Johanna's Reviews > The Best Kind of Forever

I am so torn what to rate this one. Let's start with saying that I'm apparently in a hyper-critical mood lately.

‼️ Little TW for ranting about the ED representation in the book‼️

On one hand, Hayes was really cute and their banter was adorable at times (somehow more so via text idk). Him saying those things to Aeris (cool name but kinda to fantasy vibe-y for me) did some things to my plussize heart, even though it hurt because she calls herself midsized and as a huuuge problem with that. But on the other hand, there were just quite a few things I did not like.

This kinda felt like a Wattpad story. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because I'm convinced there are quite a few real good stories on Wattpad. But this wouldn't be one of them. I hate to say it - and again, I'm kinda hyoer-critial atm - but so much of this story seemed... naive. Maybe that's me being biased and having a small inside into the bts hockey/nhl world. But my god, losing sponsorships because of a ons or getting trading because of that just doesn't sound realistic to me.

This whole mmc-sleeps-with-daughter-of-sponsorhip-dude-storyline is just - pardon my cynism - ridiculous and sexist. As long as the daughter doesn't claim that it wasn't consensual - with it was, because we had to read it (wtf) - it shouldn't matter. I can't be the only one thinking that's ridiculous, right? How naive does a dad have to be not to know his daughter gets railed once in a while 😂 (not a comforting thought but still)

‼️ TW ‼️ But I gotta admit, this book taught me something; EDs can be a trigger for me. I got to pissed at her calorie counting or more like how all of this was handled. Or maybe it was because she was so mean to herself yet calling herself midsized the whole time, which would insult everyone bigger than her imo, me included.

I get that with the disordered eating and the obsession of calories in this case the actual nutritional value can be irrelevant. But what I understood about that type of disordered eating she wouldn't really eat that much fruit, no? Fruit has lots of sugar and therefore a higher calorie count. Why would she waste so many calories - from the 700 a day she limits herself on - on a banana? Anyways, I get that EDs don't always make sense to other people. BUT I am convinced that it would take her a lot longer to get over her eating habits than to get a encouraged to eat a bite of a burger and a few more encouraging words. Maybe there was more off-page of that. But it didn't really seem like something that would change that quickly. ‼️ End of the TW ‼️

And those too quick and imo unrealistic changes (his stupid decision making skills, her self-image, body positivity, eating habits, overall insecurities) are a major reason for me to claim this all as naive. I thought it might be the length (300+ pages), but I've read books that had more realistic character development in 300 pages. I also get that their love changed the and made them a better person, but that stuff doesn't happen overnight and I'm just a fan of a little more realism in book (that aren't fantasy yk) because most mmcs are already totally unrealistic (again my pms cynism ig).

Tl;dr idk what to rate this after that rant still. I feel bad giving it 2 stars but it doesn't deserve 3 after my complaints 😅 we need half stars asap 🙄

Ugh okay, I'll be harsh. Because I also don't really wanna continue the series in general 🙊


💜 PSA: I've you struggle with your body-image, self-worth, disordered eating etc. know you're not alone and it's okay to feel bad about oneself *sometimes*. I might not be the person, but there will always be someone you can talk to.

Also, it's the clothes and the clothing industry. It's okay to get a size bigger when you need it, because size is not universal. It's okay that not every style fits or looks good on every body in your opinion. As long as you feel comfortable and confident in your outfit, nothing else matters. And we shouldn't put others down if they feel comfortable and confident in their outfit even if we are not a fan of it. 💜