#BookReview – “Forevermore” by Kristen Callihan

Blurb

Miss Layla Starling, the young, beautiful, and extremely wealthy heiress, is the talk of London. Until now, she's managed to evade the marriage noose. Despite the fact that she is unfortunately American, she's received a staggering number of offers. And turned down every one.
St. John Evernight does not want to admit the relief he feels every time he hears that she has rejected one of her suitors. Which is unfair of him. Layla deserves to be happy. But he can not offer her happiness. He will never be normal, never be anything but a freak in her world. So St. John resolves to keep his distance, until he is recruited by the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals to guard Layla. For she is in grave danger, and he is about to learn the full extent of his powers.

Review

In book seven in the Darkest London series, Layla Starling returns to London and goes home to her beloved guardian Augustus. He’s raised her since she was a baby, and they love each other like father and daughter. The last person she expected to see sitting in the parlor was St. John “Sin” Evernight, her childhood friend whom she hadn’t seen in several years.

Sin has loved Layla from afar, but after suffering years as a blood slave for the evil fae queen, he doesn’t believe he’s good enough for Layla. He’s a powerful elemental and now Judgment, an angel with the ability to steal souls from evil people and send the souls to Hell. Augustus is also Judgment and Sin’s mentor, and he’s adamant Sin protect Layla from the Damnation demon that is looking for her.

Layla is a half-breed (half Judgment and half Damnation), but she’s probably the sweetest, kindest heroine in the series. Sin is so damaged, his self-esteem so low. Layla’s acceptance and love, and his sisters’ regret for thinking the worst of him, did a lot to help him heal. I really loved the scene when all the secrets were out and Poppy, Daisy, and Miranda finally learned the truth and realized how wrong they were.

There are two couples featured in this story, Layla and Sin being the most prominent. I preferred, however, the romance and reconciliation with Augustus and Lena.

Though commonly believed to be a powerful sanguis demon, Lena is a Damnation demon in love with angel. Needless to say, this couple has not had an easy courtship, mostly due to Lena’s refusal to accept Augustus as her mate.

Augustus was an awesome but very conniving character, and I loved the scene when Lena called him out on it. For over a thousand years, he’s been playing chess, setting people up in the roles he wants for them and pushing them down the right path, so he could achieve his end game. If not for his manipulations, the main couples in this seven-book series never would’ve met, fallen in love, or had even been born. That’s pretty extraordinary.

As with the previous book, I was a little confused with the timeline and the amount of time that has passed. I like twists and turns in novels, but it was surprising that certain truths from earlier stories were revealed as false in this story. Other than Lena’s heritage, the most notable twist was Archer and his “curse” from book one. It’s always irked me a little that Archer/Miranda and Winston/Poppy (from book three) remained human at the end of their stories when all the other couples became immortal. Though I’m happy Archer and Miranda has transformed into something more, I still feel bad for Win and Poppy.

The only typos I noticed were the villain’s name. It was spelled two different ways (St Clair and St Claire).

I’m disappointed my favorite secondary character, Lucien, didn’t show up in this book. He deserves to fall in love with someone, either off-page or on, but it didn’t happen.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I’m sad to see the series end, but everything was mostly wrapped up. (There are some unanswered questions, series-wise, but nothing of great importance.) I see the potential for a spinoff series, and if Ms. Callihan ever writes it, I’ll be sure to read it.

4 Stars