Forget You

Forget You

By: Jennifer Echols

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. 

 But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her.

Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.  

summary from book

My Rating: 4/5

I will start off by saying that the premise for Forget You, one in which a girl loses the recollection of a particular night and has to piece memories of that night back together is fantastic. I love Jennifer Echols so I would have read  this novel regardless but the fact that the plot was so intriguing definitely made me that much more excited. Then, there's the added element of romance which I am a huge fan of and which Echols pulls of flawlessly. Mix the above two together and you have magic.

I will say that although I did enjoy this book, I wasn't always so certain of it as I was reading. It starts off quite slow which is fine but I found myself losing interest at times. For me, things only began to pick up and become more exciting when Doug Fox entered the picture as a more constant character. Seeing as the protagonist leading the story is suffering from amnesia, there's a lot that she's trying to piece together which I think in turn added to my confusion. I can usually follow along quite well and have, I think, pretty decent reading comprehension but for some reason -and it turns out that I'm not alone which is reassuring ;)- I was confused from time to time and had to re-read particular sections to piece together what was happening and so on. This didn't happen a lot but when it did, it kind of irked me.

Character wise, I didn't fully connect with Zoey. I sympathized with her and I didn't dislike her by any means but I don't know, something was just off on occasion. Maybe it was the constant mention of Brandon being her "boyfriend" that bothered me or the fact that such a smart girl couldn't grasp that Brandon had treated her as he treats all other female human beings. Then again, sometimes girls do look past the obvious when it comes to boys so I may be over analyzing that. On the other hand Doug Fox = amazing and really is the character that made this story for me. I loved the scenes between Doug and Zoey where they shared fun little banter. It was sweet and adorable and humors all at the same time.

Other than that, once this story really got started I couldn't wait to find out what had happened to Zoey that night. I love stories where readers are kept in the dark because it makes reading the story much more exciting. The element of surprise is a great thing.

Overall: I honestly did like Forget You a lot (even though my review is kind of rant-ish) It has many great qualities and elements that I love uncovering in a novel. There's humor, mystery, romance, and a great male lead that will make you swoon. Fans of Jennifer Echols and contemporary YA should check this one out.