(Amazon Affiliate links used in this post)

Each week Stephanie, Lillian and I will be featuring a SUMMER OF LOVE review on our blogs.  Or rather, we’re trying to.  Summer has gotten away from us, and we may have bitten off more than we can chew.  Regardless, don’t forget to check out Stephanie’s blog, Once Upon a Chapter, and Lillian’s blog, Mom With a Reading Problem, for their Summer of Love reviews.

Welcome to my eleventh review for the SUMMER OF LOVE (11th on week 12 because I missed week 8)!  As I mentioned in week one, I actually already read a lot of contemporary romance, but there’s just something about summer reading that screams contemp for me.  And I’m using these 12 weeks to showcase books in different categories.  The eleventh category is:

Seaside/Beach Town

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a “set in summer” read, but there’s just something about books that include an element of the water (whether small town or not) that speaks to the summer me.  Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a water baby…but what does that have to do with summer?  OK, maybe this is inexplicable, but it’s still there for me.  And if anyone was wondering what the skipped week 8 category was, it was supposed to be Storm Chasing/Violent Weather — because that feels summer to me too.

Recommendations:

• Heartbreaker Bay series by Jill Shalvis
• Fishing for Trouble series by Laura Drewry
• Ryder Bay series by Jordan Ford — I beta read all of these, but haven’t reviewed them yet.
• Operation Prom Date by Cindi Madsen
• Pillowtalk by Cassie Mae
• Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
• The Silent Waters by Brittainy C. Cherry
• Just a Little Kiss by Renita Pizzitola
• The Weight of Destiny by Nyrae Dawn

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Title: Amnesia
Author: Cambria Hebert
Series: Amnesia #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 408
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Romantic Suspense
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Summer
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

I washed ashore in a little lake town.
A place where everyone knows everyone, yet…
No one knows me.
I don’t know me.
If a woman doesn’t know her own name, does she really exist?
I don’t know my natural hair color, my birthdate, or where I live.
I am invisible.
To everyone, to everything, even to myself.
Except to him.
I see the recognition deep in his stare, the way it lingers on my face as if I’m a puzzle he’s desperate to put together.
I just want answers, the truth… knowledge.
His lips are sealed. Still, his eyes beguile me.
I can’t trust anyone, not even myself. Someone wants me dead, the same someone who tried to bury me in a watery grave.
They’ll come for me again… I won’t know their face.
I don’t even know mine.
I am amnesia.

My Review:

3.5 stars — Hmmm…in general, I enjoyed myself.  But there was something that kept me from being fully sucked in, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to pinpoint it.

I don’t read a lot of mystery and suspense and thriller type books…and this was definitely that.  I think in the end I’m kind of picky with them, and sometimes I have a harder time suspending my disbelief for some reason.  I tried explaining it to my husband, and he counterargued me, so I still don’t know why little things bothered me in this one…but they did.  I think it’s a personal taste thing, so that helps no one.

One of the things I *know* I’m not as much a fan of is when a main character (and in this case most secondary characters) know something that they’re always alluding to, but the reader doesn’t know.  I honestly don’t know why I don’t like it, but I don’t.  In the end this wasn’t the worst…after awhile I just let it go and let the story tell me when it wanted to tell me.

Eddie was sweet and caring, but exactly as he is described: very overwhelming in his attention for Amnesia.  I kind of got it, I don’t always hate that, but I was kind of neither here nor there with him in that respect.  It didn’t make me swoon as I’m sure was the intention anyways.

Amnesia was okay…I truly felt for what she was going through, and the times where she wasn’t believed.  I loved when she had small victories, and hated when things got away from her.

As for the mystery?  I don’t know.  I got impatient.  I have my theories, and while we got a bone on one mystery, there are still others.  So I made the mistake of looking at reviews for the next book to try to decide whether I was invested enough, and some really annoying reviewers had spoilers…they may not have thought they were spoilers, but they were.  So I highly recommend NOT looking at the reviews for the next book if you hate spoilers.  One thing that I did see mentioned was that not all answers were given…in particular there was one mystery not solved.  And as I am the kind of person that HATES that, it made my decision easier.  While I’m sure the conclusion has lots of fun twists and turns, if I’m not going to get that one major answer, then I’m going to move on to something else.