Book Review / "A Crack in Forever" by Barbara Avon

A Crack in Forever by Barbara Avon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Dedication, hard work, and commitment brought him to where he was today, and unlike his father, he planned to enjoy his life, and share in its pleasures with the woman he loved before the Grim Reaper could take it all away.”

It’s just Mario hadn’t envisaged that not the Grim Reaper but the unexpected twists would threaten to shatter everything he had built so far, using his dedication, hard work, and commitment.
Mario knows that life isn’t a walk in the park. He had learned everything about it even before acquiring the illusions of the young. So, for him, the fact that he escaped the gloomy existence on the “wrong side of the tracks” means hope. Which he is about to lose after witnessing something that can damage him worse than his father’s betrayal and his mother’s death. And if that blow wasn’t enough, he has to deal with the problems of the family, the one that had abandoned him.

"Thanklessness had become a modern-day plague." Still, Mario hasn’t succumbed to it. When that very person who let him down approaches him for help, he cannot say no. Mario is shocked to see how his father – the man whom he was used to seeing as someone formidable, always confident due to his success – has changed. Having found out the reasons for his father’s distress, Mario becomes anxious too. Family remains family, no matter the clashes between its members. Although estranged by the will of their mutual father, Mario and his half-brother Anthony want to re-establish a brotherly connection. Mario can’t stay aside when his little brother is in trouble. He promises his father that he’ll help him. He does it not for his father’s sake. “The condemned man does not befriend his executioner.” He does it for Anthony and because he is a decent person who hasn’t turned bitter and indifferent only because others treated him cruelly.

"A Crack in Forever”, a standalone sequel to “Sultry, Is the Night" by Barbara Avon, is a masterful portrayal of a young man caught between his past and his present. Because of the emotional trauma he’d been through, he can’t see the present objectively. Anger, suspicions, and the ingrained belief that life is hell and he doesn’t deserve anything good to last forever blind Mario. Still, he is forced to learn the truth about his father and the true story of his relationship with his mother. He also can’t get away from reality, drowning his grief in harmful substances, for his younger brother needs his help.

Will Mario have enough strength and willpower to dive out of his misery and listen to common sense and people who care about him?






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A Crack in Forever