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A review by amy_in_the_city
Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
A second chance romance (?) between two people that don't belong together and should seek out therapy instead. It feels like it was written by one of those people who consider 500 Days of Summer a rom-com and wrote a fix-it fic for the main characters to end up together despite wanting different things. Ama clearly tells Elliot she doesn't do relationships. That should have been the end of it. She strings him along a bit, but he also lets himself be strung along because he doesn't believe her when she says "no relationships."
So much time was spent on the wedding planning plot and describing all the details and to-do lists that there was no time left for the romantic relationship or for character development in general. There were two chances to show them falling in love (past and present), but I never really felt they were in love. The past timeline mostly seemed about lust. They had sex a lot, but they didn't really have any conversations where they get to know each other in a way that makes their "love" believable. I couldn't tell you anything they like about each other besides he likes her ass and she likes his tattoos. They have maybe two conversations in the present timeline and neither show them falling for each other again.
Ama was pretty immature. I spent most of the book wondering why she never saw a therapist to deal with her feelings about her mother's many divorces and how that affects her views on relationships. You would think she would have sought out a therapist after her outlook on relationships ruined what she had with Elliot the first time but apparently not. Other than her relationship hang-ups and her career goals, she didn't have much of a personality.
Elliott was just kind of a jerk. Repeat after me: "grumpy" does not equal "being rude to everyone you're not currently banging." His first scene with Ama when she was trying to discuss a business opportunity and he was just negging her nonstop was not cute. It was also dumb as a business owner to be needlessly rude to a potential client. His inner thoughts were funny at times though, and I liked the general idea of him in theory.
A lot of reviews praise the steamy scenes but something about them felt off to me. There were some beautifully written lines in here about love but unfortunately, they felt out of character when the romance was so underdeveloped.
So much time was spent on the wedding planning plot and describing all the details and to-do lists that there was no time left for the romantic relationship or for character development in general. There were two chances to show them falling in love (past and present), but I never really felt they were in love. The past timeline mostly seemed about lust. They had sex a lot, but they didn't really have any conversations where they get to know each other in a way that makes their "love" believable. I couldn't tell you anything they like about each other besides he likes her ass and she likes his tattoos. They have maybe two conversations in the present timeline and neither show them falling for each other again.
Ama was pretty immature. I spent most of the book wondering why she never saw a therapist to deal with her feelings about her mother's many divorces and how that affects her views on relationships. You would think she would have sought out a therapist after her outlook on relationships ruined what she had with Elliot the first time but apparently not. Other than her relationship hang-ups and her career goals, she didn't have much of a personality.
Elliott was just kind of a jerk. Repeat after me: "grumpy" does not equal "being rude to everyone you're not currently banging." His first scene with Ama when she was trying to discuss a business opportunity and he was just negging her nonstop was not cute. It was also dumb as a business owner to be needlessly rude to a potential client. His inner thoughts were funny at times though, and I liked the general idea of him in theory.
A lot of reviews praise the steamy scenes but something about them felt off to me. There were some beautifully written lines in here about love but unfortunately, they felt out of character when the romance was so underdeveloped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Cancer, Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident and Classism