Review: Hold Me Until Forever by Christina Phillips (Grayson Brothers #3)


Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hold Me Until Forever is the third book in the Grayson Brothers series by Christina Phillips and Alex Grayson's story is the one that I've been most curious about, what with him spending time in juvenile detention for the death of his father while he tried to protect his brothers from the drunken man's wrath. His connection with Ella Clark has been around for years, even though he tries to bury it deep within him for fear of dragging her into the darkness that his life has been stuck in. There's a lot of back and forth between the two of them in the story, and at times, I found myself confused in the shifts in their personality. It was as if they couldn't decide what it was they wanted out of their sudden non-relationship. 

This series started well with middle brother Jackson Grayson and Scarlett Ashford in Hold Me Until Midnight and youngest brother Cooper Grayson and Paris O'Connell's story in Hold Me Until Morning was pretty good, so I had hopes that Alex and Ella's story would be, at the very least, at par with the second book. I came away from this third installment a bit bewildered and a tad bemused but disappointed overall with how it played out. It's not that the story was terrible, but the chemistry between Alex and Ella felt forced at times, though it does get better. You would think that after years of pining for each other, their first time together would be spectacularly memorable. Instead, it left me wanting, and not in a good way.

My favorite thing about this book was Alex Grayson. He was a surprise because my idea of him was different from how he was presented here. The man is still dealing with the demons of his past and your heart breaks for him. His love for his brothers is admirable and the fact that he formed their security company to make sure that the three of them would stick together and give Alex the opportunity to continue watching over them earns the man bonus book boyfriend points. The stray cats were a nice touch and any guy who decides to put in the time to care for a bunch of kittens and doesn't complain about it makes me want to give him a well-deserved hug. I honestly wish I could have loved this third book more than I did, but this series is still an overall pretty good read. I'm giving Hold Me Until Forever three stars. ♥

Release Date: 04 January 2016

Date Read: 02 January 2016

Learn more about Christina Phillips.

Purchase Hold Me Until Forever on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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