Book Review: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

About the Book:

Title: Forget Me Not

Author: Julie Soto

Page Length: 352

Publication Date: July 11, 2023

Publisher: Forever

Synopsis: He loves me; he loves me not…

Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost perfect…

Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left him the flower shop, he considered it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did.

When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there’s a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot’s hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon

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My Review:

I just want to pause for a moment and admire this absolutely gorgeous cover. I’ve spent entirely too much time swooning over Ama and Elliot, and I have no regrets because I could stare at that stunner all day! It is the perfect cover for this entertaining, funny, and heartwarming contemporary romance.

The story is told in two timelines and from two different perspectives with the present from Ama’s point of view, and the past from Elliot’s point of view. I thought this worked really well in the story. You get to see the relationship from both of their perspectives, which adds so much depth and breadth to the characters.

Ama is fabulous. Driven and married to her job as a wedding planner, Ama is averse to marriage in her own life. She is bubbly and a little chaotic and messy, and she sends a lot of mixed signals, mainly because she is afraid. With a mother who has married more than a dozen times, Ama’s views on marriage are very different from Elliot’s, and you see how her subconscious fear of commitment seeps into her career and relationships. The irony of a commitment-phobe who doesn’t believe in marriage working as a wedding planner? I love it.

And then we have the grumpy florist who uses his architectural background to create original and awe-inspiring pieces. Elliot is kind of a jerk to Ama, which I understood better as their past is revealed and his rejection becomes more visceral. But Elliot is prickly and standoffish with others too, which is so unprofessional! I found him tough to like at the start, though I figured there were reasons for his grumpy, dismissive, and rude attitude. I have to say, Soto is so good at creating characters because I can remember the exact scene where I changed my mind about Elliot completely. I fell in love with him in an instant and wanted to shake Ama and force her to see what was right in front of her because all of that prickliness was hiding a man who was deeply in love and deeply wounded. And the tattoos? Sa-woon!!! I totally understand Ama’s obsession with them.

I think what I like about both characters is that they’re real. Imperfect, flawed, impossible, and amazing all at once, they’ve both done good and bad things, they both made mistakes and have regrets, and they both have successes and failures in life and love. Plus, they have some sizzling chemistry, and the steamy scenes may have fogged up my glasses a little bit. lol

The wedding planning is another aspect of the story I enjoyed. It is definitely an ironic and fantastic backdrop for the story. The engaged couple and the wedding being planned juxtapose the frosty and awkward relationship between Ama and Elliot. It also forces the pair to work together, which in turn pushes them to revisit what happened between them.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. It was moving and steamy, and the characters and plot are original and entertaining. I would definitely recommend the book to contemporary romance and rom-com fans who like slow-burn, second chance, or grumpy/sunshine love stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.