Thank you Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing and Melissa Payne for free e-ARC in return of my honest review of Memories in the Drift.

Claire Hines, a young women, who suffered preeclampsia 10 years ago. She suffers short-term memory loss due to what happened and has to adjust every day, every minute, every second of her life. She remembers everything that happened before, for after she keeps journals, notebooks and notes in an attempt to keep her life more or less normal. Claire lives in a small town and is surrounded by friends. However, her desire to be independent and self-sufficient keeps her from trusting even her closest friends. Memories in the Drift is the story of loss, adjustment, true friendship, true love and trust.

Character-wise I believe Melissa Payne did a wonderful job. Her protagonist, Claire, is fantastically developed. She comes to life with her past flashbacks, her present struggles and her current feelings and misgivings. Claire is the narrator, though Payne is masterfully present her protagonist through other characters' perceptions - though her father, who is no longer in the picture, through her neighbour and dear fried Ruth who supported and helped her though all her life, though Tate, Claire's one and only love, even through her mother Alice, who wasn't present much of Claire's life. Claire comes to life in a book, she becomes a person one wants to console and help out.

Other characters are well-written too, may be not at the same depth as Claire is, however, they all have a strong voice and presence throughout the whole novel.

Raising awareness about preeclampsia and possible outcomes is a wonderful theme that should be explored more in literature. At the same time, due to complications (loss of memory) the novel becomes repetitive which it totally understandable. However, it kept to be a bit tedious for me. Some twists and turns in the storyline kept me engages and interested.

Looking forward to read more of Melissa Payne.

Ten years ago, Claire Hines lost her baby and her short term memory in a tragic accident. She's developed a system of notebooks, phone reminders, and sticky notes to try and have a semblance of a normal life with the help and support of the entire small town community of Whittier Alaska behind her, But her repetitive routine is shaken when both her alcoholic mother and best friend/ex-boyfriend Tate reappear in her life. And the reasons for their return will change her entire life.
Although this book was repetitive, I think it added to my understanding of Claire's disability and the frustration she dealt with every day. Have the tissues handy for this heartbreakingly beautiful story.
I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

I thought Melissa Payne's Memories in the Drift was a decent read and I am giving it four stars. I would be interested in reading more by this author in the future.

Ten years ago, Claire Hines suffered a terrible fate. Due to complications from a seizure, she lost her unborn child and her short-term memory, as well as pushed away the love of her life, her best friend, Tate. Living in the desolate Alaskan town of Whittier, she gets by with the help of her close friends and a trusty notebook that she writes down all of the days happenings so she will remember them in the future. As time goes by, friends and family that had been lost along the way slowly make their way back into Claire's life and she works to figure out if she can get by with a little help from her friends.

Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. I wanted to enjoy it, but I found myself frustrated and just not connecting or caring much for any of the characters. Perhaps I've read one too many books about women who have lost their memory, but I found myself skimming the last quarter of the book just to find out if anything substantial would happen. The story started out promising, but never really gained any steam. Because of the main characters memory loss, the reader is forced to relive events over and over again due to Claire's alarms and reminders in her phone and notebooks. I understand that this may be realistic for the character. But it grew annoying for me as a reader.

I did enjoy finding out about the town of Whittier and the tunnel that connects the town to the outside world. And the city within a building that most residents live it. Reading this book did cause me to pause and research all of these things a little more and just grew my fascination with Alaska even more.

But even so, this one wasn't my favorite, but perhaps it will be someone elses!

I loved the premise of this book. Unfortunately the book didn't load properly and kept skipping chunks at at time. Every time I got into the storyline it would skip several.chapters. Amazon had the book on offer in kindle store so I bought a copy and will leave a review once I've read it .

This was a very enjoyable book. Loved the characters. The author did a good job of making you understand an unusual memory problem, that does happen. I didn’t expect the ending either. A well written book that moved along quite well. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for review

Try to imagine forgetting what you do each and every day. Having to use lists, calendars, and notes to live. This is the plight of the main character of this story. Claire lives each day as if it is a new day, forgetting what she has done the day before, and forgetting familiar people. Claire lives her life as if each day is a new day, but she uses these compensatory strategies of lists, notes and other items to jog her memory. This novel starts out frustratingly slow, but picks up in the middle. This book was emotional, touching, and beautifully written. Although it was slow to start, by the end, I was hooked. I only wish that the end wasn’t rushed. Thank you to the NetGalley and the author for allowing me this copy to read and review.

A sweet, slow burn kind of story. Claire had a medical emergency years ago....and in the midst of it, she lost ability to make new memories. So she frantically writes down everything every day, leaves sticky notes all around her house and uses her phone to set reminders to let her know what she should be doing each day, each hour.

This story is about the small town that rallies around her and reminders, sometimes every 15 minutes, of who they are, how they know each other and what they are currently doing. But it's also a story about family and love that moves through disappointment to forgiveness. It's about people in your life who stay but also who come back. It's about love and how that can go beyond the memories of now. It was a great story, sweet and short and wonderful. I really loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher and author for an ARC of this book.The opinions expressed are my own.

I loved this story. It ripped out my heart and left me thinking about it long after I finished reading it.
It's a story about a woman who has lost her short term memory, and her courage to try to live her life as normal as possible. I loved the characters in this story. Great book!
5 stars.

I absolutely loved this book! The characters were fantastic, and I loved all of their unique personalities.

Since Claire endured a tragedy that resulted in the loss of her unborn child, she has not been able to create new memories. Through the help of her friends, notebooks, and to-do lists, Claire is able to live a somewhat normal life. But when her mother and ex-boyfriend come back into her life, Claire is forced to relive painful events and discover ones she has no memory of.

Melissa Payne created some amazing characters that I couldn’t help but love, and while the end was surprising, I was so happy with how everything came full circle. Overall, this was a wonderful, heart-warming story, and I cannot recommend it enough!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3678198977

Loved it!! I'm leaning towards 4.5 stars. Loved everything about it- the characters, story and writing style. Found it interesting reading about the Alaskan town Whittier, with almost everyone living in one building, the underground tunnels and the abandoned military base. I even googled the town so I could see images of it. The author's description was perfect and I felt like I was right there with Claire and all her friends. The book is a bit repetitive, but what do you expect when Claire forgets most things after a few minutes. I can't imagine living this way. Claire has amazing friends and family who help her every step of the way. I love all the notes that they constantly give her. Claire is loved by so many people, even if she doesn't remember it. It was such a beautiful story, loved getting to know everyone. I had a feeling about the two things that Claire learns. Really Claire already knew about them, but couldn't remember it actually happening. I loved the story about Claire's dad and the bear.

Definitely recommend the book. It covers so much- friendship, family relationships, forgiveness, memories, love... just to mention a few. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishingthrough NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Gorgeous and heartbreaking. This is beautifully written with great relatable characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Excellent read.

When I started this book I never put it down once until I finished it! It is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!! I truly can't remember when I have read a better book and I read every day. I have actually visited Whittier and the author described it perfectly. The characters were so fleshed out and mostly likable and the author covered memory loss, death, addiction, and abbandonment. This one really is a beautifully well written story. I highly recommend anything written by this author.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this incredible ARC for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this book
This story is about Claire who suffers from short term memory loss for the past 10 years -- since the birth of her child. She has a close knit community of friends that help her manager day to day in a small Alaskan town. The description of life in this more remote Alaskan town is excellent. If I had not had children that lived in Fairbanks for a year I portably would not have appreciated the issues as much as I did. The author does a great job of describing life there. The challenges of this type of memory loss is depicted very well and the fact that Claire has such friends to help her cope makes the character interactions flow seamlessly. You sometimes wonder how people could be so helpful and willing to guide her daily - -she relies on them a lot!! But it does work if you know about life in Alaska. This story covers multiple threads: alcoholism and recover, an abusive childhood, loss, forgiveness, second chances....not to mention memory loss
would rate this a solid 3.5

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Reviewed from a netgalley shelf preview.
This is a story told in the first person of someone suffering from anterograde amnesia. The story winds through her daily life of setting reminders to do everything. While at times the flashbacks of what she does remember prior to the seizure are confusing, the story does follow a good timeline and fluid story.
Claire has to relive daily heartbreaking times that she cant remember and through the help of her friends and the town she starts to let go of her structure and live in the moment.

This is a remarkably tender, loving, intense and deeply frightening novel!

Claire's days depends on notecards, a whiteboard, name tags and calendar reminders to hope that she can get through twenty-four hour days.
With that- there is no guarantee that she will be able to follow the plans.
There is no spontaneity any longer since Claire has lost her short term memory after she gave birth, that has created this disaster.
Her recall may be gone, but her tribe of friends and family are able to patiently remind her of life past and present.
Is it enough? How can she survive and keep safe? Where did all the memories go?
"Sometimes people are worth remembering even when it hurts."

This is definitely a wonderful story of true love and resilience! You will root for Claire as I did and openly weep at times!

Prepare To Cry. Holy hell y'all. This book is one of the more tragic and yet also visceral books about memory loss I've encountered to date, bringing you into the mind of the person more than any other I've yet encountered. And it is also the one that made me *BAWL* unlike any since Barbara O'Neal's 2019 WHEN WE BELIEVED IN MERMAIDS. Which was over 300 books ago for me. If you're looking for a great story and a good cry, you've found one here. And just to be crystal clear, it isn't like the things that make you cry are hidden - in both cases I picked up on them about a quarter ish of the book before Payne actually explicitly revealed them. And yet the execution on the actual reveal was so gut punching both times... wow. Very much recommended.