Wow a love story! I simply couldn't put this book down. It was about 2nd chances which by the way is my favorite.
It's about learning to live again after picking up the broken pieces called life. Learning to trust again.
This story is real, it's a very raw and emotional story and one that will immediately draw you in as soon as you open it.
5 stars from me for a job well done.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine

Book review of A Promise of Forever by Sheryl Lister. Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for my ARC.

This book is everything I want from a second-chance romance. It’s tender, emotionally grounded, and never takes the easy way out. Sheryl Lister gives us a story that doesn’t just flirt with the idea of love after hardship—it looks it straight in the eye and demands something honest. A Promise of Forever isn’t about falling in love; it’s about staying in love when everything around you is falling apart. And that’s what makes it so powerful.

Terri and Jon Rhodes are already married when the book begins, but their relationship is hanging by a thread. They used to be the couple everyone admired: passionate, playful, and in sync. But over time, life crept in. Their demanding jobs—Terri as an ER nurse and Jon as an attorney—stole away their time and energy. A personal tragedy dealt a final blow to their already strained connection. And now they’re living like strangers under the same roof. Until Terri decides she can’t do it anymore and walks away.

What struck me most was how deeply real this situation felt. This isn’t a romance built on miscommunication or petty misunderstandings. It’s built on grief, burnout, silence, and the kind of slow emotional drift that happens when you stop paying attention. Terri isn’t leaving to punish Jon—she’s leaving to save herself from disappearing. And that distinction matters. Lister writes her with so much care and clarity. She’s not perfect. She’s scared, tired, and vulnerable. But she’s also brave enough to ask for more.

Jon, meanwhile, is a man who thought he was doing everything right. Providing. Working hard. Being dependable. But what he wasn’t doing—really listening, opening up, showing up emotionally—nearly cost him his marriage. Watching him come to terms with that was satisfying and painful. He doesn’t magically fix himself overnight. He struggles, stumbles, and has to unlearn years of emotional avoidance. But the key is that he tries. He doesn’t run from the discomfort. He leans into it, even when it hurts. And that makes all the difference.

Their journey back to each other is full of awkward conversations, tender moments, and hard truths. There’s no grand romantic gesture that solves everything. Instead, there’s effort. Consistency. Dates that are more about emotional reconnection than flowers and candles. Moments of silence that slowly shift from tense to comfortable. It’s a slow burn, even though they’re already in love, and I found that incredibly refreshing. Real relationships take work, and this book doesn’t shy away from showing that work in action.

The supporting cast adds richness without distraction. The women of the Supper Club are warm, funny, and fiercely loyal. Their bond adds another layer to the story—reminding us that love isn’t just about romance. It’s about community, friendship, and the people who see you even when you don’t see yourself. Firefly Lake as a setting works perfectly. It has all the charm of a small town without feeling saccharine. There’s a grounded energy here, a sense of shared history and quiet support that permeates the pages.

I also appreciated how the story handles grief and trauma. It doesn’t reduce either to plot devices. Instead, Lister treats both with nuance. The loss that Terri and Jon suffered is never fully explained in graphic detail, but the emotional fallout is felt on every page. You understand the weight they’re carrying and how it impacts everything—how they talk to each other, how they touch, how they avoid. That emotional realism is what elevates the book from a sweet romance to something more resonant.

And still, despite the heavier themes, the book never loses its sense of hope. There’s warmth in every chapter. Humor in the banter. Joy in the small wins. It reminds you that love doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth fighting for. It just has to be chosen, again and again.

Sheryl Lister has written a love story that doesn’t start with butterflies but with broken pieces—and then shows us how those pieces can be put back together, not perfectly, but meaningfully. A Promise of Forever is about what happens after the “I do,” when the real tests begin. It’s about showing up even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard. And it’s about the kind of love that’s deep enough to weather storms, strong enough to rebuild, and soft enough to forgive.

I closed this book feeling grateful—for the honesty, for the vulnerability, and for the reminder that love is less about magic and more about choice. Every day. Every moment.