“Forget Me Not” Book Review

A mildly spoilery review of yet another contemporary rom-com about florists and such, by author Julie Soto

Hello everyone! Welcome back to yet another it’s-been-way-too-long update from me. Let me tell you, there has been a lot going on in my life, but I definitely haven’t stopped reading through it all. I have a stack of finished books, but no started reviews. Shame on me. So let’s get started!

“Forget Me Not” follows wedding planner Ama and florist Elliot as they navigate both their professional and personal lives when they’re thrust together to work on the celebrity wedding of the year. It doesn’t help that they have a history together – one that didn’t end on the best of terms a few years back. Can they be professional planning this wedding together, or will sparks fly (again) and make everything come crashing down… or will it?

I’m a sucker for a second-chance romance, especially if it’s one that went from friends to lovers to enemies (but there’s still that yearning) and back to lovers. This book fits that bill pretty well.

Ama and Elliot have a history through their jobs, and they started a relationship even though Ama didn’t want to commit to anything – especially marriage. She’s jaded by the whole thing, even though she’s a wedding planner. Oh, she loves weddings, she just hates marriage. Which is an understandable thing, considering a lot of the weddings she works on end in resentment and heartbreak and her own mother collects divorces like it’s 1999 and they’re newly released Beanie Babies. Yet somehow, with this mindset, Ama cannot deny the chemistry that blooms (ha) between her and Elliot, and they begin a tenderhearted and sweet, sweet romance. (Seriously, I swooned more than once for Elliot Bloom.)

I like the pacing of this book. The dual POV is interesting; the reader is in Ama’s POV during the present, and in Elliot’s POV for all the flashback chapters. The progression of their past personal relationship woven through their current professional relationship kept me turning the pages, wanting to see how the heck it couldn’t have possibly worked out between these crazy kids and what they’re going to do about it.

There also wasn’t a character in this book that I didn’t like. Jackie and Hazel are the two people whose wedding Ama is planning, and they are a likable duo that so obviously love each other. They want to have the “perfect wedding” but they also want their future spouse to have it as well. It’s adorable, but can lead to problems for the wedding planner and the florist, which happens a few times throughout the story. I love the representation of the LGBTQ+ romance and while it was more a background romance, it added more color and love to the story.

A big subplot is Ama getting too close to the people whose wedding she’s planning. She’s been invited to bridal showers, bachelorette parties, after wedding brunches… Her former boss tells her time and again to not get too attached to the brides, using some form of “they’re your clients, not your friends.” While I can see where her former boss is coming from, it shows how warm and squishy Ama’s heart and soul is, and I would probably be in the same boat as her if I were a wedding planner. You’re planning what to many people is the happiest day of their lives. (Full disclosure: it shouldn’t be. Don’t go into a marriage believing the best day is the FIRST DAY OF YOUR MARRIAGE and it’s all downhill from there??) There’s a lot of emotion and happiness and excitement, it would be hard to not get caught up in that. So when Jackie and Hazel see the thick sexual tension between their wedding planner and their florist, they only want to see them as happy as they are! And with the feeling of camaraderie between the four of them, it’s only natural to try and give Ama and Elliot a little nudge in the right direction.

A fun tidbit that I couldn’t help but giggle at is how Ellliot doesn’t really want to be a florist, but he’s just so damn good at it he sticks around. The floral company was passed down to his after his father passed away, and he took over when no one else could. An admirable trait, but amusing that he stuck around because he was good at it, and then stuck around a bit more because it brought him closer to Ama. A romantic through and through.

So if you’re a fan of contemporary rom-coms, men calling flowers by their scientific names, friends to lovers to enemies to who knows, yearning and longing, and lots of boy heartbreak, this book is for you!

Have you read “Forget Me Not”? Is it on your TBR? Do you have thoughts?? Let me know in the comments below! I always love to chat about books and such.