Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
Ama Torres is a wedding planner who doesn’t believe in marriage. But weddings? they’re amazing. Elliot Bloom is a brooding florist who hates owning a flower shop… until a certain bright-eyed, donut-loving workaholic shows up at his door.
Once upon a time, they collaborated on events by day, and by night, Ama traced the intricate flower tattoos etched along his body. Then Ama shattered his heart and never spoke to Elliot again.
Now they’re working on an event that could make or break both of their careers - except neither of them has gotten over what happened two years ago. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. But as the wedding takes on a life of its own, Ama and Elliot are about to discover that some things can survive a complete catastrophe…
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Julie Soto just became an auto-buy author for me. I mean, she sort of was already due to her other works in the fanfiction space but this really sealed the deal. I say this knowing full well I typically HATE the wedding trope as a major plot point in books. They’re stressful, and when used as a plot device you know things are going to go wrong so I already know it won’t be a good time yet somehow this author managed to ease me into it gently and have me actually enjoy myself. Ama and Elliot are both sort of broken and I think that imperfect relatability made them extremely relatable and easy to empathize with. I also loved that this was a second chance romance without being to cliche especially the reason for breakup. It just flowed together so well. My only hold back was how different Elliot and Ama’s points of view were, sometimes their perspectives offered great insight into how people see each other differently but sometimes their viewpoints clashed awkwardly. However, that was extremely minor when the overall plot and cast of characters were fabulous. This felt like the kind of book that could easily translate into one of those early 2000s wedding comedies we used to love so well.
We start off with Ama, our expert wedding planner killing it at her job. She’s just booked a mega influencer that can give her the boost she needs. But she’s also much too trusting. She ends up being somewhat conned into working with her ex as he’s the chosen florist for the wedding. There is a timeline jump as we get present day perspective from Ama as she navigates the tricky relationship between her and the man she shattered, and past perspective from Elliot as his relationship barrelled towards disaster. I loved that the viewpoints shifted in this way, it made for such an interesting perspective and gave a lot more depth to the characters than I think we would usually see.
Let’s start off with what I didn’t love. Ama in her point of view is like us all. She sees herself as successful and is proud but also awkward, messy, and a little insecure as well. In Elliot’s point of view she’s this ethereal vixen. In some parts I loved this major shift because it just highlighted how differently we see ourselves to how others see us. But at times her sexy “devil-may-care” attitude in Elliot’s memory does not coincide AT ALL with the person we know in present perspective. So at times it felt like I was reading about a totally different person. However, these times were very few and far between and overall, still really loved the shifting perspective.
Now lets dig into what I really loved!! First off, the villain in this was soooo good. It was so machiavellian and predictable and cheesy but in the most amazing of ways. I loved how it all played out. I actually found myself really enjoying the high pressure scenario of wedding planning as well because it raised the stakes and the emotions of every character, getting to see them at their worst was fascinating. I also really loved the character dynamics. Between the two brides we had so much love but also the right amount of friction especially when planning a really big wedding (although I liked Jackie a lot more than Hazel). Between the brides and Ama we had such a good balance of trust and annoyance. Hazel really began to grind my gears but she was also the perfect foil to this otherwise “perfect” working dynamic. Then we have Ama and Elliot. The tension between these two was high, not only in present but in the past as well. They both seemed unattainable to the other even after having already been in a relationship and it made for such a slow burn in both timelines.
I highly enjoyed this book and will continue to read anything this author puts out whether original or fan-based. This is a solid 4 star read and I definitely recommend it as a great summer escape.