By: Jessica Wood
Published: June 20, 2013 by ERH Press
ebook, 126 pages
Source: ARC via Netgalley, from publisher for review (Thanks!)
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance, **Mature Content**. Recommended for 17+.
(Goodreads / Amazon
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Summary:
A Night to Forget is the first book in the two-book series, Emma's Story. The second book in this series, The Day to Remember is scheduled to be released in August 2013.My Review:
What happens in Cancun doesn’t always stay in Cancun.
When Emma Anderson and her friends decided to spend their senior year Spring Break in Cancun, she expected some crazy memories to end their final college days. What Emma didn’t expect was to meet Brandon Fisher. Tall and sexy, with dimples that would make any girl swoon, Brandon Fisher was literally the man of Emma’s dreams. She couldn't quite believe that this stranger, who seduced her every night in her dreams, actually existed.
After serendipitously bumping into each other, Emma could not resist Brandon’s pull and spent an unforgettable night with him. Passing it off as a spring break fling, Emma never expected to see Brandon again. But when she started her first day at her new job a few months later, there he was. The only problem was, Brandon didn’t even remember her.
You would think a book with only 126 pages would be a breeze. I really struggled through a little over the first half of this and thought about DNF'ing it (which I've not actually ever done due to my OCDness of finishing a book I start). But then I thought "it's ONLY 126 pages..." Here's why I struggled:
The first half of this story line was entirely too close to the events in the real life story of Natalee Holloway (a teen from Alabama (my home state) who went missing in Aruba during her senior trip) and that's all I could think about while trying to get in to the first half of the book. I know there is a note in the front pages of the book that state "similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental." I get that it's a coincidence....and granted there were some differences between this work of fiction and the true events of the Holloway story. However the similarities didn't sit well with me: the girls vacationing in a tropical beach area, getting drunk every day, partying at bars and clubs at night, crescendo-ing to the last night there (sound eerily familiar?) when they have been drinking fruity drinks all day while sunbathing on the beach, tequila shots at night all before indulging in champagne as a precursor to a Night Cruise with an open bar. What does all of that spell out? Seriously drunk girls. Even if you want to take the high road and say "semi-drunk", we then have a semi-drunk girl going off by HERSELF with a guy she's never met before and doesn't know whether he is an honest guy or a serial killer. I don't care if he's hot or not, WHO DOES THIS?! To say it was hard for me to remember this story was fiction and that I needed to just read the words for what they were and not focus on the unpleasant feeling I had due to the remembrance of all of those REAL events several years ago, is a serious understatement. And unfortunately for this reader, took away from the fiction side of this story which should've allowed me to get lost in its characters. The similarities to the real events, whether coincidence or not, was a HUGE distraction to me, and an unpleasant one at that.
I was able to finally, over half way through, push those thoughts from my mind, thankfully due to the switch in location with the MC girl. Starting with her new job in San Francisco I was able to enjoy reading how her story begins to unfold and from that point in the book till the end it was an enjoyable read.
Favorite Quotes:
"Maybe I was being naive to think that kind of love could be real, but I was not ready to give up the hope that it could be a reality for me."
"But in reality, it's not a night I should on to and remember. It was a night to forget."
"I want to be everything to you, because it's becoming clear to me that you're everything to me."
"I may be the man of your dreams," he began with a wink, "but I want to be the man of your reality."
Final Rating - 3 stars
This post is part of the ARC Thursday feature on Words Fueled by Love.
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