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ALC Review: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto


Release Date: 11 July 2023 (6 July 2023 UK)

Rating: 3/5

Narrators: Callie Dalton, Teddy Hamilton

Synopsis: A wedding planner and her grumpy ex must work together to plan a celebrity event in this deliciously spicy and funny novel from the creator of Generation Me .


Ama Torres is an optimistic wedding planner who doesn’t believe in marriage. But weddings? They’re amazing. Elliot Bloom is a brooding florist who hates owning a flower shop…until a certain bright-eyed, donut-loving workaholic shows up at his door.


Once upon a time, they collaborated on events by day, and by night, Ama traced the intricate flower tattoos etched along his body. Then Ama shattered his heart and never spoke to Elliot again.


Now they’re working on an event that could make or break both of their careers—except neither of them has gotten over what happened two years ago. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. But as the wedding takes on a life of its own, Ama and Elliot are about to discover that some things can survive a complete catastrophe . . .

Smart and hilarious, Forget Me Not is about two people giving themselves—and love!—a second chance.

 

Review


Forget Me Not, despite the absolutely beautiful cover and its glittery promise of an equally glittery plot, turned out to be just okay for me. I don’t think it’s an intrinsically bad book, the plot was paced well, the second-chance romance was well developed (with a huge exception), and the characters and their struggles were pretty easy to relate to. I think I mainly took exception to two things in the book, and they really sullied the whole reading experience for me.


First, the book is supposed to be a romance. It’s a second-chance romance at its core. The problem for me is the reason the two main characters need a second chance in the first place. Elliot was completely hooked on Ama and totally in love, and the reason they broke up in the first place did not sit well with me. Sure, she had her own reasons for coming to that decision, but how she arrived at it and stomped on Elliot’s heart was pretty harsh. I would not have wanted her anymore after that, and I don’t think the reveal for what she did makes the book romantic for me at all.

Second, the whole book revolves around Ama planning a single wedding. It starts with her getting the clients and ends with the event happening. While the wedding planning aspect of the book is completely a matter of preference and not to do with the story itself having a flaw, it was one wedding. One. I don’t know why but this made the plot somewhat repetitive to me and I got bored. I’m entirely convinced that if I had not listened to this book, I would have either taken forever to finish a physical copy, or I would have DNF’ed it.

Forget Me Not tells Ama and Elliot’s story in dual-POV, and the audiobook narrators create an immersive story. Hamilton’s rendition of Ama (or any female voice) was a bit awkward, but otherwise, he created a great Elliot. In fact, it really sounds like Elliot could be a 1950’s noir detective/florist and it’s very atmospheric.

Overall, 3 stars for the story and 4 stars for the narration. The book didn’t really feel like a romcom to me (it’s categorized as one on Amazon), and I just don’t feel like some ways people treat each other in a relationship warrant a second chance. I know a lot more folks are going to love this book way more than I did, so I can’t really chalk it up to much more than individual preference (at least I don’t think I can).


My thanks to Libro.fm and Hachette Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.



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