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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
DRAMAAAAAA. this book so dramatic and over the top, but i still had fun.
I won an advanced copy of this book in a Goodreads drawing. This was a great book! I could really empathize with Elle and Drix's situation. It broke my heart. I would love to see additional books about Drix's family and Henry. I cried at the end, but was happy with it. Katie has always drawn the reader into the characters lives in a way that it feels like it's happening to you. I read all of Katie's book and love them all.
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
katie mcgarry will always and forever be one of my favorite authors and this book was another hit for me, i loved elle and drix and she got me to cry AGAIN like she always does in her books, her books are always amazing and say you’ll remember me was just as amazing as the rest of them
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ellison “Elle” Monroe is the govenor’s daughter and with that comes a lot of expectations to be perfect and sacrifices of things that are important to her. But Elle doesn’t see it that way, she thinks she’s helping her father on the campaign trail.
Hendrix “Drix” Pierce is trying to see where he fits in now that he’s back from seven months of juvie and three months in an Outward Bound program for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s not the guy he used to be but he’s not sure who he is now either. For the next year he’ll be the governor’s dancing monkey pulled out at fundraisers to show that the governor’s pet project, a second chance program is working. What he didn’t expect was that the girl he meets on the midway at a carnival would turn out to be the governor’s daughter.
Nobody wants Elle and Drix together. It would be bad for Elle’s image, bad for the campaign, bad for the program, and bad for Drix’s future if things go south; yet together they find comfort, friendship, and then something more.
Do Elle and Drix have a shot at being together? Can Drix show the governor and the people that just see his record that he’s not that guy? Can he find out who really robbed the convenience store he was convicted of robbing?
I loved Say You’ll Remember Me. Most of Katie Mcagarry’s books that I’ve read seem to have the same theme, a girl from money and a guy from “the wrong side of the tracks” who fall in love. This one takes on a girl who is oblivious to her parents using her for her father’s political gain and a guy who’s had a hard life with no one in authority giving him a break.
I liked Drix more than Elle because at times I felt Elle was very naive. And Elle’s parents drove me nuts. It just shows you that politicians say they’re for the people they’re representing but when it comes right down to it they only care about themselves and their agendas. I loved the secondary characters, Dominic, Holiday, Marcus, Axle, and Henry and thought they made the story in a way.
I feel like this book is very relavent right now, especially with Elle’s interaction with the donor at one of her father’s fundraisers touching her inappropriately but feeling like she can’t do anything to make a scene because of his contribution to her father’s campaign. It’s very current with everything that’s been in the news lately even if I was screaming at the character to do something.
The ending of the book broke my heart a little but does have a happy, satisfying end. Overall, this may be one of my favorite Katie McGarry books and I definitely recommend it.
Hendrix “Drix” Pierce is trying to see where he fits in now that he’s back from seven months of juvie and three months in an Outward Bound program for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s not the guy he used to be but he’s not sure who he is now either. For the next year he’ll be the governor’s dancing monkey pulled out at fundraisers to show that the governor’s pet project, a second chance program is working. What he didn’t expect was that the girl he meets on the midway at a carnival would turn out to be the governor’s daughter.
Nobody wants Elle and Drix together. It would be bad for Elle’s image, bad for the campaign, bad for the program, and bad for Drix’s future if things go south; yet together they find comfort, friendship, and then something more.
Do Elle and Drix have a shot at being together? Can Drix show the governor and the people that just see his record that he’s not that guy? Can he find out who really robbed the convenience store he was convicted of robbing?
I loved Say You’ll Remember Me. Most of Katie Mcagarry’s books that I’ve read seem to have the same theme, a girl from money and a guy from “the wrong side of the tracks” who fall in love. This one takes on a girl who is oblivious to her parents using her for her father’s political gain and a guy who’s had a hard life with no one in authority giving him a break.
I liked Drix more than Elle because at times I felt Elle was very naive. And Elle’s parents drove me nuts. It just shows you that politicians say they’re for the people they’re representing but when it comes right down to it they only care about themselves and their agendas. I loved the secondary characters, Dominic, Holiday, Marcus, Axle, and Henry and thought they made the story in a way.
I feel like this book is very relavent right now, especially with Elle’s interaction with the donor at one of her father’s fundraisers touching her inappropriately but feeling like she can’t do anything to make a scene because of his contribution to her father’s campaign. It’s very current with everything that’s been in the news lately even if I was screaming at the character to do something.
The ending of the book broke my heart a little but does have a happy, satisfying end. Overall, this may be one of my favorite Katie McGarry books and I definitely recommend it.
4 stars
Not gonna lie, I mostly read this because the cover was purple and I wanted my Goodreads reading challenge to take on a purple tinge for a couple of books.
But, I did end up being pleasantly surprised by this novel. I've been in a contemporary kick recently, and worked my way through the romances before heading to the more social commentary ones.
And this was actually a pretty decent romance. It had a lot of substance besides just romance, which I enjoyed. Even so, the romance had those cliché elements without actually being cliché--such as there's a bad boy, but he's not like actually bad or a dick throughout the whole story.
The romance was interesting and I wasn't super invested in Elle and Drix's story, but I did think they worked pretty well together, which is better than I can say for many stories.
The plot in general was engrossing and even though this is a longer book (in the 400 page range), I ended up finishing it really quickly in a day. I thought it was paced well and didn't lag. You can see McGarry's experience in writing entertaining contemporaries that readers will enjoy.
Sometimes it felt a little "Wattpad" just with the bad boy element and the governor's daughter part (as well as the Elle disliking being pretty and dolled up), but who doesn't enjoy a little "Wattpad" when you're in the mood for it? It was entertaining and gets lots of plus points for keeping me engaged in the story.
The characters weren't annoying, although Drix had a little bit of a hero complex/was kind of a martyr and some of the characters were a little flat (more on this later).
But my favorite part was probably all the moral decisions the characters had to make.
There's this really interesting dynamic between proving Drix is innocent and making the Governor's Second Chance program fail, or leaving Drix guilty and keeping the Governor's Second Chance program afloat. I definitely didn't expect this moral dilemma in the story, and it was probably my favorite part of this.
Elle, her father, and Drix have to decide whether to clear Drix's name or if they should leave him wrongly guilty so the press doesn't tear apart the program. This was an interesting dynamic and I'm still thinking about what the right course of action should have been.
I love books that make me think, and adding the contrast between one person and the greater good was awesome to see, although McGarry did make the narrative lean to Drix's side because this is mainly a romance story.
Elle and her family have this complex relationship (the complexity which I did appreciate) because she's part of her father's campaign team, but she doesn't actually like it, but does it to satisfy her family. Despite the complex relationship, I did feel like the parents were a little two dimensional because of how they were the bad guys a lot. I wanted more depth in their characters just to emphasize that "Hey! Not all parents are shitty :)", but I did think they and Elle had a good contrast, even though I wanted more examination of the family relationship and how it was detrimental for Elle.
Still, McGarry does a good job of exposing the issues with the family through Elle's cousin Henry.
One last note is that this is pretty white-washed and there's not a whole lot of diversity, which is unfortunately to be expected. Hopefully this will change in the future with McGarry--whether it's through including more sexualities, or people with disabilities, or racial diversity.
Overall, this was one of the better romances I've read in YA, and I did enjoy reading this despite some of its downsides. It ended up being more complex and in depth than I expected, which I definitely appreciated. I would recommend for people looking for romances that are less fluffy and more involved!
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Not gonna lie, I mostly read this because the cover was purple and I wanted my Goodreads reading challenge to take on a purple tinge for a couple of books.
But, I did end up being pleasantly surprised by this novel. I've been in a contemporary kick recently, and worked my way through the romances before heading to the more social commentary ones.
And this was actually a pretty decent romance. It had a lot of substance besides just romance, which I enjoyed. Even so, the romance had those cliché elements without actually being cliché--such as there's a bad boy, but he's not like actually bad or a dick throughout the whole story.
The romance was interesting and I wasn't super invested in Elle and Drix's story, but I did think they worked pretty well together, which is better than I can say for many stories.
The plot in general was engrossing and even though this is a longer book (in the 400 page range), I ended up finishing it really quickly in a day. I thought it was paced well and didn't lag. You can see McGarry's experience in writing entertaining contemporaries that readers will enjoy.
Sometimes it felt a little "Wattpad" just with the bad boy element and the governor's daughter part (as well as the Elle disliking being pretty and dolled up), but who doesn't enjoy a little "Wattpad" when you're in the mood for it? It was entertaining and gets lots of plus points for keeping me engaged in the story.
The characters weren't annoying, although Drix had a little bit of a hero complex/was kind of a martyr and some of the characters were a little flat (more on this later).
But my favorite part was probably all the moral decisions the characters had to make.
There's this really interesting dynamic between proving Drix is innocent and making the Governor's Second Chance program fail, or leaving Drix guilty and keeping the Governor's Second Chance program afloat. I definitely didn't expect this moral dilemma in the story, and it was probably my favorite part of this.
Elle, her father, and Drix have to decide whether to clear Drix's name or if they should leave him wrongly guilty so the press doesn't tear apart the program. This was an interesting dynamic and I'm still thinking about what the right course of action should have been.
I love books that make me think, and adding the contrast between one person and the greater good was awesome to see, although McGarry did make the narrative lean to Drix's side because this is mainly a romance story.
Elle and her family have this complex relationship (the complexity which I did appreciate) because she's part of her father's campaign team, but she doesn't actually like it, but does it to satisfy her family. Despite the complex relationship, I did feel like the parents were a little two dimensional because of how they were the bad guys a lot. I wanted more depth in their characters just to emphasize that "Hey! Not all parents are shitty :)", but I did think they and Elle had a good contrast, even though I wanted more examination of the family relationship and how it was detrimental for Elle.
Still, McGarry does a good job of exposing the issues with the family through Elle's cousin Henry.
One last note is that this is pretty white-washed and there's not a whole lot of diversity, which is unfortunately to be expected. Hopefully this will change in the future with McGarry--whether it's through including more sexualities, or people with disabilities, or racial diversity.
Overall, this was one of the better romances I've read in YA, and I did enjoy reading this despite some of its downsides. It ended up being more complex and in depth than I expected, which I definitely appreciated. I would recommend for people looking for romances that are less fluffy and more involved!
Blog | Instagram | Twitter
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
5 DRIX Stars!!!
Katie McGarry has my number. I don’t even like books with musicians….like I steer clear of them because I can’t think of one that I loved. I had no idea that one of characters was going to be a musician, but of course if there was a musician I would love, it would be one that Katie wrote.
Feel the beat in my blood, the rhythm in my heart, the music filling an empty soul.
Drix just got out of his special juvenile detention program. I love that mystery that we don’t really know what happened for part of the book. He was included in a special trial program that the governor is pushing for to help juveniles from getting caught in the system. It just so happens that the governor’s daughter is Elle. A relationship that is forbidden. He thinks she is out of his league, and I just love a bad boy who thinks he is too bad for the girl. Mmmmm. Yum.
I'm just a girl on a midway, he's just a boy on a midway, and not everything has to end like a daydream.
What is so different about this story is that we don’t experience Drix before he went to juvie. I think I would have loved to read that part of his life. But it was so unique how we just saw the new Drix because this is the Drix that is now.
Drix is struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. While Elle wants to burst out from the cage of her life and do something dangerous and risky. These two are going in completely opposite directions, and yet they seem to find each other in the middle. Drix and Elle are just perfect for each other. Each scene with these two I was grinning and giggling. They were so cute and hot.
What I love about Katie McGarry books is that she always seems to find that perfect grey area between good and bad. He’s not bad. He’s not entirely good either. He’s not really sure what he is. These are people trying to find the balance between who everyone expects them to be, who they are now, and who they want to be in the future. And I think this is something that not only teenagers struggle with but adults as well.
ARC courtesy of publisher in exchange for an honest review
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Katie McGarry has my number. I don’t even like books with musicians….like I steer clear of them because I can’t think of one that I loved. I had no idea that one of characters was going to be a musician, but of course if there was a musician I would love, it would be one that Katie wrote.
Feel the beat in my blood, the rhythm in my heart, the music filling an empty soul.
Drix just got out of his special juvenile detention program. I love that mystery that we don’t really know what happened for part of the book. He was included in a special trial program that the governor is pushing for to help juveniles from getting caught in the system. It just so happens that the governor’s daughter is Elle. A relationship that is forbidden. He thinks she is out of his league, and I just love a bad boy who thinks he is too bad for the girl. Mmmmm. Yum.
I'm just a girl on a midway, he's just a boy on a midway, and not everything has to end like a daydream.
What is so different about this story is that we don’t experience Drix before he went to juvie. I think I would have loved to read that part of his life. But it was so unique how we just saw the new Drix because this is the Drix that is now.
Drix is struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. While Elle wants to burst out from the cage of her life and do something dangerous and risky. These two are going in completely opposite directions, and yet they seem to find each other in the middle. Drix and Elle are just perfect for each other. Each scene with these two I was grinning and giggling. They were so cute and hot.
What I love about Katie McGarry books is that she always seems to find that perfect grey area between good and bad. He’s not bad. He’s not entirely good either. He’s not really sure what he is. These are people trying to find the balance between who everyone expects them to be, who they are now, and who they want to be in the future. And I think this is something that not only teenagers struggle with but adults as well.
ARC courtesy of publisher in exchange for an honest review
Find me on