My review: Giving You Forever by Ashley Wilcox

From the moment Nolan Pratt walked into Alexa Arnold’s life everything was forever changed. After a year of dating, the ring was on her finger, the house was purchased, and life was heading down Pleasantville Lane. Everything was perfect.

Or so they thought.

With help from his parent’s inheritance, Nolan takes on a new business adventure, utilizing all his free time. What was once their life- carefree with minimal responsibilities, is no more. When Alexa starts to feel the pressure from school, wedding planning, and lack of help from Nolan, exhaustion kicks in and feelings get hurt, testing the strength of their relationship. But, if there is one thing that Nolan will never compromise, it’s Alexa’s happiness. There’s nothing Nolan Pratt won’t do to make sure Alexa is well taken care of, loved, and happy.

When Nolan’s past resurfaces- a past that Alexa didn’t know existed- will it all be too much? Will Nolan’s devotion to Alexa’s happiness cost him their relationship and lose him the only thing that has ever mattered in his life? Or will Nolan discover that his past doesn’t determine his future and he is worth the happiness he doesn’t think he deserves?

Nolan and Alexa appear to have found the perfect match in one another.  A year into dating he's put a ring of her finger and is announcing to the world that he has found the woman of his dreams and plans to make her his.  What appears to be paradise and the beginning of their happily ever after soon turns into a stressful relationship that eats away at Alexa.

Nolan's parents left him an inheritance that has allowed him to finally follow his dream of one day opening his own gym.  With his friend Mike, they become partners and begin building their dream empire.  What neither one of them expected, was that for dream would eat up so much of their time.  Both of them spending far too much time away from their families and no free time, no days off.  Nolan doesn't seem to see that he's spending far too much time away from Alexa until he forgets one night to meet her at a restaurant, leaving her standing there for hours and feeling like a fool.

Alexa has been on cloud nine.  She is going to marry the man of her dreams and their life together is wonderful.  They attraction to one another is incredible and they are meant for one another.  But Alexa can't help the feeling that she comes second to Nolan, his first love being his beloved gym.  They only spend ten minutes together in the morning and a little time together at night. Alexa is in her senior year of college and works as a teacher's assistant in the afternoon.  On top of that she's planning her own wedding and the pressure of everything is killing her so one night, she comes up with an idea that she hopes Nolan will agree to, a wedding planner.  Nolan doesn't want to spend the extra money, but decides that Alex could use the extra support so he agrees.  Alexa meets with Meg a wedding planner, and while Meg tells her there is no more open appointments when she hears Nolan's name she decides to take on the wedding herself.

Everything seem to be going great with the wedding, that is until Nolan decides that he should be more involved when Alexa reveals how much she misses spending time with him.  The second Nolan arrives at the florist, he explodes pointing an angry finger at Meg but calling her Margo.  Alexa is not sure what to make of the encounter and pulls Nolan home and demands an explanation.  Turns out he knows Margo from high school.  He went through a difficult time after his parents died and Margo was suppose to be what pulled him out, but her ultimate act of betrayal changed Nolan's life forever, leading him on the path to good and Margo out of his life forever.

Margo returning into Nolan's life, no matter if it was only for a short time, changed Nolan.  He started to see things differently and ultimately leads Nolan to do the unthinkable when tragedy strikes Nolan and Alexa.  Will Nolan finally be able to learn that he's not responsible for what happened in his life and that he deserves happiness?  Will Nolan and Alexa ever make it down the aisle?

At first when I started reading this, I was a bit confused because Alexa and Nolan seemed so happy, it just seemed like in the beginning they were so happy, so I thought this was going to be a book about a wedding and a happily ever after.  I thought there would be nothing in between.  That is until Nolan started spending too many hours away from Alexa at his new gym and his clients at his old gym.  Right from there I could see that there were going to be problems between this fairy tale couple.  When Nolan did the unthinkable, it changed my mind from this book being a three to a four star rating.  While I found the sex scenes in this a little too similar for my liking, it was clear that these two were very passionate about one another and overall it was a good read which is why I gave it four stars.

***ARC provided by author in exchange for a honest review***

Some may consider me a jack of all trades, but I consider myself well rounded. I've waitressed, styled hair, answered phones and, most recently, worked full time as mom to my two beautiful little boys.

Then there was this book...

Everyone and their brother started talking about this book series titled Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James. I didn't really pay attention to the craze at first, since I wasn't a big reader- okay, I didn't read at all. But curiosity got the best of me, so I downloaded it to my kindle.
I was immediately hooked. I read the whole series in three days. Yes, three books in three days.

I kept finding all these great books that I HAD to read (just ask my credit card!).

Then I started hearing voices. Voices that turned into stories; stories that were begging to get out of my head.I started writing them down on scraps of paper. Then I transferred them to my computer. Before I knew it, Planning on Forever was born.

The voices in my head are still talking, so I'm still writing.