Review: When Forever Changes

When Forever Changes by Siobhan Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book broke me.

If you like short and simple reviews, I suggest you take the above sentence as a representation of what is to come. If you’re willing to read an essay-length ramble regarding how much of a mess this book made me, feel free to continue. I warn you in advance, however, that the above statement is true – the book did break me, and I doubt my ability to accurately express my feelings towards this book.

Siobhan Davis always pulls a ramble of a review out of me, countless words detailing my love of the story she has given the world. When Forever Changes is not the only book to have resulted in a messy review, yet I fear this may be the messiest to date. I was, without a doubt, a hot mess. Hell, you can get rid of the ‘hot’ and just call me a ‘mess’. In fact, it was so bad a part of me was tempted to treat this review as though I was back in school, sitting in an English class listening to a teacher explaining how we need to dissect the book into different chunks. Characterisation, the plot, symbolism, foreshadowing, and other notions that pull us away from enjoying a book in the way it is supposed to be enjoyed. I moved away from such an approach, knowing it would appear I was analysing the book rather than enjoying it, but such circled me back to the messy approach. Hence, you have my apologies in advance.

As always, I was excited about the new Siobhan Davis book from the moment I heard about it. Siobhan Davis is one of those authors where I will gladly jump at whatever she releases next. Except for the Alinthia series (personal preference means I’m not a big fan of reverse harem) and the True Calling series (I own them, but I jumped on the Siobhan Davis bandwagon with Saven which came after the release of True Calling), I dive into each new book the moment it appears on my Kindle. In fact, Siobhan Davis is one of those authors who leaves me willing to put aside my current read so I can dive into her next release.

Due to being on vacation, there was a bit of a delay before I could dive into this one. Whilst waiting, the reviews started to appear. Everyone seemed to love this one, throwing words around that equated to the book leaving them an emotional mess. I’m not one for emotions – it’s both a blessing and a curse – and scoffed at the notion. I can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the number of books that have made me cry – and every time I was deep in PMS, so I had a worthy excuse. Sure, Siobhan Davis brings the angst, but I’ve never let out tears at any of her books before.

When I first started When Forever Changes, I could not understand why everyone was acting as though this book would be another to add onto my list of books that made me cry. In fact, I was a wee bit uncertain at first. For around the first twenty percent of the book, I feared Siobhan Davis had fallen into a trap I find so many authors fall into: the sex trap. Sex sells, I get that, but I’m rather particular about my sex to story ratio in romance books. I read plenty of erotica, so things are different there, but in books labelled as romance I’m more particular. Moreover, I like to feel the connection between the characters in romance books when there is sex involved, and when we jumped straight into the hot and heavy times I did not feel anything. Again, the exception is erotica where my reading tastes are rather specific (and quite a distance away from the kind of scenes you find in Siobhan Davis books), and the feelings evoked are very different to the feels I get in romance.

As I mentioned, though, it was just the first twenty percent or so of this book where I was uncertain. The sex started to fall into the background and the angst started to move to the fore. At this point, I became much happier with the book. In fact, I was sucked in extremely deeply and found the book supremely difficult to put down. I’ll admit that I never came to enjoy the characters to the degree I have enjoyed characters in other Siobhan Davis novels, but the storyline gripped me hard. I had ideas of where things were going, there were things I was expecting to see, yet I couldn’t stop the pages turning as I worked my way through the specific details.

If you do not want a spoiler-like section, I suggest you skip the next paragraph. I’m not going to outright say what happens, but I will elude to aspects that may result in you working things out. I promise, the paragraph after is elusion free, and you will not miss anything by skipping this one paragraph.

As someone who has suffered with migraines since the age of seven (at least, that’s when they were recognised as migraines, my mother can recall countless times when I was even younger where I would complain about the pain in my head, as it is unusual for a seven year old to lock themselves in the attic as it’s the only place where true darkness can be found and most sounds can be blocked), this book brought to life old fears. Anyone who suffers with migraines will have had the same thought. Some people are given explanations for their migraines – I have a friend who gets hormonal migraines, her time of the month bringing them on; my mother had a friend who gets allergy migraines, certain foods cause migraines – whereas there are those of us who will go through countless tests and they will never be able to explain them. It’s simply a facet of life, something we must deal with and hope the medication works each time. Therefore, when I knew this was an emotional book and the migraines appeared my natural paranoia about the worst-case scenario kicked in, which meant certain details of this book were not quite as surprising as they could have been.

Now, back to spoiler free territory.

Although I had worked out what the big emotional element of the story was to be, it did not prepare me for what was to come. This story hurt. It was legitimately painful. It is another book added to the extremely short list of books that have made me cry. Worse, this wasn’t casual crying. Oh no, it was far from that. This was tears running down my cheeks, holding in the noises, making strange whimpering sounds, blurred vision, and hoping nobody knocks on my door at any point in the foreseeable future crying. Yes, you read that right – the girl who never lets her emotions out, the one who scoffed at the notion of this book making her cry, did cry at When Forever Changes. She cried hard. She cried really hard.

The emotions in this book are so heavy. It punches you in the gut, then the heart, then continues to jab any part of the anatomy where it can reach you, just so the pain continues. There was an entire section of this book where I did nothing but blubber, trying to hold in my emotions. When this section passed, and things calmed down again, I thought I was good – then we get hit again with the epilogue. I may not have fallen as madly in love with these characters as I had hoped, but they certainly packed plenty of emotional punches.

I could go on and on about the emotional impact of this book, but this review is already at the usual Siobhan Davis fangirl length. Just heed my warning: take into consideration those suggestions of tissues. Don’t be a Siobhan (a me, not the author) and ignore the warnings, don’t scoff and think you’ll be okay. You won’t be okay. You’ll be very far from okay. You’ll be broken. This book will break you.

So yeah, everyone throws around how Siobhan Davis is a master of emotional reads, people constantly claim her stories are full of angsts and will hit you in the feels, but with When Forever Changes Siobhan Davis has cemented her status. I could appreciate the angst in her other books, I could recognise the emotions, but it wasn’t until When Forever Changes that Siobhan Davis had me reacting like all her other readers. I guess I’m not immune after all, there is a heart hidden within.

Without a doubt, this is the most emotional book Siobhan Davis has written to date. I cannot stress that enough. I may not have fallen in love with this one straight away, I may be not labelling the characters my favourites, but I cannot deny this book was the emotional jackpot.

It’s a story of love and pain, a story of those around you. It’s not a simple boy meets girl story, it’s so far from that, it’s so much more than that. It’s a story that constantly reiterates the power of the people you let into your lives – the positives they have, the negatives they have, and the downright heartbreak life offers up. This will be labelled a romance novel, and whilst I completely agree with the label I feel as though it is so much more than that. The romance is secondary to the real-life experiences. The romance pales when placed next to the strength of friendship and familial bonds. The book lets you know real life will bring pain, but it’s the beauty found in those moments before that really matter.

I could attempt to be poetic, I could try and throw some pretty pose together to highlight the depth of this story, but no amount of words will be enough. You cannot begin to imagine the power of this story until you read it. You need to read it to appreciate all that is to be found within When Forever Changes.

Considering how this has been a rant of emotions, I’ll end the review with something a lot less emotional. It’s something that will probably get lost within other reviews, considering how emotion heavy reviews are going to be.

If you’re a Siobhan Davis fan, you’ve probably read her other standalone work. First, we were given Inseparable. Then we were given Incognito. In Incognito we were given plenty of nods towards Inseparable – to the point where it almost seemed as though they were two connected books from a single series. When Forever Changes gives us some nods towards Incognito. It’s much subtler this time, but it’s nice for fans of Incognito to see a little bit more from the characters. I also feel as though one of the side stories in When Forever Changes, one of the side romances, was never concluded to the degree I would have liked it to be. I had questions, and I cannot help but question whether this was intentional. It could very well be a sign we’re going to get that story in the future – and as nice as that notion does sound, a part of me would be happier if this remained a complete standalone (nod to Incognito withstanding). I can even deal with the unanswered questions, as life does not always give us all the answers we want. If there was one thing When Forever Changes shows us, it’s life is unpredictable.

Forrest Gump may have taught us life is like a box of chocolate as we never know what we’re going to get; When Forever Changes confirms that in the most heart-breaking of ways – it shows us life is full of ups and downs, heartbreaks and loves, and so many other emotions it’s a surprise we make it through life at all.

If you want a book that hits you hard, if you want a book to break you apart then put you back together again, When Forever Changes is a book you need to read.

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