A 'Meh-er' Read Than Expected | Remind Me How This Ends Book Review
Hi friends!
Welcome to my no spoiler review of Remind Me How This Ends by Gabrielle
Tozer who is an Australian YA author! This was the first time I had read one of
her books and I was quite eager because not only had I heard amazing things,
Tozer is also an award-winning author and this book seemed amazing!
I’m also doing a different style of review today because as
I am writing this, I have written 2 other posts today already and I am so
exhausted from my normal subheading style posts so I’m doing something a little
more relaxed!
About the book.
Author: Gabrielle Tozer
Pages: 352
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: 27 March 2017
Australian RRP: $17.99
Publication date: 27 March 2017
Australian RRP: $17.99
Synopsis: It's the summer after high school ends and everyone is moving on. Winning scholarships. Heading to uni. Travelling the world. Everyone except Milo Dark. Milo feels his life is stuck on pause. His girlfriend is 200km away, his mates have bailed for bigger things and he is convinced he's missed the memo reminding him to plan the rest of his life. Then Layla Montgomery barrels back into his world after five years without so much as a text message.
As kids, Milo and Layla were family friends who shared everything - hiding out in her tree house, secrets made at midnight, and sunny afternoons at the river. But they haven't spoken since her mum's funeral. Layla's fallen apart since that day. She pushed away her dad, dropped out of school and recently followed her on-again-off-again boyfriend back to town because she has nowhere else to go. Not that she's letting on how tough things have been.
What begins as innocent banter between Milo and Layla soon draws them into a tangled mess with a guarantee that someone will get hurt. While it's a summer they'll never forget, is it one they want to remember? (source)
As kids, Milo and Layla were family friends who shared everything - hiding out in her tree house, secrets made at midnight, and sunny afternoons at the river. But they haven't spoken since her mum's funeral. Layla's fallen apart since that day. She pushed away her dad, dropped out of school and recently followed her on-again-off-again boyfriend back to town because she has nowhere else to go. Not that she's letting on how tough things have been.
What begins as innocent banter between Milo and Layla soon draws them into a tangled mess with a guarantee that someone will get hurt. While it's a summer they'll never forget, is it one they want to remember? (source)
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Thank you to Harper Collins Australia for providing me a review copy however this is an honest review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
My thoughts.
WHAT I LIKED:
- The cover is gorgeous. I mean, we gotta start off with the basics right? The cover of this book is so gorgeous and is what drew me to it in the first place! *insert heart eye emoji here*
- It’s an #ozya. I mean, you gotta show your support for local authors, right?
- Focused on a very turbulent time and did it well. I’ve got a year before I’m graduating high school and I’ve always known I wanted to go to university and do travel in between (probably during the uni breaks) but I could understand what Milo was feeling because I still don’t know what course I’m going to take or what job I want to get so it was reassuring in a way to see another character who was in the same boat as me
- Very touching. It’s no secret most YA books have love and loss as a main plot device and some absolute butcher it when they have the main character grieving and then the love interest appear and magically heal them BUT THIS BOOK DIDN’T DO THAT PRAISE THE HEAVENS. It was realistic. Milo didn’t ‘cure’ Layla of her grief, he didn’t make it disappear because that’s an unrealistic expectation to have.
- It was a quick read. I am the hugest fan of books that I can zoom through because they make me feel so accomplished at the end of the day and it is the most satisfying feeling ever! This was quick and easy to read and didn’t take long to let into
- Well written and simple. There was nothing too fancy about it and while it won’t work for all types of books, it worked for this and for me. I found the simple but well-structured writing made the reading experience more enjoyable!
- The best friends to lovers trope! I personally am a huge fan of this trope because it’s so adorable and quite realistic because it’s not instalove
- The ending was so realistic. I personally loved the ending and it worked so well for this book. If you’ve read it already, you know what I’m talking about!
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
- Didn’t connect with the characters. There was something about the characters that I didn’t click with. I thought they were great and I could definitely empathise with them and their situations but I didn’t really see myself in them and there was no connection which left me feeling meh
- There wasn’t really much of a plot. I know this is quite common in contemporary as it is more character driven but…nothing really happened
- It was unmemorable. Enjoyable. But unmemorable. It didn’t stand out to me.
- Unoriginal and overused idea. I know I said I liked the best friends to lovers trope but I felt it had also been so overdone and there was nothing really special to this. (So two contrasting points where I liked that the trope had been present but I wasn’t all that impressed because I had seen it many times before)
- There was zero chemistry between Milo and Layla. I mean, I could be missing something, but I didn’t get ‘all the feels’ from them and I think they would have been great, just as friends. I felt the romance was really forced
I honestly feel so bad for giving this a ‘meh’ review
because while I didn’t hate it, I couldn’t fall in love either even though I was
so looking forward to. I have seen such great reviews for this from my other
blogger friends so maybe this was more a ‘me’ thing than the book actually
being bad, but I just didn’t click with the characters most of all and it just
threw me off and made this a painfully average read.
However, if you feel this book interests you, do give it a
try because lots of other people have enjoyed it and this is probably just
another unpopular opinion!
OVERALL RATING:
★★★
Have you read Remind Me How This Ends? What did you think? Or are you planning to?
22 happy thoughts
This book does have a gorgeous cover! But I'm sorry you didn't connect with the characters! Characters are definitely the thing that can either make or break a book for me. If I don't connect with them, I usually knock the book down a star even if the writing and plot and everything was fantastic :(
ReplyDeleteAmber @ Escape Life in the Pages
YES! I totally know what you mean! When I don't click with the characters, the book just doesn't feel as special to me
DeleteI haven't read a best friend to lovers romance in a long time! They're fluffy and fun usually. I might put this on my TBR for that, plus it's #loveozya and quick to read. I'm probably due for a contemporary like that soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that you struggled to connect to the characters :( That always makes the romance and story harder to really get into.
I personally love that trope so much though! And yay, I hope you enjoy it more than I did!
DeleteThis is such a pretty book, and I love the whole "friends to lovers" thing, so as soon as I saw that, I realized that I HAD to read this one! Unfortunately, I also dislike books that have unrelatable characters, so I'm not sure now. It does sound like a really sweet read, especially for the beginning of summer, though. Awesome review, and I'm sorry to hear that you weren't able to connect to the characters - that can really take away from the story.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading and commenting Kelly! <333
DeleteOooh, friends to lovers is my absolute favourite trope. I've heard a lot of meh things about this book but I do really want to give it a go because OZYA and I think it's so important to support the local authors.
ReplyDeleteYES OMG! Could not agree more!
DeleteLove that cover! Sorry to hear it wasn't the greatest. I probably won't put it high on my list for purchasing for my library. Great review though! I am also a fan of the friends to lovers trope. Like you said, probably more realistic than a lot of others.
ReplyDeleteAha thanks for reading and commenting Lisa!
DeleteOh no, I'm so sorry to hear you didn't feel too much of a connection with the characters. I really love the best friends to romance trope, and that book sounded just like my kind of book. I can't wait to give it a try, I do hope I'll be able to connect with it a little bit more though. Lovely review, Anisha! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading and commenting Marie! <3 and I do hope you enjoy it when you get around to reading it!
DeleteSorry to hear this one ended up being a little bit of a let down. Since contemporaries are so character driven I feel they can take a huge hit when you can't connect with the characters and it sucks that ended up being the case with this. I'm meh about the best friends to lovers trope because I've seen it so often but I just might have to give this a read one day to see if I like it or not. :) Great review!!
ReplyDeleteYES OH MY GOD I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF! And I do hope you like it when you read it! Thank you so much Melissa!
DeleteSometimes books just don't hit all the notes for us. I know what you mean about liking a trope but thinking it's overdone, though.
ReplyDeleteThank you Christy! So glad to find someone else who agrees!
DeleteThat really is a beautiful cover. This sounds like a cute book, but not really one I'd love. Wonderful review!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Lenna!
DeleteAlways looking for good #ozya -- am reading Cath Crowley's Words in Blue which is amazing so far.
ReplyDeleteSorry this wasn't for you but will be checking out your blog for more Aussie author recs!
Jen @ YA Romantics
Words In Deep Blue was such an amazing read! It's one of my favourite Australian YA novels! Glad to hear you're enjoying it Jen!
DeleteI must admit Anisha, I felt the exact opposite about this one which makes me wonder if it could have been age related why you couldn't feel that connection? I could relate to Milo's situation personally, at that age I was very similar where I had finished school and took time off because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I thought the ending was so well written too and surprised me. I'm hoping it's leaving the door open for a follow up. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteAww...I'm sorry to hear this was a bit meh. :( I can definitely see where you're coming from though - it sounds cute, but not really anything memorable. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous review! <3
ReplyDelete~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage
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