Her band had just booked a national tour, she was finally off the waitlist for her dream dog, and her girlfriend had popped the question.
The stars had finally aligned—until they didn’t. After a horrific accident, Gracie loses the last five years of her life, including her band, her dog, and her fiancée.
When her girlfriend wakes up from the accident asking for her college boyfriend, Ashley’s grand power-couple plans are put on hold. Confronted with a version of Gracie she had never known, Ashley is left with one
When your memory is lost, can the heart still remember?
Compelling read! Such authentic, relatable and remarkable storytelling from start to finish, from Ms. Paris with this spin-off from her 'American Superstar' chronicle. The dialogue, the chemistry, the supportive friends and secondary characters and even that desirable quality/detail of switching back & forth from past to present -- are things that readers would not be disappointed while reading. A highly recommended book and 'American Superstar' 3 book series!
Gracie and Ashley are head-over-heels, happily engaged, and ready to start this new chapter in their lives. Unfortunately, all of that comes to a halt after a horrible accident because Gracie loses her memory. The memories she doesn’t lose are the ones before she met Ashley. Yikes. That’ll throw a wrench in your plans. So can they find their way back to each other? Accept this new normal and fall in love all over again?
Loved it! An emotional read with enough angst to make your chest feel tight and cry. I love to hate a villain and this one just made me want to scream. The side characters were lovable and a supportive group of friends. Overall, it was an amazing read that I highly recommend. Just be sure to have a box of tissues on hand because I sure as hell needed one.
ok, i think other people will like this one more than i did. and, despite some of my updates while reading, and some mixed feelings i’m going to get into here, overall, i enjoyed the majority of my read with this one. the final third of the book shifted my perspective a little bit, but the reasons for it were def more of a personal preference thing and a bit of my cynicism coming though.
i think amnesia stories can be hard to pull off and despite that, i tend to really enjoy them, or, at least WANT to enjoy them. i think the idea of falling in love and choosing someone twice can be really romantic. i think the bones of this one were absolutely there, and for the most part, i enjoyed the characters and the overall plot around them, but there were a couple of caveats there, for me.
this is my first book by this author, and i got the vibe while reading was that there were other books of characters in this one (lennon and camilia, and i looked it up later, and i was right). i def would give some of them a try based on my experience here. but, i personally felt like this had a little too much “tell” and a little less “show” going on. especially in some ways that felt kind of repetitive. like, right off the bat, we start at the engagement party for gracie and ashley, and ashley recounts the story of how they met. and then the accident happens, and we are immediately sent into a “back then” chapter in ashley’s pov. annnnd we see them meet for the first time. again. with not… that much more relevant information given that was newer? which is something that i felt like happened a few times. ashley in the present is telling gracie things that she forgot, and then we see more of that story in the back then chapters. it felt like it got a bit repetitive and wasn’t serving the story in the best way, for me.
i also felt like… all of the “back then” chapters are in ashley’s pov, which made it feel a bit unbalanced to the reader in a similar way that it was for gracie. it was an interesting choice to only give us ashley’s pov back then and not gracie’s. i found myself continuously dreading them just a little bit in a way that surprised me. in general, a lot of the telling and not showing affected how i saw ashley as a character. there was A LOT of telling the reader how great ashley was by the time we get to the end of the book. so many of the characters tell gracie how steady she is, how much of a rock, how much of a saint, how much she loves her, etc. etc. and i am a stubborn bitch, so it had the opposite affect on me and made me start giving her LESS grace, and more annoyed with her and her reactions.
i think if these were the only minor issues, then i’d have mostly breezed past it, but the whole thing with the exes made me more frustrated than anything. look, i FULLY get how devastating all of this was for ashley, i was not at all unsympathetic towards her. i WANTED to be on her side and wanted to be rooting for them to get back together, and exes popping up after all of this would have been hard and confusing and stressful, but part of me was so frustrated with how much she seemed unable to really be able to put herself in gracie’s mindset. to me, it made SO MUCH SENSE that she would want to talk to amanda and dane and get some closure from what was the last of her memories. it makes sense that she would be uncomfortable and awkward with ashley, and unable to kind of really entertain anything that to her, felt new, without any closure or answers first. the spying on the messages bothered me so much, i def get the impulse but i hated it. her blowup at the party with dane (again, i understood WHY after that convo with laura/gracie’s shitty mom) was frustrating! on top of that, the amanda reveal of it all was… really frustrating? (i’ve said that word a lot i realize, i wasn’t feeling too much of that emotion until really more of the third act). to me, having to bash or put down or make any other potential love interest be an asshole in order to prop up the one that the audience is supposed to root for feels cheap. we should root for the couple because we like them, not because everyone else is a dick.
and, okay, final things, because i actually hate complaining about things that i don’t enjoy in books—people work hard to make them!! this was NOT a bad book, there were just a lot of minor things that built up that ended up with me (lol), literally yelling: “nooooooo this is corny, girl what are you talking about” and being very cynical while driving home from my dentist yesterday afternoon. but! i sort of wish gracie had never gotten her memories back. like. I KNEW it was going to happen, this is a romance, that’s the trope, it always happens at the magical last min, etc. etc. but like… part of me wanted the journals and closure to be enough, and for them to just get to fall in love again. there is something really romantic to me about choosing a person TWICE. and when gracie DID remember, all of her guilt and regret about “tormenting ashley” was SUCH BULLSHIT??? GIRL!! you were in an accident. it was in no way your fault that you lost your memories. you were absolutely well within your rights to speak to your exes and family and get closure that you wanted. that’s not tormenting ashley. it made me so irrationally angry and i was literally yelling at the audiobook in my car as i drove home.
okay wait, actual final things:
i think it was just a case of a few things didn’t work for me that built up to a lot of irritating towards the end, which sucks, because initially i was enjoying myself quite a bit. i would still try this author again, i do still rec this book, it seems to have connected with other readers a lot more than me and this might absolutely be more of a me thing. because, despite reading a LOT of romance books, i am actually a very cynical person who sometimes hates lovey-dovey corny stuff and doesn’t really believe in love lol. so every once in a while, a book just gets the brunt of that for me, and this could be a case of that.
Incredibly well-written with an amazing story, that is full of emotion. You can truly feel the deep affection that blossoms between Ashley and Gracie over time. Be prepared for flashbacks, and if that’s not your cup of tea, well… you've been warned.
This is a tutorial on writing a perfect romance novel. Perfect couple Ashley and Gracie are celebrating their engagement when a tragic car wreck injures Gracie, taking with it Gracie's memories of the last five years. Ashley's fight to help Gracie get her memories back, to get their love back is touching. Gracie just flounders in a time before they got together. Both struggle to get through the haze of a brain injury and Shay Paris takes my emotions and shake them like a dog with a toy. This truly made me tear up and my old heart was left feeling all the feelings for Ashley and Gracie. A great surrounding cast of characters help and hinder our girls' efforts. I really liked this book and recommend it 5+ stars.
This was a very solid read. The emotional depth was there from start to finish, and I felt the characters were genuinely well developed. The romance had a strong presence and felt alive on the page, which kept me invested in their journey.
That said, I did find it a touch on the long side. The use of different timelines worked in many ways but also led to a bit of repetition—sometimes an event we’d experienced “back then” was rehashed again in the “now” timeline, which slowed the momentum slightly.
Overall, though, it was heartfelt, immersive, and definitely worth the read.
Bien, voy a admitir esto una sola vez. Me saco un par de lágrimas, vale lo confesé. Ahora lo importante.
La verdad lo leí en un día y medio, la historia atrapa y los personajes tienen una capacidad de atracción qué asusta.
Para ser mi primer libro de esta autora, estuvo bastante bien. Escribir un libro en diferente espacio-tiempo, pocas veces se logra con éxito. Aquí todo fue bien. Tuvo una selección precisa y correcta de los momentos a los que deseaba volver y lo hizo con gran astucia.
Agradecí mucho la sutileza con la que maneja todo, es sencillo, fácil de comprender y no cae en un cliché de resolución. Al final tuvo un pequeño desliz al apresurar el epílogo, pero no me disgusto del todo.
Como nota final diré que Ashley es mi personaje favorito y es una delicia leerlo.
Oh how my heart got ripped into a million tiny pieces and then put back together by the end of it. I'm so glad this author told me to read this book when I was asking for recommendations because she did not disappoint.
Forget Me Not is about love, sacrifice and finding love all over again. This book was not only complex, it was heart wrenching and tear jerking but in the best way possible.
Gracie and Ashley had found love over the last five years together. After Gracie left her parents house and started a band all by herself, she managed to become comfortable being a lesbian and find love herself. Ashley, a millionaire after starting her own gym/training center for celebrities. On the night of their engagement party the unthinkable happens and Ashley's world is turned upside down.
Gracie loses the last 5 years of her life and still believes that she is in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend. With Gracie's meddling mother, who dislike's Ashley anyways (since she's a woman) tries to put all these past people in Gracie's life to trigger her to remember everything.
Ashley, the calm, cool and collective person she is takes everything with stride and tries to help navigate the new normal while having an internal battles that makes her doubt why she's with Gracie in the first place.
This amazingly written novel will go from pre-accident to post-accident in a dual POV while Ashley tries to help Gracie remember why she fell in love with her in the first place. This is an absolute 5 star read and something like I have never read. It was so beautiful and a powerful testament of true love.
I could go on and on about this novel but you will just have to read it yourself to find out more. This is my first novel I have read by Shay Paris and let me tell you, she did NOT disappoint!!
DNF at 19%. I'm not interested in reading a book in which one of the main characters is a cheater.
Yes, Gracie was still young and confused about her sexuality but that doesn't excuse or justify her cheating on her boyfriend. And the fact she didn't even tell Ashley about that?? Red flag. I'd want to know if my Fiancée was a cheater.
I ended my 2024 with the first two American Superstar books and started my 2025 with the 3rd and final book. Then I saw that this spin-off book had been released written by the same author and I was all in after having loved the other three books.
Forget Me Not is another must read. I loved Ashley and Gracie and their struggle to find back to each other. The Right Now chapters with all the angst was my absolute favourite parts of the book, but also the backstory key to understand a little more about their background and love story. The last 15% of the book was amazing, and when the epilogue came I did of course cry and listen to the You're Still The One, that perfect song for the feeling I had while reading.
I needed a bit of a lighter romance with some emotions packed in and a happily ever after once the previous book was done. This is exactly as it says on the tin: a story about a happy couple who are engaged and finally successful in their respective careers after a hard slog and tragedy in their younger lives, and then one of them loses her memory. Honestly, I think this premise could have easily be stretched out to a duology because while the premise is a bit done to death (memory loss, do not recognise major love interest!), the journey to creating a new life together by letting go of the old memories that may never return would make a fulfilling and emotional road spread out over two books. As it stands, the only problems I had with this book are the obvious villains being too moustache-twirly villainous instead of it being a legitimate choice for Gracie to regress to an earlier time in her life or embrace the new, improved version of herself when she does not recall the work she's done to get there.
This was a well built upon romance. While I'm not usually a fan of jumping timelines, the author found a way to balance the two to show the love story Gracie has no memory of while also showing her struggle with losing years of her life. It was heart wrenching and also sweet.
Wow. This book gave me all the feels. I cried a bit, smiled, laughed. These two were beautiful together. Gracie’s mother is such a horrible person! I would have loved to see Gracie’s sister and sister’s husband be more supportive. Also, I wanted to read about Gracie loving Bailey and apologizing to him! LOL He deserved all the belly rubs in the world. The story was engaging. I loved the friendships. I really enjoyed this! PS. I knew Amanda was a psycho! I would have liked a scene where Ashley gets an explanation from Gracie regarding that situation. In my opinion, Dane redeemed himself for telling Gracie the truth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I don’t usually write reviews but holy cannoli this book was PHENOMENAL. It had me laughing and screeching and sobbing like a damn baby the whole way through. Split timelines are a hit or miss trope, and Shay Paris absolutely hit the mark with this one. It had just enough angst to keep you on your toes, but at its heart, the sweeping romance of Gracie and Ashley is a tale for the ages. Forget me not immediately worked its way onto my top three favorite books, no contest.
This book took me on a rollercoaster of emotions and I absolutely loved it! The author does a fantastic job of developing characters with so much dimension. The story was very engaging and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Seeing Ashley and Gracie triumph after going through so many trials and tribulations could make the coldest of hearts believe in the power of love. I would love to see a sequel to this story!
OMG.. I cried for the whole dang book!!!!! This book shattered me! I only wish we had more to the story on the back end. Felt like it fight or flight, then just a small breath in the end.
Written with passion, strength and rawness. Love finding one another after all of life’s struggles. In life, where love exists it gives us the courage to be and the ability to live authentically.
This book kept me up until 5am reading. It was a true roller coaster of emotion. Each chapter, I fell more in love with Ashley and Gracie’s story while feeling more desperate for everything to fall back in place.
I need Shay to write books forever because everything she writes is gold!
Thank god I found this book! I’ve recently been reading Sapphic romance after Sapphic romance but the plots got so samey. Enemies to lovers, fake dating, etc etc and I felt like I was in a reading slump, I wanted something different. Well here it is! This is like a lesbian Nicholas Sparks. I wanted a book that had that SOMETHING in the story to grip me and Forget Me Not delivered just that, I read the whole thing in a day.
This book gives you a trauma that you are so invested in. Gracie is in an accident and loses the last 5 years of her memory, when she wakes up she has no idea who Ashley her fiancée is. My heart absolutely broke for Ashley, i haven’t read a book that explained pain and love like this in a long time, the writing really helps you get into that head space.
There are flashback chapters which I’m not usually a fan of BUT, I think in this instance it really adds depth to the story you can understand how much they mean to each other. And when the last bit of the book gets really gripping, luckily the flashback chapters stop so you can really get invested in the present and how the ending unfolds.
My only criticism is that I wish there was another chapter between the last chapter and the epilogue so we could get a bit more of the happy ending Ashley has been fighting so hard for. But asking for more isn’t really a bad criticism right? It certainly doesn’t end on a cliff hanger, the feel good ending is exactly what I needed.
This book is a spin off from the authors other series but I read this book first and it all made sense so don’t feel like you have to read the other ones before Forget Me Not!
- A love story to fight for after a traumatic accident that turns their lives upside down - Writing that gets you so involved in the characters emotions it will bring tears to your eyes - Some steamy sex scenes to show the connection between Gracie and Ashley without it making the book all about sex