4.5⭐, 3🌶️

"There is no falling out of love for people like you and me."

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is certainly deserving of ALL of the positive hype its earned and I was so excited to finally get to reading to it! The wedding hijinx, Elliott being the perfect grumpy MMC for everyone but Ama, and the wonderful complexity of Ama's growth had me smiling the entire book! As always with a SC romance, the angst of the 'now' plot, versus the 'swooniness' of Then was just wonderfully done.

Tropes:
💜Second Chance Romance
💙 Grumpy x Sunshine
💚 Duel Timeframe
💙 Florist x Wedding Planner
💜 He Falls HARD

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand central Publishing) for an eARC of Forget Me Not by Julie Soto!

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ama, a passionate wedding planner, delights in working closely with couples to bring their dreams to life. She invests time in getting to know her clients to ensure their special day is filled with magic and beauty. Despite witnessing her mother's numerous marriages, Ama is skeptical about the idea of marriages lasting forever, but she strongly believes in throwing incredible parties for everyone to enjoy.

When Hazel and Jacquie approach Ama for their wedding planning needs, she sees a promising opportunity. With a generous budget and Hazel's strong social media presence, Ama realizes this could be a chance to expand her business. However, a significant obstacle presents itself - Ama and the chosen florist, Elliot, have a complicated history involving a falling out and a brief romance.

The book proved to be a delightful and engaging summer read with a touch of steaminess. A reader could easily envision the story adapted into a captivating movie, ultimately awarding the book a well-deserved four-star rating.

Forget Me Not

This book! It was everything I wanted. Easily the best romance I’ve read in literal, actual years!

Elliott was the perfect (PERFECT) grump. Ama was confident and competent. It wrecked me in the best way and had all the dopamine feels I could have asked for.

The wedding backdrop was like watching a really good episode on TLC. The villain comeuppance? Chef’s kiss? The perfect gifts and endless protection from Elliot? SWOON.

I. AM. IN. LOVE.

I wanted to not like the ending, but actually, I do, so everything worked.

10 stars ⭐️

I heard so many good things about this book before I read it ---- and they were all true! This is one of my top reads of 2023 and Julie Soto is now an auto-read author for me. The dual timeline really amped up the anticipation and intrigue; what had happened with Ama and Elliot in the past and how would the current wedding event impact their relationship? It was truly a "can't put this down" and "just one more chapter" kind of book. It had delicious spice, just the right amount of angst, some fun supporting characters, and the cherry on top was the amount of detail Julie put into describing the epic wedding designs. It was a joy to spend these pages with Ama and Elliot and be part of their ups and downs. And, not gonna lie, Elliot, in all his gentle gruffness, stole my heart!

Content warnings: death of parent (off the page, past), allergic reaction (non-fatal), workplace and sexual harassment, family with frequent divorces.

Endless gratitude to Julie Soto for writing this beautiful story and to Read Forever Pub and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED THIS BOOK

The use of the dual timeline in this book was one of my favorites. Having one character POV per timeline was brilliant and I adored it.

The wedding planning stuff was done so well and it made me want to be one again.

The dynamic between the characters was amazing and had me swooning and screaming every chapter.

It's a masterpiece. No notes.

This book was so cute and different from other romances I have read. I I first heard Ali Hazelwood raving about this book and others as well and knew I had to read it. This was such a cute romcom that did not disappoint! Ama is a wedding planner and Elliot owns a flower shop and they are both assigned to work together on the same wedding. If you love a good second chance romance, definitely read this one!

Read if you like:
Second chance
Grumpy x sunshine
Dual POV
Wedding industry romance

I really enjoyed how this book didn't follow the traditional formula of a romance. Overall I enjoyed the story. I just found myself wishing for more. I wanted to see more of Ama & Elliott's happy times, more of Ama's connections with her stepsiblings, & more friend connections for both of them. That said I will definitely read more books from this author in the future.

I have been a huge fan of Julie Soto as a fanfic writer for years, so I was super excited to get my hands on her debut novel Forget Me Not. It did not disappoint! In Forget Me Not, Julie has created instantly vivid characters that jump off the page and a swoon worthy second romance that pairs a grumpy tattooed florist with a sunshine wedding planner.

Ama Torres is planning the biggest wedding of her career, but it all could come crashing down because the florist for the wedding is none other than her ex Elliot Bloom, whose heart she broke years ago. She tries to keep a cool and professional head around the still-taciturn and grumpy Elliot, but because this is a romance book the sparks fly once again and Ama has to decide if she's brave enough to take a chance on Happily Ever After.

I loved this book so much. From Ama's love of donuts to the fact that the whole plot revolves around a wedding (because who doesn't love weddings?), this book was funny, immersive, sexy and sweet.

I also had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Soto about this book for my podcast The Nerds Awaken, which you can find on Apple podcasts and Spotify.

I'm not sure when the last time was when I read a romance with a wedding planner. And after reading the synopsis, I couldn't wait to check this one out.

I'm a sucker for second chances, so I dove right in to see what we'd get in this one. And it wasn't all that I hoped it would be, but definitely, a few moments that I did love.

Forget Me Not is told through some flashbacks between the past of when they first meet up to when they break up, and the present when they're back in each other's spaces for a celebrity wedding. I've always struggled with flashbacks, but we do learn a little bit from them at least. The dual POV was helpful to see what was going through the MCs heads, but I felt like their character development definitely could have been way more by the end.

Elliot definitely had his glowing moments, but he wasn't as grumpy as I thought he'd be. His love for design and the flowers was one of my favorites. And his tattoos! Just want to put an emphasis on that because of the meanings behind them. As a tattoo lover, I appreciated it! But overall, I just feel like I didn't know enough about him to truly understand him.

Ama. I struggled with her character a bit especially when they finally had something going on. It really felt like it was a casual hook-up thing the whole time. I understand her fear of commitment, which stems from witnessing the many relationships/marriages her mom has had. There's absolutely some trauma there that I wished she worked through because some of it was truly heartbreaking. By the end, she finally understands and sees a future with Elliot, but I felt like we could have seen more development in her character as well.

Romance, I need so much more and barely get that in the present, unfortunately. It wrapped up a little bit too quickly for me.

This book will be a major win for so, so many and I'm bummed it didn't work for me. I definitely want to try again with this author, I'd say it was a solid debut.

I’m not a huge fan of second chance romances. If it didn’t last once I doubt it’ll last again but I found myself really enjoying this. We can see Ama’s trauma from watching her mother’s countless failed marriages. It bleeds into Ama’s life making her not want relationships.

I really like how the present is told in AMA’s POV and the past in Elliot’s POV. Slowly learning about Elliot through this past interactions really give us the details we need the more often we see Elliot in the present. Ama’s infatuation with his tattoos quickly became my infatuation with his tattoos and I waited all book to find out what his new one was (though already suspecting).

I instantly fell in love with Ama. In the opening wedding where she is orchestrating a flawless wedding that shows her attention to detail and dedication to her work. Ama is a total boss babe. But with reading her internal monologues in the present about having to navigate working with Elliot I grew to be more frustrated with her. Through the flashbacks we see Elliot not push Ama into defining the relationship even though we know he wants to. He doesn’t even disclose to his mother that they’re together (but not). We see he gives up so much to be with Ama and yet she gives nothing up for him.

I loved the contrast of they way Ama runs her business compared to Whitney. I wonder how Whitney was able to be so successful without getting to know her clients. Of course Ama can take it too far getting invited to bachelorette parties and then also too casual in way her clients talk to her but getting to know their character and taste really elevated Ama’s catering style.

I’m only disappointed that we didn’t get to live through the thoughts of Ama and Elliot watching the TV special as it aired. I would’ve loved to see their initial reaction of Whitney being painted as the villain. But definitely knowing she got taken down a notch with the memes is great. There were also some lines in this book that I can imagine Julie Soto cackling as she wrote them. And I cackled had I read them.

Overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyway wanting to read a tension filled wedding romance with a well thought out character arc.

Wow, what a great read.

Ama has been a wedding planner since she graduated from high school. After several years of working for someone who she has always looked up to, she's starting her own business.

Then theres Elliot. Elliot inherited his father's flower shop and had to drop out of college before you get his degree in architecture..

Ama and Elliot discover they are better together than a part when it comes to the business world. They feed into each other's creativity and work together to make perfect weddings... And the sex is great too. But Ama only does temporary ans Elliot is in it for the long haul.

Forget me not was told from two point of views, Elliott's which was from the past, and Amas which was current. It took us back to when they first became " Elliot and Ama" and then shows us their current situation, working together agter not soeakinf for over 2 years on a high profile wedding.

This book had a little bit of everything. Curve balls, suspense and spice. It's a great book to pick up when you're looking for a good romance novel.

4.5

This second chance romance had everything I love in a romance novel:

- Dual POV
- Dual timeline
- Steam!!
- Interesting and well-developed MC’s

What I appreciated about the story:

- The wedding planning aspects especially for the celebrity wedding and how passionate Ama was about her career as a wedding planner
- Elliot’s sexy flower tattoos
- How Ama was the one who didn’t want to be in a committed relationship given her mom’s history with marriage
- Wedding reality TV show, which provided the perfect ending for the antagonist, Ama’s ex-boss, Whitney’s sub-plot - it was quite satisfying!
- The gorgeous book cover and the Sacremento setting

Highly recommend this one especially if you joined the rom-com The Wedding Planner starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez.

I loved this one so much! The chemistry between the characters had me swooning. I loved it so much I had to pick up a physical copy of the book to add to my collection. Highly recommend.

5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a phenomenal romance that really provided a lot of different emotions. It had humor that actually had me laughing out loud (not just the little puffs of air we do when we find a funny meme). It had me tearing up for a number of different reasons, the bittersweet moments, and especially the last line of the book. This book also had me nearly raging because of a specific character.

Forget Me Not had a great flow for a romance novel. The Dual POV were set in two different timelines and I felt like that was a really great choice because the merge between the two towards the end was amazing. I also have to say, I found myself loving Elliot’s POV a lot. I normally prefer single POV and usually with the FMC but I loved being inside Elliot’s head.

The Dual POV also helped support the story in my opinion. It allowed for the build up and romance to carry through one timeline while the other showed the consequences and furthered the plot.

This was a fantastic story and probably my favorite RomCom of the year. I can’t wait to see what Julie Soto writes next!

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<i>Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book. All opinions are completely my own!</i>

This one was a daaannnnnng book-not only was it a surprise it was soo good. It also has a lot of f bombs and good old steam. We get flashbacks as well as present with these two. Wedding planner and grumpy florist - what could go wrong?!. We get grumpy hot rare flower loving Elliot and hates marriage wedding planner Ama. I devoured this one and was so glad I picked it up!

3.5 stars
𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁 is a cute, second chance, grumpy-sunshine offering about an exuberant wedding planner, Ama, and a gruff florist, Elliott. Both have known each other for years working the wedding circuit, and things went from professional to sexy times years back. Then it went south when Elliott proposed to her and Ama, despite her chosen career, doesn’t want marriage. In the present they’re forced to work together on a high- profile wedding that gets more outlandish by the day.

I liked the behind-the-scenes peek at wedding planning - the chaos, creativity and excitement of it. I also liked Sacramento as a setting. Ama and Elliott have great physical chemistry and those scenes were 🔥 You know who their personalities remind me of? Roy and Keeley from Ted Lasso.

I only wish that I could’ve gotten to know more about them outside of the wedding arena to see more character depth. For example, Ama is averse to marriage for herself because of her mother’s multiple marriages and divorces. The impact of that on her isn’t really explored which I think would’ve been beneficial considering it affected her relationship with Elliott in the past that led to their abrupt and painful breakup. Neither one still not over it in the present.

In the end I liked this book. Anyone who loves weddings, the suspense of things coming together and HEAs will enjoy this easy to read, delightful story!

Thank you @netgalley & @readforeverpub for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁 is out now.

I have to say before reading this book; I hated second-chance romance. However, I felt like that until Elliot Bloom. He is such a top-tier MC. I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong. This book made me eat my words, and I’m definitely a lot more open to reading this trope now!

This book gave me all the feels! It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, but this book deserves high praise. This book is extremely well written and the characters will suck you in from beginning to end. I have never found flower tattoos so interesting, but that’s another change of opinion I can thank Elliot Bloom for.

I love reading romance books from Dual POVs, and the male perspective really enhanced the angst and longing felt throughout the story. The grumpy sunshine vibes gave me life! Elliot is rough around the edges, but he has a beautiful spirit and it clearly shines in his work.

I also enjoyed Ama’s character. She’s hardworking, quirky, and followed her dream! It was easy to understand her fears of relationships. Plus, a wedding planner that doesn’t want to get married is honestly one of the best conundrums ever! The dual timelines in this book made things come full circle, and I loved the character growth of Ama in the end.

Overall, I could not sing my praises enough for this book!

Thank you to Net Galley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC for this fabulous read!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

My rating: 2.8/3 stars. This book was a simple and quick read. There were some funny and cute moments. I actually ended up liking Elliot much more than Ama. That being said, the writing was nothing special and at some points kinda cringy. What I enjoyed most were the intimate scenes. I typically don't like to read an excessive amount, but I did like the way it was done in this book. I wish we saw more of Mar in the novel. I was really curious about her and liked her personality.

Seriously ALL the stars!! I loved this book!! It was new author for me & I’ll be here for all her books now! It was so well written! I loved the present with Ama and the past with Elliot! Their chemistry leaped off the pages! Elliot is so swoon worthy! Ama is a no relationship, wedding planner girl! Her mother has been married way too many times! Ama is a people lover, hard worker, and donut connoisseur! Ama meets Elliot at a wedding, as he is the flower placement guy! They really worked well together to make weddings perfect! Elliot wanted to be an architect but ends up running his father flower shop. He had lots of flower tattoos, doesn’t do hook ups, and had a heart! I loved seeing these two come back together after their break up! And seeing how sweet and caring Elliot is after seeing him so gruff! I can’t say enough good things about this book! Definitely give this a read if you love grumpy/sunshine second chances! Can’t wait for what’s next!

Extremely charming and immersive, Forget Me Not is a very solid grumpy/sunshine romance with convincing details regarding its locale and subject matter, all together makes for a story that's emotional yet fully grounded in reality.

Other than the tendency of overplaying its running gags (I was getting more annoyed than amused at the mentioning of donuts and the broken car as the story went on), the plot strikes a commendable balance between comedy, as well as more serious subject matter (such as familial trauma). In many ways, Forget Me Not reminds me of my experience reading Emily Henry's Beach Read, as well as Ashley Poston's The Dead Romantics — all contain additional emotional weight beyond the romantic fluff, for which I thoroughly appreciate. As someone who works in the creative industry, I love reading about the design process, how things come together behind the scenes, which Julie Soto goes in great detail here regarding each protagonist's profession — but I can also foresee criticism for wanting more romance on page, rather than what they do in their day job. The ending does feel slightly rushed, but it's such a good time overall, this becomes a pretty minor imperfection in comparison.

Forget Me Not doesn't break new ground, but offers everything one's looking for in a contemporary romance (even the steam). Julie Soto will definitely be an author on my radar from now on!