Taylor Jenkins Reid

After her newlywed husband, Ben, is killed while riding his bike, Elsie realizes the only family she has left is a mother-in-law she does not meet until after Ben's death, and whom she is instantly at odds with, and must forge a bond with the woman if she is ever going to get over the grief. Original. 35,000 first printing.

A Novel

Forever, Interrupted

Sarah Campbell

Every morning when I wake up I forget for a fraction of a second that you are gone and I reach for you. All I ever find is the cold side of the bed. My eyes settle on the picture of us in Paris, on the bedside table, and I am overjoyed that even though the time was brief I loved you and you loved me. 

I didn’t love this book. For most of part 1 I found myself really disliking the main character for her disregard of others feelings during a tragedy. Through most of the book MC was super self absorbed. Also I really didn’t see the love connection with Elsie and Ben - most of the decisions they made were super illogical and most of all cringey and unrealistic. Susan was my favorite character as she felt the most real (apart from going to apologize to Elsie like why are you apologizing). Not my fave TJR book, but also her debut novel. 

Paige Paul

It’s quite possible this is the saddest thing I’ve ever read and also quite healing? 

it’s just a book about someone going through grief, i didn’t imagine myself in her place at all because i know i would bawl my eyes out. i don’t understand how elise didn’t say once how she wanted to kill herself because i would have said 5 times a hour if my husband of 9 days died. i think im done with grief books for now, i get it, its sad, rip ben, you would have loved the hunger games trilogy 

debbie <3

Abby Elmore

the only other book i’ve read from this author is malibu rising and i’m starting to notice her writing style, she doesn’t write about a plot kinda more like traumas and how the characters are to face them in the future. 

at first i was like… why is this book so long but now finishing it i understand. i love the ending. 

it’s a great read but do i think everyone should read this? not really. only if you’re grieving i guess. 

 it’s a great first book for an author. 3.5 ⭐️

andrea 

the only other book i’ve read from this author is malibu rising and i’m starting to notice her writing style, she doesn’t write about a plot kinda more like traumas and how the characters are to face them in the future. 

at first i was like… why is this book so long but now finishing it i understand. i love the ending. 

it’s a great read but do i think everyone should read this? not really. only if you’re grieving i guess. 

 it’s a great first book for an author. 3.5 ⭐️

This book is straightforward. Different genre from the famous books of TJR (T7HOEH, Daisy Jones). I read those 2 books first so I was kinda expecting the same thing on this book but it really was just straight to the point haha nothing bad about the book. I think it's really a good book for healing and moving on, it's just not my cup of tea. Also it's too angsty for me 😭 but all in all, TJR always convey her stories so well. 

yena 

Kate

Kenzi Linton

Normally, I’m okay with chapters switching from one time to another, but I struggled a bit more this time around. I think it’s because in one chapter, Ben was still alive and in the next, he was gone again (not a spoiler, that’s literally part of the plot). My emotions couldn’t keep up with it. While I have read some of TJR’s new works, I think I prefer her older ones more. There’s just something about this book and about OTL that have really spoken to me. I can image myself in the situations more. I like the way they are written more. This book was definitely heartbreaking and a bit hard to read because of the grief it had me feel, but I did really enjoy it.

such a beautifully tragic book. tjr doesn’t have a single book under 4 stars

kels

I really enjoyed this book. I love the relationship blossom between elsie and Susan, which made the book a 4 star for me. This books main message is love does not define time had with someone. It shows how strong a connection can form in very little time and I think TJR did a great job portraying that in this book. 

Kassidy May Gaudet

Briar's Reviews

We need to talk about Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I don't read reviews before I read on purpose. I like going into a book with the summary, a general idea of the overall rating (because if there's 80,000 ratings and the average is one... gotta be bad), and that's about it. Sure, I sometimes see a Twitter comment or two, maybe an Instagram collage, but I don't want to be biased. I want to enjoy the book, especially when it's by an author like Taylor Jenkins Reid. 

So I read the book and then looked at the reviews and OMG... why so mean? From my understanding, this was one of Taylor Jenkins Reid's first books. Everyone is degrading her for the book being "bad" (which it's not) and how her other books are better. Which... you know... over time your writing should get better. This book isn't bad and was beautifully written, so reviewers... stop being jerks. Seriously. And do some research about when this book was read before saying she's gone "downhill" when this is one of her first books... written before Daisy Jones, Carrie Soto, etc. Geez. Louise.

Anywho, I enjoyed this book but it's so darn sad! It really was a book that made me more sad overall and killed my empathetic soul. Elsie deserved better. Life can suck so bad sometimes. Her husband dying after a week of marriage? Crappy. Not cool. 

Now, does that make the book bad? No! Not at all! Taylor Jenkins Reid displayed a pretty honest viewing of grief. I haven't lost a husband, but I know when I lost my Dad I felt similar feelings to Elsie - being alone, not wanting to get rid of stuff, saving their smell, feeling completely misunderstood, etc. It hurts and it sucks BIG TIME. I felt this book really hit that nail in the coffin well. 

For me, this book was awful though. I don't do well with sad books - even if it has great theming and things can get better. It made me super depressed and for me as a reader, my books are an escape from the crappy times. I do give Taylor Jenkins Reid all of the love though because the book is so well written and such a gem. I highly recommend it if you can tolerate sad books. I, alas, just can't. 

I did finish the book. It was a hard read for me but I did it! It's beautiful. It's heartbreaking. It's haunting. Loss sucks. The romantic chapters were so good and sweet, but the sadness made it hard for me to read them. 

Overall, fantastic book by the always wonderful Taylor Jenkins Reid. I'll obviously be picking up more books by her, but man... books need a "SUPER DEPRESSING BOOK TRIGGER WARNING" so poor Briar doesn't almost cry herself to sleep.

Three out of five stars - due to the sadness in this book.

FOREVER INTERRUPTED PA

Ben and Elsie’s love is something most of us can only hope to experience in our lifetime. I felt so sad for Susan having lost her husband and son. 

TJR’s writing is so so good and had me hooked. I loved the dual timeline and the fact that the chapters weren’t too long. Will definitely be reading more of her books 

Ben and Elsie’s love is something most of us can only hope to experience in our lifetime. I felt so sad for Susan having lost her husband and son. 

TJR’s writing is so so good and had me hooked. I loved the dual timeline and the fact that the chapters weren’t too long. Will definitely be reading more of her books 

Krystyna 

I decided for my first Taylor Jenkins Reid book that I would start with her debut. I am so happy with my decision. I wanted to see how her writing progressed and I wanted to start with her first book. I have nothing else to compare this one to so I get an unbiased opinion on this one, so to speak. I fell in love with her writing. I have no idea how she made me care for characters within the first chapter but she did. Her writing is beautiful and I know that it has developed even more over time. This story was heartbreaking and beautiful. Surprisingly, what made me tear up in this book, in addition to the main characters story, was Mr. Callahan. I loved the characters. I really enjoyed being able to see how Ben and Elsie's relationship developed through flashbacks that were triggered by something that was happening on the present timeline. Really the only complaint that I had with this story was the insta-love factor. Normally, I don't like insta-love and will knock off a star but it just didn't bother me as much in this one. Also, while reading this book I found out that it is being adapted into a movie. So, I am looking forward to seeing that. I will definitely be reading all of her books. She is one of my new favorite authors!

I may be completely biased to this book bc I’m also in a stage of grief but I just didn’t like it. It was good but also boring and just dull. I genuinely didn’t even fully read the last couple of chapters, skimmed them really, and I didn’t miss much by doing that. I think the entire book can be skimmed, a really disappointing read from TJR in my mind, I wish I had liked it more.  

Melissa Clark 

Ashley

sophia

Kailei

Jennifer mitchell

have I mentioned recently that TJR is my favorite author? because TJR is my favorite author.

I would happily read a grocery list if she wrote it.

Jeannette Ordas

An easy breezy summer read just after Christmas. I wasn't crazy about the love interest nor was I fully sold on the main character, but I liked the mother in law and the gist of the story. If you're looking for a fast read, this is it.

Aleksandra

Wow. That’s a new kind of a heartbreak I’ve never felt before.

High Fidelity

It is already seen. Feels like deja vu from lots of things. It was lovely written, but it didn't get to me.

It was different,it was beautifully written,made me mad but it was a realistic grieving process. It was alot of tears shed because I lost my brother & some words really hit. Good read about love & grief & time.

Licious💕

Sophia Taylor

** spoiler alert **
           To me, this book was very middle of the road. I did end up tearing up a few times. I wasn't really invested in the characters, like Ben was okay but I was just really frustrated with him most of the time because of the whole thing with him not telling his mom about Elsie. Speaking of Elsie, I get that she was grieving, but she was really mean, and I can get that to an extent, but she never really apologized to Ana for how she acted and that was frustrating. Also, this is super nit-picky, but it really bothered me any time there could've been a contraction but there wasn't. Like there were so many "you are"s "I will"s and "I am"s, instead of you're, I'll, and I'm, and I'm sure it's just a preference thing, but it was really annoying. Elsie and Ben had some cute moments, but it was definitely and instance of instalove and I'm not a fan of that trope (preference), I just felt like there wasn't a build to their relationship, it wasn't and then it was, and even though they had a couple of arguments, I knew nothing was at stake because I already knew the ending. Finally, whenever I read books, I read them like movies, and I just didn't like the end, when Ben said they had all the time in the world, I know it was probably supposed to read like really sad, but it almost made me roll my eyes. It's not a bad book, I liked the story, I just think it definitely could have been better.

Catarina Vieira

A escrita desta autora é simplesmente… apaixonante. 
Ao longo do livro acompanhamos um ano inteiro na vida da protagonista - um ano em que ela se apaixonou, casou e ficou viúva. Intercalamos entre capítulos em que o casal se apaixona para depois termos saltos temporais onde a protagonista está a tentar lidar com o luto.
É um dos livros mais crus que já li mas também um dos melhores. É uma jornada sobre a vida, o tempo, o luto, a força e, sem dúvida, sobre o amor. 
Não me arrependo nada de ter começado na autora por este livro que deve ser dos mais underrated de sempre.
Façam um favor a vocês mesmos e leiam porque é tão, tão bom.

Forever, Interrupted A Novel

Reviews

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