FOREVER RIGHT NOW by EMMA SCOTT

“I kind of like how no one knows me here. It’s like the proverbial blank slate and I can write whatever I want on it.”

There is never a question of an almost complete emotional annihilation when you pick up a book from Emma Scott. She writes characters that you take firmly into your heart as you develop an innate need to protect them and stand by their side as they search and fight for their place in life- their needs, desires and wants. Her characters always have this huge heart and such strength as they batten down the hatches. Emma Scott writes beautifully, passionately and vividly. We cannot help but be drawn in from the start every time we pick up one of her books, becoming a part of her story ourselves.

“Life has no guide map. Things happen and people react, and no two people will do the same thing.”

Forever Right Now was a slow burn character driven story that ensured we felt every moment of loneliness, desperation, exhaustion, desire, love and heartbreak. A myriad of human emotions and we felt every single one of them. We all just want to be; be who we were meant to, be who we want to, be who we are to the best of our ability. Be good people, caring people, people who when seeing others struggle lend a caring ear and hand. We all strive for contentment and belonging. We desire to feel accepted and loved.

She tilted her head up to look up at me, her blue eyes brimming and her cheeks stained with the trails of dark makeup. “I can’t hold on to anything…”
“Not this time.” I said, gruffly. “Hold on to me.”

We first met Darlene in The Butterfly Project, a beautiful lost girl who’s a recovering addict. This is her story. We meet her as she arrives in San Francisco tired and weary yet full of hope for her new beginning, her own personal journey to find herself and her path in life. Emma Scott has a wonderful talent for writing heroines we fall in love with. They have such strength yet retain vulnerability, facing life head on with bravery and compassion. Sure, they are marked by life’s circumstances and actions with consequences, but they feel authentic and inspire such admiration and empathy.

“You know that emotional rock bottom you keep talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m standing at the edge of it, staring right down into it. Teetering,” I said, my voice hardly a whisper. “It’ll just take one push and…”
“And?”
“I’m going to fall in.”

The best intentions sometimes become second in line of importance when met with new discoveries. Such as a handsome albeit moody neighbour with a young daughter. Sawyer completely throws Darlene’s good intentions to the wayside as her inherent need to help and make others feel better becomes her focus. However, sometimes by helping others is how we find ourselves.

“I keep saying I need to work on me, but I’m doing everything right and I still feel like something’s missing.” Her eyes were impossibly blue as they gazed up at mine. “Is it you?”
“I don’t know,” I said. But maybe it could be.

Sawyer is a young man whose life was changed forever in a single second. Studying to become a lawyer, with a very black and white mind-set, he’s suddenly faced with a life that’s not just his own any longer. The way in which he deals with this was inspiring and tugged at our heartstrings as he faced one obstacle after another. In amidst the heartbreak and struggles a young man truly finds himself and opens himself up to a greater appreciation and understanding which in turn opens his heart to that beautiful love that comes without conditions.

We say it every time and will undoubtedly sound like a broken record, but Emma Scott never fails to grab our hearts with her words, her characters and her demand that we feel and care so passionately. If you haven’t read this Author yet you quite simply must!

“Do you ever wish you could take a moment and keep it forever? Like right now…how you taste on my mouth, and your hands on me, and your eyes…God, Sawyer, the way you’re looking at me…If I could have just one moment, one feeling, and live in it forever, I would choose this one.”