Forever, Interrupted: A Novel

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I nodded. “That sounds about right. I lost you for about three hours and found you in the upstairs bathroom, so I can’t speak to how far you and that guy from the gym got, but I would imagine . . . ” An unforgettable and sweeping novel about one classic film actress’s relentless rise to the top—the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine. Forever, Interrupted weaves a beautiful love story with a terrible tragedy. Told in alternating timelines, each chapter progresses sequentially from two different arcs: one of a blooming, forever love and another of overcoming a sudden, inexplicable loss. Each storyline moves effortlessly and seamlessly through the connected stages, while also emphasizing the strengthening of old friendships and the forging of new ones. Whether told in past or present voice, Reid’s debut is a superb read from start to finish!” Written in a breezy, humorous style familiar to fans of Jane Green and Elin Hilderbrand, After I Do focuses on Lauren’s journey of self-discovery. The intriguing premise and well-drawn characters contribute to an emotionally uplifting and inspiring story.”

I'm going to share the blurb with you because I actually feel its a beautiful and very accurate depiction of the story. God, even reading the blurb makes my heart hurt. But this is exactly what this book is about: Elsie is consumed with grief. How could she have known Ben for such a short time yet felt so completely known and loved? To complicate matters, Ben never told his mother, despite their closeness, that Elsie existed, let alone became his wife. That’s when I fall to the ground. Everything starts spinning. I can hear my pulse, but I can’t focus on what the policeman is saying. I really didn’t think this was going to happen. I thought bad things only happened to people with hubris. They don’t happen to people like me, people that know how fragile life is, people that respect the authority of a higher power. But it has. It has happened to me. I don’t know,” he says, starting to rub my feet again. “I just like the idea of both our names together.” Romantic love may seem like the driving force behind Forever, Interrupted, but in what ways does friendship also shape the novel? In particular, how does seeing Elsie in the role of a friend—and not just as Ben’s girlfriend and wife— add to our understanding of her? What do her interactions with Ana, as well as with Mr. Callahan, reveal about her as a character?The officer looks at me. He pulls his hat off his head and places it on his chest. I know what this means. I’ve seen it done on the doorsteps of war widows in period pieces. As if on cue, I start violently heaving. Moving, gorgeous and, at times, heart-wrenching. Taylor Jenkins Reid writes with wit and true emotion that you can feel. Read it, savor it, share it.' When Elsie first arrives at Susan’s house, she realizes:“I can’t help but think that maybe because it’s okay to cry, I can’t” (p. 261). Can you find some other concrete examples of the grieving process that are illustrated in the book? Were there particular moments of Elsie’s (or Susan’s) mourning that especially resonated with you?

I need to see him!” I scream through my tears. “I need to see him! I need to be with him!” I drop to my knees in the middle of the road, cereal crunching underneath me. “Is he all right? I should be with him. Just tell me if he is still alive.” The police officer isn’t rushed; he isn’t running on adrenaline like me. He knows there is nothing to hurry for. He knows my husband’s dead body can wait.That settles it. As soon as the marriage certificate gets here, I’m sending it to the DMV or wherever you have to send it.”

I woke up New Year’s Day alone in my apartment, just like I woke up every other day, and there was nothing in particular that seemed special about it. I read in bed for two hours, I took a shower, I got dressed. I met Ana for breakfast. Both are seared with grief; Susan is still mourning the death of her own husband several years earlier, and the loss of her only son is almost too much to bear. The two women immediately sour on one another, fighting over what to do with Ben's belongings and how to fulfill his wishes. But as time goes by, Susan and Elsie both realize that despite the terrible accident that brought them together, they are now the only family they have left. The ambulance pulls away. Is he in it? Is Ben in there? Are they keeping him alive? Is he okay? Is he bruised? Maybe he’s in the ambulance because protocol says they have to but he’s actually fine. Maybe he’s around here somewhere. Maybe the ambulance was holding the driver of the car. That guy has to be dead, right? No way that person survived. So Ben must be all right. That’s the karma of an accident: The bad guy dies, the good guy lives. He grabs my hand and leads me into the front of his police car. He uses his siren to break through traffic and I see the streets of Los Angeles in fast-forward. They have never looked so ugly. This was an emotional ride. Who are we to tell people how to grieve or if they should even be allowed to grieve? That was what I think the central message of this book was. Love cannot be measured by everyone's standards, right? Elsie and Ben weren’t together for a long time, but it didn’t make their love "less" love compared to other people who have been together for a long time. Susan, who also lost her husband, did a great job in making Elsie see this.I’m going to call you soon, if that’s okay. Or should I do the wait-three-days thing? Is that more your style?” Instead, Ana got too drunk at the party, started making out with the guy from the gym, and disappeared for a few hours. This was fairly typical of Ana and something that I had come to love about her, namely that nothing ever went as planned. Something always happened. She was a nice reprieve from my own personality. A personality for whom everything went as planned and nothing ever happened. So when I was stranded at the party waiting for Ana to pop out of wherever she’d been hiding, I wasn’t angry or surprised. I had assumed things might take this turn. I was only slightly annoyed as I rang in the new year with a group of strangers. I stood there awkwardly, as friends kissed each other, and I just stared into my champagne glass. I didn’t let it ruin my evening. I talked to some cool people that night. I made the best of it. If you’ve ever been hit with grief, Elsie is a very relatable character. She had her life, her future, her everything ripped from her in a matter of moments and is left not knowing how to live or move forward. The process of grief and grieving is a whole other level of trauma that’s different from, yet adjacent to loss. And this story handles it beautifully. That is lazy of you, but you’re my wife and I love you and I want you to have what you want.” He starts to get up.

I always find it hard to categorise Taylor Jenkins Reid books. Whilst they’re not purely romance novels, it also doesn’t seem to do her writing justice to just call it general fiction! PDF / EPUB File Name: Forever_Interrupted_-_Taylor_Jenkins_Reid.pdf, Forever_Interrupted_-_Taylor_Jenkins_Reid.epub Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable characters and just the right amount of sexual tension. Sweet, heartfelt, and surprising, Forever Interrupted is a story about a young woman struggling to find her way after losing her husband. These characters made me laugh as well as cry, and I ended up falling in love with them, too." author of The Best of Us - Sarah Pekkanen I don’t even realize I am running until I reach the ambulance doors. I start to pound on them. I jump up and down as I try to pound on the window that is too high above me to reach. As I do, all I hear is the sound of the Fruity Pebbles crunching beneath my feet. I grind them into the pavement each time I jump. I break them into a million pieces.

No, he was absolutely not going to be shot down. But I was now embarrassed and trying hard not to seem eager. I smiled wide at him, unable to keep the canary feathers in my mouth. “Your pizza is going to get cold,” I told him. FOREVER, INTERRUPTED tells the story of a young woman who elopes after a whirlwind romance and then must face the sudden death of her adoring husband. She must come to terms with his loss while forming an unlikely relationship with his mother – who didn’t know she existed.