Forget Me Always by Sara Wolf

So the Goodreads and Amazon/B&N blurbs are different.  So I chose the Amazon one b/c apparently that’s what the publishers decided on, but I really hate when they don’t keep them in sync…  Also, this is book 2 in the Lovely Vicious series, check out my review for Love Me Never (book 1) here, and maybe avoid this one in case of book 1 spoilers.

Blurb:
Previously published as Savage Delight, this fully revised and updated edition is full of hilarity, drama, and heartbreak.

It’s been three years, twenty-five weeks, and five days since Isis Blake fell in love, and if she has it her way, it’ll stretch into infinity. Since then, she’s punched Jack Hunter—her nemesis-turned-maybe-something-more—in the face, survived a brutal attack by her mom’s abusive ex thanks to Jack’s heroics, and then promptly forgotten all about him.

The one bright spot for Isis is Sophia, the ephemeral girl who shares Isis’s hospital stay as well as a murky past with Jack. But as Isis’s memories return, she finds it harder and harder to resist what she felt for Jack, and Jack finds it impossible to stay away from the only girl who’s ever melted the ice around his heart.

As the dark secrets surrounding Sophia emerge, Isis realizes Jack isn’t who she thought he was. He’s dangerous. But when Isis starts receiving terrifying emails from an anonymous source, that danger might be the only thing protecting her from something far more threatening.

Her past.

    

My Review:
4 stars — I received a free copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

OK, normally when I finish a book, I have a pretty solid feeling of how I’m going to rate it.  Just a gut rating, you know?  Sometimes, with thought and analysis, that rating will change (often going down).  But this book…this book I had nothing.  I’m not sure if that’s indicative of my life at the moment, or if it was the book, but I had nothing.  I knew I really enjoyed myself, but it wasn’t screaming a star rating at me.  So I’ve settled on 4 stars.  Let’s figure out how.

OK, so Isis was a big crapload of awesome, just like in the first book.  She’s just so freaking quirky.  I honestly don’t know how to describe it, but she’s like 7 quirkies.  She’s like intriguingly smart, but loves a good poop joke, and topped off with epic damage and vulnerability.  And I thought she remained consistent to who I fell in love with in book 1.  Strangely enough, I don’t know if we saw as much growth with her specifically in this book.  There was definitely some, but there was just so much else happening that I don’t know how much she grew and changed as the book went on.  I loved seeing a bit more into her past, meeting her Aunt (which explained a lot), and seeing her exchange with Principal Evans.

Jack was up and down for me.  My heart broke for him in so many ways, he really is in a strange and tricky position with Sophia and Isis.  And while you still didn’t get an equal amount of story from his POV, I felt like we got just that little bit more to keep us hooked.  But that ending.  Damn…

Sophia is where things were odd for me.  I honestly did not predict a bunch of her story.  Honestly, her background was almost too tragic.  I honestly thought her personality quirks were going to be related to one thing, but they ended up being something else entirely.  And I’m not sure if that was all a bit much for me.  I guess it kept me guessing.  And it was believable.  I did predict how the ending was going to play out, but then again, I think maybe I was supposed to.  It felt a little anti-climatic for me then, though.  I just wanted it to happen already so we could see how things would unfold, and of course now it’s the long wait for book 3 and more answers.

I enjoyed getting more answers about what happened for both the group of friends in the forest, and a teensy bit more of Isis and Nameless (super teensy).  And there were some secondary character developments that made me happy and will hopefully not get undone in the next book.  So basically, I was super satisfied by a lot of this book, but there was something missing to get it to 5 stars.  I’m not quite sure what…maybe it was just overload of angst?  I mean seriously, holy crapballs.  I will also note that in the ARC copy there seemed to be a lot of minor timeline/continuity issues, but I have no idea if those were resolved before publication…I had noticed them in book 1 too (those 3 years, x weeks, x days countdowns didn’t always make sense) and I haven’t reread my purchased copy, so I don’t know if those were caught.  Hopefully someone pays more attention for book 3, b/c my stupid brain snags on those things.

OMG, I’ve started babbling.  OK, I’m really sucked into this series, it was totally worth it for me, I’m just a bit devastated wondering what’s going to happen now.  I’ll be on pins and needles waiting to find out.