Blurb

Remember Me is an astonishingly bold young adult novel from Estelle Laure, the critically acclaimed author of This Raging Light and Mayhem

If you could erase all of your painful memories, would you?

Blue Owens wakes up one day with the strangest feeling that something is very wrong. Everyone’s acting weird and she’s found a note in her closet telling her to get on the Little Blue Bus at 7:45, which she does, meeting up with the exact person she was supposed to avoid: Adam Mendoza. Even though she has no idea who he is, something about him is so familiar.

When she confronts him, the truth is revealed—Blue has paid to have her memories removed, and Adam is one of those memories. As Blue struggles to piece together her history, she is torn between her desire to know why she would do something so drastic and her fear of what she will find.

Remember Me is the bold and beautiful story of a girl who must find the courage to face the demons of her past and reclaim her loved ones—even if it ruins her.

Review

I love twisty mind-bendy books about memory, so I was excited when this one came to my attention. The story starts when Blue Owens wakes up one day but feels that everything is off — something is not quite right. On top of that, her friends are acting weird, whispering behind her back, trying to force her to bring orange juice, and giving her strange looks. This part of the story filled me with a pervasive, discomfiting sense of unease: the kind that raises gooseflesh on your arms. She then finds a note under her jewelry box telling her to get on the Little Blue Bus at 7:45, so she does — and ends up meeting a boy named Adam Mendoza. But, as we soon learn, Blue has undergone a procedure to have her most painful memories erased, and that includes all memories of Adam. What follows is Blue trying to figure out why she willingly removed her memories, even though she may have to uncover some painfully devastating truths in the process.

I really loved the conversation in this book about pain and grief and the extent that someone may go to in order to lessen/erase that pain. It’s also a clever examination of the role of pain in our lives. This book took me to some fascinating places and was not only poignant and heart-wrenching but also eye-opening and thought-provoking. I loved journeying along with Blue as she unraveled the missing parts of her life and eventually discovered the reason she took such a drastic measure. Though raw in places, it was ultimately a hopeful story about trauma, love, grief, and healing. This is a book all about feeling: feeling pain, feeling love, feeling friendship, and allowing yourself to feel sadness because it deserves to be felt.

I found the plot of this emotive story utterly compelling and the characters realistic, relatable and well-drawn. The author did an excelling job with the relationships in the story, and I was delighted that they included a non-binary secondary character.

Additionally, I think many will find the plot relatable because how many of us haven’t wished that we could erase an especially painful memory at one time or another? That being said, the book is definitely sad and messy in places but ultimately ends on a positive and compassionate note, with love at its core. I tend to enjoy reflective writing — writing that examines humanity and character-driven stories that explore the many sides of human complexities & relationships, and that is what we get with this novel. All in all, Remember Me is an ambitious novel with a huge heart.

This title will release on March 22, 2022 but it is available now for preorder. 

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

Blurb:

A TIMELESS LOVE STORY

When Danny Maytree, an ambitious young 1970s film actor, met Samantha on a blind date and fell in love, he decided he no longer cared about Tinseltown stardom. He still acted sometimes, but he became a writer too.

Now married and in their seventies, they find a dog whose faded tag has the name “Tali” and a Beverly Hills phone prefix from fifty years earlier.

Writing a time travel novel in 2021, Danny gets a call from a mysterious, velvet-voiced acting agent. He has a meeting tomorrow in Beverly Hills. Tali, in one of their singular “conversations,” questions Danny’s motives.

Now, Danny is in Beverly Hills-not at the meeting, but in the elegant home where he lived in 1974, forty-seven years ago. He is twenty-seven again, bewildered, but with a second chance at his Hollywood dream.

He doesn’t want it, because Sam is not in this world.

Unhappy in his new “now,” he realizes his journey back to “Kansas” hinges on the magic of film. A sharkish agent helps him navigate Hollywood’s rocky shoals. A worldly-wise teen and a New Age fortune-teller offer spiritual advice. And a sexy wicked witch throws a monkey wrench in his path.

Review

Given that I love time-travel stories, I was excited when this one came to my attention. It follows seventy-five-year-old Danny Maytree, a former actor who suddenly finds himself thrust back in time 47 years to 1974. Danny is once again 27 and finds that he has a second chance of living his Hollywood dream. However, he soon discovers that the dream may not be everything it’s cracked up to be without his beloved wife, Samantha. Now trapped in time, Danny desperately tries to find his way back to his own time — and to Samantha.

This was a well-written and twisty love story with rich, evocative scenes and compelling, well-drawn characters (including the delightful and enigmatic dog, Tali). In addition, there was plenty of fun and witty banter between the characters, which added to the richness and enjoyment of the story.

I found this to be an utterly riveting tale that sent me on a wild roller-coaster ride of emotions. By about 1/4 of the way in, I was sucked into Danny’s story and loved seeing his reaction to his situation, especially once he began concocting a plan to return home.

Time travel, along with its pitfalls and potential paradoxes, can sometimes be migraine-inducing, but that was not the case with this story. All the details you need are worked seamlessly into the narrative. The time travel aspect here was believable, unique, and not at all confusing. Hello, Rest of My Life is a blend of science-fiction, a touch of history, and romance. I thought this book was a breath of fresh air in a well-worn genre. An unexpected gem!

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