There are moments in time that stand out more than others: your first kiss, a special birthday party, seeing your baby for the first time, an intimate conversation, a first date, even something as little as sitting around a dining room table with friends. This is the story of the moments that stood out after I first laid eyes on Noah Gish. ~ Claire Sawyer

The city, it used to be a place I loved and missed with an ache in my gut. It was home. The place where I grew up, where I had fun, where I had my friends, where life was as good as I knew it to be. Then I was shipped off to a place that begins the story of how I fell in love, just to screw everything up. ~ Noah Gish

‘Looking Back on Forever’ is a contemporary romance by American author, Kat Alexander. There is a fairly explicit scene in the prologue, however this comes as no surprise as the author warns there is: ‘strong language, violence and sexual situations,’ at the beginning of the book so if you’re easily offended, there is no excuse for reading any further.

We see the action from the perspectives of the two main characters, Claire and Noah. We watch as the dynamic between them evolves and they tiptoe around, each trying to gauge the feelings of the other. The structure of the book is straightforward with evenly distributed chapters and the story is written in the first person, the present tense and is emotion-focused.

The supporting cast is plentiful and arguably a little predictable, with jealousy and rivalry being the main areas explored, particularly in the first half of the book. However, these are young people journeying towards adulthood, so perhaps this is understandable. Other than the attraction between the main characters, I didn’t really find any solid secondary relationships to flesh out the personalities and they remained a little two dimensional. This was a shame because the author had done an extremely good job of getting inside the heads of both Claire and Noah.

Looking Back on Forever is a story of first love, loss and rediscovery but at 486 pages, I found it a rather drawn out. A jolly good edit would have curtailed the length, sharpened the story and taken nothing away from the plot.

This is a highly competitive genre and whilst the enigmatic title promised much, I felt the story needed some dramatic twists to elevate it to a higher level and make it stand out from the crowd. I do however, very much like the cover; the symbolism of the two bracelets entwined is simple but effective.

If you’re a fan of romance and are looking for an uncomplicated read, give this book a try. It is sensitively written and I think Kat Alexander show promise for the future. I award ‘Looking Back on Forever’ a respectable three stars.

Literature is my passion. I like to challenge myself and grow in my writings. I have many unfinished books and some that have been published under a different name. Why I chose to do this is because of my writing growth and the differentiation in genre. I don’t want my future books to be judged by the inexperience of my past writings. Though I love those books, they came out of nowhere and it’s apparent in the writings they were a first draft from someone with no experience.

My passions include the arts–music, photography, writing, dance, painting, films, architecture, anything that is creation. There is not much I don’t like; and if I don’t like it, I at least appreciate the process that took place to create it. This is something incorporated in all my books. I’ve known so many talented people, and truly believe no one is without a talent. Everyone has something ingrained in them; just naturally gives them the ability to create new life in the form of art.

In my spare time, which is basically non-existent between my day job and writing, I enjoy being out in nature, travelling, spending time with family, and reading. I read everything, from contemporary to paranormal, from historical romance to erotica, from history to science. Learning is something very important to me. I really do learn something new every day, my brain storing so much useless to life-saving information. My brain, the sponge.

@katharinealex
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