Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Goodreads Blurb

Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's high school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, fighting fate isn't going to be easy.



Warning: this review may contain minor spoilers.

A disappointment. That’s the first word that pops into my head when I think of Remembrance. I will not be saying “I hated it, I hated it, I hated it.” over and over, so no need to worry. I’ll try to keep this as non-hateful as possible. Oops. I guess some just spilled out…

Remembrance captured my interest because a) it was inspired by “Love Story”, one of my favorite songs ever, b) almost everyone was talking about it, and c) I love reincarnation. The blurb was very cliché, yes, but all books have at least a little cliché in them. I mean, can you think of one that doesn’t? But Remembrance didn’t have a little. 100% was cheesy and very, very, unreal. For those of you who just love fairytales, I guess this one’s for you, but I am not that kind of person who reads that stuff. Sweet and sappy and totally cheesy. Kind of like melted cheese; it melted a few of my brain cells. I’ve also heard it sounds eerily familiar to Twilight so if you like Twilight, I guess that you’d like this too? I mean, a “connection” when the new guy enters scene 1 left stage? The “noise melting into a hum”? I mean, that’s fine and dandy, but when Drew starts dating Chelsea, and she says she think she loves him, you’d think that Liz would tell Chels about her feelings, right? Or at least in the beginning. It’s perfectly fine for two best friends to have a crush on the same guy. Giggle over the same guy, it happens all the time. But having feelings and moving on them while your friend starts loving him? No. I disliked Lizzie. And poor Jeremy. I mean, he was a jerk and all: a dou*** even, but he really loved Lizzie. And she just stomped on his heart. If you’ve read Remembrance, then you should know what I mean by the car speeding part. Those are not words you should lie about. Especially when you know what he feels. So what’s with all this hate towards Chelsea and Jeremy? They’re my favorite characters actually.

I never even understood how Lizzie could take all the info about past lives so easily. I mean, she accepted it, no questions asked. No “what?!” “You’re kidding!” or even a hesitation to believe it. One more thing: I couldn’t even find out where he told her about the past lives. She definitely didn’t figure it out herself. For someone who believed her visions were hallucinations, she sure took it easy. And how did Drew find out? He’s not immortal, at least I think he’s not, he even said that he felt it, knew it, when he first saw her! So how did he figure it out? Obviously he must be very, very, very smart. As in, unrealistically smart. As in, way smarter than any normal person. So yeah.

The writing and pace were wonderful though. Michelle Madow has great potential, she just needs to tap into her imagination a bit more for something more original. I’ve seen a lot of 5-star reviews, so I guess it’s only me who feels this way. I’m sincerely sorry to those of you who love this book, but I guess it just wasn’t for me!  I think I was just a bit cranky when I read the book, and maybe later I’ll re-read Remembrance.

Pages: 314

Series: Transcend Time #1

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Rating: 2.5 stars

 "But it was time to realize that I wasn't Cinderella, and no matter how hard I wished it were true, life wasn't a fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after.”