Book Review: Forget Me Not
Is there anything that gives us more of that sweet, angsty tension than being extremely hung up on your ex, the one that got away, only to be thrown back together for work? Just in time for wedding season comes Julie Soto’s Forget Me Not, a second-chance romance set in the world of Sacramento wedding planning.
Ama Torres is the best wedding planner in the business - whether or not she’s willing to admit it. She gets close to her clients and uses her people reading skills to gauge out the perfect wedding day. Her skills are so well-regarded, she is given the opportunity of a lifetime when she is asked to plan the wedding of a celebrity influencer and her politically-connected fiancée. The publicity surrounding the big day is exactly what Ama needs for her budding boutique business, and will give her the opportunity to expand. But because her clients want the best of the best, that means working with local florist/craftsman Elliot Bloom.
Who also happens to be Ama’s ex. And things did not end well.
The story is told from Ama and Elliot’s points of view, with Ama narrating the lead-up to the big wedding, and Elliot’s perspective occupying the flashbacks that show their first meeting, blossoming romance, and eventual heartbreak. This device works so, so well at keeping the tension running throughout, with the reader never quite sure what both of them are thinking in the moment, immersing us in the mystery of having someone and losing them without ever knowing why, or coming face to face with someone you still love, usure if they still love you.
There’s something deeply compelling in the way Soto writes the two of them reflecting on and yearning for the other. There’s an all-too-visceral heartache there that remains as a persistent thread throughout, manifesting in the little ways they show that they still care for one another as they each go through their own respective professional crises.
With a setting that feels so grounded and real, and characters whose inner conflicts and relationships have a healthy dose of authenticity to them, Soto skirts dynamics that might have otherwise felt played out. Ama is upbeat, but never naive. Elliot is broody but not rude. There’s a natural kindness to them both that will have you rooting for them to make it work.
Forget Me Not hits shelves July 11. Special thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the advance copy for review purposes.