"Even if I can't see you, I'll know you're there, and I'll find my way to you."
There are books that make you want to live in them and experience what the characters are going through. Some of it will be painful, hard to watch and feel, and it will gut you. But what if it's all worth it in the end?
Reading Never Look Back was like feeling the kind of love that was always meant to be, pushed down but never forgotten, written in the stars.
"From the moment I met Logan Lawson, he'd made it difficult to stand on my own two feet."
After reading the other two books in the series, I thought of Logan as a less-serious-than-his-brothers playboy. A goofball. Someone with an easier approach to life when compared to Trent and Jud. Boy, was I wrong.
This man is a swoonfest. The things he says will melt anyone's heart. The things he does will want you to throw caution to the wind and follow him anywhere. The best part? He's the kind of guy who would follow you, too.
"Loving her is the only thing I've ever done right."
Aster has been through so much in her life. Maybe most people can't tell, because she's tried hard to put on a mask and pretend. Pretend that she didn't lose the only person who mattered years ago. Pretend that it needed to be this way and that she needs to get used to it. As if she could ever forget Logan. But inside... It's a whole different story.
"What if we had made a million mistakes and those mistakes led us astray and we got lost and wandered for years? And what if, after all of it, we ended up at the very same place?"
Aster and Logan were young and in love. The letter-exchanging, secret-meeting-spot love. A love that wasn't meant to be from the start. Two families who could not be joined, a world that wouldn't welcome them. They planned to leave it all behind, but one night changed everything, or almost everything. Because what they feel for each other is still there, hiding under layers of hurt and resentment.
"And you have a hard time looking at me."
"The fucking problem is I can't seem to look away."
Seven years later, they meet again, at opposite sides once more. Logan wins her on a bet, ironically because all she wants is to be set free from the world she's still a part of. Like they'd dreamed of all those years before. She turns to him for help, trusting that the boy she loved is still somewhere inside him.
And Logan is still that same boy, but so, so much more.
"Beauty. My heart. My poetry."
"You are every word I've ever written."
Still, even after all this time, it can't be. They can't be. Or can they? They fight hard against the pull, because one heart calls out to the other. But they can't trust, not after what happened before. There's too much guilt, too much hurt, too much to let go. However, there's also so much chemistry and so much love. The tension between them was almost as insurmountable as the love they share. And it was wonderful to see it bring them to their knees.
"It wasn't temporary. It was yesterday. It was today. It was forever."
They know they will have to fight. Against the rules, the past, and even the present, for a future that is not guaranteed. Life has already failed them once, and chances are it'll do it again.
Their relationship was beautiful. I can't find another world to describe it. Amy's very unique writing style makes sure you're part of their world, that you're there with them, that you feel what they feel.
And then she turns all the hurt into a love story for the ages.
"You are the end of every road."
There's a piece missing in both of them, and wherever they might have been, they were bound to come together again. Their story couldn't just end the way it did because they belong to each other. They were worth fighting for. It’s a real second chance, and bittersweet, because it should have been a first chance. But they’ll grab it, and they won’t look back.