Reviewer: Rowena
The Charlotte Chronicles by Jen Frederick
Series: Jackson Boys #1

Publication Date: December 11th 2014
Pages: 350
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Series Rating:

Charlotte and Nathan were supposed to be forever. They grew up together. Their families were intertwined. Charlotte was Nathan's first love. Nathan was Charlotte's first everything.

Until they weren't.

How do you hold on to the person you know in your heart you are supposed to be with when everything and everyone in the universe is telling you it's over?

How many times does a heart break?

When is enough…..enough?

How long is forever?

What a treat this book turned out to be.

This book follows Nathan Jackson and Charlotte Randolph on their long ass love story. Nathan and Charlotte grew up together. Their parents are best friends (fans of the Woodlands series will love this little tid bit. Noah and Grace from Undeclared are Nate’s parents and Bo and AM from Unspoken are Charlotte’s parents) and Noah’s younger brother Nick is Charlotte’s best friend but Noah…Noah’s always been Charlotte’s protector. A job that he took seriously. Normal kids are sheltered from the world by their parents but not Charlotte. Charlotte is sheltered from everything by the Jackson boys. Her life has revolved around the Jackson boys and she doesn’t know a life without them in it.

While Nick was the brother she never had, Nate was completely different. Her heart has always belonged to the older Jackson brother. She’s never had brotherly feelings for Nathan and she knows that they belong together.

It took Nathan a little longer to come around where Charlotte was concerned but once his feelings become known, the devotion that Nathan has for Charlotte is on one hand beautiful but on the other hand, it’s really heart breaking. The devotion isn’t one way either. Charlotte was just as faithful to Nathan as he was to her but there was a whole lot of drama that came between them.

High school mean girls and then there was time and distance, you name it, it came between Charlotte and Nathan. Mostly, it was Nathan though. He was what came between the two of them and while I understood where he was coming from, while my heart broke for him and everything that he went through, at the same time I wanted to strangle his ol’ stubborn ass.

The angst was pretty high in this one and I’m chalking that up to the way that Frederick wrote this story (it was released as a serial, chapter after chapter through her newsletter and on her author blog) but while there were times aplenty that I thought my eyes were going to roll all the way to China, I couldn’t stop reading this one. I was completely wrapped up in Nate and Charlotte’s world. It helped that the characters were old favorites of mine from the Woodlands series but I enjoyed Charlie’s friend Lainey and Reese and then Nate’s Navy SEAL buddies.

My heart broke multiple times while reading this book but the end more than made up for all that madness for me. I enjoyed all of the drama and the shenanigans. I enjoyed seeing Bo and AM, Noah and Grace again and I loved the parents they all grew up to be. sigh This book has made me anxious to continue Lainey’s List (Nate’s brother Nick’s story) that Frederick is releasing as a serial the same way that this story was released.

Overall, this was a great story. It was entertaining and it was emotionally draining but oh so worth the read.

Reading Order:

The Charlotte Chronicles
Lainey’s List

Grade: 4 out of 5