Remembrance

(Source: Purchased from Amazon.co.uk for only 77p!)
16-year-old Lizzie has a great boyfriend, and a great best friend, but when she lays eyes on the gorgeous newcomer at school, everything changes.

Lizzie tells herself that she wants nothing to do with the new boy Drew, but can’t help but feel jealous when her best friend Chelsea starts dating him; especially when her own boyfriend Jeremy seems to be changing in front of her eyes, and not for the better.

Something about Drew just draws Lizzie to him though, even when he tells her that they can’t be together. But love is stronger than friendship, and slowly draws them together regardless. It seems that Lizzie and Drew may have been together in a past life, but things ended badly.
Can Lizzie and Drew make their relationship work? And how many people will get hurt in the process?


I really enjoyed this book, although I felt there was less of the whole reincarnation thing than I expected.

Lizzie was such a sweet girl, and I loved the romance between her and Drew. I totally understood why she didn’t want to be with Jeremy anymore, and I felt that she totally did the right thing with being upfront with Jeremy about how she didn’t want to be with him anymore.
It was unfortunate the situation that Drew and Lizzie got themselves into though, if Drew had never gone out with Chelsea, it would have made things so much easier, and Lizzie wouldn’t have felt like she was betraying her friend quite so much.
I thought the romance between Drew and Lizzie was sweet, and I wished that things could have been simpler for them, but that was not the way it was ‘meant to be’.

I did think that less was made of the reincarnation thing than I expected, from what I had previously read about this book I had some vague idea that it involved righting past mistakes, but I now get that it was more about preventing them from making the same mistakes again, rather than going back in time to fix them. To be honest, the whole reincarnation storyline took a bit of a back seat to me as I just loved the book as a contemporary romance in its own right.

I did like the ending, although I can see that Lizzie and Drew are still going to have many more battles to face if they want to stay together.
Overall; a sweet YA contemporary romance. Highly recommended.
8 out of 10.

Remembrance has a very interesting background. It was inspired by an artist's music video and burst into this book, which made me extremely intrigued by its origins and wanting to know more. After months of putting this off, I finally borrowed this from the library and finished it. It was not what I was expecting. At all.

Lizzie is a typical teenager with a boyfriend, a BFF, and a raging desire to own the new boy in town for some reason. Upon the first chapter, we meet her and her boyfriend, and are shown clearly that their relationship is on the rocks, but how they'd get all hyped up over something so trivial I cannot imagine. And then, BOOM, a hot guy appears at her school, one who her BFF, Chelsea, is absolutely infatuated with . . . But of course the new guy rightfully belongs to her. Why? Because she's the protagonist and feels like they've met before. This is not cool. Because one is the protagonist of a story does not mean they're good no matter what.

I typically don't dwell as much on the relationship aspect of books, but I just have to point a few downers in the book out. Firstly, Lizzie and Jeremy's relationship. Jeremy acts condescending and basically wants her to act and be the way the way girlfriends of football stars would. Why won't Lizzie break up with him already? And poof, there's Drew. Sometimes, I don't have a huge problem with insta-love, but this is not one of those times. Furthermore, Lizzie began seeing Drew and macking on him while she was still dating Jeremy. Point against Lizzie.

And of course, Drew has his own problems. I don't see what's so wonderful about him. He kept on leading Chelsea on with no intention to end the fake affair until, surprise, surprise, he couldn't hold in his love for the fair Elizabeth any longer, ditched his girlfriend and went straight to the chick with a boyfriend. And that was after he played the "pull-'er-in, push-'er-out game" aka. Oh-let's-just-pretend-that-I-like-her-and-ditch-her-repeat with our protagonist. Drew will not be earning any boyfriend-of-the-year awards from me.

To say it more frankly, I was absolutely sick of the romantic aspect in the book.

Even more? I felt like everything fell too neatly into place. Oh, you went dress-shopping and found a shop with a kind shopkeeper who thought his wares belonged to you? Whoopsies, you forgot your sweater and a hot boy just happened to come by to check up on you and lent you his sweater? It didn't feel real to me. Everything worked out perfectly without anyone trying. It was just so awfully transparent, something I couldn't stand.

Conclusion? Remembrance had a wonderful original idea, but its execution was less than what I was looking for. I may pick up the next book because: a) I'm a glutton for such fluff or b) I want to see improvement somewhere, anywhere.

Originally posted on Lust For Stories: http://lustforstories.blogspot.ca/2012/12/review-remembrance-by-michelle-madow.html

This is a wonderful book for a debut author.

Remembrance has a promising concept of reincarnation which I've seen, but the plot was a bit of a disappointment.

The storyline was rather flat, focusing more on the characters' school lives rather than their previous reincarnations in the Regency Era of Jane Austen. 

The lives of the students were more than real and rather funny to read, but I do believe that that was not what many of us were looking for in a book about reincarnation. The characterization was also not strong enough, as Lizzie, Chelsea, Drew and Jeremy all seemed like generalized characters who did not bring out the maximum empathy in readers.

The love between Lizzie and Drew was a tad too unbelievable. There was little if not no love, more like chemistry and attraction, and that only. The way they transit from no love to love happens too quickly. I trust that if there were more scenes between them, we as readers may come to the understanding that their love was inevitable as well. But, in this case, I find myself hard to believe that the feelings blossoming between the two of them is true and undying love.

Despite it all, the idea was great! I loved the constant references to Pride and Prejudice (it's one of my favourite classics), which was a good direction for Remembrance to go in since many of us are fascinated with this time period and the lives of the ladies and gentlemen living in this century. As such, Remembrance should go more into Lizzie and Drew's previous lives and give a stronger reason as to why the two of them were reincarnated. With a stronger reason, we can finally comprehend how their love is timeless throughout the centuries.

However, overall, the story was a good read. The sad thing was that there was no particular point of climax, more like a stretch of narration, hence, giving me the feeling that the story has yet to unfold into its full glamour. When the novel came to an end, the first thought was that the novel had yet come to an end! There were so much more areas to explore and lives untouched!

Therefore, there is no surprise that I am looking forward to the sequel of Remembrance, which hopefully, will patch up the holes and hand us a brilliant plot which has been built up from the first book itself.

I would like to start this review by suggesting that you click on the links above and purchase this book. Michelle Madow has a knack for writing a very good love story. One that makes your heart flutter and feel butterflies in your stomach. Just like the first time you fell in love.


Lizzie Davenport is a normal high school student or so she thinks. She likes art has a boyfriend Jeremy who is on the soccer team and a best friend Chelsea. But on the first day of school when Drew walks into the classroom he suddenly feels very familiar to her. Like she knows him. But she can't seem to place where she could possibly know him from. Lizzie's boyfriend isn't really paying her any attention. He is more concerned with his social status at the school and worse yet Lizzie's best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew. Lizzie can't help but feel a connection to Drew but she isn't sure why. Then at the school dance while dancing with Drew Lizzie has a flashback of how they met. They met during the Regency Era in the 1800's. But is that even possible? What will this mean for her relationship with her boyfriend and with her best friend?

This book was based on Taylor Swift's music video for Love Story which happens to be one of my favorite songs. Drew was also named after Drew from Taylor's song Teardrops on my Guitar. While reading this book I couldn't help but picture Taylor as Lizzie.

This book is a easy simple read. However it pulls you in. I was unable to put it down. I even found myself waking up last night to continue reading. The characters are very well developed even the minor characters who don't play a huge role in the story. This was definitely a book made for me. It is about past loves and second chances. I instantly fell in love with Drew and I know you will too. Always and Forever.

You know, I'm not even sure why I decided to read Remembrance. I knew it was about reincarnation, and to be honest, I hate the idea of reincarnation. I don't want to think about how I could have Jeffery Dahmer or Hitler in a past life o_o I've just always kind of hated to think about it in general.


But Remembrance made it interesting. Remembrance also took another topic I hate and made it work - insta-love. Most of you have probably read my rage against insta-love, but in Remembrance, it just . . . works. And it's not intense insta-love, either. It's subtle, and there's a reason for it.


If I'm being honest, I have to admit that Chelsea annoyed me to no end. Chelsea is Elizabeth's best friend, and every time she was in a scene, I was wondering how she would annoy me. Granted, her reaction at the end when she finds out about Drew and Elizabeth is completely warranted, but throughout most of the book, she just seemed like an obnoxious airhead to me. I would not have been able to be friends with her o_o


Jeremy was another character I didn't like, but I did love that he wasn't just a jerk, he was a subtle jerk. It wasn't so obvious that it seemed fake.


I wish the reincarnation bit had been focused on a little more, though. Sometimes it felt like it was just in the background and it was easy to forget about, and I think it should have been given some more focus, since it's such a big part of the book and Drew and Lizzie's relationship.


I loved how Lizzie was awful at French and then one day it all just suddenly came to her xD I wish that would have happened to me in my French class. I never had any idea what my teacher was saying.


I also loved the idea of a Guide who could help you remember your past life. That old guy from the store was cool xD His story was really interesting, and I can't help but hope that he'll be in the rest of the books in this series, too, however many there may be.


Overall: Remembrance is a novel about second chances and love that can transcend even time. Although I feel like the reincarnation should have been focused on a little more, I loved that Remembrance turned two things I usually hate into something that made the book enjoyable. I'd give it somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 stars. (I'm not good at deciding >_>)

I wrote it, so I'm bias. But I would love it if you would give Remembrance a chance and read it :)