A sweet, second-chance romance between Sam and Maya, I didn't agree with Maya not letting Sam know about Samantha, but I liked Samantha, and I enjoyed the reconnection of Sam and Maya,

Mona Shroff was a guest on the Fresh Fiction blog to promote this title. You can see her blog post here: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10448

DNF
I had high hopes for this story but found that the secret baby story wasn't handled particularly well. I also struggled with the characters and their motivations.

Told from two different viewpoints in the past and present, this sweet and charming second chance romance is a heartwarming treat.

Maya and Sam met at a poignant time in their young lives. Sam had been a kinda-sorta player, hardly serious about any of the girls he dated until Maya showed up one summer as a babysitter for his cousins and he was knocked off his feet. Maya didn't exactly lead a sheltered life but she had always been cautioned by her skeptical mother that men were not to be trusted. She felt Sam was different though and defied her mother by secretly dating him. Sam's mother viewed their relationship as a temporary distraction from his academic and professional ambitions and so tolerated their time together. Reality crashed their bubble when Maya found out she was pregnant. When forced to contemplate what this would mean to their respective futures she decided to keep the pregnancy a secret and bow out of Sam's life without explanation. Years later, single mother Maya is desperate enough for Sam's help when their daughter is in trouble. It's not ever how she wanted Sam to find out but she has no choice, consequences be damned.

Then, Now, Always explores the joys and excitement of young love and what it feels like when you know you've found "the one". Back then Maya's innocence and idealism drew out a different side of Sam, a side that felt more like the real him. They were ridiculously cute together. Fast forward a few years and the sudden reunion is surreal. All the questions, the hurt, confusion and bitterness come rushing to the surface. Sam has a hard time keeping his thoughts together as he helps Maya with their daughter, Samantha. It's clear they still care deeply for each other but it's not something either can declare out loud especially when there are so many complications. I liked that Sam and Maya reunite at a later point in life. Being older and having gone through considerable personal development makes a huge difference in how they handle things now. I also appreciated that Shroff didn't just thrust the two of them back together to pick up from where they left off. They had the time to get work through all the unresolved issues and make peace with the past and what transpired.

I enjoyed my time reading this book and frankly was rather surprised by how much Maya's mom reminded me of my own. Suffice it to say that it led me to feel a little bit of kinship with Maya. The story also touches on a significant reality for children of immigrants - living up to parents' hopes and dreams. Both Sam and Maya's mothers had specific ideas in mind for their children's futures and being respectful, Sam and Maya accepted what was expected of them. But Maya's reemergence in his life forces Sam to examine his life's work and makes him wistful for the idealistic ambitions he had as a young lad.

Then, Now, Always is the kind of second chance novel you want in your life - a second chance at love, at family, at a career. It's a second chance at fulfilling lifelong dreams and that is just the sweetest feeling.

~ Bel

This book was a pleasant surprise. It uses a familiar trope to give us a second chance romance read. The story is just about Sam and Maya's romance and heartbreak, but about their families. The glaring differences between the families and how this affected Sam and Maya's young love, and the choices that led them to where they are today. Sam meeting his daughter for the first time at 15 years old.

Overall, this was a very good read for a trope that can be repetitive in romance novels. Mona Shroff story was a pleasant change.

As much as I wanted to like this book, I just couldn't make it work for me. I love the single mother trope, and I can get on board with the secret baby situation plus I loved the representation! But the flashback scenes and all the lying just weren't what I needed in a book right now and I decided I couldn't finish. I would love to read a different book from this author!

This was a highly anticipated read for me but it was unfortunately a DNF. I really struggled with the chapters that were set in the past and the fact that he had a girlfriend in current time. I did really like the representation in the book and how present the extended families were. This book didn’t work for me but I will definitely try the authors future works.

It always makes me sad when I don't love a book that I am eagerly anticipating. As soon as I heard about this title, I knew I wanted to read it. A single Indian mother? Yes, please! A second chance romance? Yes, please! Unfortunately, the execution fell flat to me. I felt like the plot moved far too quickly and without enough nuance for me to truly care for these characters. I'm not a huge fan of insta love and I felt like this story had that in abundance. Even more, certain events occurred so quickly one after the other that there wasn't enough time to think about the impact of all of them. Overall, I will be reading more by this author but this one was a disappointment.

When I first heard about this book I was not sure I was going to like the story but the story was very well written and the story was engaging. A new voice in the romance world can’t wait for her next book.

I loved the cover and the premise of this one. Secret baby storylines can be so much fun - but they can also fall flat. For me the pacing of this story was far too slow and the parts I didn't love dragged on for too long. While there is a certain amount of lying that comes with any secret baby storyline, this felt like too much and unfortunately in the end, the story just didn't work for me.

This is an #ownvoices second chance love story that is perfect for romance lovers. The characters were interesting and I love a second chance love story. I also enjoyed learning more about the Indian culture! The teenage daughter in the book is definitely a lot of fun and keeps the adults on their toes. Overall a great read.

Second chance romances are not usually to my liking but this one was.
A secret baby, now a teen. Diverse characters. Slow burn. Different POV's. Headstrong and stubborn main characters. It all worked for me.

Then, Now, Always is a solid debut from Mona Shroff. It’s an emotional second chance romance between Maya, the Indian daughter of a single mother from Queens, and Sam, the half-Indian son of a doctor and a lawyer. They had a summer fling 16 years ago in Maryland before Maya broke it off and returned home. Now her daughter is in trouble and the only person she can turn to for help is Sam, who she hasn’t seen since that summer.⁣
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The story alternates between the summer that Maya and Sam met and fell in love and their lives 16 years later, with Maya as a single mother running a bakery in Queens and Sam a corporate lawyer looking to make the leap into politics. I’d recommend this one to someone looking for a closed door romance with more external conflict than internal. There’s a lot going on and the hero and heroine are mainly kept apart by their families rather than any reservations they have about the other.

Thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley to providing new a copy for review.

Narration: There’s a single narrator for both POVs, but I enjoyed her accent for Maya.

You might be wondering how this could have ended up on my DNF list after I was really excited about it. And I wondered the same thing. Basically it just wasn’t drawing me in. It probably had more to do with external factors like life and the story wasn’t holding my attention. The story goes back and forth from past to present so that may be appealing to some readers. This is probably a perfectly enjoyable story it just wasn’t working for me right now.

Thanks for the opportunity to preview this one early to decide whether to purchase. I appreciate so much that publishers are willing to work with libraries!

This was an unexpectedly deep secret baby trope romance from a debut American author of Indian origin. I love finding romances from voices that are not frequently represented in romance, especially ones that feature characters with different backgrounds to your own and I’m committed to reading more of those kinds of voices, which is exactly why I so wanted to read this- well, that and my adoration for the secret baby trope.

I think on the balance of things, I liked this. I think it was well-written and compelling and entertaining. I loved how authentically it showcased the culture of the characters as first or second generation Americans and I think I learned a lot about food and ways of naming family and close friends. I thought the story was deep and moving and the emotions were really well handled.

The premise of this is that as fresh graduates from college, Maya and Sam has a whirlwind summer romance and thought they were madly in love till Maya broke things off suddenly, leaving, unbeknownst to Sam, pregnant and carrying his baby. Now, 16 years later, her secret daughter is in trouble and needs Sam’s help and Maya is forced to confront her past and tell the truth. Except Sam is on the cusp of a bright political career and is about to get married when this all lands in his lap.

I have a couple of minor peeves with this. I think the ending was a little rushed and that more could have been done with Samantha, as a teenager, in finding out and understanding why she was kept a secret from her father and interacting with that generational reason. Another thing that bothered me about this was that I didn’t really understand how or why Sam shared any of the blame in the secret baby outcome- and I also never quite “forgave” Maya for her role in the secret baby situation and didn’t feel she was sorry enough. I mean, intellectually, I can sort of understand and accept in a way, her reasoning for keeping her baby secret from Sam, but I wasn’t nodding like “girl, you were justified.” But in a way, that’s what I liked about this book. It wasn’t pat. Ultimately, she was an imperfect and flawed heroine who made imperfect and flawed decisions and that’s real life, and that’s what makes this book feel realistic and slightly discomfiting as you read because it’s not all the puzzle pieces fitting together. The emotions feel complex and uncomfortable even though yes, this is a romance in that there’s a HEA.

Overall, I really liked this though and I want to read more from this author.

Two stars for the first 75% of the book, 3 stars for the last 25% (the actual romance part), and 4 stars for the cover.
I requested this debut novel because a couple of my favorite authors hyped it so much but after reading it, I ended up frustrated and disappointed. I liked the nods to Indian culture - the honorifics, the food, and the Diwali festival. Other than that and the cover, I didn't enjoy this. It's too melodramatic, more fit for a TV soap opera than a romance novel. There's a dead brother, parental abandonment, cancer, false pregnancy, Mean Girls-like shenanigans, interfering mother, man-hating mother, lusting after another while still engaged, lying, lots of lying, BIG misunderstanding, and of course, secret baby. Most of the characters are unlikeable, particularly the main pair Maya and Sam. Maya is easily-led by others while Sam is an immature dumbass. I couldn't root for them to get back together. The best characters in this book are white males - Sam's father John and Samantha's boyfriend Will. The people of color didn't represent well, which makes me sad.

Other observations:
- The years weirded me out. It was totally unnecessary to specify 1996 and 2012. Just say Past and Present or Sixteen Years Ago and Today.
- Except for Ben, there's not a lot of humorous elements in the book. I didn't find Ami being drunk funny.
- The parenting in this book is ugh.

After this, I won't ever read a contemporary secret-baby trope again.

This debut book from Harlequin is a second chance romance, a celebration of family, passion for life and career, and dealing with difficult challenges.

A second chance love story that will give hope to dreamers and leave you swoony for more.

This is a book readers will be talking about for a long time!

I really wanted to love this book, as I was excited for the plot but I ended up skimming most of it. None of the characters really stood out to me, the plot felt really clunky at times and wasn't satisfied with the handling of Sam and Paige's relationship as well as the ending. There was a solid cast of characters though.

This book kinda annoyed me. Long story short, I had trouble believing that the main characters would end up together at the end. They had sixteen years to both grow apart, and develop some strong negative feelings for each other. I think the book would have worked better for me if it had just been a couple years, instead of sixteen. That way they don't lose so much time together.
This next bit is a personal preference, but the book had a then and now thing going on, which I really don't enjoy reading. In general, I don't like more than the occasional flashback. In that vein, it was kind of weird that the 'present' setting was 2012. It would make more sense for the present to be more like 2019/2020, given the release of the book. There was no real reason to have the book set in 2012, and the only reason a date is even given is because it's needed in reference to the sixteen years earlier.
While the romance was sweet at times, there was a lot of anger in the book. Anger between the leads, at parents, at children, and at other partners. While it made sense, given the situation, I just felt like it wouldn't have led to the happy ending it did.