Book Review - Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Tis here!! The Review that I've been promising since... erm well this morning...
Again muchos thanks to Dwayne of Girls without a Bookshelf for organising this UK arc Tour, I certainly wish there were more tours that UK bloggers could participate in or that the UK was just nearer to the US (that'd definitely make it easier for us Brits to get to BEA cos I know there's lots of bloggers who are seething with envy all this week :P)

So onto the review!!

Title: Forget You
Author: Jennifer Echols
Date Read: 26/5/2010 PM
Date re-read: 27/5/2010 AM *tongue in cheek*
Source: ARC tour

Description: 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. With her life 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. (Taken from GoodReads)

Review: Now I shall do my best not to spoil anything but in my enthusiasm I may slip so I apologise in advance and if I do spot anything overtly spoilerish I'll flag it up ok?

First off it has to be said one of the most outstanding things about this book is the romance aspect, the romance scenes between Zoey and Doug are H-O-T! Dang it I mean it; when they're *not*just partaking in sexy, sarcastic banter their scenes together can reach *fan-yourself-frantically-whilst-reading* levels of sizzle. Yet these scenes are written so well and tastefully that it doesn't feel overtly explicit and dominate over the other aspects of the book which I really liked. The other more tender romantic moments are also fabulous and heart-meltingly sweet - it's not all about the parking y'know? (Parking= brilliant euphemistic term for getting hot 'n' heavy in a car).

Now I shall talk (at some length) about my most favourite aspect of the book - Doug Fox *wistful sigh* I'm a sucker for sarcastic, book-loving guys with unusual eye-colours so Doug has now most assuredly taken on of the top spots on my list of literary guys crushes alongside Alejandro (Perfect Chemistry), Shane (Morganville Vampires), Dimitri (Vampire Academy) and the clutch of men from Tamora Pierce's Tortall books whom I adore; Nawat, Numair, George & Neal. But I digress.

I loved how throughout the book we were learning new things about Doug that we never contemplated of him from Zoey's initial impression of him. He's got a lot of layers and while he's by no means perfect, he's still caring and responsible and adorably clueless about cars. I can easily forgive some of his actions because of how he makes up for them at a later date. Plus the fact that I would kill to see his unbelievably sexy "librarian" look makes him just a few points shy of perfection on the scale of Literary Male hotness in my eyes *daydreams....*

*Cough* So anyway moving onto Zoey - as a character I really liked her; she's smart, athletic, nice to basically everyone and is also pretty darn funny in her post-wreck incarnation - I got the impression that she was a cuss/sarcasm free goody-two-shoes before the incident, not that it lessens my opinion of her on the contrary I think I like her more because of it as she reminds me rather intriguingly of myself when I changed high schools back when I was 13. (Only for the cussing and sarcasm - I'm now a chronic potty-mouth which makes me rather scornful of my cute 'n' innocent self from 6 years ago)

The only point on which I shall whine about her is her continual insistence that "Brandon is my boyfriend" - I know she was going through a lot mentally and perhaps needed to cling to something that seemed stable but darn it I wanted to shake her silly for prattling on about that *tool* whenever she had Doug 'the Phoar Meister' Fox in front of her !!(My addition of the nickname- it seemed appropriate :P) What bugged me as well was that she *knew* what Brandon was like!! She'd spent the whole summer being his advice columnist on whether he should go out with one chick and then do her cousin or whatever, (lord how crude that sounds) so I couldn't fathom her blind faith that just because they were already friends he would magically change his spots for her and become a loyal, attentive boyfriend after one night of v. hurried intimacy which came pretty much out of nowhere. Phew that was a long sentence! But yeah apart from that I didn't have much to complain about Zoey - I like the gal.

Now brief thoughts on the secondary characters - Zoey's Dad = A grand prize a-hole who needed locking up in a loony bin himself. Zoey's Mum = seemed like she could have been a fairly cool person had she not been going through an extremely tough time mentally. Brandon = a daft git who really ought to keep it in his pants. Keke & Lila = pretty cute and likeable once you get past the slightly bizarre names. Mike = he sounded so adorable with all his blushing, the kind of guy I'd probably want to pinch his cheeks grandma-style just for being so darn cute.

On the plot itself, I really like the idea of Amnesia stories (Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is one of my fav YA books from last year) and it was really well written in Forget You, all the assumptions and mistakes made because Zoey didn't admit that she couldn't remember the night of the accident lead to some rather awkwardly funny scenes. The other side of the story looking at the issues with Zoey and her Mum was also really well-handled and overall the was a great balance between the serious issue surrounding her Mum, the romance with Doug, and the rather comedic element of her amnesia. The tone perfectly fit the story and the style of writing was just pulling you along with Zoey to figure out what the heck happened. Yea ok I figured out a few things about the plot ahead of time but that didn't stop me from enjoying it when Zoey found out for herself. The ending was wonderful without being overly slushy and cliche, there weren't loose ends left hanging although I desperately wish that Jennifer Echols would write another book about Zoey and Doug because they are so brilliant together.

So in summary this was a simply fabulous read which I devoured in a few hours and then proceeded to re-read later that evening (You would too- believe me). It made me laugh, tingle, fume and sigh all within the short space of 250ish pages which is testament to how brilliant Jennifer Echols is and I will definitely be waiting impatiently to buy my own copy of Forget You when it's released on July 20th.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars!!! :D

Other reviews from the tour:

Dwayne from Girls Without a Bookshelf

Asamum from Asamum Reads

Sarah from Sarah's Book Reviews

Whew! That's taken me a while to write out! Apologies for how *ridiculously* long it is - once I get started it's darn hard to stop rambling! Oh if you want to see how dorky I was yesterday when the book arrived check out the vlog I did here I look bloody shattered but sense didn't stop me jumping in front of the webcam when I was *that* excited. I am an idiot.

Ever nerdy

LadyV