Forever Ago cover art

Forever Ago

A Dark College Romance

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Forever Ago

By: J Rose
Narrated by: Big Bear Audio
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

About this listen

From the bestselling author of Blackwood Institute, Sabre Security and Briar Valley comes a standalone, dark romance tale of unconditional care and inevitable heartbreak that favours the imperfect journey of first love—not the happy ending.

Hallie

I’m alone in the sea of my grief until I meet Zeke, a tornado of complications who leaves destruction in his wake. I fall hard and fast, despite all the warning signs.

Our love story is far from a fairy-tale. But if it hurts, then it’s real.

There’s a monster hiding beneath his tattooed skin, an addiction that will tear us apart. I can’t lose him, but I’m powerless to fix wounds that simply run too deep.

How do you save someone who doesn’t want to be saved?

Zeke

I’ve been a shadow of my former self ever since the crash, consumed by guilt. A chance encounter in bereavement therapy changes everything.

Hallie invades my life with her soft smiles and fiery passion. She becomes my whole world and for the first time in so long, I have a reason to live.

My demons aren’t so easily beaten. I should walk away, yet I can’t bring myself to leave the woman who took my broken pieces and brought me back to life, one kiss at a time.

I’ll fight this addiction to my very last breath for her, but the road to recovery is never simple. If I’m not careful, I might just drag her to hell with me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Forever Ago is a dark, standalone college M/F romance with realistic mental health representation and no guaranteed HEA. Full trigger warning is available inside the book.

©2023 Wilted Rose Publishing Limited (P)2025 Wilted Rose Publishing Limited
Contemporary Genre Fiction Psychological Heartfelt Romance
All stars
Most relevant
The passion in the narration really came across, brilliant. raw content and can deeply feel the grief and challenges throughout.

the love between the characters and the push and pull. listened and couldn't put it down.

emotional, heart wrenching experiance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

Grief comes in so many different guises and often allows you to form a connection you may not have typically formed. That’s what happened with this book. It’s raw, it’s gritty with an all encompassing grief that you can’t see your way out of. It’s hard to say you enjoyed a book like this because of the subject matter but is the type of book that makes you think, whether you want to or not

I think listening adds an entirely new dimension to a story because you’re not only feeling your own emotions, you feel theirs too.

So good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

This is a heartbreaking story of the love between Hallie and Zeke. There is a lot of content that will be triggering for many readers so please check warnings before reading. This is a story about grief and addiction and the relationships that are formed and destroyed along the way. I devoured this book in a matter of hours, only taking a break to sleep. My emotions were all of the place and I was screaming at these characters at so many different points in the story. I definitely recommend this to anyone that wants a real story that will tug your emotions in every direction, sometimes all at once.

Listening to this on audio was a totally different experience. Big Bear Audio performed these characters with so much passion it really brought them to life and made this story that much more impactful. The smallest nuances made the biggest impressions and it provided a visceral experience.

Dark college, non-HEA

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

I knew going in this wasn't going to be an HEA and although I guessed at why that might be it didn't lessen the impact when it happened. The book is read by Big Bear Audio who is a new to me narrator who provided both the female and male narration which I enjoyed.

For most of the book, I struggled with Hallie and Zeke's relationship as it felt a little one sided. There are glimpses of what could be but when things get hard Zeke went straight back to his default coping mechanism. Zeke had an addiction before he met Hallie but I didn't ever feel he was fighting for them in the same way Hallie was. There also seemed to be a lot left off the page like Zeke's relapse and what truly happens at the end. I'd also have liked to have seen more of the connection between Hallie and Zeke developing as it seemed to get really heavy really quick especially when Hallie had never been in a relationship before.

That being said this put me through the emotional wringer; I had bookmarked the quote "little by little we let go of loss, but never love" at the time and when the extended epilogue hit, I burst into tears which took me completely off guard. I wasn't sure of the exact timeline of them being together but knowing Hallie still saw Zeke as the man he could have been after all this time and that he remained her all time love just devastated me. As someone on their own grief journey, I felt so connected to that element of the story even if it made me cry!

Check your triggers as this one is emotional

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Listener received this title free

⭐️audiobook review⭐️Very intense! Strong themes of addiction and grief. This book is very heavy and emotional. I could feel all the emotion in these characters even more intensely through the audiobook experience. The narration is dynamic and engaging. The story in itself keeps the reader enthralled.

Love it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.