Review: Forget You by Jennifer Echols.

Main Characters: Zoey, Doug Fox
Series: None

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER? There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school.

Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time now (or so it seems anyway) but only since I first read Going too Far. I adored the cover of this book, it’s cute and beachy and perfectly fits both Zoey and Doug’s swimmer’s personality. I dove right into this book because Echols has a way of writings stories that I can’t for the life of me put down.

Echols also has a way of writing heroines that I want to beat with a pipe. This story follows Zoey Commander after an accident she was in. An accident that left her with a spotty memory of what happened the night of the accident. She can only remember bits and pieces of the night and she’s confused as to why her boyfriend Brandon seems to have disappeared and Doug Fox, the guy that she thought hated her seems to be around…a lot.

Watching Zoey struggle to remember what happened the night of the accident was equal parts frustrating and interesting. First of all, she went about it all wrong. Yes, I understand that she was having a very rough time of it since her father was a total prick and then her mother tried to commit suicide and is now in the loony bin. Her father threatens to throw her in the loony bin too if she tells anyone about her mother and I understand that she was going through some crap but as the story progressed, I forgot all about the crap she’s been through and went from mildly irritated with her to flat out pissed off and wanting to choke her the hell out.

After the whole one time deal with Brandon, in her mind, they were a couple. Because she slept with Brandon, that made him her boyfriend. Oh sweetie, how wrong you are. Sleeping with Brandon, made Brandon a douche and you, a confused young girl who was going through some crap. The thing that pissed me off about Brandon is that he was supposed to be good friends with Zoey and instead of being a good friend to her and setting her straight (right from the jump), he turns into a ghost and lets her go on thinking that they’re in a relationship. It made my hatred for that douche bag grow and fester over the course of the book and when him and Doug go at it…I almost wanted Brandon to drown.

Yeah, I can be blood thirsty.

What turned the tides for me where Zoey was concerned was when her Mom came to her swim meet and she’s driving her Mom back to the hospital. The way that she treated her Mom, the horrible things that she said to her Mom made me want to push Zoey out of the car and then run her ass over and then back up for good measure. I couldn’t forgive her for those things she said because she hated when her father said those kinds of things to her and then she went and turned it all onto her Mom. Not cool.

It’s a testament to Echols writing that I could still enjoy the story after thoroughly disliking the main character but it was Doug that I really wanted to know more about. It was Doug that kept me going through out the story. I wanted to get this story through his eyes. I was curious about his family life and I wanted a more in depth look into Doug’s story. I wanted in on those memories of when he ran away and even when he was sent to juvie. I wanted to know his brother Cody more and I just wanted more from him. I adored him, thought he was great and he’s a reader…how can you not love him?

Just like with Endless Summer, it was the boy in the book that saved the story for me. It was Doug that I was pulling for and even though I wanted better for him than Zoey, I cut Zoey some slack at the end of the book because she was what Doug wanted. Because if I’m being honest, there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t forgive Doug for…even getting with Zoey. =P

Echols wrote a complicated story that I just could not put down. It was one of those books that even though the characters were getting on your nerves, you’re drawn to them anyway because you can’t help but be drawn to them. You want to be there when everything clicks into place for the characters and you want to be happy for them. Echols pulled at my emotions (every last one of them) with this story and while I couldn’t exactly like Zoey, I didn’t hate the story. She sure can write the heck out of a story. The romance between Doug and Zoey was complicated but it was steamy and I enjoyed that part of it.

I can’t exactly say that this book won me over but the ending did calm me down some so that’s saying something. As much as I loved Doug, he wasn’t enough to save the entire story for me so this one gets a C from me.

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

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