EverAfter Always | Chloe Liese| Pub: 1/12/21
“Sometimes, Freya, no matter how hard you
try, you won’t know how much a person you love is hurting because that person
doesn’t want to hurt the people that love them.”
“But they shouldn’t hide that pain.”
“Easy for you to say. It’s hard to be brave
and say you’re not okay when you grow up struggling to explain your feelings,
when it feels like mental health issues are a shameful thing to own up to.”
Chloe Liese did it again and, I think
this may just be my favorite Bergman book yet!
In Ever After Always, we follow Feyra
Bergman and her husband Aiden MacCormack on their rocky road relationship journey.
Feyra and Aiden have been married for almost ten years and they want to start a
family, but Aiden’s anxiety gets the better of him and he goes into what I like
to call “Everything is awful, anxiety mode”.
He wants to make sure that they are financially
secure before bringing a baby into the family because Aiden grew up with a
single mom who worked her behind off to make ends meet for them. He doesn’t
want them to struggle. And things aren’t made easier when ALL of the Bergman
clan heads to Hawaii to celebrate Freya’s parents’ anniversary.
As someone with anxiety, I related to
Aiden all to well. Constant panic about money, about not being good enough,
about wanting to shield your loved ones from your pain and hurt and emotions
because you don’t want to burden them when they have their own things going on.
ALL TOO RELATABLE.
But I also related to Freya in ways too.
Because our partner tries to love us how they feel love, but we need to be
loved how we feel love. So, I think it is important to discuss with your
partner what your love language is because they may think what they’re doing
shows you they love you but you’re not feeling the love from it because it’s
not your love language.
What I learned from this is that you really
need to take the time to understand your partner and that you can’t expect your
partner to be the same as you with how they cope with things. We are all
different and we are not one size fits all. You also can’t expect for you and your
partner to not change throughout your marriage. We don’t stay the same. I am
not the same person I was at 18 or 22 or even 28. We are constantly growing so
find a partner you’re willing to grow with.
Synopsis (Credit: Goodreads)
Buckle up for an emotional journey of hijinks, heartache, and
a hot slow-burn in this marriage-in-crisis romance about going the distance to
make love last.
Aiden
I’ve spent twelve years loving Freya Bergman and twelve
lifetimes won’t be enough to give her everything she deserves. She’s my
passionate, tender-hearted wife, my best friend, and all I want is to make her
happy. But the one thing that will make her happiest is the one thing I’m not sure
I can give her: a baby.
With the pressure of providing and planning for a family, my
anxiety’s at an all-time high, and I find myself pulling away, terrified to
tell my wife how I’m struggling. But when Freya kicks me out, I realize that
pulling back has turned into pushing too far. Now it’s the fight of a lifetime
to save our marriage.
Freya
I love my cautious, hard-working husband. He’s my partner and
best friend, the person I know I can count on most. Until one day I realize the
man I married is nowhere to be found. Now Aiden is quiet and withdrawn, and as
the months wear on, the pain of our growing distance becomes too much.
As if weathering marriage counseling wasn’t enough, we’re
thrown together for an island getaway to celebrate my parents’ many years of
perfect marriage while ours is on the brink of collapse. Despite my meddling
siblings and a week in each other’s constant company, this trip somehow gets us
working through the trouble in paradise. I just can’t help worrying, when we
leave paradise and return to the real world, will trouble find us again?
Ever After Always is a marriage-in-crisis, opposites-attract
romance about a sensitive, fierce-loving woman and her resilient husband who
has anxiety disorder. Complete with island vacation antics, a sibling prank
gone wrong, and a steamy slow burn, this standalone is the third in a series of
novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their
wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.
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