Review: Always Jane by Jenn Bennett

*We received this book in exchange for an honest review.*

An accident two years ago left Jane Marlow with Aphasia, a condition that sometimes makes it difficult to communicate. Jane spent that summer at Lake Condor and hasn’t been back since. She has no memory of that night, all she knows is what people told her afterward when she woke up in a hospital. But two people know the truth: Eddie and Fen Sarafian.

Now, Jane and Eddie are dating just in time for Jane and her dad to spend the summer at Lake Condor in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Jane hasn’t been back since the accident, but this is something her dad’s boss requires. Her dad is the chauffeur to Mad Dog, a middle-aged rock musician and Lake Condor holds one of the largest summer music festivals in the country.

Jane feel ready to go back to the place of her accident, but it’ll be hard with Eddie going to the Philippines for a few weeks to helps with a business deal for his family. That leaves Jane being a PA to Mad Dog’s reckless daughter Velvet. At least she gets to play with Frida, Velvet’s adorable dog.

But things don’t start out well. Jane’s dad hates Eddie, Eddie doesn’t return her texts, she can’t avoid Eddie’s younger brother and Velvet is getting into trouble. Fen is the exact opposite of Eddie in every way and he’s a total pain in the ass, but Jane can’t help but be drawn to him and the secrets he knows about her accident. Nothing that happens this summer goes as planned for Jane.

It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to read a new Jenn Bennett book! The latest before Always Jane was Chasing Lucky. We’re happy to say that the hiatus was worth it because we struggled to put this book down!

First of all, it’s the perfect summer read. The lake setting and the music festival make it perfect for the upcoming season. Jenn Bennett focused a lot on music and that became something that connected Jane and Fen. Fen works in a record store and is a musician, while Jane wants to study music therapy.

As for the characters, lets start out by saying we hated Eddie from the start. He’s a compulsive liar and he’s also greedy and manipulative. We cheered for Fen as soon as we met him. He’s been through a lot with his family and just wants to live his life. Unlike Eddie, Fen is honest with Jane from the start, even if it’s hard to hear. We give him an A+ for being a swoonworthy book boyfriend.

Jane had an interesting backstory and we appreciate Bennett brining in neurodiversity as a topic. We learned a lot about Aphasia and how Jane dealt with it. Plus, she’s such a resilient person overall. After being screwed over by many people, she worked hard to find her voice and stand up for herself.

The only aspect that we might of changed is jumping around so much at the end. We we’re hoping something would get resolved a bit earlier.

Overall, Always Jane is such a great summer romance and we recommend fans of the genre pick this one up on March 29th!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐