I received this book for free (hey, thanks!) in exchange for an honest review. I promise that this does NOT affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. For real.
Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Published by Hachette on April 1, 2025
Also by this author: The Friend Zone, The Happy Ever After Playlist, Life's Too Short , Part of Your World, Yours Truly, Just for the Summer
Format: eARC (368 pages) • Source: Publisher
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There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes-all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there's nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong...
. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date-possibly the best in living history-Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.
Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life-and even a love-worth remembering.
.........................FIND OUT WHY READERS ARE FALLING IN LOVE WITH ABBY JIMENEZ . . .
'Sweet and achingly romantic - a truly wonderful love story' BETH O'LEARY'Full of fierce humour and fiercer heart' CASEY MCQUISTON
'A deliciously hot, sweet debut. This book is an absolute treat' L. J. SHEN
I decided that in order to start the year on the right foot, like I have done many times in the past, I wanted a guaranteed 4-5 star read. Who better than Abby Jimenez to deliver that? I decided to read her upcoming April release right on January 1st to ensure a solid start to 2025 and of course she delivered.
The synopsis is really vague and I genuinely had no idea what to expect from this book. All I knew was that a grumpy vet and headstrong woman would have a magical night together, only to be told “just forget about me.” Turns out, she’s moving away to the other side of the country to deal with some family issues.
I loved Xavier and Samantha from the very beginning and still managed to laugh in between the crying. The story follows them and their long distance love story. There really is just something about the way Abby Jimenez writes – this was a HEAVY read and at times repetitive, but her characters and their chemistry and emotions just make it all worth it. I really don’t like reading sad books and if this was written by anyone else, it would never make it on my TBR (knowing what I know now at least – as I said, the synopsis is super basic).
Samantha’s mom is suffering from dementia and Xavier grew up in an abusive household so there’s a LOT of tough things to work through. Because the two characters did a lot of long distance talking and random visits to each other while balancing these family and financial issues, it wasn’t a fluffy love story. Yes, it had Abby’s signature wit and banter though, hence the laughing between the crying. Xavier was incredible – an “airport dad” who always kept things in line, remembered people’s favorite drinks or snacks, and generally set the bar high as hell for any other potential book boyfriend. Samantha was funny and enjoyable to follow; her sibling relationships also felt so real.
I couldn’t figure out how the two of them were going to make it work so I spent a lot of the book overthinking how Abby was going to end the story. There were many chapters that got repetitive, as I mentioned before, because they’d end with the same sentiment of “I love them so much, we can never be together, this sucks, etc.”
The ending was two seconds away from pissing me off but of course I should have trusted Abby lol. I liked where things ended up overall and found it to be really logical given the rest of the plot points. It was not a super tidy story – it felt real in pretty much every possible way. I don’t know if this is my favorite book because the heavier elements are not usually for me, but I ADORED this couple. I think if you loved JUST FOR THE SUMMER as much as I did and were able to handle the tough parent situation in that one, you’ll definitely feel similar for this book.
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