If Forever Comes, the final chapter in the New York Times Bestselling Regret Series (Lost to You and Take This Regret).

Christian Davison’s life is complete. With a ring on Elizabeth’s finger and his daughter at his side, he’s ready to run headlong into their future.

Elizabeth Ayers never believed she would again find this kind of joy—the joy of a family and the wholeness found in the touch of the man she’s always loved.

Their love is intense and their passion only grows as they set out to rediscover each other.

But life is never easy.

Rocked by the unforeseen, Christian and Elizabeth will find themselves fighting for the one thing they hold most important—family.

That's what we were. Both of us. Completely, unbearably lost. 

We assumed Christian and Elizabeth got their HEA after Take This Regret. But their challenges were not really over. This one begins with Christian and Elizabeth once again in a bad place.

I'd been so wrapped up in giving her perfection. I hadn't been prepared to hold her up when devastation hit.
The story is told through both Christian and Elizabeth's points of view in present day and flashbacks and we slowly and gradually learn what has transpired between them. We had seen Elizabeth find herself, hope, and Christian, but now she risks losing it all again. And Christian feels powerless to help in the situation. It is clear that they still love each other deeply, but their love is severely tested. It is difficult, raw, gut punching, and sad. My heart broke so many times for both of them and what they were going through. 

What I loved: 

"Are you sad, Daddy?"

"Yeah, baby, Daddy is very, very sad.

"I'm so sad, too, Daddy."

"I'm so sorry, baby girl. I'm so sorry you have to go through this with us. I love you so much...don't ever forget how much I love you."

"I know princess, I do, too."

That's all I wanted. 

I just wanted to go home.

   * My absolute favorite part about this book is Christian's relationship with his daughter. Christian and Lizzie without a doubt stole my heart. I often found myself with a smile on my face and in my heart when they shared a scene together, amongst the few heart wrenching moments (the tears flowed freely as I read the quoted scene above). The love between father and daughter was absolutely moving and simply stunning. Lizzie is clearly the center of her father's universe. His devotion, patience, and tenderness shouted this; I will be the first to admit that because of this I became even more captivated by his character than I already was.

   * The dual point of views mixed with present and past flashbacks. The teasing suspense of these two time lines kept me flipping the pages while texting and messaging Kim. I just needed to know what the heck was going on. By this point, my stomach was in knots, and I was freaking the hell out. My anxiety was through the roof; Amy was killing me, as was Christian and Elizabeth's train wreck of a relationship. I seriously needed Kim to narrow down some things for me. Things I knew would break me if I weren’t warned ahead of time. That's what I love about my blog partner; she knows when I want her to truly spill and when I am just voicing my agitation.

"We'd been blindsided, our foundation ripped from beneath us, nothing there to catch us when we fell. And when we'd fallen, we had completely fallen apart. I'd been standing on the sidelines, waiting. Waiting when I should have been fighting."

   * I thought Take This Regret was heartbreaking, but If Forever Comes blows the first book in this series out of the water. It is the definition of raw and gritty. Their agony and tortured emotions flow freely off the pages, gripping you. I felt, as though everything surrounding them equaled hopelessness, as though the issues between Christian and Elizabeth ran so deep they could never fully be resolved and mended. In all honesty, there isn't anything easy about this story or this couple, even with the glimpses of happiness and light. Those moments of light mixed in with the pain just made everything which was broken and torn apart that much more unbearable.

"Maybe that was the problem between Christian and me. Maybe the connection that bound us was too overwhelming, too powerful, too much. Maybe a love that flamed so bright could only burn us into the ground. Maybe it was inevitable, our ruin. Maybe we'd already been set up for destruction, because something so strong made it inherently weak."

 * Elizabeth. I had a love/hate relationship with her character. I have never ever experienced the agonizing tragedy that she went through, so I don't know how I would have truly reacted if I had to walk a mile in her shoes. I do know that it would mentally destroy me. While I truly did sympathize with her, I was also a bit frustrated in the same sense, as my heart was also shattering for Christian and Lizzie. They too were dealing with this loss in their own way and needed her. Especially Lizzie, she needed her mother. The thought of losing one of my children cripples me, but at the same time, I know I must go on for my other ones. It was extremely hard observing her as she crumbled and shut down, no longer caring until that major pivotal moment. At that point, it was even harder as I followed along on her journey to finding herself again. It killed me, shredded me, to sometimes think that Elizabeth was being so damn selfish. I hated that I thought that about a grieving mother, but unfortunately she was. I hated, just hated watching Christian and Lizzie suffer through her selfishness at times.

   * Christian and Elizabeth's epilogues are what mended my heart and showed me without a shadow of a doubt that there truly is light at the end of a very dark tunnel. That no matter what life throws at you, if your love is true and strong you can make it through anything, even the most unimaginable heartache.

" I wanted to fix it, to fix her, to shield her, but I knew we had to face it, and facing it was going to hurt. All of it, the pain in what we lost and the disaster we'd created in it's wake. 

   * I thrive on a book that has my emotions so wound up that I am still thinking about the story days later. I love that the memories I have of this couple still stirs strong emotions in me. Sitting here writing my review hasn't been easy; my journey down memory lane has been an emotional roller coaster. As I write, I find myself sighing from frustration, smiling, and even giggling. I'm sad to see Christian and Elizabeth's journey across my tablet come to an end, but in my heart I know it's time for them to move on. I'm definitely going to miss them, especially Lizzie.

"People don't always get to love like this, Elizabeth.  Not the way we do.  It's a gift."

""You know what Christian?  I had faith in you.  You promised you'd never walk away from her again, and I believed you.  You promised to be there through thick and thin..."  He vibrated, seemed to try to calm himself as her ran a hand over his crop of brown hair.  "Well, this is the thin and it fucking sucks.  I know that.  And I know you're hurting every bit as much as she is  But this, right now" - he jabbed his finger on the bar - "is when that promise counts.  Not when everything is going like you planned.""