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“I love you.”
“Promise.”
“Always.”

Always is like falling in love with reading for the first time. Or realizing that my first love was dancing. And that beaches give you serenity and a nostalgic feeling. So calm and soothing, but there's always a storm lurking behind, or that maybe just a wind stirring some trouble and that the effect is making you feel nervous but the anticipation is so good and that something you actually long for. And when it passes, the rainbows show and that feeling of being in love is back. And then it becomes a cycle that you want to give up but you can't because you want to hold on but the emotions keep coming back.

Yeah.


What makes Always something different for me that it captured my heart and soul was that reading how Cross and Catherine grow up. I mean, I'm not much for actually growing through with it, but both grew up in la famiglia and each having faced issues of their own. It showed a side of growing up in the mob that isn't like seeing glimpses of their lives through others or something bloody because the setting of the story is actually where the streets are at peace and that the usual nuances of just being part of the Cosa Nostra.

The pacing of the story was slow and one I didn't mind it as it was me falling in love so slowly with both of the characters. Getting to know them, living their lives and their heartaches and their happiness. I cried. I laughed! I smiled. And I swoon so hard I thought my heart was going to burst!


It might be a little YA considering Cross and Catherine's age but there are violence and blood and subjects that wouldn't categorize it as truly YA. Also, it has a bit of innocence and first loves and teenage drama. But it's countered by the businesses that the made men does that balanced it out but not too brutal and not too bloody.

It's most likely a love story like Romeo and Juliet, but is far more romantic and sweeter and that somehow ended hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time.


Bethany-Kris just wowed me and I never expected to love these characters more than I already did. All I need is a damn family tree! lol I cannot wait to read the next book and possibly break my heart more but it is so worth it.

“First love was pretty and dangerous. First love made it hard to let go.”