A tender tale that will steal your heart.
For most people, life is a tapestry woven with meaningful moments and swirling memories, but these have all been lost for Vickie. When a terrible accident leaves her suffering from retrograde amnesia, nobody seems to care. Nobody except the Hollywood heartthrob who accidentally hit her with his car. Without a phone, purse, or identification, she only has random ideas of who she might be outside of her bed at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Michigan, skydiving, Vickie, and matinees are a few of the words repeatedly drumming through her mind, but their significance is unclear. Even her name feels strange on her tongue, but at least it’s something to go by. Though the physical wounds start to heal, her spotty memories are frustrating and what they indicate about the woman she is, or the woman she was, is more vexing than any injuries. She learns that she does have family, but they obviously weren’t concerned enough to find her in the hospital. Her name isn’t actually Vickie, but Anne Strafford, wife to powerful businessman Frederick Strafford. Before Anne gets to reconnect with the husband she can’t remember, she finds divorce papers and evidence of her own infidelity. Toxic to everyone in her life, Anne can’t rationalize the woman she was with the woman she feels like she is. But the only direction she can move is forward, hopeful that forgiveness is something she can earn.
In a trope rife with possibility, this gripping amnesia romance makes excellent use of internal conflicts, dark twists, and likable characters. The foreshadowing builds anticipation, leading audiences to many potential conclusions before landing on steady ground. Part love story and part mystery, this novel reads like a whodunit where the detective work comes from Anne’s growing determination to not only uncover the realities of who she was but to remake herself into the person she wants to be. The book is divided into distinct periods in Anne’s life, including her convalescence and the regaining of some memories, her childhood to the time leading up to the accident, and her rocky road to redemption. My personal favorite is the dreamy first section, a span of time where, ironically, Anne comes to depend on the man who landed her in the hospital. Beloved actor Jack Post may be ultra-rich and driven by his illustrious career, but he is also tenderly compassionate and vulnerable enough that you really want them to have a happy ending together. Then the plot changes direction, leaving readers slack-jawed and holding on tight, eager to find out what happens next. In fact, the story arc is so engrossing that readers might overlook how smooth the author’s storytelling actually is. A riveting novel about a woman forced to own up to lies she can’t remember and live with pain she can’t forget, Forgetting Me is a tender tale that will steal your heart.
