Review: Secrets. We all have them. We want to reveal them but when we try things just become more complicated at times. In Finding Our Forever, Cora decides to go in search for her birth mother. While on the search she has to tell her adoptive family a small white lie. This most times causes problems. Cora went looking for a teaching job. She finds herself at a boy’s ranch. While there she meets the ranch manager Eli. Chemistry then kicks in and although most people would think things happened fast it really didn’t. Eli wasn’t very trusting because and Cora needed to find out that her mother would be open to a daughter she had given up.

I found the story while not one of my favorite Ms. Novak’s, still a very touching and heartwarming story. The characters were very real and personable. I found Cora’s quest for her birth mother easy to relate to. I just don’t know how she could keep it quiet. I would have blurted it out.

I really liked Aiyana and I got why she did what she did. It was touching that she was able to adopt all those boys filling their lives with purpose and love; while giving that same purpose and love to the others at the ranch. Eli because of his past has had issues with trust. While being intrigued by Cora and attracted to her, he couldn’t help feeling that there was something that she was holding back. He had problems with that and just when he was beginning to trust her ex steps in and fills his head with doubt. Eli despite his past you couldn’t help but feel for him.

The story line was different than a typical romance…Ms. Novak gave us characters with real pasts, ones with real problems and issues. She showed us what it is like to go in search of something while questioning whether you come out with why you are really there or do you leave things alone. I liked that her adoptive family was a big part of the story also it added depth and another twist or look at things.

I really enjoyed this book about family and the journey to find out why we are who we are. Does that make any sense to you? An enjoyable book that opens your eyes to what some adoptive people go through.

Great start

Wonderful sweet read. Great start - book 1 of the Silver Springs series.
Cora finds her birth mother but with that comes complications of the heart and revelations.

Before this book, I had only read one other Brenda Novak work, a novella/prequel to another series. I enjoyed that book enough to keep her on my radar. When this title showed up, I decided it was time to give Novak another try.

There were a few things that intrigued me about this story. The premise--a woman looking for her birth mother and falling her her birth mother's adopted son--struck me as interesting and fairly unique. I was also attracted to the fact that these characters had history, and I'm a sucker for a good backstory.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this book. The history that I had hoped to find with these characters, never really materialized. I was especially let down by the character of Aiyana, who I found to be completely one-dimensional and unrealistic. While she was neither the hero nor the heroine, she was vital to this story and she came across as blank.

I was also less than impressed with the writing of this book. The language seemed to lack any nuance, which I found surprising because I hadn't encountered that in the Novak novella I had read. I was frustrated several times when it seemed like Novak was over-telegraphing a plot twist and then nothing materialized. Generally, I just didn't feel there was enough conflict in this story to get me emotionally involved with the characters.

While this book did not work for me, I am not sure I'm ready to give up on Brenda Novak. As I did enjoy a piece of her earlier work, I'll probably go back and read more in that series. However, I doubt that I'll read on in this series.

As always, Brenda Novak delivers on a good small town story. Believable characters, interesting story. A good start for a new series.

These books were just so sweet and amazing to read! And I kinda almost read them out out order! Because for some reason, while I downloaded Finding Our Forever from NetGalley, apparently I didn't open it, so I when I started reading No One But You, I thought that it was the first book! I realized what had happened when I was halfway through, and had to force myself away from it, but Finding Our Forever was both amazing and short, so I got back to it quickly!

The town of Silver Springs is small, and the one big connection besides being set there, is that all of these boys were a part of the New Horizons program. There were character overlap in these books, but mostly, they were specific to one group of characters. And they had different levels of intensity-Cora's mom, Sadie's ex, and Hudson's past, well, Sadie's ex was the worst!

I really enjoyed getting to know all these characters, and their stories! Of them all, I do think No One But You was my favourite, because of the stakes and the characters, but I really enjoyed reading all of these books!

These were contemporary books, so they were hit and miss with the romance-these characters would collide, but then something would pull them apart, again and again as they worked through their issues. But they did work through them, so they got happy endings! So yeah, really enjoyed that!

I just really enjoyed reading these books, and I can't wait for more of this series!

Happiness. That about sums it up. Sometimes you just need a sweet read! This is just such a feel good story and it is so refreshing! You instantly form a bond with the characters. Each one has scars but have overcome them. There is life, laughs and love. What more could you ask for?

This was a different style from Novak then I am accustomed to, but just as remarkable as her others. Cora takes a job to get closer to her biological mother, Aiyana, but things get tricky when she begins to fall for her adopted brother. I will definitely come back for more in this series.

Finding Our Forever is the newest work from author Brenda Novak, and admittedly the first of her works that I have read. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be adding more of her books to my to-read list, especially the future books in this series.
This series starter lays the groundwork for what I have a feeling is going to be an amazing series. This story kicks things off with two people affected by adoptions, but in two different ways. One is searching for the adoptive mother who gave her away at birth, the other is enjoying the family he was adopted into as a young boy. The woman’s search leads her to both the truth of her past as well as to a love she never expected. I loved all the aspects of this story. From the setting to the characters, it was all done beautifully. As the story progressed, I experienced so many emotions and it was fantastic. I will say there was quite a big secret the heroine was keeping from her love interest and I was a nervous wreck that the truth would tear them apart. Luckily, all ended just as I had hoped it would.
If you’re looking for a well written, well-rounded story with fabulous characters and a wonderful story line, this is a book for you! Thank you, Ms. Novak, for a great read and a series I look forward to following in the future!

Finding Our Forever is a good start to a new series. I thought it had great main characters, Cora and Elijah, and some really good secondary ones. I liked the storyline of Cora coming to find her birth mother, and it kept me interested throughout the book. I enjoyed the New Horizons Boys Ranch setting. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Cora has always has a curiosity about her birth mother. So she hired a private detective to look into who and where her birthmother is. When she finds out that she runs the Horizon Boys Ranch near Santa Barbara and that they are looking for an art teacher, she decides to apply in order to get closer to the woman.

What she finds out, just confuses her more. Aiyana is kind and giving and has adopted 5 other boys in her absence. But why? Why would she give her up only to end up adopting other children?

What Cora didn't except was to end up having such a strong attraction with Aiyana's oldest adopted son Elijah who helps to run the Boys Ranch. Not wanting to give away that she is Aiyana's biological daughter, she keeps the secret. But as things start to become more between her and Elijah she knows that she has to come clean about why she applied at the Ranch and what her true identity is.

Although there is a romance throughout the book with Elijah and Cora, the story really is about Cora and Aiyana.

I did enjoy the book. Even with the subject, there wasn't a whole lot of drama in the book. It was more of a self discovery for all of the characters including Elijah. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to more in the series, which I would assume would be about Elijah's other brothers.

Brenda Novak begins a new series with not only a central romance but complications involving multiple characters. Cora meets Eli when she takes a teaching job at a ranch boarding school specializing in troubled teenage boys. However the main force driving her decision is that its founder is her birth mother who placed her up for adoption. How everything is reconciled provides the plot for the book, but Ms. Novak's strength is her warm and sympathetic characters, and this reader is looking forward to more entries in the series.

I really wanted to love Finding Our Forever. I loved the idea of the ranch and the school for wayward boys. I was also wanted to love the romance. There is always something about 2 broken people finding love that melts my heart. I was interested enough in the romance between Cora and Elijah to finish out the story. But in the end, I was a bit disappointed.I did like Cora and Elijah together. I loved how she helped him open himself up to love again. But I didn't feel like I got enough of Elijah to really understand his closed off personality. His backstory is mentioned, but how it affected him isn't fully explored.

There were a few other threads that seemed to be just dropped and weren't explored enough. The story takes place on a ranch that is also a school for boys and despite it being talked about several times, the reader is never shown any interaction with Cora or Elijah and the students. I would have liked to see that since such a big deal is made about the school setting. Otherwise, this story could have taken place anywhere. Elijah's interactions (of non-interactions) with his birth mother looked like it could have been a like of conflict, but it never went anywhere.

The main reason for my disappointed really stems from the secret that Cora kept hidden from her birth mother. I was not adopted so I don't want to assume how I would feel, but I ended up having a hard time with how long Cora kept it from Aiyanah. I didn't really buy the reveal. It was just accepted too easily and was kind of anticlimactic and rushed. I think I would have expected more conflict or sense of betrayal. The only honest reaction to her finding her birth mother came from her adoptive parents. That is what I would have expected to happen.

Ultimately, the romance is sweet and I did like their HEA. It's not a bad book, it just didn't have everything I was looking for in it. I'm hoping that in future books we get to see Cal and Aiyanah's relationship blossom further. I also do want to see Elijah's brothers find their HEAs.

Not having been adopted (or even been close to anyone that I knew was adopted) it is hard to imagine what kind of questions Cora has about herself. To finally be able to put that restlessness behind her is a temptation she can't pass up. Eli comes from kinda the opposite point - he knows where he came from, it just isn't a happy place. Their pasts have left both of them with some baggage that they have to figure out how to handle. Baggage that is only complicated when they start to fall for each other, thanks to their ties to Aiyana.

This is not the first of Novak's books I've read ... and it DEFINITELY won't be the last. I love how she somehow makes Finding Our Forever real and pretty drama-free, but still engrossing. There is so much growth and discovery for both Cora and Elijah and yet when everything comes to a head they don't let things overwhelm them. It would have been so easy for Novak to have them weighted down with hurt feelings and damaged pride, but instead they handle things with grace and sensitivity. There are so many possible options for where to go with future books and, as a fan of damaged heroes, I'm looking forward to all the possibilities!

The blurb sold me and knowing the author's superb style of writing and going to the depths of the emotions with her characters with unexpected plot twists, I was eager to read this book one for her new series.
And the story is good. The writing is smooth and the tale is flowing well off the pages with the interesting setting of the private high school for troubled boys and the intriguing characters with pained past. These elements could have provided distraught moments and agitated events in the story and great character development with the protagonists, yet that never really happens. The students are barely mentioned and the history of the characters is smoothly passed with the main focus of the story being Cora and Elijah's physical attraction. I think this might be a case of my misplaced expectations, but I was surprised with the turn and focus the plot took us.
Elijah Turner was horribly abused as a child and suffered greatly at the hands of his mother and step-father. Even with his mother still harassing him, Elijah had left his childhood drama in the past and didn't let it much bother him. I liked Elijah, his dedication to the school and his solid, honest, and trustworthy character were admirable. I loved his connection with his brothers, and the easy relationship they shared with each other and with their adoptive mother.
Cora Kelly's need to find more about her origin drove her to the New Horizons Boys Ranch to get to know her birth mother. She goes about this with lies and deceit, yet that is overlooked quickly as the truth comes out. I had a hard time liking her and her decisions, she seemed to do everything from a point of view that suited herself the best and disregarding others. She is also very brazen at the beginning of the tale with everyone, and not in a positive way, in my opinion.
The development of the relationship is mostly focused on the physical aspects, the burning attraction between Cora and Elijah that has them acting upon it in public places and even in a classroom during a lunch break. Addition to public sex scenes, the story touches 'tabu relationships'.
With the compelling storyline and smooth writing, interesting setting for the series, and the charming brothers that you want to root for, this series has a great potential to be a fan favorite.
~ Three Spoons with a teaspoon on the side

Cora Kelly is a art teacher, she was adopted by the Kellys as a new born and while she loves her family she always wanted to know more about her birth parents especially her mother which leads to accepting her a job in a school run by her birth mother Aiyanna, in New Horizons Boys Ranch. Cora being unsure of what kind of reception she would get from her mother decides to get to know her mother but keeps her identity as a secret.

Elijah Turner was adopted by Aiyanna along with several other boys and is the manger of the ranch. His upbringing before he got adopted was heartbreaking and has left wounds of his heart that haven’t healed.

Cora and Elijah are attracted to each other but because they are both dealing with things, the connection they feel with each other takes some time to grow but when it does it oh la la… even though they both say that their relationship will be temporary they are kidding no one with ‘its just sex’. I really liked them together, theirs was sweet, cute romance and I was really happy for Cora and Elijah who finally got their happy ending!

I also liked how Elijah responded to Cora after he found out the truth. Cora and Elijah were both affected deeply by their parents so it nice seeing them deal with those issues together as well.

The question of Aiyanna gave up Cora was answered and dealt with in a fairly satisfactory way which made this book even better for me.

A small town romance with a great couple and it had a lovely ending and I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

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Jo (Mixed Book Bag) Jones's review Mar 30, 2017 · edit
it was amazing
bookshelves: contemporary-romance, netgalley, romance, series

The first in a new series the setting in the town of Silver Springs and the New Horizons Boys Ranch located just out of town. Adoption and the need to find you birth partner is at the heart of the story. Aiyana, the ranch's owner, is the birth mother of Cora. Aiyana is such a strong character that you have to wonder why she gave her daughter away and why no-one knows that she ever had a child. Cora takes a job at the Ranch to get to know her birth-mother and is very torn about letting her know that she is the daughter she gave away. An added problem - Elijah Turner, Aiyana's adopted son and ranch manager is attracted to Cora and she to him. The handling of the adoption issue is very well handled and adds to the tension in the story. I loved both Cora and Eli and how they both handled the birth mother issue. I see a lot of great stories set in Silver Springs and New Horizons Boys Ranch.

This Is book one in the Silver Springs series and it features Cora Kelly and Elijah Turner. This is a story that began long ago with pain and betrayal and has morphed into a story of love and healing. The relationship between Cora and Eli quickly became something I wasn't expecting. And Matt? He was just irritating! The whole situation with Aiyana was more dramatic than I thought it would be and over much too fast. Time flies by rather quickly while reading, which is what happens when you're deeply entrenched in a great story. I wish it lasted longer.

I'm very excited to get to know the other characters and extremely curious to watch how the stories unfold in this new series.

Finding Our Forever


Brenda Novak






FINDING OUR FOREVER is book one in the new series, Silver Springs by Brenda Novak. It is the story of Cora who is searching for her birth mother. Not because her adoptive parents were mean to her or anything like that. She always felt loved and wanted growing up. But she has always felt something was missing, a piece of her heart maybe. When she hires a private detective to find her mother, she learns that her mother runs a school for troubled boys. Cora accepts a job at the school, never telling anyone why she is there, and prepares to be the new art teacher. She is there to learn a little about her mother and maybe to find out why she gave her up. Her job is only for a year and then she will leave, never revealing who she is. She just hadn't planned on falling in love with her mother's adoptive son Eli.



FINDING OUR FOREVER will have the same effect on you that all of Brenda's stories do. Once you start reading, you will not be able to stop. Putting down FINDING OUR FOREVER is going to be very hard for you, as it was for me. Brenda Novak takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride and she never lets you go. The elephant in the room whenever Cora is anywhere near her birth mother, will have you on the edge of your seat, waiting and worrying. Will Aiyana ever learn the truth about Cora? Will Eli for that matter? You are going to be flipping the pages rapidly waiting for Cora to tell her secret, trust me.



Silver Springs is going to be an awesome series and all the characters Brenda Novak introduces you to in FINDING OUR FOREVER, hopefully will be in the future stories. Once I started reading this heart tugging story, my heart was all about Cora. I know she felt a bit jealous by the relationship that Eli had with Aiyana. Why couldn't she have that closeness with her mom the way he did? Will anyone ever get their happy ending? My emotions were all over the place, one minute giggling, one minute crying. I have only read Brenda Novak once before this and it was just a novella, but after reading FINDING OUR FOREVER I'm going to go back and read her other series, Whiskey Creek. The next book in this series, NO ONE BUT YOU will be out in June and I just hope I can wait that long!

Welcome to tiny Silver Springs California, only two hours from the bright lights and big city of Los Angeles in miles, but light years away in everything that counts.

Everyone believes that Cora Kelly has come to Silver Springs to teach art at New Horizons Boys Ranch. And she certainly has. But that’s not the real reason she desperately wanted the job there, two hours from her family and friends back in LA. And two hours away from the job she could have had, teaching full-time at the school where she’d been subbing for the past six years. A job she had originally been looking forward to. Very much.

But New Horizons has one thing that LA can’t begin to match. Cora’s birth mother is the woman who has poured her own life into New Horizons. And Cora, after years of searching, wants to see who her birth mother really is, and especially find out why she gave her up all those years ago. Because it seems like the woman who has poured her heart and soul into helping, saving and sometimes even adopting boys from extremely difficult and/or troubled backgrounds and circumstances does not seem remotely like the kind of woman who would give up her own child.

Cora’s had a terrific life. Her adoptive parents love her dearly, and never loved her less than their biological son. She hasn’t lacked for anything – except the answers that most of us take for granted. And that lack of answers has driven her to Silver Springs, to take a year out of her life to teach at New Horizons, in the hopes of finally getting at least some of those answers.

But she isn’t sure, when, if, or whether she will reveal who she really is. She’s unsure whether or not she’d be welcome. But concealing that truth, living that very big lie, becomes an even dicier proposition than Kelly had planned on when she can’t resist the attractions of Elijah Turner, her boss, the ranch manager, and her mother’s eldest adopted son.

And in spite of Eli’s scarred past and taciturn present, he can’t seem to resist Cora, either. But the more deeply they become involved, not just romantically but also in each other’s lives, the more difficult it becomes for Cora to risk her heart and her happiness to reveal a truth that could shatter everything.

Or bring her everything her heart desires.

Escape Rating B+:The romance in Finding Our Forever is a relationship that often gets relegated to “taboo” erotica, but there’s no feeling of that kind of dirty secret here. If Cora and Eli had been raised together, it might feel different, but they weren’t so it doesn’t. They meet as adults, and are attracted to each other as adults. While Cora is aware that Eli is technically her adopted brother, they share no blood or genes to make any relationship actually be taboo.

But it does make things considerably more complicated, and they are plenty complicated to begin with. The angst in this story does not feel either manufactured or false. Cora has a secret, and she has very valid reasons both for keeping that secret and wanting to reveal it. She’s extremely conflicted about it, and so she should be. At the same time, Eli in particular has equally valid concerns about trust. The deeper they get into a relationship that neither of them expected, the more worried Cora becomes that Eli will feel betrayed by Cora’s hidden identity.

On top of that, when her secret comes out, she could be out of a job, as well as brokenhearted AND forced to go back to her adoptive parents to face a cloud of “I told you so’s” They were not in favor of Cora’s quest for her birth mother, feeling as if Cora’s search was an indictment of their love and their parenting, which it isn’t. But again, their conflicted feelings on this matter are also understandable.

The only person whose feelings don’t ring true in this entire mess is Cora’s ex-boyfriend, who shows up early in her school year in an attempt to either manipulate her back to him or otherwise horn in on her life. He’s a jerk rather than a threat, but his appearance and Cora’s reaction to it were the one emotional point in the story that just didn’t quite hit the mark.

But Cora’s story certainly does. She gets her answers, and they are nothing like she expected. And she doesn’t get everything that she wanted. But she gets enough for readers to feel more than satisfied that she got her happy ending. And it happens in a way that feels right for the story and the characters.

I really enjoyed my visit to Silver Springs, and I’m looking forward to more. It looks like the series is going to follow the romantic adventures of Eli’s brothers, and I can’t wait to see what happens next, in No One But You.

Brenda Novak’s latest release “Finding Our Forever”, is a an emotional journey of revelation and family, love and support as Cora Kelly tries to settle into the life of the New Horizons Boys Ranch as an art teacher. But her motivation behind taking the job is to get to know her biological mother, and maybe get some answers to questions that had haunted her for a while.

The New Horizons Boys Ranch is Elijah Turner’s salvation and his adopted mother Aiyana is one person he would lay down his life for… unconditionally. Getting over a traumatic past and using those experiences as lessons, Elijah is driven to helping troubled teenagers get a second chance at life. The ranch is his life yet, when Cora comes aboard, he cannot deny his interest or the spark of attraction.

What started off as a behind the doors affair soon sees the light of the day, and Cora’s guarded secret only makes it more complicated. But Elijah being the sensitive and understanding guy of the hour, he may be the one to smooth things over, helping Cora confront her past and make a future together.

“Finding Our Forever” is a story of forgiveness and acceptance, regrets and redemption, love and support as each Brenda Novak starts off the Silver Springs series with an emotional love story. Elijah and Cora make a truly wonderful couple as they try to make their relationship work with patience, understanding and trust.

Received an ARC from Harlequin via NetGalley for an honest review.