Book Review: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

A wedding planner and her grumpy ex must work together to plan a celebrity event in this deliciously spicy and funny novel from Ali Hazelwood’s “favorite writer.”

Forget Me Not is the latest on my Reylo published fic journey, and like many of them, was recommended strongly by BookTubers, this time Izzy from Happy for Now and with Cindy. It’s also my personal favorite of the bunch, particularly in how it executes POV in a romance.

One of my persistent complaints with the recent crop of second-chance romances in particular is how, when they choose to use flashbacks to explore what went wrong, they don’t do enough to distinguish the two timelines. But while I still don’t get the use of present tense for something that clearly happened in the past, I liked getting the past events from Elliot’s perspective in linear fashion, while there would be allusions to what happened from Ama’s perspective in the present, with further subversion of this towards the end when the timelines began to converge.

Ama’s life is certainly interesting, with her mother having gotten married sixteen times, and divorced just as many (fourteen at the time of the flashbacks), making her very jaded about marriage and relationships. While this makes her work as a wedding planner somewhat ironic, she sees it as just a fancy party. Elliot as a contrast, is much more traditionally minded and more romantic. While he does initially bristle at taking on the family business, due to his distaste for flowers, he comes to embrace it.

The main conflict centers on their opposing views on love, relationships, and marriage, and I appreciate how this plays out. The “past” timeline really highlights how much Elliot compromised for Ama, as she was so commitment-phobic, due to her fear of a relationship ending, she couldn’t let one begin. The result, as you’d expect, is things falling apart, and the “present” timeline from Ama’s perspective is her reconnecting with Elliot due to them both working this wedding.

I really liked how, once all the pieces were in place, and she realized she really couldn’t live without him, the roles reversed. While I did worry that this would result in the commitment-phobic Ama having to give up her scruples entirely, I like how the ending was a fun way to have them meet in the middle and compromise, while also having fun with each other and continuing to subtly subvert the gender roles a bit.

I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a well-executed take on second-chance romance.

Book Length — 341 pages

Paperback Price — $12.74(Amazon)