Review: Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Remembrance
Michelle Madow
Create Space
Kindle Edition, July 27, 2011

New Hampshire high school junior Lizzie
Davenport has been reincarnated from
Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't
know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's 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 seem to get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, the pair of them soon find that fighting fate isn't going to be easy. –Goodreads.com

First, let me tell you I enjoyed the book. Is it something that I will re-read? Probably not. While entertaining, I just didn’t fall in love with the story. I could identify and sympathize with the characters but it did not leave me wanting more of the story. For me, even if a book is a stand-alone novel, I still want to be left wanting more or thinking about what happened in the “happily-ever-after” and this time around I was okay with where the story ended.

After reading the summary from Goodreads, I thought it was going to be another retelling of Pride & Prejudice; it was and then again it wasn’t. If you read this expecting Lizzie and Drew to mirror Elizabeth Bennett & Fitzgerald Darcy exactly, you might be surprised. Yes, there are extreme similarities, but Lizzie & Drew are very far form their counterparts.

The love at first sight that happens is easily explained by the use of reincarnation which is okay -- at least it’s not instant-lust-ification-with-no-explanation. coughBella&Edwardcough*
In my opinion, Ms. Madow made it crystal clear from the beginning that Lizzie should no longer be with her boyfriend, Jeremy. Right off the bat I saw him as an egotistical, materialistic JERK-face. I just did not like his character at all. I could not understand why Lizzie was still with him. It was always my thought that Drew & Lizzie should be together. Drew was treating her how a boyfriend SHOULD treat his girl. I understand why Drew was standoffish and trying to distance himself from her. The explanation is a good one once you finally find out. You really do want to cheer for them getting together. However, I’m not sure the collateral damage was worth it…And here I get a little spoilery: (highlight to read)

I felt really bad for Chelsea and a little bad for Jeremy at the end. Funny enough, I felt those two should be together for most of the book.

The book is definitely filled with the themes of pride, prejudice, second chances, and destiny. However, not everyone gets the second chance to set things straight. Of course, most of the conflict in the book could have been avoided had the characters had more communication between each other, and not been in states of self-denial, but then where would the conflict be?

Okay so maybe I just realized I would like to know what happens with the people considered “collateral damage,” in my opinion. I’m just not sure it would warrant a sequel. Of course not everyone can have a happy ending like our lovers and that’s life. C’est la vie.

Overall, the story was entertaining and the plot was creative with an interesting twist thrown in from a place you least expect which pulled together all the loose strings nicely. Michelle tied up all the loose ends, dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s, but as I said above, the collateral damage made it a hard sell for me to be okay with the ending.