Book Review: Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred
Genre: Young Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: July 7, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

When Carolina and Trevor meet on their first day of school, something draws them to each other. They gradually share first kisses, first touches, first sexual experiences.  When they’re together, nothing else matters. But one of them will make a choice, and the other a mistake, that will break what they thought was unbreakable. Both will wish that they could fall in love again for the first time . . . but first love, by definition, can’t happen twice.

Told in Carolina and Trevor's alternating voices, this is an up-close-and-personal story of two teenagers falling in love for the first time, and discovering it might not last forever

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred is a story of first love and finding yourself. The story is told by alternating point of views between Carolina and Trevor. Trevor acted his age about half the time, but Carolina acted much younger than a Freshman in high school. The characters followed all the teenage stereotypes closely. Their thoughts and inner voices are repetitive(there were some cute moments though), they have no common sense, and they rarely use condoms. They listen to bad advice from people who are clearly not their friends. They make obviously bad choices. They have no parental supervision, and what little they have is by incompetent parents. Then you have the shallow mean girl who turns into a deep(possibly high) and friendly person then disappears. What? ... I mean, yes, all these things happen in high school. They're called stereotypes for a reason, but it felt like every teenage stereotype was put into these characters and amplified by three, and that's simply not realistic. Plus, what teenage male is going to talk to their mother about not being able to give their girlfriend an orgasm? See? Not realistic. I don't know. Maybe that was the whole point of the book. If it was, I clearly missed it. This one wasn't for me, but don't take my word for it. It might be for you.

Everything is so dramatic when you're younger. The world can begin, end, and begin again all in one day. You could really see and relate to the insecurities Carolina and Trevor had of themselves and each other. The author succeeded in capturing these aspects of teenage life and thinking.

Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred was kindly provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley for review. The opinions are my own.

And… yeah… I’m crazy but can pretend really, really well I’m not. Sort of what I feel about everybody. (Except for the people who can’t pretend they’re not crazy. You know who you are. Actually, never mind, you probably don’t.)

Anyway, here’s some stuff I’ve done to help me feign sanity:

Wrote and directed the play, “Women Are Crazy Because Men Are A**holes” that has played over four years in Los Angeles and Chicago and just made its Off Broadway premiere at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre. Los Angeles Times said: “Seldom have I been a part of a more enthusiastic and vocal audience. Brad T Gottfred’s play about young couples stumbling through the minefield of codependency taps a universal nerve.”

Wrote, directed, and executive produced the feature film “The Movie Hero” which played at over 20 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards including First Prize at the Rhode Island Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.

My first play, “Marry, F**K, Or Kill” was called “a guilty pleasure for veterans of the single life” by the Los Angeles Times. It went on to an Off Broadway premiere in the fall of 2011.

First web series “Sex and Love Conspire to Destroy the World” was released by MyDamnChannel in 2013.

My first-ish novel, “Forever for a Year”, was released in July 2015 by Macmillan/Holt.

To learn more about B.T. Gottfred and his books, visit his blog.You can also find him on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.