A review by indiekay
Hello Forever by Sarina Bowen

3.0

This has promise, but fell pretty flat to me. It's a shorter read, about 230 pages, but even so it feels like it has a little too much padding, and it probably would have worked better as a novella.

I liked the concept of the characters knowing each other previously and finding each other again, and I liked the early and tragic "I love you but we can't be together" vibes. But the way the conflict happens and the aftermath were a let down

Spoiler

(I mean, abusive father stopping Cax from coming out because he feels the need to look after his brother works well, and him sending a complaint to the school about Axel also worked, but then the rest didn't. Why would the father go and beat up Axel and then flee the state? What was his end game, exactly? It'd have made way more sense if the father had taken his homophobia out on Cax, as his son that he's been controlling his entire life.)

Cax needing to stay in the closet so he can be in his brothers' lives works as a concept, but in execution fell flat. There's very little interaction between Cax and his brothers, and the third brother - Max? Mark barely gets any time on page, so why not just have there be two brothers instead of three?

Also I'll be honest, I skimmed most of the sex scenes.