Even Now
Author:Karen Kingsbury
Author:Karen Kingsbury
*Summary*
Shane and Lauren had fallen in love in grade school; now they are high-schoolers, and their feelings for each other have grown even stronger. They are certain they have fond their true love. However, their parents do not think so. Teenage emotions are unstable, everyone knows that. It's all puppy love. Shane and Lauren are allowed to date, but their feelings are not taken seriously by their families. Things get bad when Lauren become pregnant. Shane wants to marry her, and abortion is out of the question for both of them. All they want is to become a family, to have this child and raise it together. But they are only 17, and both sets of parents take decision-making into their hands.
The parents believe it would be best for the young couple to be separated. Each family sells their home and moves, Shane's to California and Lauren's to Illinois. Having no means of their own, Shane and Lauren are forced to follow. They promise to find each other as soon as they can. To seal this promise, Shane spends his savings to buy a ring for Lauren, on which he engraves the words “Even Now.” Even now, when things are so bad and they must separate, they love each other and want to be together.
Lauren has a baby girl, Emily. Since both sets of parents are doing their best to block any communication between Lauren and Shane, she cannot reach him to let him know. Angered, she takes all her money and the baby and sets out to drive to California. Little Emily gets very sick on the way, and Lauren is forced to return. The baby is taken to the hospital, and some time later Lauren is misinformed that the baby died. With nothing holding her in Illinois, Lauren moves to California. She starts a new life there, under a new last name to avoid being found by her parents, and still hoping to find Shane.
Years go by. Both Shane and Lauren continue to search for each other, but, due to different circumstances, they fail to meet. They become successful; Shane is a flight instructor, and Lauren writes for Time magazine. Both are still single, remembering their lost first love. Lauren has pretty much given up on the idea of ever getting married. Shane occasionally thinks about maybe letting it go and starting a family, but memories of Lauren are still strong.
Emily, their daughter, is now grown up. A talented college student, she wants to find her parents about whom she knows next to nothing. Her grandparents raised her, never sharing the story. But when Emily finds a box with her mother's writings and learns about the love story that had ended with her birth, she is determined to find her mom and dad more than ever.
1.) Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
*These characters in this book are 100% believable to me. They each have their own background story and live in a daily scenario I see around me everyday. I can somewhat relate to the characters predicaments. The only part I can't relate to is being torn away from my lover because I got pregnant. I can relate to the fact that my parents do not believe that the love in my relationship is real. They think it's puppy love and that they know whats best for me, so they try tot keep us apart as much as possible. Both of our parents do not see how that hurts us more than it helps. In the end all they do is post pone the love they both had for each ohter because they never lose it.
2.) Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
*The only part in this book that made me uncomfortable was that both sets of parents did not want them to keep the baby. They wanted it to be given up for adoption and they only cared about how it affected them and how other people would view them. They separated both of their children from each other and that hurt them really bad. I felt uncomfortable because they did not take into consideration what their kids wanted. They wanted to get on with their lives like nothing happened and forget about each other. This made me think of how my parents decisions would my life. They say they know what's best for me and that I am just a child, but why did their parents who claim to love them so much hurt them like that. They ended up together in the next book and all the did was send them through hell and back.
*I liked this book because I've had friends who went through a situation similar to this. This is so believable because it happens a lot in our day and time. I would recommend this book because it gives you a different view on love and how much love keeps them coming back for each other even though everybody is trying to pull them apart.
*I did not like this book because to find out how the story ends you have to read the sequel. This book was so good that I didn't even mind reading the sequel, either. This book kind of made me sad. I could feel the hurt and the pain of each character. It was so real to me. I hoped that the parents would realize that their children's relationship was not about them. They need not worry about how other people would think about them as parents, but on how they could help make the situation better. How does it make them look as parents if they rip their kids apart and the baby's daddy is off living his life outside of Lauren and the baby's life and Lauren is a single teenager with a baby and her child's father is nowhere to be found? I'd rather keep them together and see how they work out their relationship by their selves.
Shane and Lauren had fallen in love in grade school; now they are high-schoolers, and their feelings for each other have grown even stronger. They are certain they have fond their true love. However, their parents do not think so. Teenage emotions are unstable, everyone knows that. It's all puppy love. Shane and Lauren are allowed to date, but their feelings are not taken seriously by their families. Things get bad when Lauren become pregnant. Shane wants to marry her, and abortion is out of the question for both of them. All they want is to become a family, to have this child and raise it together. But they are only 17, and both sets of parents take decision-making into their hands.
The parents believe it would be best for the young couple to be separated. Each family sells their home and moves, Shane's to California and Lauren's to Illinois. Having no means of their own, Shane and Lauren are forced to follow. They promise to find each other as soon as they can. To seal this promise, Shane spends his savings to buy a ring for Lauren, on which he engraves the words “Even Now.” Even now, when things are so bad and they must separate, they love each other and want to be together.
Lauren has a baby girl, Emily. Since both sets of parents are doing their best to block any communication between Lauren and Shane, she cannot reach him to let him know. Angered, she takes all her money and the baby and sets out to drive to California. Little Emily gets very sick on the way, and Lauren is forced to return. The baby is taken to the hospital, and some time later Lauren is misinformed that the baby died. With nothing holding her in Illinois, Lauren moves to California. She starts a new life there, under a new last name to avoid being found by her parents, and still hoping to find Shane.
Years go by. Both Shane and Lauren continue to search for each other, but, due to different circumstances, they fail to meet. They become successful; Shane is a flight instructor, and Lauren writes for Time magazine. Both are still single, remembering their lost first love. Lauren has pretty much given up on the idea of ever getting married. Shane occasionally thinks about maybe letting it go and starting a family, but memories of Lauren are still strong.
Emily, their daughter, is now grown up. A talented college student, she wants to find her parents about whom she knows next to nothing. Her grandparents raised her, never sharing the story. But when Emily finds a box with her mother's writings and learns about the love story that had ended with her birth, she is determined to find her mom and dad more than ever.
1.) Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
*These characters in this book are 100% believable to me. They each have their own background story and live in a daily scenario I see around me everyday. I can somewhat relate to the characters predicaments. The only part I can't relate to is being torn away from my lover because I got pregnant. I can relate to the fact that my parents do not believe that the love in my relationship is real. They think it's puppy love and that they know whats best for me, so they try tot keep us apart as much as possible. Both of our parents do not see how that hurts us more than it helps. In the end all they do is post pone the love they both had for each ohter because they never lose it.
2.) Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
*The only part in this book that made me uncomfortable was that both sets of parents did not want them to keep the baby. They wanted it to be given up for adoption and they only cared about how it affected them and how other people would view them. They separated both of their children from each other and that hurt them really bad. I felt uncomfortable because they did not take into consideration what their kids wanted. They wanted to get on with their lives like nothing happened and forget about each other. This made me think of how my parents decisions would my life. They say they know what's best for me and that I am just a child, but why did their parents who claim to love them so much hurt them like that. They ended up together in the next book and all the did was send them through hell and back.
*I liked this book because I've had friends who went through a situation similar to this. This is so believable because it happens a lot in our day and time. I would recommend this book because it gives you a different view on love and how much love keeps them coming back for each other even though everybody is trying to pull them apart.
*I did not like this book because to find out how the story ends you have to read the sequel. This book was so good that I didn't even mind reading the sequel, either. This book kind of made me sad. I could feel the hurt and the pain of each character. It was so real to me. I hoped that the parents would realize that their children's relationship was not about them. They need not worry about how other people would think about them as parents, but on how they could help make the situation better. How does it make them look as parents if they rip their kids apart and the baby's daddy is off living his life outside of Lauren and the baby's life and Lauren is a single teenager with a baby and her child's father is nowhere to be found? I'd rather keep them together and see how they work out their relationship by their selves.
