Review: Great addition to the series!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2013
Amy and Joe have started college after spending a wonderful summer reacquainting themselves and spending every moment together - just the two of them. Suddenly thrown in a different setting where there are new experiences to discover, new people to get to know and new temptations, Amy and Joe try hard to remember why they are together in the first place. Joe tries to hard to hang on to Amy, while Amy struggles once again with who she wants to be.It was great to visit with Amy and Joe and see them together after all they went through to resume their friendship and take the next step into couple-hood. This time around we get to read a bit of Joe's side of the story and truly get an idea of what his feelings are toward Amy. Through his point of view I got to know him better and understand why he had his doubts and hesitations. I admired his loyalty to Amy, his caring side and his need to take care of her.This time around Amy got on my nerves just a bit. I understand that what she went through previously had affected her in a tremendous way, but to her have question herself again and put at risk everything she worked so hard to achieve with Joe just didn't sit well with me. Then again, she is a young woman in college trying to decide which path to take and her only other experience had been who she had been in previous years, so in the end I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and keep on reading.I'm glad I did since I enjoyed reading how both Amy and Joe came to realize what truly mattered in their life. I liked how the author, Lisa Burstein, brought each characters' point of view to the page revealing their needs and insecurities and I especially liked how they went about in resolving their issues. I believe that the author portrayed their relationship and the struggles of having a relationship at this time in their lives in a realistic and believable way. She didn't hold back and make it an easy choice - Amy and Joe lied, pondered and weighted their needs and wants against what was best for them and their relationship. I appreciated that fact because it gave me hope that this couple had a chance of making it.The Next Forever is a novella in the Pretty Amy series and in my opinion, it should not be read as a stand alone story. I believe that Pretty Amy, the first book in the series, should be read first so that the reader gets the full scope of what Amy has gone through and why she struggles with this particular issue and get the full story of how Amy and Joe came to be a couple.I received this title from Entangled Publishing through NetGalley in exchange of my honest opinion.