Forever for Us (The Wilder Brothers #8)
Carrie Ann Ryan
Blurb:
Only when I see my former best friend’s ex, Ava, in need of a job, I can’t say no. Not when she has their eight-year-old daughter in tow and nowhere to go.
Now I’m forced to work with the woman from my past I’d rather forget. We both want to move on, but every time we’re near each other, the fire hadn’t known we could have burns between us even brighter.
We should say no. The complications would break us. Yet we can’t walk away.
Even when it would be safer for all of us if we do.
Themes: Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 stars
Heat Rating:
Review:
The Wilder you’ve been in the past, I guess the wilder the future could end up being for you, and Carrie Ann Ryan proves that in spades in her newest addition to the Wilder Brothers Series. The newest set of Wilders is firmly entrenched in the family business and the Wilder Resort and Winery is getting more and more successful, but dangers lurk around ever corner it seems for this family. Carrie Ann Ryan has constructed a family and environment where her characters can not only thrive but find love and happens while growing their family and successes and it’s a beautiful thing to witness. I have enjoyed each new Wilder we have met and gotten to watch fall in love, even though there were so often tears, danger and fear as they each had to work through trauma, pain and emotional turmoil to reach their HEAs. I love the way that Ryan always manages to take us on a journey of two people that seem so disparate and different on paper, people that can’t possibly find a way to be together and overcome their pasts, and something manages to bring them together and force them to let go of their pain and find love once again. I am dying for the next story, and I know that whoever finds love, their story will be amazing and an adventure in emotional growth and a test of love. Carrie Ann never fails me in her magic touch and if I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if she was hiding some special magic of her own as she brings love to her characters from the most unbelievable of beginnings.
Wyatt Wilder is finally getting himself in order, his bar and distillery is becoming successful, and his ex-wife has finally signed their divorce papers, but suddenly things are not looking so bright when he is attacked and left bleeding and beaten in his bar late one night. Removing from her divorce, Ava London, is doing all she can to feed herself and her daughter and keep them afloat when Wyatt shows up in the dinner where she is waitressing. She doesn’t want to see the ex-best friend of her jerk of an ex-husband any more than she wants a hole in the head, but when her world is suddenly thrown into chaos, he offers her and her daughter a lifeline. Wyatt has no idea why he offered Ava a job and a place at Wilder for her and Faith to live, but now he is faced with the emotions that they both bring up in him every time he sees either of them. The more time Ava and Wyatt spend together the more incendiary their connection and when two such volatile chemicals come into contact there is no prevents the explosion. But can these two find more than the simple physical connection they’ve discovered or are they both too shattered by their past to admit their feelings for one another—and will the darkness lurking in the shadows allow them the chance they deserve at that happiness?
I just loved getting to see these two such damaged characters as they found a way to heal and accept the pains of their past and let it all go as they found love again together. Wyatt has intrigued me from the very beginning, when the Wilder Cousins were first introduced several stories ago and I have been dying to read his full story and learn who and how he was so badly hurt. Honestly having a vapid and selfish wife that left him for his best friend is pretty dang bad, but it sounds like he was much better off to me. He is the kind of man that needs to be reminded that life doesn’t always have to be so serious, sometimes we can laugh and enjoy the lighter side of life and love without forgetting responsibility. He was somewhat of an ass here and there as he tried to have his cake and eat it too, when it came to having a relationship with Ava, but then again, she has her own issues. HE was sweet with Faith always though, and that caring, loving nature, strength and sweetness kept him from moving too far into the dislikeable side of the alpha male that would have made him an asshole, so I enjoyed those moments where he allowed his softer, quieter emotions to rule him. Ava obviously has been hurt repeatedly by her ex, so I didn’t much blame her from being resistant to Wyatt’s seductions, even when she allowed him into her bed, refusing him access to her heart. But she slowly began to see that he was more than just a man out to get what he wanted and then leave her high and dry, he truly cared about her and her daughter, was willing to sacrifice and care for them and offer them a piece of his heart. I loved seeing her interacting with the other Wilder women and finding where she fit in amongst the family, because its obvious from the very beginning that they accepted her into the family, even before Wyatt made her clear she was his. She has a backbone of steel and is unwilling to give up everything she has scraped and worked for even though she knows that Wyatt is throwing her a bone, but she is not too proud to do whatever she must for her daughter. That protectiveness, love and loyalty makes her not only a good mother, but a great addition to the Wilders and a great match for Wyatt in the end.
I truly loved the experience of getting to read Forever for Us and watch Wyatt and Ava as they circled and danced their way around one another and finally into a future that was obviously always meant to be. Wyatt made a terrible decision with his first choice of wife, but now he is finally moving forward with his life and his business is thriving, but when Ava returns to his life, he is suddenly unsure of his path and his choices are all in the air again. Ava has to fight her way out of the mire her ex left her in, but when Wyatt throws her a life preserver, she is terrified to trust another man, especially one so connected to her past and her ex. Together they have to accept that sometimes a painful and mistake-riddled past in order to understand that it led them right to the future they were always meant to have, finding a perfect happiness together and building a family and future filled with love, light, and laughter. The heat between Ava and Wyatt in the beginning often sparks in arguments and fighting, but when it explodes in an altogether unexpected manner, the resulting fire, one that will seemingly continue burn for their lifetimes, is bright and strong. I loved watching these two dance around one another until they finally came to accept their fates and stop fighting it! Carrie Ann Ryan definitely struck gold with these two and I look forward to seeing more of them (psst there is an extended epilogue for those interested) in later stories. The next novel (Pieces of Me) where the baby of the family, Gabriel, finds love should certainly be a game changer and I for one am dying for it. Carrie Ann never lets me down; I doubt she ever will.
*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.
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