This was my second Andrea Dunlop book, and though it was very different from the first one, I still really liked it. At first I liked the past portion of the book way better than the present, but towards the end, the present became more interesting. I actually figured out the big reveal quite a bit before it happened, but I think that's because I have seen something similar in the news recently. Overall, it was a really good read, and I would recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for this book in exchange for a honest review.

Loved this book! The story flows the characters are fascinating and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend.

This novel sounded PERFECT for me: an Olympic skier loses everything (we don’t know why until later in the novel) and escapes to Buenos Aires where she meets up with a colorful group of ex-pats to reinvent herself, etc. I have heard really good things about this one from some of my reading friends but, to me, it fell a little flat. There are alternating timelines and I enjoyed one of them much more than the other. It was good, but borrow this one from the library just to be safe.

This book immediately sucked me in. I thought the way it flashed back and forth in time leaving what had happened with Penny and Katie a mystery was super well done. I loved the setting of Buenos Aires and learning more about the dark history. Dunlop did a wonderful job building out the side characters and I felt very invested in their storylines as well. I was dying to know what had happened so sometimes the current day “Liz” chapters felt a little slow. Overall I enjoyed the book and it was unique in the writing style and premise. If you enjoy a redemption storyline or a story about families this would be a great book for you.

I don’t know, I mean on one hand this book was really a good concept although some of it was typical and predictable. But I feel that there was sometimes too much, and it distracted from the story. I did finish this but it was a slow one for me.

We Came Here to Forget was just not for me. It’s the story of Katie who runs away from her life by moving to Buenos Aires and starting to go by Liz. In Buenos Aires she meets a variety of expats who have all come there to escape something in their past.⁣
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While I loved the premise of running away from your life to another country, I didn’t like how Katie/Liz believe she was so recognizable and was always thinking someone would figure her out. It made her less relatable. The writing wasn’t bad, but I just didn’t appreciate the mental health rep in this book because it was such an extreme case. I also felt like it could do without the epilogue and I would have enjoyed the books more if it hadn’t tried to give everyone a happy ending.⁣
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Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.⁣

This book occurs in alternating chapters, between the past and the present. The past is about Katie, the professional skier trying for the Olympics with her two best friends (and brothers) Blair and Luke. The present is about Katie-going-by-Liz, now living in Buenos Aires and trying to outrun her demons. Because of these chapters, the character names, and the overall formatting of the egalley, it took a little while to get into the swing of the novel! I started to really get into it though.

I feel like the classic cliche of running away, finding a Latin lover, and getting yourself to ~open up~ is a boring book, because it’s too common and overused. That definitely happens in the chapters where she’s in Argentina, but I still found myself mostly curious about her life there. I was always fascinated by the past chapters dealing with her sister too, mostly because I was dying to know what happened to lead to some kind of fallout. I was able to predict some of it pretty early on as well.

Overall, this book ended up being too simplistic and relied on boring tropes instead of offering anything new. I didn’t like the ending at all, which took this out of three-star territory for me.

(Abandoned) After reading through the first quarter of the book, I decided to put this one down. There is a lot of back story development at the beginning of the book and I hadn't yet connected with the protagonist, so I wasn't invested in knowing that history. My primary issue was the main character, herself. After making a snap decision to hop on a plane to Buenos Aires and basically disappear from her problems, you soon pick up on air of entitlement. She describes a childhood where her family traveled to some tropical location for every holiday. It felt quite superficial to me and I didn't connect with her jet-setting lifestyle or her decision to run away from her life. The final straw, though, was the super yucky pop culture reference to Zack Morris' cell phone from Saved by the Bell. That was enough for me to make a decision that this wasn't my book. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

A story of truly reinventing oneself. You will be rooting and cheering for Katie/Liz the entire way! There is also a bit of mystery involved that makes this a real page turner. Recommended!

Andrea Dunlop takes you off on an adventure many can only dream about; a new life in the beautiful world of Buenos Aires. The circumstances leading up to this new life are all but haunting and the harder Liz tries to run from this, the quicker it seems to catch back up. Can she escape the monster in her past? Can those that knew her in the “before” ever accept her and love her again?
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It took me a bit to decide on what to rate this novel. I loved that it wasn’t a slow burn before you ever even saw a glimpse of what was to come, yet it didn’t divulge the exciting details all at once. Dunlop gives us a side-by-side narrative of both the lives of one girl, Katie Cleary and Liz Sullivan, fine-tuning her ability to give you just enough excitement to keep you moving along but also a slow enough pace to let you enjoy the new lifestyle Liz created and to immerse yourself into her new world. It was a beautiful cat-and-mouse game that most authors do not play with.

I gave this book 3.5 stars due to the fact that I feel like this book could have had a lot more depth in the characters. I feel like towards the end the plot got thinner and the characters got more glossed over in order to finish the story.

I would still recommend this book as it was an enjoyable read, and I feel like it is a good book to read another book along side of if you are that kind of reader.

Katie Cleary is an Olympic skier who has it all come crashing down when a terrible tragedy involving her sister occurs. Suddenly, Katie must come to terms with her life going forward. On a whim, she travels to Buenos Aires, where she reinvents herself, makes new friends, and tries to move on. The book is told in alternating chapters that toggle between present day in Buenos Aires, and her past back in the States. There’s romance, there’s tension, and there’s the inspiring story of a young athlete, slowly but surely learning how to make a new life for herself. I really enjoyed this book! The writing was smart, and the characters were rich and believable. I rooted for Katie so many times throughout the story, and she rang so true for me. She felt like someone I would love to be friends with in real life.

Oh my goodness was this book so heartbreakingly emotional and beautiful!

I had NO Idea how much I would end up loving this story. I'm so glad that I took a chance on this book and fell in love with Andrea Dunlop's writing.

We Came Here to Forget is a story that presents how we all have inner demons and a past that we want to forget. Andrea interweaves a story of heartache with such grace and beauty among these characters leaving me with tears upon the last page.

It took me multiple sittings to finish this book because I wanted to savor every emotional detail and page. There is a certain darkness in Dunlop's tone that makes this book so much more beautiful. It has a sense of magic with the darkness.

I highly recommend this book. It was a journey I wouldn't have ever wanted to miss! Such a beautiful storyteller Andrea is and respect her thoroughly for taking her readers on this journey of heartache.

Overall, 4.5 stars!

Unfortunately this one didn’t work well for me. I found the main character, a former ski racer, intriguing and it was clear from the beginning that something terrible had happened with her sister. I found the structure (dual timelines) interesting but it took nearly the whole book to unravel what had happened with her sister, and then it essentially ended. This story would likely appeal to readers of women’s fiction who character-driven stories exploring an emotional journey without a clear resolution in the end. I do appreciate the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

This book had so much potential. I was hooked from the start, needing to know more and needing to know immediately. Even if the subject matter sometimes required that I put the book aside to digest it.

It is the story of an Olympic skier (my first novel about an alpine skier!) named Katie who up and leaves for Buenos Aires after tragedy, of some sort, befalls her family and brings her the sort of attention world-class athletes don't really need. It takes a very long time to get to the heart of the tragedy... which would have been just fine, books need suspense, but...

(There is also the issue of a back-and-forth narrative between Katie the Skier and Liz the Ex-Pat (both of them being Katie, one in the past, one in the present) but that would also have been fine.)

...I saw the possibility of what probably amounts to a 'twist' in this would-be hard-hitting contemporary and I desperately hoped it would not come to be. But it did. And it felt... contrived to force a happy ending on an incredibly bleak and yet powerful story. It felt... unnecessary.

I do not regret reading this book, not at all. I doubt it'll join my list of things to re-read, thanks to the 'twist'. And I am absolutely sure this book will be loved by many.

Just not me, so much.

--trigger warnings for: severe mental illness, tragic death of a child--

(I received a copy of WE CAME HERE TO FORGET through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)

Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for gifting me an E-ARC in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I rate this book a 4 out of 5 Stars.

I loved Dunlop’s last book, and absolutely loved it, so when I was emailed about reviewing her new one, I was really excited. And then, I waited forever to read it, and once I finished it, I was mad at myself for waiting so long.

What I love most about this book isn’t even mentioned in the synopsis, so reviewing this is going to be very tricky as this is not something I want to spoil. But I will say this, my favorite chapters in this book were Katie’s. I wasn’t a fan of the newly reborn “Liz”. I appreciated the traumatic life of Katie, from her younger years, up until what caused her to go off the rails.

I love Dunlop’s writing style, she writes such eclectically filled books, full of heartache, love, drama, romance, and hot topics. If you haven’t read this one, I suggest that you do!

This book tell the story of two sisters, Katie and Penny, and their family which is left broken but for the majority of the book we don't know why or what was the ultimate outcome. Katie is an Olympic skier whose career is derailed in an epic way (again, we don't know why) and she flees to Buenos Aires where she reinvents herself as Liz, falls in love, and immerses herself with new friends and a new life. The story alternates between present day in Buenos Aires and the past leading up to whatever bad thing happened that Penny did to the family. While I thought the setting details in Buenos Aires were so evocative, I struggled with the structure of the story and was just frustrated for most of it. It's a personal preference of mine that huge secrets are not kept from the reader but hinted about for at least 80% of the novel. It kept me from feeling connected to the characters and caring about the story, I just didn't and for this reason I was left frustrated and indifferent. When the big reveal came, it wasn't what I expected but by then I didn't care.

How fierce is denial when acceptance means losing so much?”

Beautiful! Andrea Dunlop is one of my favorite contemporary authors.

This book tells the story of Katie Cleary, an Olympic athlete who seems to have it all. A loving family, a longtime boyfriend and many awards. But as the story slowly unfolds, we learn that her beloved sister Penny is actually hiding terrible secrets that will ultimately have tragic consequences for their entire family. After the truth is revealed, Katie decides to escape to Argentina to try and find some peace and a sense of normalcy.

Like all of Andrea Dunlop's books, the early parts of the story are told in a very direct manner but you just know that some of the characters will turn out to be either doomed or even worse, evil.

“The thing about tragedy is that it isn't about just getting through it, it's about getting on with your life when the dust has settled but the landscape is bombed out, smoke in the air, charred remains at your feet.”

Katie finds work as a tour guide and tries to hide her past from her new circle of friends. She even takes tango lessons and gets involved with a sexy Argentinian. But she can't hide forever and eventually the truth comes out. There is a huge revelation about Katie's family but it does not come until relatively late in the book.

The story alternates between present day and flashbacks with Katie's family. The author does a fantastic job with the slow reveal of what actually happened in her past, and just as with 'Losing the Light', creates an wonderful cast of ex-pats and colorful characters in Katie's new Buenos Aires home. This is another creative, surprising and emotional story of family, friendship, loss and acceptance. I couldn't put it down.

I had no idea how much I would love We Came Here To Forget! This was my first book by Andrea Dunlop and it sure won't be my last!

You get to meet Katie (Liz), who seemingly has it all. A successful career, a loving boyfriend, a great family, and amazing friends until some family tragedy literally has her life spinning out of control. What better way to escape? Move to a completely different country and reinvent yourself.

Andrea Dunlop explores so many dynamics in this story. She takes you on a ride of one women's fame, tragedy, pain, and healing. An emotional rollercoaster, asking yourself how could all this happen to her. You find yourself relating to her. Feeling her pain and confusion. Her need to disappear and just catch her breath. Her need to focus on her mental health and to find a way to cope. Katie is such a strong and heroic character.

I would definitely recommend this book! I definitely am glad that I picked it up. We all have our demons that we wish we could erase but in the end it's the trials and heartaches that make us who we truly are!

Thank you to Atria Books and netgalley for the arc for my honest opinion!

What I loved about this book was that it was raw. emotional and real. Her character, Katie/Liz is in mental distress. You have to question someone who ups and leaves her life and hides in Buenos Aires. It is through the past and present chapters that why she escapes becomes clear what happened. Her whole life as she knew it cracked.

The writing is superb and the character development is spot on.

We Came Here to Forget is a story about an Olympic medalist whose life goes so badly off the rails that she leaves the United States and starts all over again in another country under an assumed name. Thanks to go Atria and Net Galley for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Katie Cleary is an athlete, an Olympic skier whose life is ascending. A crisis involving her sister, Penny forces Katie out of the world of competitive skiing; her name and face have been in the news for multiple reasons, and she decides a trip abroad will give her the time and space to heal herself. She heads for Buenos Aires and immerses herself in the expat community. She learns to tango and falls in love with her handsome instructor; at the same time we are gradually fed snippets of her past, and so the climax comes when we are finally told the details of the scandal that chased her out of the sport that made her famous.

I have to tell you that this one was rough for me to get through. The last book of Dunlop’s, She Regrets Nothing, was slyly funny, but it took awhile to build so that at the outset, I wasn’t sure if I would like it. This time I remind myself to stick with it, because Dunlop will deliver at the end. I am bored silly for most of the book, and then at the end I learn the big secret, but my main excitement is from being done with it. If I were to rate this according to my own level of engagement, I would go with two stars.

The third star comes in when I consider other readers’ preferences. I have no interest at all in winter sports of any kind. I have never skied and never wanted to. I have never been to Buenos Aires, and if you gave me a free ticket to go there I would immediately try to switch it so I could go somewhere else where it isn’t so warm. I seldom read romance novels, and I am not interested in dance. So the only draw card for me is that I liked Dunlop’s last book. I had hoped that this one would also be funny, and then instead it’s more of a drama edging toward soap opera, so my one hope went down in flames.

So to be fair, those that have an interest in even one component of this story stand a better chance of engaging with it than I have. And to be fair, this novel is not promoted as a humorous tale. That was my own expectation based solely on the one other of her books that I’ve read. Not the best match for me, and not necessarily a reasonable expectation on my own part.

Young adult readers whose interests mesh more with these components may find satisfaction here; sadly, this one just isn’t for me.