ALWAYS ISN'T FOREVER

A romantic story of young love and grief with a fantastical twist.

High school seniors and soul mates Hart Augusto and Ruby Armenta have known each other since they were kids, their personalities complementing each other’s and propelling them toward a shiny future together. But their dreams come to a tragic end when Hart drowns while saving a child’s life. Five months later, Ruby is stuck in her grief, not wanting to heal and move on. That’s when Hart wakes up to find that he has died, but an angel named Lourdes has intervened to give him a second chance at living—in the body of someone who is near death. He requests to be a boy close to Ruby’s age in their little California town of El Cielo, hoping they can be reunited—and his soul is placed in the body of arrogant, obnoxious football player Jameson Romanelli, their classmate who’s in a coma following a motorcycle accident. Hart is unable to tell anyone who he really is and will gradually forget his former life. Can he convince Ruby he is back and rekindle what they had? While the relationship between Ruby and Hart has endearing elements, readers may wonder what makes theirs a more special and true romance that warrants this heavenly intervention, making it hard to fully invest in the central premise. Most characters are Latine; Jameson is White.

Well-written and designed to be a tear-jerker but ultimately fails to persuade.