Rowena’s review of Things I Can’t Forget (Hundred Oaks #3) by Miranda Kenneally.
Companion to Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker.
Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…
This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt–with her.
Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…
This is the third book in the Hundred Oaks series by Miranda Kenneally. The Hundred Oaks series follows a group of students from Hundred Oaks High School. The first book revolved around the star quarterback of Hundred Oaks, who just so happens to be a girl. The second book followed a young girl who was having troubles at home and finds herself getting into some trouble with the new hottie baseball coach. This book follows a young girl who has religion at the center of her life and is thrown into a whole lot of sin and is trying to balance everything around her.
Kate is a good girl. She goes to Church every Sunday because she wants to and not because her parents make her. But one day, her very best friend Emily needs her. And she forgets everything that she believes in and steps in to help her friend deal with the trouble she’s gotten herself into. Those decisions stay with her and guilt starts pressing down on her, making her cling to her religion all the more and because Emily can’t understand why Kate can’t let go, she feels judged and their friendship strains.
It’s summer time and Kate is working as a camp counselor at the same camp that her and Emily used to attend when they were younger. With her friendship with Emily on the fritz, Kate is having a hard time with well, everything. When she shows up at the summer camp, she finds out that Will and Parker (from book 2) are working at the summer camp and there are a handful of people around. There’s also a hot guy with no shoes on, staring at her with a smile on his face.
Throughout the course of this book, Kate deals with her faith, her relationships with her friends and with, God. It’s a book with a whole lot of religion in it and though I’m kind of wary of reading these kinds of books, I thought Kenneally did a good job of making me more interested in what was going on, religious stuff and all.
Matt Brown is the boy who gave Kate her first kiss, back when they were 12 and at summer camp together. He was a quiet boy who got picked on by the other boys because he liked to write his own music and read. It’s years later and Matt is older and buffer and super hot. Kate is smitten and when Matt starts flirting with her, her happiness grows. There’s another girl who is vying for Matt’s attention but we all know who’s got Matt’s eye.
As Matt and Kate get closer and reconnect, Kate struggles with the secret she’s keeping for Emily and her physical responses to Matt. While she’s struggling through all of these things, I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t want to strangle her because I really did. But I thought that her struggles with her faith and what she thought was right were real. I knew people like Kate and they frustrated the hell out of me too but after all was said and done, I came to adore both Matt and Kate. I was glad that things were patched up with Emily and I really enjoyed the friendship that blossomed between Parker and Kate. This was another solid story in the Hundred Oaks series and I’m anxious for more.
Grade: 3 out of 5
This book is available from Sourcebooks Fire. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
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