As I started this up, it was just okay for me. As have been a couple others I've read by this author (and I have a couple more waiting for me. Several included in KU w/text and audio and I grabbed some physical copies at a library sale). As the story progressed though, I got pulled in, and had a few connections, and will think back on this one fondly. 

This had a "How I Met Your Mother" feel ... where Ted is talking to the two kids on the couch, about how he met their mother? Same thing(ish) ... addressing the reader as YOU, and that you being a child he's telling a story to. We readers are just along for the ride.   30 chapters. 1st person past tense. 

It's not really a spoiler as it's covered in the blurb - but our MC/narrator falls in love with his best friend's gal. Years pass, there are the struggles that everyone goes through. In a way ... this set up was depressing, which I think is why I struggled with the start. I can't say things really got a lot better, but there were just some connections and I really didn't know where the story was going to go. It wasn't predictable, which can keep the interest.

... one of the connections was "one of my colleagues, who was also in her forties, had recently had a seizure in the middle of a department store. A dozen tests later, it was determined she didn’t have epilepsy or a brain tumor. In fact, her doctors couldn’t find a single thing that was wrong with her. It was, they speculated, just one of those random things that mostly seemed to happen to people who were no longer young."  That's pretty much me ... except I'm a bit older, and have had two now. 

... other connections ... our MC mentions a "goal" of a 100mile bike ride (brings it up a couple times). Hubs is doing such a race next week.  Hubs had noted the word "preternatural" in a recent read we'd done together as very uncommon. I told him I see it a lot (but then I read paranormal). It was here in this text ... I had screenshot it and send it to him.   Per the title tie-in "I don’t care if lovers swear it to each other and the devout sling it around as a future reward for their faithfulness. As far as I’m concerned, forever is the worst long time. At least with adversity and illness, there’s a general idea of what to expect. We don’t know a damn thing about the uncharted horrors of eternity."  I definitely have some thoughts on "forever" and eternity that coincide.  And while this is all fiction, the MC brings up "Surely this recollection is somewhat inaccurate, but I suspect that there’s no such thing as absolute truth" which is something I struggle with in many non-fiction books. Again ... from this fictional feature "Every event is different to those who have lived it, those who have witnessed it, and those who only later read of it." Very good points to remember. 

This had some discussion questions at the end of the Kindle and physical book (not in audio). I don't know that these ones really prompted me to probe further, perhaps because I already had? 

Additional things to think about with health issues and end of life care ...

I went with the audio ... there was a tiny bit of music playing as the initial credits began. Tonight, by Pitball? Just instrumental (and I was seeing the scene from Pitch Perfect). This music did NOT extend to the narration, for which I was grateful. But it was a fun little "name that tune" moment. 

There were a few words that seemed to be mispronounced (I realize this can be regional, etc.) In chapter25 "until you fell asleep" it was "felled" (I rewound three times). Scootch was pronounced strangely (can't find it to review). "For all intents and purposes" was said four times ... not an uncommon phrase, but four times in a single book? I guess maybe it's just something our MC says/thinks. 

No proFanity and so little sex, and I hadn't really realized it had happened! ;)