The Forever Year

by Ronald Anthony

Book Overview

When his elderly father moves in, Jesse, who has adopted a no-strings-attached lifestyle after a failed relationship, learns about his father's experience with true love fifty years earlier. Reprint. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765304058
• ISBN13: 9780765304056
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A HEART-WARMING STORY

For anyone who has ever doubted a father's love for his son, a son's love for his father ... and the influence a good woman can have on both of them, this book is for you. A "secret" from the father's past changes all their lives ... in unusual ways. I truly marveled at the way this author switched back and forth from third person to first with such ease and clarity, creating a smooth, pleasurable read from start to finish. Ronald Anthony's voice has the "feel" of some of Joe Coomer's best work; warm, nostalgic, and completely "authentic". A feel-good book you will find hard to put down, once you start reading.

An outstanding debut novel that teaches about life and love.

Jesse, youngest son of widower Mickey Sienna, 83, asks his father to move in with him instead of to the assisted-living facility preferred by his siblings. Father and son quickly acclimate to each other's idiosyncrasies, but Jesse's healthy twenty-first-century relationship with his girlfriend, Marina, completely befuddles Mickey. To him, Marina is a rare woman whom Jesse should treasure, but Jesse, still smarting from numerous failed relationships, is not ready to commit. Trying to show Jesse how disastrous it would be for him to lose Marina, Mickey reveals the secret of his first and greatest love. In a series of emotionally draining chapters stretching out over several weeks, Mickey confides his love for Gina, an intelligent, passionate woman to whom he was engaged before her untimely death over 50 years earlier. Jesse realizes how foolish he has been, telling Marina his father was right when he called him a moron. Compelling characters quickly engage the reader in a heartfelt, if somewhat predictable, tale of romance lost and found. The Forever Year is a wonderful tale of learning about life from the eyes of experience. Jesse Sienna finds this out when his 83-year old father moves in with him. Jesse, the youngest and unplanned child of Mickey, never had quite the same relationship with his father as his three siblings. He has also had his experiences with love that has left him convinced that each love is doomed to die, thus making him resistant to fully commit to anyone. Thankfully for him, he has met Marina, a beautiful school teacher that has also lost faith in love. Together, they decide to have a relationship based on one day at a time. When Mickey meets Marina, he becomes fond of her. She reminds him of a lady from his youth, Gina, that up to now none of his children have heard of. Mickey is not fond of that fact that his son is unwilling to commit to Marina and starts to tell him of his own love with Gina before he met Jesse and his siblings' mother. He tells the story to him in little bits over a series of weeks. In the end, Mickey's love affair of 50 years previous is the guiding light in Jesse's own love with Marina. The author has done an excellent job in going back and forth between first and third person in the story. It reflects two tales in one as Jesse tells the story from his eyes mixed with the author telling the story from beyond Jesse's point of view. A noteworthy novel from this promising new author.

Friendly read

Title: The Forever YearsAuthor: Ronald AnthonyPublisher: Forge Books Jesse Sienna is content with his life and his relationship to girlfriend Marina. He makes no promises, why should he when love ? if there really is such a thing ? never lasts. But life is full of surprises as Jesse discovers when his Father, Mickey, accepts and moves from the family home to Jesse?s apartment. Adjustments to change are never predictable but when Mickey reveals a life long secret, Jesse life and his perspective is changed. ?The Forever Years? is a fabulous debut novel by Ronald Anthony. Keep them coming, Ronald!Beverly J Scott, author of Righteous Revenge and Ruth Feverhttp://www.beverlyjscott.com