Title: Forgetting August Author: J.L. Berg
Series: Lost & Found #1
Release date: December 1st 2015
(Sub)genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 384
Buy: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK
Rating:
She can forgive, but can she forget?
Some days, Everly still thinks she sees him. In the food court at the mall, or in a car speeding past as the light changes. It only lasts a second, but when it happens, she slips back to a time when she was ruled-and nearly ruined-by August Kincaid. And it doesn't matter that she's moved on, that she's about to marry another man. In those moments the only thing she can do to regain control is take a deep breath and remind herself that August can't hurt her-because he's in a coma. Except that he's not anymore.
August is awake. With no memories, he sets out to solve the mystery of his lost life. He unearths a photograph of a beautiful redhead named Everly and knows instinctively that she's the key. But when he finds her, the August she describes is more monster than man.
Tortured by the thought of having hurt her, August wants only to become the man Everly deserves. As the new August emerges, Everly glimpses the person she first fell in love with. But can she trust that this August is real? When the final secret of their shared past is revealed, one of them will make a choice that changes their future forever . . .
When I read the blurb of Forgetting August I knew I just had to have this book; a hero with no memory of his former life, a heroine who tries so hard to forget him, it intrigued me. For me, Forgetting August meets all of my expectations; it has all the sweet, sizzling and angsty moments I want, with the promise of more for the next book. Besides that, this book is written in the beautiful style I like J.L. Berg for.
“Nothing. My former life was an endless tunnel of oblivion, where there was no beginning or end. There were no ups or downs or signs to tell me of the twisty turns up ahead. There wasn’t a highlight reel—no cliff notes to remind me of what had occurred or transpired. It all came crashing down to one singular word. Nothing.”
Everly Adams didn’t have an easy childhood, growing up in foster homes with foster parents who couldn’t care less all she wants out of life is to be loved. When she meets the handsome, couple of years older August, she finally finds the love she so desperately wants. Present day Evelyn is still struggling with the aftermath of her relationship with August. To the outside world she has it all – a nice job she likes and a sweet fiancé, Ryan, who adores her – but on the inside she knows she’s faking. When she gets the call from the hospital August has woken up from his coma, her carefully constructed world comes to a crashing halt, although she has all the right reasons to stay away from August, she just can’t.
“Deep down I knew he was, but part of me—the profoundly damaged part that grimaced every time he uttered words like “mine” or jokingly said “don’t ever do that again”—hated being protected. I loved the safety I felt nestled in his arms, but it was it was another man’s love and overwhelming need to protect that had gotten me into the mess I was in now.”
August Kincaid wakes up in hospital, not knowing how he got there and worse, not knowing who he is. When he finds out he has spent two years in a coma – with no visitors – all he wants is to find out who he is, the picture of a beautiful redhead is one of the few clues he has. To his shock he learns Everly, the redhead from the picture, is so very angry with him, doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. But as she’s a part of his forgotten past, he needs her to regain his memories to be able to start living again.
“My fingers reached out, wanting to slowly trace over the curve of her shoulder as I memorized the shape of her pouty pink lips and the slight flush of her cheeks. How could I forget a life with someone like her? It was as if I’d forgotten something as magnificent as the sun rising over the horizon.”
Everly and August were a young couple so very much in love, but along the way August’s personality started to change; his business success changed him into a possessive, controlling man, gone was the sweet caring man Everly fell in love with. While he didn’t physical abused Everly or cheated on her, August hurt her in so many other ways. Present day August resembles the gone August, sweet and caring – this confuses Everly to her core, making her re-think her relationship with her fiancé. Although it hurts him so much, Ryan let’s Everly go in order to figure out the feelings she still has for August, feelings she doesn’t want to have. Slowly, August and Everly are getting to know each other again, to regain the relationship they lost when August started to change. But when a part from their former lives makes his appearance, all changes.
Forgetting August is a beautiful written story, I felt so much for both August and Everly, both are struggling with the situation. You can see the sweet relationship they had, the love they had for each other, ruined by August’s ambitions and behavioral change. I felt sorry for Ryan, he loves Everly so very much but you can see her slipping away from him, he doesn’t deserves to be somebodies second choice. Forgetting August is the first part of a duet, the story of August and Everly will continue in Remembering Everly. So yes, this books ends in a cliffhanger. I hope the next book gives all the answers I want, and a much deserved Happily Ever After for the main couple.
“With her, I had found it all. Everything was falling into place. I could see our future, feel it…grasp it with my fingertips. Life was moving forward and I finally had everything I’d been searching for. Until it all slipped away, so fast I could do nothing but watch it all crumble around me like sand.”
I love this angst-filled love story, I can’t wait to read the next book, Remembering Everly, which will be published in April 2016. I give this story 4 stars.
~~ Forgetting August was provided in exchange for a honest review ~~
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