warnings: miscarriage (recall), marital problems, divorce

🙏 Thank you to Netgalley, Ashley Manley, and Wildflower Books, LLC for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. Forever and Back publishes 4/1/25. 💖

Rounding up from 4.5 ⭐
Sat down to read for a break and the next thing I knew, it was hours later and I had tears running down my cheeks. June's at the end of her rope feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated.Does saying you want a divorce have to mean you can't change your mind? An emotional and heartfelt story. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest.

Wow! This book was incredible. Ashley Manley is a talent! Highly recommend for anyone who is a mother, or has ever felt invisible and wondered who they are or for anyone who appreciate stories of personal growth, emotional depth, and the complexities of modern life

"Forever and Back" follows June Cannon, a 40-year-old mother and wife, as she navigates feelings of invisibility in her family and within herself. Manley has done an excellent job exploring the complexities of motherhood, marriage and personal rediscovery and writing about these themes in a such a way that this book will resonate with a lot of readers.

The writing is very authentic and contains a lot of depth, and the struggles June was going through were believable and you could understand how she and her husband, Camp, got to this place. I also thought Manley did a great job developing the setting and the storyline around photography. I could easily imagine this story playing out as a movie!

Can't wait to read more of Ashley's work!

Thank you Ashley Manley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the e-ARC through NetGalley!

I can't say much about this other than I LOVED it. Easily one of my favorite reads so far this year.

4.5 ⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for this ARC!
Just to start off this book made me tear up so readers beware. The story as a whole was so well written, heart breaking, full of love, and was just a beautiful second chance romance. The premise is that an older woman is learning to fall in love with not only herself again but her husband while trying to take care of their children. This is something that can hit a little too close to home at times because we’re all struggling with life and what we think our ideal life should be. June is no different from the rest of us and that’s what makes the story feel so real and raw. My gripe about the book was I wish she would have talked to her husband and really tried before going to such extreme lengths. This was such a wonderful book and you should definitely give it a read!

If you are a mom, a wife, the one who holds all the information about the kids in your family and deals with the mental exhaustion from that, Ashley Manley will make you feel seen with this book.

June married her high school sweetheart years ago, and she then put her dreams aside to raise their daughter and their twins, born years later. Now she is a stay at home mom who feels lost, unsure of who else she is other than a mom and wife. Her frustration with her husband’s emotional and physical unavailability leads June to ask for a separation, and she begins to piece together the other parts of her personality and desires.

The book is heartfelt and thoughtfully written, shining a bright light on the million things a stay at home parent does all day and how exhausting putting everyone else first can be. June goes through an entire emotional journey over the course of the story, and it felt very authentic and compelling,

Thank you to the author for the ARC. All opinions are my own,

From the dedication to the very last word, this is a special book that I truly adored. I flew through it, loved it, cried, laughed, pondered, questioned, re-read, heard it, have lived it, and more than anything felt like this book spoke to me.

5 well deserved ⭐️s

If you
•are a mom
•have a mom
•have 1 child or 5
•had 1 miscarriage or several
•gave up your career
•put your dreams aside (or completely lost track of them)
•reimagined who you are or where you want to be
•changed your course or charted a new one
•given up your plan (if you ever even had one)
•understand what it means to pivot, and pivot again and again, and again…and just go with it
•loved beyond measure
•question your decisions and ultimately yourself
•dealt with brutal reality and wondered if anything can ever be simple
•explored new opportunities but constantly question the what ifs
•appreciate life’s full circle moments
•always look for the bright side
•want the very best for your kids and give them every ounce of everything you can…

this is your book

A special note - since it’s nearly graduation season. If you are a mom of a high school graduate (like me!) read this. You will sob. Be ready. Give them wings, hold them close, smile through the tears. Love, pride, devastating joy. Feel it all. 🩷

Bottom line - I feel seen. Thank you @ashleymanleywrites. Can’t wait for book 2!

Forever and Back is available on April 1st!

Thank you @netgalley and @ashleymanleywrites for the ARC!

Forever and Back was my first Ashley Manley book and definitely won't be my last. I went in blind to this book and am so glad that I did. I think we can all relate to June in some form, a tired mom that feels she has no purpose. When June thinks that her life has to go down a certain path but the events make her realize where she was headed was where shew wanted to be all along. This book had me laughing and crying. With a daughter graduating high school in a couple of months that ending did me in!

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an ARC of Forever and Back by Ashley Manley for an honest review.