A review by monkey251931
Forever After All by Catharina Maura

5.0

5 stars ⭐️

Incredible read! Loss, heartbreak, renewed friendship, & love

MMC : Alexander (Alec) grew up in a wealthy family working hard to inherit his grandfather’s business. Unfortunately for him, his grandfathers stipulation requires Alec to be married in order to be able to take over the business. One night while out a local club he comes across a stunning young woman he can’t take his eyes off of. She’s seems familiar but he can’t quite place how he knows her. Right before she gets called away, she calls him Alec which sends up red flags in his mind because NO ONE but a hand full of those closest to him call by that name.


MFC: Elena is young woman going through far more trouble than someone her age should ever experience. Her mother is a coma and has been for years. Her estranged father and brother have given up all hope for Elena’s mother’s survival and have moved on with new lives forsaking Elena. Elena inherited 1/2 of her mother’s inheritance when doctors deemed her mother brain dead. Elena has depleted the millions of dollars of inheritance to keep her mother alive for many years and now she has nothing left and no way to continue paying for her mothers medical care

Plot:
Elena is now faced with having to do the unthinkable and sell her body at an exclusive men’s club to earn the funds to keep her mother alive.
Elena is going to interview at the exclusive men’s club and runs into none other than Alec and Alec’s brother Lucian (Elena’s best childhood friend) in the lobby of the place where she is interviewing. Since Lucian was her best friend, he recognized Elena immediately. Only then does Alex put the pieces together and not only recognizes his childhood friend, but this is also the woman from the nightclub he couldn’t stop thinking about.
Unbeknownst to Elena, Alec & Lucian know the type of interview she’s going into and they are friends with the owner. Alec puts a stop to the interview and between him and Lucian, they take her back to their house.
Lucian and Alec are able to figure out what is going on and why Elena was trying to get a job at the exclusive men’s club.

Since Alec needs a wife and Elena needs money to keep her mother alive, an agreement is put in place and they decide the best option is to marry. The only stipulation is that Alec is adamant that he will never love her. He believes himself to be incapable of love. So the agreement is put in place.
After the quick courthouse marriage, Elena hires a PI to dig further into the car accident that caused Elena’s mother’s coma based on pure suspicion.

The story contains heartbreaking twists that no one was prepared for, but with Alec fiercely fighting at Elena’s side to get to the truth, he showing Elena just how capable he is of love, but he’ll never admit to it, even if it means losing Elena

I love the instant compatibility between the 2 MC’s. Even though Alec fights his unavoidable attraction, he still treats her like a Queen (most of the time). The spice is amazing and the emotions written truly draw you into the scenes. There are moments when Alec fights his feelings so hard that he hurts Elena and while I don’t enjoy that, it’s important for character development.

Tropes: will they/won’t they, grumpy/sunshine & forced proximity

Trigger warnings: attempted murder, explicit sexual content, family betrayal, & adult language