Forever and the Forrest

Hey everyone!

There are some characters who walk into a series knowing exactly when their spotlight will hit. And then there are characters like Forrest Wells.

If you’ve been reading the Once Upon a Temptation series, Forrest isn’t a stranger. He’s Dominic’s best friend—yes, that Dominic from Book 2—and he’s been lingering in the background long enough for everyone to realize there was far more going on beneath that effortless charm. Now, in Book 8, he finally gets his turn.

Forever and the Forrest follows Forrest and Aurora Vale: two attorneys who have spent years working side by side, trading sharp insults, surviving impossible deadlines, and settling into the kind of seamless friendship where you stop noticing how thoroughly someone has woven themselves into your everyday life.

Until the ground shifts beneath them. And once you notice, it’s impossible to look away.

Their chemistry doesn’t stem from strangers locking eyes across a crowded room. These two share real history. They know the coffee orders, the irritating habits, and the precise psychological buttons to push when the other is being stubborn. They have years of shorthand, and they are fiercely, stubbornly committed to the idea that none of it means anything romantic.

Which works brilliantly. Until it doesn’t.

Aurora is sharp, controlled, and accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. She untangles high-stakes workplace disasters for a living, but her creative outlet is far outside the courtroom: community theater. When she auditions for a modern rom-com adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, Forrest steps up to help her run lines. His dramatic instincts are questionable at best, but he shows up—because that’s who he is.

Inevitably, a harmless rehearsal in an empty room begins asking questions neither of them is prepared to answer.

The play becomes a funny, revealing mirror for their own lives. Aurora is rehearsing a story about a woman trapped behind high walls while discovering her own defenses aren’t half as impenetrable as she assumed. Meanwhile, Forrest realizes that winning a courtroom cross-examination is leagues easier than confronting what he actually wants from life.

Both are deeply competent adults who can intimidate opposing counsel without blinking. Navigating their own feelings is an entirely different trial.

Because their affection has been masquerading as banter for years, the humor never stops. If anything, the sparring gets far more dangerous. Expect rapid-fire legal wit, atrocious line readings, years of accumulated inside jokes, backstage chaos, and two brilliant minds trying to apply cold logic to an emotion that refuses to play by the rules.

Beneath the banter, this story explores the quiet terror of risking a bond you can’t bear to lose. It’s about the shift from a life that feels merely comfortable to one that feels entirely electric. Most of all, it’s about discovering that the person who knows exactly how to get under your skin is also the only one who sees the parts of you you hide from the rest of the world.

Whether you’ve followed the series from the beginning and are eager to see old favorites return, or this is your very first dip into the world, Forrest and Aurora will pull you right in. They’ve built an ironclad defense against falling in love, but neither of them can win this case by pretending nothing has changed.

Welcome back to Once Upon a Temptation. Forrest has waited long enough—it’s finally his turn.

Now available on Amazon.