Always by Sarah Jio - Review

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.

Alternating between the past and the present, Always is a beautifully unfolding exploration of a woman faced with an impossible choice, a woman who discovers what she's willing to save and what she will sacrifice for true love.


My Review:

This book touched me on so many levels.  It is an emotional read and hard to put it down. 

The story alternates between the past and the present telling the story of Kailey Crain, her first love Cade McAllister, who went missing ten years ago, and her present day fiancé Ryan. 

While dining out with Ryan, Kailey sees a homeless man who she recognizes as Cade.  How could someone who was once a millionaire and the president of Element Records, become homeless and living on the streets of Seattle?  It is a mystery Kailey is determined to find out and is willing to jeopardize her relationship with Ryan to do so.  But how far will she go and how much will Ryan put up with before it starts to affect their relationship? 

I really enjoyed this story.  Of course reuniting with a lost love was my favorite part, but there was also the mystery of what happened to Cade to cause him to become homeless and why he couldn’t remember anything.  The story touched a soft spot for me being close to someone who had a relative who was once a millionaire and ended up homeless.  This is one of those books that will stay with you a long time after reading it.  It will leave you wondering how you would react if your one true love suddenly came back into your life.

My favorite quote from the book:

What do we, or anyone, know of tomorrow?  If I've learned anything, it's that not only may tomorrow never come, but worse, that when the sun rises, the person that holds your heart may vanish, taking a piece of you with him.