This was a really fun and unique second change romance! I truly enjoyed this debut by Julie Soto. I thought it was so unique how she had the present chapters in Ama's view and all the past chapters were in Elliot's viewpoint until the very end.

Read this for:
- Second chance
- Grumpy/sunshine
- Dual timelines in past and present
- Celebrity wedding planning
- Lots of stepsiblings
- Lots of donuts
- He is GONE for her

Ama Torres has got her big break to plan a celebrity wedding in her town of Sacramento. The only problem is that she has to work with her ex-boyfriend Elliot who will be the florist for the wedding. Coming from the past Ama has, she does not do relationships because she cannot trust love.

Elliot is the ultimate grump but underneath his brooding exterior he is such a cinnamon roll. He is so gone for Ama from the beginning and it's adorable to witness his inner thoughts because as tall and big and broody as he is, he is not self confident or assured.

The two are forced back together after having a relationship with one another that didn't end on good terms. You get to peel back the layers of their past relationship while learning about how they are interacting in the present. It seamlessly worked for the story and felt easy to follow.

This read was fun, engaging, and had some great spice included. I also was laughing out loud during several moments of this book. I really loved the ending. I thought it was super cute!

Thank to Forever and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book took me by surprise. I did not expect to be so obsessed with this book. The structure of the story is incredibly intentional, making the reading experience immersive and impactful. Ama’s story arc is relatable and touching, her struggles with long term commitment, aspirations for success, and attempts to step out from the shadow of an abusive mentor were things that made me root for her and feel for her deeply with every chapter. Elliot’s story arc had a chokehold on me like no other. I am officially obsessed with that man. This book is perfection and I cannot wait for more from Julie Soto.

I appreciate for getting this ARC in advanced.

Unfortunately this was a book I had to DNF because I had no interest into reading so much about wedding planning. The small tidbits of the relationship I did read read great, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough reason for me to continue with the book.

5 stars. I REALLY liked Forget Me Not, and I’m absolutely stunned that this is a debut. Second chance romance is normally hit or miss for me, and I also typically don’t like when a book features multiple timelines. But I loved the romance and loved the flashback scenes. I really liked both Ama and Elliott as characters and was firmly rooting for their HEA. I also really liked the secondary characters and am hoping that maybe some of them get their own books. This was def a steamy read (which isn’t necessary for me but I do prefer), so don’t go into this thinking it’s closed door. It’s not. I also loved the “wedding planning” backdrop of this one. It was a fun setting. I thought the writing was funny but also emotional at points. And all in all, I really enjoyed this. And I can’t wait to see what comes next from Soto!

Thank you so much to Soto, Forever Romance, and Netgalley for the advance copy. This is my honest review.

I absolutely love the chaotic wedding planning setting for romances/rom-coms. It's an avenue for hilarity, drama and all the feels and 'Forget Me Not' by Julie Soto definitely factors all that in and more. A great debut!

'Forget Me Not' is a second chance romance between Ama, a wedding planner that doesn't believe in marriage and florist Elliot. Ama and Elliott first meet while they're planning a wedding and they get together not too long after. When Elliott wants to take their relationship further and put a label on it, Ama decides to put a pin in it and breaks up with Elliott. They reunite when Ama is hired to plan a huge influencer wedding and the soon-to-be married couple want Elliott in charge of flowers. So Ama and Elliott are now forced together to make this wedding go off without a hitch and try to keep things easy between them. Problem is that they both still miss each other.

Ama and Eliott are so lovely together. I loved the easy attraction between them, the friendship, and the banter. Elliott is so head-over-heels and goofy when he was initially crushing on Ama. She teases him mercilessly and brings him out of his shell. She helps him have bigger dreams for himself and he helps her gain confidence in her skills. They like each other so much and they're so supportive of one another. Even post-breakup, Elliott ALWAYS has Ama's back. What I"m really saying is that Eliott is now on my list of book boyfriends.

I absolutely loved Ama's development throughout the story. Being a small business owner is difficult. Being a small business owner planning a massive influencer wedding while dealing with your ex (who is the love of your life) and unexpected crises every 2-3 business days is a lot. By the end of the story, my girl Ama was taking charge, putting people in their place and leaning on her friends and family for support. It made me happy to see that develop naturally throughout the book.

I thought some of the smut scenes felt a little OOC sometimes, but it doesn't necessarily take away from the story or the main characters' connection overall. I think their romantic confession and make-up felt a little bit rushed. I wish the author spent a little bit more time showing the pair go on a date to reconnect. The epilogue did make up for it though!

This was such a fast and steamy read! Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. I enjoyed every aspect of this book. I will say that I didn't expect this to be as steamy as it was!

Overall, a great read and I really loved the characters!

I had gotten away from reading romance because I felt like they were all starting blend together. However this was a surprising treat and I really, really enjoyed it. The premise was different, I enjoyed the characters, and I discovered that I love second chance romance! Will be recommending to my romance and new adult readers.

An utter delight, this romance will have you swoon from all the best tropes: grumpy + sunshine, he falls first, workplace dating, all the spice, wedding disasters, to second chances.

I love how we see the blossoming relationship between ambitious wedding planner Ama Torres and florist, Elliot Bloom, whose heart Ama breaks two years prior. Fast forward to the present, where both Ama and Elliot are contracted for the same wedding (gasp). As we continue to move from two years ago to the present, we walk this tight rope with these two characters, wondering if their relationship is salvageable for a second chance.

If you want to be smiling from ear to ear with the warm fuzzies, be sure to grab a copy of this irresistible story.

Happy Reading ~ Cece

I had to DNF this book at 56%. I didn’t really like the main character Ama. But the kicker was the back and forth of the story. I really wish it had been a “3 Years earlier” type of situation because at the beginning, I was confused about the relationship between Ama and Elliot. The back and forth between timelines just didn’t work for this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central for providing an eARC of this title for review. All opinions are my own and are honestly given.

When optimistic wedding planner Ama Torres is paired with her broody florist ex, Elliot, on the wedding of the year, they realize that weddings (and love) don’t always go exactly as planned.

Forget Me Not was a fun, interesting read. The Reylo/fanfiction bones were still definitely there, so fans of that pairing + fan-fiction in general might find some of their favorite set-ups here– Ama is sunshine-y and slightly chaotic (and slightly annoying?); Elliot is broody and reserved and head-over-heels for Ama. The story is told in two timelines: their initial relationship/eventual fallout and their reunion two years later. I wouldn’t say there is a ton of relationship growth in the current timeline; instead, readers see them rediscovering their lost love, owning why they reacted the way they did to their initial conflict, and recommitting after time apart. I found myself totally sucked in to Forget Me Not and am really looking forward to future books from Soto. I think our patrons who enjoy contemporary romance will really like this one, and I think it will make a good fit for our collection. 4 stars

I knew very little about this book going into it except that so many people loved it.
This book was raw, emotional, heart wrenching, and so much more. The spice was perfect and I loved the dynamic of it.

This has dual POV and dual timeline. I usually dread reading the past POV chapters but I found myself craving them this time. Most of Elliot (mc's) chapters are from the past and I loved seeing their past story and how it impacts current them.

The title is also so creative and took me until about halfway through to make the connection.

Definitely a top read of the year for me and I can't wait to get a physical copy for my shelves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for an early copy of this!

Forget Me Not was a whole lot of sex and not a whole lot of anything else.

If you're looking for tattoo fetishes, dirty talking, and pretty toxic bully-love-type situationships, this will be your jam.

If you're looking for a really good plot with character development and depth, this will most definitely not be your jam.

I was in the second category and found myself pretty disappointed with this book. It started off really interesting and I found myself intrigued by the wedding planner who didn't believe in love, the second chance romance with the florist, etc. However, as the story progressed, I found myself more and more frustrated with just about all of the characters involved - even the secondary ones.

I'm sure that the dual POV was meant to endear you to the characters a little more and help you understand what was going on in their heads - primarily with Elliot. Rather than endear me to him, it just made me really upset with his refusal to communicate instead. The only thing he had going for him was his ability to sense when a woman orgasmed by sensation alone...

Don't even get me started on how much I disliked Ama. She's selfish, self-satisfying, and so incredibly dense that I wanted to scream at her pretty much from the get-go. In addition to all of that, there's literally no character development for her so by the end of the book, she's just as infuriating and mindless as she was at the beginning. She's so inconsiderate to everyone around her, acting as if the world revolves only around her needs and wants and it's really angering.

I truly want to find something good to say about this book so I will say one thing: the actual wedding planning portions were interesting. Learning about the different elements that took place to make Hazel and Jackie's wedding happen kept my attention. It's a bummer that's really the only thing that stood out to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this e-arc in respond for an honest review.

My rating: 4.5 (rounded up)

When I heard that Julie Soto was publishing her debut novel this year, it genuinely became one of my most anticipated reads. Second chance romance, broody florist x wedding planner? Sign me up. When I saw it on Netgalley I automatically requested it.

I am not kidding when I say I read this book in 3 hours, in one sitting. It was well written, well plotted, and the characters were incredibly compelling. This was the definition of a page-turner, in that I didn’t stop turning them until I finished the book. I was obsessed with Elliott as a love interest, and when Soto said these scenes were steamy, she wasn’t kidding. Additionally, as someone from Northern California, it was so refreshing to see a book set in Sacramento. It was a place I went for weekend getaways with my family, and it’s wild to see it so represented in a novel. This novel stayed compelling, with a strong voice for both pov characters, from the first page, but the last act is where it really shines.

However, I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about some of the relationship development, in that I didn’t feel like I knew enough from Ama’s point of view about the relationship. Her motivations toward Elliot and the relationship felt a bit too static, only for her to flip abruptly at the end. Additionally, the proposal scenes (both of them) felt off to me. Finally, I felt that the side characters were a bit too one-dimensional. But, despite that, I still fell in love with the story, I was obsessed with this relationship, and I will read literally anything Julie Soto writes.

Thank you again to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this e-arc

This story was told in alternating timelines: Present where Ama and Elliot can barely stand to be in the same room together and Past where we slowly get to watch the love between them bloom. The angst in this was top-tier and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out just what drove these two apart. Their chemistry was undeniable and I absolutely loved the backdrop of the wedding industry as the canvas for their relationship. Definitely a tense ride with plenty of heart and stakes to drive this story forward. I finished it in one sitting and Julie Soto now has a fan for life. I will definitely check out whatever this author does next!

Absolutely brilliant! I’ve been wanting a for a good happily for now - but forever will come eventually - story. Having gotten married last year, reading about characters in the wedding industry was a fun. I love that Elliot was a grumpy florist and Ama a badass wedding planner! I also loved how Elliot wasn’t a typical beefcake. I’ve been wanting more slender alternative heroes.
I love the story formatting, the change from present to past as we jump from Ama to Elliot’s perspective!
The plot was pretty fast paced. Definitely kept my attention!
Absolutely LOVED IT!!!

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I had hoped. I thought we were going to get more of a second chance redemption throughout this book between Ama and Elliot, but the redemption doesn’t happen until literally the last 10%. Everything leading up was their prior relationship and then how it quickly unfolded. I was just hoping for so much more

“Forget Me Not” by Julie Soto

5⭐️/5⭐️
4🌶/5🌶

“He was back in my life for a handful of weeks and then gone again. And it will never be the same, clearly. I’ll have to live with the fact that I’ll never feel his fingers in my hair again, and that there’s ink on his skin that my mouth will never touch.”

After working for years under the tutelage of Whitney Harrison, the top wedding planner in Sacramento, California, Ama Torres is slowly building a successful business on her own. She is talented, wildly creative, and catches the eyes of influencer Hazel Renee and her fiance. This wedding could catapult Ama’s business to stardom, but in order for her to succeed she will need to work with the man whose heart she broke two years ago: Elliot Bloom. There’s tension immediately when the two meet again, but it’s hard to deny their compatibility when working on a wedding. As the wedding date approaches, the two fall into old patterns, and unresolved feelings work their way to the surface. Is it too late for Ama and Elliot to reconcile, or will this wedding bring more than one couple together?

-This is one of the easiest five stars I’ve ever given to a book. I requested this book based on the cover and general hype, and it did not disappoint. Normally, I avoid second chance romances with authors I’m unfamiliar with. Call it a hunch, call it a gut feeling, but I took a chance on “Forget Me Not”. I’ve never been so glad to follow my gut, because this book will undoubtedly be in the top ten books I’ve read this year. Julie Soto’s writing grabbed my heart and held it in a vice grip the entire time I was reading. I laughed, I sighed, I nearly screamed a few times.

-One of the most unique aspects of this story is the way the chapters are divided. It’s a dual POV, with Ama’s chapters being the present events, and Elliot’s being the past. The readers pick up on the obvious bad breakup through the tension between Ama and Elliot when they are working together, but we have no idea what really happened. I loved how we get snippets of information through Elliot’s chapters, providing important context to their interactions in the present.

-When we first meet Elliot he is very cold and standoffish. I love reading about prickly characters! These characters usually have the most interesting character arcs, and are overall more relatable. Julie Soto did such an excellent job creating a complex MMC. Elliot was one year shy of earning his architecture degree when he found out his father had terminal lung cancer. Now he feels compelled to take over the family business and work as a florist. It takes some time, but eventually he learns to enjoy his job. Well, at least the flower and design part, he still struggles with interacting with people. But he’s good at his job, and maintains a loyal clientele.

-I think Elliot is a good example of a person who has a personality that doesn’t mesh with most, but if you get to know him and gain his trust, he’s an invaluable friend. He’s capable of being warm, supportive, and generous to those he loves. In his POV chapters, readers see the depth of his feelings for Ama; this man fell for her hard. Perhaps what I loved the most about Elliot was how serious and straightforward he was with his emotions. He’s self aware, and emotionally mature, and in the process of reading this book I fell totally in love with his character.

-And I can’t NOT mention Elliot’s tattoos. Ugh, my heart melted when we got to find out the backstory of his tattoos, and when we found out what his most recent tattoo was. It was a small and clever aspect to his character, and I loved how they were meaningful to both Elliot and Ama.

-Sometimes in romcoms, or contemporary romances in general, FMCs are written in a really unapproachable way. Either they’re too quirky, or too over the top, or perhaps they accumulate so many fantastical experiences over the course of their life that they are simply unrealistic. I was afraid Ama would fall in that category. I mean, it’s pretty fantastical to have a mother who has been married and divorced sixteen times by the time you reach your late twenties. And her mother’s marriages have definitely affected Ama’s views on weddings and marriages. But somehow Julie Soto wrote this as a realistic scenario.

-I loved Ama’s POV chapters, and trying to piece together her character growth by comparing the two timelines. In both POVs she’s creative and hardworking, but there’s a spark to her personality that is only seen through Elliot’s POV. I found it so interesting to read about a FMC who realizes she needs to do some self reflection and self discovery, and for HER to recognize areas of growth that are missing. And Julie Soto did such an amazing job building up Ama’s character arc and helping readers understand her mindset, and why it needed to change.

-The smut in this book had me sweating. It’s graphic, descriptive, and beautifully written. There’s no ego, no need to prove themselves through their actions; they love each other so openly and honestly. I love dirty talk, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something extra sexy about honest communication during sex; being forthcoming with how much pleasure their partner is giving them.

-I would recommend this book if you: like to read about a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, are interested in dual POVs and dual timelines, want to read a super angsty second chance romance, are looking to read smut that borders on poetry, or love reading books where characters are complex and require personal growth.

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really sweet & spicy romance. I loved the alternating timeline/POV from both the MC. The FMC was fun and felt relatable, and the MMC was top tier hot and grumpy.

My only quip was the book was the major conflict in the book was just kind of irritating. But I truly enjoyed this and read it in one sitting.

4/5 ⭐
2.5/5 🌶️

Beautiful 2nd chance romance with unique characters and setting. The structure is dual timeline and dual point of view. Our hero, grumpy florist Elliot. narrates the “before” timeline when he and Ama first fell in love. Our heroine, wedding planner Ama, narrates the “now” timeline - 2 years after she broke his heart. They come face to face when working on a wedding for a superstar influencer. The two brides are perfect side characters and their wedding could make or break Ama and Elliot’s careers. So the former lovers have no choice but to work together and maintain peace for the sake of the wedding of the year.
Most of the romance (and spice!) takes place in the past, while the present storyline focuses on the planning of the wedding and the wedding day itself. This helps the reader keep all the moving parts right where they need to be and eliminates any confusion which sometimes occurs with dual timeline/ dual pov. I loved Ama and Elliot’s backstories, their first meeting, and watching them fall in love. I absolutely adored the wedding planning and highjinks involved - every aspect was unique, fun, and picturesque.
I did wish for more heartfelt interaction between Ama and Elliot in the present story. They avoided each other or avoided any difficult conversations, focusing on the 2 brides and the wedding itself. This made the ending a bit abrupt. It was a very quick turnaround from barely speaking to hea. However, I loved the story overall and will definitely read more from this author.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Oh my gosh!!! Yes. More of this. I LOVED this book. I have seen so much hype around this beautiful book and it is so well deserved.

Also, a book heavily around flowers?! Mmmmhhmmmm I will take it.

Forever you picked a winner to represent here. Make sure we get all of Julie Soto's work forever please!

loved this romance between a wedding planner and a florist. Loved that it was in Sacramento and I recognized all of the places mentioned from the firehouse to a city called Carmichael. I loved that I could picture her walk in midtown. I loved the romance and the different point of views from elliot to ama. Loved seeing her siblings and how long they had been apart from each other and loved the ending and all the stuff that happened on the wedding day. I hope to read more from her maybe the siblings .