Remembrance

Hello all!
It took me about a day and a half to get through Michelle Madow's novel, Remembrance. I will first start by saying that it wasn't a disappointment. And for the $0.99 it cost me, I would buy it all over again. It is a light read, it doesn't take much thinking. (However I found it inexplicably difficult to remember all of the cliche names of all of the different characters).

The basic rundown of the story line is as follows:
There's a high school junior named Lizzie who has been with her boyfriend for 3 years. However, all coincidence aside, he has been changing. He has become more 'rude' and 'distant'. Luckily for Lizzie, a hot new guy transfers into her school in the nick of time. She begins to notice that they have a strange sort of electric connection and she can't seem to get him out of her mind, regardless of the fact that he's dating her BEST FRIEND. As time passes, Lizzie realizes that her and Drew shared a life together...in 1800s Regency era England. Weird...right? Through a series of flashbacks and with the help of a creepily awesome shop owner named Alistair, Lizzie is able to piece together what happened in her past life with Drew...and what can happen now.

There were a few negatives I found in the novel. One was that there were a few scenes that very closely resembled Stephanie Meyer's novel, Twilight. For example, Drew gives Lizzie mixed messages. With lines like, "It's not a good idea for us to be friends.", Drew's old romantic nature mixed with his infuriating ability to be SO IRRISISTABLE while being so INCREDIBLY CRYPTIC draws too many parallels to Edward Cullen's nature. There was a second scene in Drew's car when he goes to turn on the seat warmers at the same time Lizzie goes to turn on the seat warmers. Their hands collide, and Drew pulls his hand away. HELLO! REMEMBER THAT SCENE FROM TWILIGHT WHERE THE SAME EXACT THING HAPPENS? OR AM I JUST INCREDIBLY OBSERVANT? While I know Michelle Madow is a huge Stephanie Meyer fan, I don't think that these similarities were intentional.

The second complaint I have isn't specific to this novel. I just get irritated by this in ANY book written for teenage girls. How come everything just always works out? Lizzie is a brat. In the real world, if you're with a guy for 3 years and he goes through a rap music phase and gets some friends, that doesn't mean you have to dump the guy! So he isn't exactly what you remember him being. THAT DOESN'T MAKE HIM A LOST CAUSE. And if your friend is dating a really nice, hot guy: BE HAPPY FOR HER AND HANG OUT WITH YOUR OWN BOYFRIEND. You don't have a weird romantic fling with her boyfriend. That's strictly against girl code. If they were never together, it's different. But if your friend tells you that she's in love with the guy, you need to get a schedule change so you don't have to be anywhere near him. Michelle tried to make Chelsea out to be a little trampy and a little obnoxious, but come on. She's your best friend. I just feel like if any of these things happened in the real world, Lizzie wouldn't just get away with it. She would be tormented the rest of her cheating life.

Just saying.

I would still give this book 4/5 stars. It's not in any way my usual style, but it allowed me to escape and relax. I know that Michelle worked her butt off to write this novel because she came to my school to talk to us about it, and she has every right to be proud of this book. I would read it again. :)
So there's Remembrance for you! If you're into Twilight, give the book a shot. It wasn't half bad. :)

Right now I'm reading yet another Pixel of Ink freebie called Zomblog by TW Brown. I'm not sure I'll review it though. I'm about 24% through (according to my Kindle) and so far it's just a lot of blood and gore. However, the narrator is inexplicably lovable and relatable, so I guess we'll see.
Talk soon!!