Review: When We Had Forever: An Emotional Romance with a Twisty Mystery, Uncover the Secrets of Love and Loss

When We Had Forever: An Emotional Romance with a Twisty Mystery, Uncover the Secrets of Love and Loss by Shaylin Gandhi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

At what moment did I stop being a wife? 

When We Had Forever was a literary romance soap opera of a ride. I've been baptized in the waters of Harlequin Presents, so it's not really a brag when I say, within ten pages, I knew what was going on. Whether you immediately catch the clues like I did, or aren't aware until around seventy percent when the Big Secret is revealed, I think both avenues would offer different kinds of enjoyment. The story is told all from Mina's point-of-view and instead of divided into chapters, we get Before and After timeline switches. I know some struggle with flashbacks but the structure of the story being told this way really supports the plot and the ride of emotions you the reader are supposed to go on. 

Whatever happened between them that day, it was the spark that lit the fire of my husband changing. Which is why I hate Grayson and always will. 

The story opens up with After, Mina struggling emotionally six months after the death of her husband Michael. They were married for over a decade but in first person pov, we really get an in depth feel for Mina's emotions and it's clear right away that everything wasn't rosy in her marriage, especially when it's revealed that she had divorce papers printed out. The jump to Before gives us Mina and Michael meeting, we get a look at young Mina wanting to escape her hometown and travel but having to deal with a mother who is severely traumatized over the death of Mina's brother and a bestfriend of Mina's who also died overseas. Mina and Michael have an instant chemistry but it's clear that Michael is holding something back from her and also doesn't want to persuade her from making the jump to travel to Greece at the end of the month. As the story moves back and forth from After and Before we see how the two fell in love and how Mina is trying to work through how their marriage ended up in the emotional place it did before Michael died. 

“You were right before. You can never start over. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start new.” 

This had some of that overly descriptive literary writing feel and the vast majority of the story is more sedately paced as we spend it in Mina's head and swimming through her emotions. The second half, especially the latter part almost felt rushed as Mina learns Michael had an identical twin brother, Grayson, and he contacts her after Michael's death. When they meet face-to-face it all starts to move pretty quickly as secrets are revealed and Mina has whole new emotions to work through. While the writing was literary, the plot was soap opera flair and I can't help but feel Mina worked through and forgave a bit too much and a bit too quickly. I felt Mina, personally, got a happily ever after and more of a happily for now romantically but that HFN could easily read more HEA for people who buy into immediate no questions asked soulmates. If you're looking to wade around in some emotional angst, this would be a compelling debut to pick up.

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