Forget Me Not: The hottest rom-com of 2023

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Oliva sure knows how to write believable characters. I instantly fell in love with the vulnerable, naive and socially awkward Linda. I saw a bit of myself reflected in her character and I was very sympathetic to her plight. My heart ached for the sad, raw truth of what she experienced as a young girl. I also enjoyed Anvi, with her scintillating intelligence, ‘bad’ habit of adopting strays and steadfast determination. Even the villains were drawn in shades of grey and capable of evoking my compassion. And who could forget the courageous and lovable Nibbler?! Nothing has made me want a dog so badly. A gifted copy was provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine via NetGally for an honest review. Stevie’s journey was one I love a lot. She rediscovers herself because she has to. She’s forced into compulsive heterosexuality by her horrible ‘best friends’ who didn’t know that Nora existed, but also because they’re cruel, uncaring, and racist people. I hated the way her friends just manipulated Stevie because she couldn’t remember. And they were so racist to her face and they didn’t care. That made my heart hurt for her. A unique, original, mind bending story of a colon girl l( or not, we’re getting there, promise!) who has been brought out the world to replace her death sister(really? Okay I can see thought balloons start to appear above your head, just keep on reading!It will get more interesting at each chapter) raised herself at 20 acre walled off property at rural Washington. She belongs to woods, that’s where she feels at home, free, relaxed and happy.

I loved the way Olivia unfolded this story and wove science fiction and futuristic items into different parts. I thought the book very well written and very intriguing. It kept drawing me in deeper and deeper and I had to know more about this dysfunctional family Linda was born into. The amnesia trope is one of my favorites in fiction and up until recently, kind of a unicorn in sapphic stories. There’s a lot going on in this book which could have set up a mess of a narrative but the author does a good job of keeping it all together. The big moment of truth is great but it’s the little clues that make or break an amnesia story. Stevie has to rebuild her sense of self from the bits told to her by others. Lies, prejudices, hidden agendas, nobody is a reliable narrator she is learning. Meanwhile, Nora has to eat her own heart, watching and hoping that somehow she and Stevie can still be together. Like many of her generation, Sophie Pavelle is determined to demand action on climate change. In her hilarious and thought-provoking first book, she describes the trips she took to see ten rare native species: species that could disappear by 2050 and be forgotten by the end of the century if their habitats continue to decline. Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love. I know. I know.” She giggles. “Says the girl whose mom runs the biggest beef farm in the county. That’d probably be more of a blow to her than…” She laughs again, but this one sounds different, forced.At twelve Linda escaped her woodsy imprisonment and now as an adult is living in Seattle mostly in fear of the modern world around her. One day Linda meets a new neighbor who introduces her to virtual reality where Linda finds herself more at ease but then Linda finds that there was a fire at the place she spent her childhood so she begins to seek answers about herself and her past. Thoughts: Oliva dazzles me again with the unexpected, like The Last One (no that’s actually the name of her previous novel). There’s a science edge to the book which is NOT my jam but has made me question “Is this my jam?” and I agree this MIGHT be my jam and now I AM eating jam because that made me hungry.

Overall this is a twisted thriller that I feel might not be for everyone. If you like a coming of age story that moves suspenseful with unreliable protagonist, you’d love this one. 4/5 🌀 Linda knows she's an unreliable narrator of her own life. I felt her distrust of anyone, of her past, of her present, of all people. She couldn't trust the only person she knew for her first twelve years, her mother, and that sets the stage for trusting no one. But wait, there was someone else, her twin sister. What happened to her twin sister, her one time companion, who vanished one day? Forget Me Not is quite the trip through a beguiling maze. And at the very core is what is really real and what is really not.Whew - my mind was going in circles by the time I finished this one! I'd read and enjoyed another of this author's books - The Last One - so I was happy to be approved for a pre-release copy of this one. And I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The question she asked me was simple enough. What are your plans now that you’ve graduated? It should’ve been an easy answer, the same bullshit story I tell everyone, but I’ve been spending so much time thinking about my real plans that I almost told her the actual truth. I covered it, of course, but I could’ve ruined this whole thing. I need to be more careful the closer it gets. Ten years ago, Linda escaped the rural compound where she'd been kept and appeared in town, filthy and dressed in rags, stepping into what would become a social media frenzy she was ill-equipped to handle--made worse by the fact that she is the only living daughter of Arthur Niequist, famous computer scientist and wealthy philanthropist. Also worth noting that the word lesbian never appears anywhere in the book, despite both the MC and LI being lesbians. Staying in Wales and heading north to Snowdonia, I snorkel the freezing waters of the Irish Sea to find out why seagrass is fast becoming the habitat that we cannot afford to lose.