Blog Tour Review: Wayward Son (The Forever Marked Series #4) by Jay Crownover

I received this book for free from Wordsmith Publicity in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wayward Son by Jay Crownover
Series: The Forever Marked Series #4
Published by Jay Crownover LLC on January 18, 2024
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance
Pages: 318
Source: Wordsmith Publicity
Format: E-galley
My Rating:
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Blurb:

She’s the only girl he’s ever loved.

Zowen Archer has been in love with Aston Wheeler for as long as he can remember.

She’s perfect, except for the glaring fact that she fell in love with his best friend instead of him. For years, he loved her from afar with zero expectation. He told himself that as long as Aston was happy, his feelings for her didn’t matter.

However, Aston isn’t nearly as happy as she seems. And by the time Zowen figures things out, his life takes a drastic turn for the worse.

Now that Aston is single and laser-focused on making up for the lost time between the two of them, Zowen is doing everything in his power to avoid her. He’s convinced that if she never wanted him when he was at his very best, there is no chance in hell she could care about him now that he’s at his absolute worst.

He’s the only boy she’s willing to wait for.

Time has never been on Aston Wheeler’s side.

She spent too long pretending to be someone she was not. She lost herself in a first love that everyone, except her, thought was perfect. She wasted a lot of time trying to convince herself that she should be happy when she was anything but. She watched for years as the one person who made her feel like her true self drifted further and further away.

Finally, when she’s ready to reach out and grab the one-of-a-kind love that Zowen Archer has always silently promised her, it’s too late. Zowen is taken away, and when he reappears in her life, he makes it clear there’s no going back to whatever they might have been.

Good thing for Zowen that Aston is patient and doesn’t mind waiting for him to have a change of heart. It’s the least she can do after all the time he spent waiting for her.

My Review

I’m sad that this is going to be the final book in this series, but I totally understand why as the author explains at the beginning of the book. I have loved getting back with these favorite characters and their next generation, and this one was just as great. I love how Crownover is able to infuse her stories with so much emotion, yet also more than just dark dramatic situations. There are sweet bits, and steamy bits, and even the occasional banter that is what I love.

I feel like with Zowen and Aston’s story we got to see a little bit of almost all of the main characters from the original generations. Of course there have a been a few that have been absent, and honestly, there’s no way every single one of those people would have been around each other forever. Especially not as they began to have their own families, and would have moved on and not had the same amount of time or even been in the same places as everyone. And of course there are those that don’t have kids, such as one of my favorite couples of the series, Nash and Saint. As someone not married and with no kids, I know how quickly your friends who do get married and especially once they have kids, often move on and don’t keep you around as much as their friend group extends and changes to others with similar situations.

But that’s life. And this books is about where life goes after going to prison. For a crime that technically wasn’t one a lot of people would consider a crime or worth jail time for Zowen. The type of person Zowen was though, he couldn’t help the guilt that made him feel he deserved that punishment. His personal growth both from his time in prison to how things are after he gets out is shown perfectly in this story. Aston was a character that from her appearance in Ryier and Bowe’s story, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about her. Even if what she did moving on from Ry was the right thing and everyone knew it, that was a big part of that first story, and made me have some preconceived notions and feelings about her.

However her love for Zowen and how she was there for him was written in such a way that I soon had forgotten all of that and was rooting for the two of them. I don’t want to give away a little bit of the trope/twist of the story, you should read it to see where that goes, but I like it. And I like the parallel to one of their parents’ original stories.

After the story the author did even mention something I’d kind of wondered, if there would ever be a story for Cassio and Royce, as I loved the two and the way they had their moment at the end. So I’m so glad she touched on that, knowing her readers like me would probably be hoping for that, after she had done a similar book with Orlando and Dominic, Rule’s twin brother’s ex and his new love interest. It’s easy to understand why she can’t go on with these right now. I just wish the world could fall in love with her original series so they would be clamoring for these as well. All I can hope now is that when the movie for Rule finally is out there that it will get those other people involved and invested in this world, as well as my hope they do a good job with one of my all time favorite books!

About the Author

Jay Crownover is the international and multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men Series, the Saints of Denver Series, the Point Series, the Breaking Point series, the Getaway series, the Loveless, Texas series and the Forever Marked series. Her books can be found translated into many different languages all around the world. She is a tattooed, crazy haired Colorado native who lives at the base of the Rockies with her awesome dogs. This is where she can frequently be found enjoying a cold beer and Taco Tuesdays. Jay is a self-declared music snob and outspoken book lover who is always looking for her next adventure, between the pages and on the road.

Connect w/Jay:

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Crownover

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