I’ll Always Be With You by Monica Murphy
on May 18, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Coming of Age, Fiction / Romance / Billionaires, Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / General, Fiction / Romance / New Adult, Fiction / Romance / Suspense, Fiction / Women
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
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This is the fourth book in the Lancaster Prep series. It’s Carolina and West’s story. Carolina is a minor secondary character in the books (#1 and #3) about her siblings. Ballet is her passion and she’s lived in London for years pursuing that passion. From the previous books, we only learn a bare minimum about her, so she’s somewhat of a mystery. She and West have a chance encounter in Paris. She’s there for performances by her dance troupe; he’s there on vacation with family and friends. There’s attraction between them, although, as her the norm for her, Carolina initially is rude, cold, and distant toward him. They have a sexual interaction (although they don’t take it to the ultimate conclusion of intercourse). They part ways at the end of the evening assuming they’ll never see each other again. Fate has other plans. Carolina is summoned home by her parents and informed she’ll spend her senior year at the classy boarding school, Lancaster Prep, founded by her family. She’s shocked to discover that West is also a senior there, although he’d told her in Paris that he’d already graduated from the school. Carolina is a fish out of water at the school. Ballet has always had her total focus, she has never had any real friends, her social skills are practically non-existent, she doesn’t like to be touched, and she’s honed a cold, distant, somewhat rude personality as a shield between herself and the world. West, who has attained the position of the top dog at the school since no other Lancasters are in attendance, had been looking forward to being the uncrowned king of the school. He’s insulted that Carolina told one of his friends that she doesn’t know him and that she’s reverted to the way she acted toward him initially in Paris. He’s mean toward her and encourages the other students to be the same. They constantly clash until their original chemistry (which still exists) draws them together. A budding relationship seems promising — until a series of events and a mean girl who wanted to claim West as her own drives them apart.
It was interesting to see Carolina mature and change, learn to trust, and open herself up to emotions. She wasn’t as damaged by her family situation as her sister Sylvie, but she did have her scars. West matured from being an arrogant bully to a man who unashamedly expressed his love in a variety of romantic (and spicy) ways. He wasn’t quite as swoony as Crew (book 2), but was a close second. This one is a worthy addition to the series. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Carolina’s story as I’d only seen brief glimpses of her in her brother’s and her sister’s love stories. I wasn’t disappointed as I like her own love story with West. This book is more of a slow build as Carolina is guarded and her defenses take a while to scale but I liked that aspect of it as it meant more emotional stakes in the the build-up. There are times when I called Carolina & West stubborn idiots but it was out of affection. She has trust issues and he has the miscommunication trope on lock until he is able to understand how she works.
I rated this novel four stars. The story was really sweet between Carolina and Wes. One thing I love about this series is getting to see glimpses of past couples. Every book so far is tied together by Whit and Summer’s wedding as an event that helps you understand the timeline of every couple.
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