Review: Forget You

Author: Jennifer Echols
Publish date: 2010
Source: Library
"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. Feeling like her life is 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?

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." (Goodreads)

Forget You was my second Jennifer Echols book, the first being Going Too Far. After reading them both, I have to admit that I liked Going Too Far much more than Forget You.

I really like the premise of this book, as books that involve amnesia are kind of fascinating to me. I was curious, along with Zoey, about what happened to her that night and somewhat enjoyed the process of finding out, but man, it took FOREVER. I mean, I get that finding out what she can't remember is the point of the book, but so many times I just wanted to yell at Zoey, "JUST ASK HIM ALREADY!!!!" I was pretty fed up with her, gotta be honest.

As a whole, I just did not click with this book like I did with Going Too Far. I found the characters in Forget You to be odd: I wanted to smack Zoey for multiple reasons, including Brandon, and I thought Doug's personality was strange. I know a lot of people loved this one, but it just didn't mesh with me.

Review: Going Too Far

Author: Jennifer Echols
Publish date: 2009
Source: purchased ebook
"All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn't make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge -- and over...." (Goodreads)

So for whatever reason, I had never read a Jennifer Echols book before. This one was only 3.99 for kindle a couple weeks ago AND my library doesn't have it, so it wasn't too hard to convince myself to buy it. I started it, thinking I'd read a few pages...yeah, you know how that goes.

I pretty much loved all the characters in Going Too Far. I liked that Officer After was not in high school, although he did seem much older than 19 at times. It's nice to see good guys in YA books--I mean, how much more of a good guy can you get than a police officer? I really liked his and Meg's relationship too. It was not insta!love. Lust, maybe, but it was nice to see it progress and develop.

I liked Meg a lot too, despite being annoyed with her and her bad decisions at the beginning of the book. I definitely made some assumptions about her that were not true by the end. I liked how Jennifer Echols gave us more and more about her past as we got further into the book and we can learn why Meg is the way she is. Character development: a good thing!

Going Too Far blew me away and I was shocked by how much I loved it. I can't wait to read more of Echols's books, especially Such a Rush!