Remember Me Always

Remember Me Always by Renee Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary (from Goodreads)

Shelby is nervous to start her senior year after spending the whole summer away from home. After all, it’s hard to be carefree when you’re trying to protect a secret.

Shelby was in a devastating car accident, and everyone in town thinks that she was undergoing more physical therapy in Denver. Instead, Shelby’s mother enrolled her in a clinical program to stop the panic attacks that started after the crash. The treatment erased Shelby’s memory of the accident, but she can’t help feeling as if a piece of herself is missing, that the treatment took more than the doctors claimed.

So when Shelby starts hallucinating a boy with dark and mysterious eyes, she knows it must be a side-effect of the clinical program. Except you can’t kiss hallucinations. And this boy insists that they know each other and are in love…

My Review

This was the perfect read for me. After finishing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein I was looking for something modern and a little less heavy. A good YA romance was just the ticket.

Remember Me Always fits in the YA romance genre perfectly, but it still has a uniqueness in the plot. The idea of technology that can erase traumatic memories was interesting and believable in the presentation. I was drawn in immediately by the mystery surrounding the need for the memory treatment as well as by the intrigue of how it was all going to work out. The writing is easy to read and follow, but with engaging character voice and smart use of language and sentence structure.

I would say that the ending doesn’t fit a traditional “happily ever after” format, but I appreciated it. I was glad to see characters acknowledge their young age and how that should be considered along with feelings of love or passion.

The author lives in a town where I lived for about 4 years and I loved seeing bits and pieces of the town show up in the book’s fictional setting. There were names of people and streets that I recognized. Some of the descriptions of fictional Orchardview brought to mind so clearly places in the real Colorado town.

The book drew me in quickly and was entertaining all the way through  to the end.

Age Recommendation: I think the character’s motivations and the events of the book would be best understood by ages 14 and older.  A 12 year old mature reader would likely enjoy the book as well.

Appropriateness: There is some trauma relating to Shelby’s accident, but descriptions aren’t graphic. There is kissing and physical aspects of a romantic relationship but no specific descriptions or anything that would inappropriate for most YA readers.

Other Book Recommendations: Other books like Remember Me Always include Until We Meet Again also by Renee Collins, Safe House by Shannon Symonds, The Unicorn Hunter by Rachel Kirkaldie, The Selection Series by Kiera Cass, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle, Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares.