Always. Sarah Jio

Published: Random House - Ballantine
Date: 7th February 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 240
Genre: Contemporary Ficiton
Source:Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
                       

While enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with her fiance, Ryan, at one of Seattle's chicest restaurants, Kailey Crane can't believe her good fortune: She has a great job as a writer for the Herald and is now engaged to a guy who is perfect in nearly every way. As they leave the restaurant, Kailey spies a thin, bearded homeless man on the sidewalk. She approaches him to offer up her bag of leftovers, and is stunned when their eyes meet, then stricken to her very core: The man is the love of her life, Cade McAllister.

When Kailey met Cade ten years ago, their attraction was immediate and intense everything connected and felt "right." But it all ended suddenly, leaving Kailey devastated. Now the poor soul on the street is a faded version of her former beloved: His weathered and weary face is as handsome as Kailey remembers, but his mind has suffered in the intervening years. Over the next few weeks, Kailey helps Cade begin to piece his life together, something she initially keeps from Ryan. As she revisits her long-ago relationship, Kailey realizes that she must decide exactly what and whom she wants.

Always by Sarah Jio was a book I read through quickly because I needed to know what happened. In 2008 we have Kailey and Ryan, much in love and a really nice couple. She is a journalist and he is a big time wealthy developer.  They are perfect in every way except that their values seem to be somewhat misaligned. 

One day Kailey sees a homeless guy outside a restaurant and she gives him the food in her hand. When their eyes meet she recognises him and we are taken back to 1996 to the time when it was Kailey and Cade who were very much in love. So what has gone wrong? How did Cade a musical genius in terms of spotting the next great band and wealthy in his own right reach the place he is in now?  The element of mystery held me... wanting to know more.

Kailey has been for a long time interested in the homeless and has fought through her journalism to have their plight and rights recognised. And soon this is even more important to her as she seeks to find out what has happened. She begins a fight to help him regain his health and his rights.

I was most interested in the 2008 part because that was where the now was. The 1996 part that is woven into the story filled in the backstory of Kailey and Cade.  And they had been a perfect couple.

It is an emotional story of love. I really felt for Ryan as he was a good guy and he was in danger of losing someone precious to him. But Kailey and Cade had had that too and more. So in the end the ending was a little bittersweet.

I felt things wrapped up a little to easily and tidily, there were aspects of the story I would have liked to have been developed a little more but to discuss them would be to give the plot away. So I'll leave you to read and enjoy it as I did.