Remember Me Always by Renee Collins // I Never Expected to Love This!

Remember Me Always, by Renee Collins
Publication: October 3, 2017, by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Rating: 

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 Thoughts:

Remember Me Always was unbelievable. UN-OMG-BELIEVABLE. After previously reading Renee Collins' debut, Until We Meet Again, I expected to sadly never pick up a book of hers again because of the weird mysterious fantasy she tried to create in that book. However, when word first was released about this new 2017 book of hers (and the fact that it had an aesthetic cover with gorgeous Polaroid photos), I was so in. Of course, I was skeptical that it would be a favourite of mine, as the premise... well, let's just say that it does not sound like the most promising book. FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING I JUST SAID. Remember Me Always is surely one of the best books I have read this year. It picked me out of a hideous, dreadful reading slump that I have experienced since the summer (!!!!), causing me to finish it in one sitting. There's nothing better than being on a road trip with a gorgeous story that keeps you going and not bored. Because let me just say it: some of the 'scenery' we can view out of the window is not always so... awing. 

THIS WAS ACTION-PACKED AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN. Collins has a poetic vibe to her writing which I totally appreciated due to how it made this story seem less fictional and more moving. This time around, Collins explores the effects of PTSD, a traumatic experience, loss/love and the setting of a small Colorado town. She mixed all of these various concepts together, and voila: this novel was born. The spotlight shines on Shelby, a heart-warming, real protagonist who has spent her entire summer before senior year in a hospital in Denver trying to forget. To forget the memories that scarred her so much. It turns out that Shelby was in a tragic car accident, leaving her with tragic memories and panic attacks that wouldn't stop occurring. When her mother discovers a clinical program that will relieve the panic attacks and fade some memories away, Shelby is sent off for a month, discovering that the memories are blurry. Except for those involving a mysterious boy. 

When the boy starts appearing in Shelby's 'memories,' we immediately expect that this guy could be a ghost or some supernatural figure. However, FORTUNATELY, he is not: he's real. And Shelby meets him, discovering that she once knew him... quite well. And even though this book is a total love story, as the cover suggests, it focuses on a lot more than just the love. Renee Collins captures the reality of living in a small town with citizens who literally have their nose in everyone's business. Imagine hiding Shelby's huge secret (of losing her memory) in a place where everyone knows everyone. It felt as if there were so many characters in this story in comparison to other books. I loved learning about the personalities and lives of so many — I find that it is often difficult to connect with characters in books, but this one had no flaws with that, or anything, for that matter.

Shelby was a protagonist who I know I will compare others to. She had the right amount of down-to-earth-ness and intelligence and empathy to the extent that she was not letting anyone around her use her. I appreciated her so much - the book would have surely been different if she wasn't around. AND THE LOVE INTEREST? Auden? He's my lover. New book boyfriend. New favourite character. AGH. If you like a mysterious, interesting man, you now know which book to read. YAY FOR THEIR FLAWED, BEAUTIFUL ROMANCE! Collins showed, through this lovely book, that love is so flawed, that there is no perfection involved.

Remember Me Always is a book I (and you, if you read it) will never forget. I loved the pacing, premise, characters and most of all, romance, which was the opposite of perfection. How can I relive what I felt during this book again? To remember it always.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. Thanks so much!*

What book would you want to remember, always?