I became a fan of LaDelle after reading Love Radio in 2023. This is a beautiful second book from the author. As someone who currently lives where this multicultural YA romance takes place, I appreciate the author's attention to detail about the locale. LaDelle's storytelling makes you want to root for Deja and Raja as they tackle the obstacles keeping them from their dreams and each other.

This was such a cute/beautiful story about young love, family and culture. I enjoyed watching the Deja and Raja get to know each other while also learning about each other’s culture and seeing how their lives can combine. I smiled and giggled the whole way through. An excellent read.

I love smart books-books that teach while telling a story. Ebony LaDelle has done it again with This Could Be Forever, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It's not a spoiler to say this is a multicultural read, and like most, this book makes it very clear there are some conflict as a result. However, LaDelle uses two promising teens to deliver some very positive lessons about how when we get past our own biases, we can find a lot of similarities with people who don't share all of our same customs. I genuinely loved the way LaDelle's characters found more resolve through education rather than use abject racism as the focus of conflict between the characters. And I'm also a fan of young love with intent. Solid read!

I received this book courtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Thank you for the advance review copy. I will 100% be purchasing.

I loved this book so much. I felt like if you enjoyed Love Radio, you will definitely enjoy this as well. I love how the author writes her YA novels. She writes for a mature group which allows mature adults to enjoy the novel just the same if not more lol! I highly recommend!!!

Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.

Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.

When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard—over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.

Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives—and love—that are starting to feel like destiny?

A literary update to "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" featuring a Black American girl and a Nepali American boy. They meet and it's love at first sight, but due to their age and culture difference, their parents have concerns about them being together. Through these outside forces, we learn that love is love and that the cultures have more in common than they initially think. That said, while I liked learning about the cultures and the romance was cute, Raja and Deja felt a little too grown for their ages. I think if they were aged up a year, it would have felt more authentic. However, this is a great book to gift teens and I recommend it for multigenerational reading groups.

I wanted to fall in love with this book but didnt 😬 It was very informative. I learned a lot but the dialogue felt forced. It didnt feel natural. Deja & Raja were cute but they felt so much older than seventeen! I kept thinking, this would have been great as adult fiction and not YA. All and all, I enjoyed it.

I was SO lucky to get this as an arc. It was such a lovely read, spinning a true interracial love story and all the highs and lows that come with it. Genuinely, this book warmed my heart, I love a good love story and this delivered just that

Deja and Raja just graduated high school and are both in their college town early. On her first night in town, Deja walks into Raja’s tattoo parlor and sparks fly. But, Raja comes from a strict South Asian family and Deja’s Black father doesn’t want her going to college so far away, let alone dating a brown boy. Both teens are family-oriented, so can they overcome the obstacle that is their respective families?

This was a sweet story! I liked Deja and Raja immensely. I liked how most of the conflicts weren’t about *them* necessarily, but about things they had to deal with outside of their relationship. Both of the MCs were very mature, which I found unrealistic at times. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see communication and understanding, but they’re 18 and had no flaws... I wasn’t buying that. While there weren’t a lot of stakes to the story, I loved seeing these two grow and stand up for one another! The ending line almost had me crying--it was so sweet. ^.^

Ebony LaDelle is an automatic-read author for me now!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Loved the premise of this one, but I believe I would’ve appreciated it more if they were older. This explored such a real and heavy subject of marriage and culture, and I felt it was properly wrapped up. It’s such a heavy theme for 18 year olds to be dealing with.

I cannot say enough about this book!

Ebony LaDelle has a way of writing YA that connects you to all the nostalgia of your teenage years!

Deja and Raja were so adorable! Their connection was endearing and felt authentic. The actions of their families made the story believable, relatable, and intriguing.

The effort put into providing great details about both cultures was AMAZING!!!

The details of the scenes, conversations, and the supporting cast members were all well done.

I cannot wait to receive my pre-ordered copy!

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and netgalley.com for the ARC copy of this book.

I will definitely be recommending it to all my Bookish Besties!

Ebony LaDelle's "Could This Be Forever" is a compelling story about the intersection of cultures and the power of young love. Following Deja, a Black American woman, and Raja, a Nepali-American man, the novel delves into the complexities they face as they strive to build a relationship amidst the biases held by their respective families. Although the story progressed at a pace that felt a little drawn out for me, the thoughtful exploration of these cultural dynamics and familial tensions makes it a rewarding read.

the representation, the young love, the writing style? I knew I would love this after reading love radio a few years ago. I wish these type of YA books were around when I was younger but I’m so glad young people have books like this around! so many themes, the nepali culture, the colorism and conversation around that? Incredible. thank you netgalley!

Amazing! I love this beautiful story of love and growing. I finished it in one sitting and I will always recommend.

gorgeous romance with fun ideas. insta love is normally a neutral to dislike for me, but here it definitely worked. 4.5 stars, tysm for the arc.

I read So This Could Be Forever by Ebony LaDelle, a YA romance that follows Deja Martin, a Black freshman at the University of Maryland who dreams of studying cosmetic chemistry, and Raja Sharma, a Nepali American artist who wants to open a tattoo shop. They meet during a summer campus visit and instantly click, and once Deja starts school early for classes and an internship, their relationship really starts. But things get more complicated when they have to navigate their families and cultural differences.

There were a lot of things I really liked about this book. Deja and Raja were both so sweet and thoughtful with each other—like when Raja took Deja to see the cherry blossoms, or when she learned how to cook food from his culture. They felt more emotionally mature than a lot of older couples in books. They had real conversations, genuinely tried to understand each other, and showed they were capable of having a grounded, healthy relationship.

I also appreciated that most of the conflict came from external factors—their families and cultural expectations—rather than the usual miscommunication or stubborn drama between the main characters. It was such a refreshing change of pace. The story also had some really good discussions about generational differences and how younger people are trying to unlearn some of the harmful patterns passed down to them. I liked seeing both family dynamics—it added so much to the story.

And the main characters themselves? I really liked them. They had such interesting goals and dreams, and even when they got together, they didn’t lose themselves. They still knew who they were individually, which I loved.

That said, there were a few things that didn’t totally work for me. Some of the characters’ reactions felt unearned—like laughing or being overly impressed by stuff that wasn’t that funny or impressive. The writing also had moments where it felt a bit cringy or unnatural. And honestly, things moved really fast between Deja and Raja. They met once, had a single date, didn’t talk for months, then jumped straight into planning to meet each other’s families and talk about the future. I’m just not a big fan of insta-love, even in teen romances.

Also, I don’t know if it was the digital format I read, but there were a few scenes that didn’t transition clearly—it felt like something was missing or out of order, which threw me off.

Overall, this was a good read. I gave it a 3.5. It wasn’t totally my thing, but I appreciated the conversations it brought up about cultural expectations and breaking generational cycles. And at its heart, it was a really sweet romance between two people from different backgrounds who made it work because they chose to.

Thank you to Simon Teen for this digital ARC!

Maybe I don't dislike "instalove" as much as I thought I did because I personally LOVED every moment of this book. Deja and Raja was so cute. The connection was quick yes, but that's bound to happen on a college campus close-ish proximity! It was adorable and I had fun seeing them get to know each other and embrace each others cultures.

Deja and Raja face the common challenge that come with dating outside of your race and culture. They both face similar obstacles when it came to their families judgement, specifically with their stubborn fathers. I loved seeing both of their growth through their journey together. Raja especially made me proud. His methods weren't always perfect, but I loved seeing him stand up for Deja and himself. I feel like Deja brought out a different confidence in him that he didn't have before. Deja was such a confident girl in general the moment we start the book. She was a real go-getter with her dreams and aspirations and it seems that it definitely inspired and influenced Raja.

I also really loved seeing the complexities of family shown in this book. Family was very important to both of them, but they challenged the norms. Never disrespectful, to me! They had so much love and respect for their families, but they had to remind them that they are not under their control and things are changing! I like that. I was glad to seem both characters call out their family members' ignorance and biases when it came to each other. The families can mean no harm, but they still need to be corrected.

“As we're opening the earth, I think of Queen. The night sky always makes me think of her. […] As a young child I never understood where her poise came from, but my grandmother sowed it in me, and as we gardened and compared stories, my confidence budded like each new leaf budding from the soil — rich with nutrients, armed with courage, and ready to withstand any harshness that came my way.”

This may have been my first book by Ebony LaDelle but, holy cannoli, it will not be my last! I absolutely loved this sweet, dual POV love story about finding your perfect match right at a crossroads in your life. Our heroine is a brilliant young woman poised at the edge of adulthood. Our hero is a talented young man daring to forge his own path in life. Can honesty and vulnerability bond two people together? How do you stay true to yourself and the goals you’ve set for yourself while also pursuing an unexpected spark? And do we always have to lose something to gain something else? Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC — be on the lookout for this one in May!

Insta love is becoming my thing I guess, because I ate this up. I absolutely loved Raja. Even though both cultures clashed briefly and the parents were extremely set in the old days, this was a great story of family, love and living for you.

The meet cute was so adorable! I love this book so much. It was so cute. The banter was everything. The connection? You could feel it through the pages!

I was really excited about this book and intrigued by the premise. I generally love YA romances and find them very charming. But I have to be honest and say I DNFed this book at 30%.

I’m not a huge fan of the insta-love trope and this is really what their meet-cute boils down to. Also, I found the conversations they had on their whirlwind weekend they met to be overly simplistic. The writing style felt pretty juvenile. Additionally, I felt their characters were really boiled down to stereotypes.

I wanted to stick it out, but at 30% I still did not really care for them or the storyline so I needed to step away. I’m bummed, but hopeful this will work for readers who enjoy insta-love and who are looking for a YA interracial love story.