Review: Always with Love by Giovanna Fletcher

Title: Always with Love
Author: Giovanna Fletcher
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 2nd June 2016
Pages: 416
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Sophie's got used to being the girlfriend of Billy Buskin, the biggest movie star in the world. Sort of.

But when she and Billy take a trip to visit his family in Los Angeles, she quickly discovers she's totally unprepared for the chaos of Hollywood, the paparazzi and Billy's controlling mother.

And when Billy extends his stay in LA, leaving Sophie to fly home to Rosefont Hill alone, it seems there's more than just miles between them.

Now Sophie must decide if they can overcome their differences for good. Because not every love story lasts the distance...

I absolutely loved Billy and Me and couldn't wait to read Always with Love and meet up with Sophie and Billy again. Sophie really is just such a delightful character to read about. She's normal, she's down to Earth, and she made my life a little bit brighter during the time I spent reading this book. I hope that this isn't the only full-length sequel to feature Sophie and Billy because they are a couple I could read about again and again.

In Always with Love the fairytale romance between Sophie and the biggest movie star in the world, Billy Buskin, is truly tested when they first fly out to LA to visit Billy's family, and even further when Sophie flies home alone and the couple must attempt the whole long distance thing. My one and only niggle with this story was the portrayal of Billy's family. His siblings were just so lazy in the beginning, and were seemingly happy to just laze around and live off Billy. Don't get me wrong, if I was rich my parents wouldn't have to work another day in their lives but I just hated the fact his siblings just seemed to be so bone idle. That said some of them did redeem themselves as the story progressed and I'm clearly just being bitter because I'm not loaded.

I have always wanted to visit LA and I want to even more after finishing Always with Love. I loved seeing it through Sophie's eyes because it's new to her, and it was new to me. She is a girl from a small town visiting one of the most amazing cities in the world, that in itself would be a tad overwhelming but add in the fact that the paparazzi follow her and Billy everywhere and it's anxiety overload. You can see already why it might be a struggle for the couple to come through the other side when one of them isn't overly keen on the whole celebrity side of things. Sophie is such a likeable character, and it was easy for me to relate to her with her want of a quiet life. I so wanted her though to find that balance that she obviously craved for her and Billy to make a real success of things. Their relationship is so believable because of the obstacles put in their way, realistic obstacles that make this a story of how to really make a relationship work as opposed to it just being some sickly sweet, perfect romance.

I don't want to give away too many spoilers but one of my favourite things about Always with Love was the fact that Sophie and Billy exchanged letters when she returned home to the UK. I find that it's much easier to be more open and honest in a letter than it is face to face. Maybe even more so than in a text or email. And I just love the written word. I used to write letters myself back when I was a teenager and before I had the internet (yes, I am that old) and even though I think about them now and cringe, I was so much more honest in them than I could ever have been face to face. This turned out to be the case with Sophie and Billy too, both of them finding it easier to be more honest about their feelings and what they wanted from life and this really helped their relationship during this trying time.

Always with Love is the perfect sequel for Sophie and Billy and as I said earlier, I really, really hope that we get to read more about this couple in the future. If you are yet to discover this series (or indeed any of Giovanna's fantastic books), then what are you waiting for?