3.5 ⭐️

This book is a debut novel about a budding romance between two teen girls and their plans for their future until the unthinkable happens and one of them is in an accident leaving her with amnesia.

This was a solid story with good writing. The characters were well written with varying personalities that really added to the book and made it feel real. This book holds so many layers that all pack a punch; not only is there amnesia, but Stevie as a character experiences falling out of friendships, racism (being a Korean American in a predominantly white, southern, small town), homophobia, and more. Despite the sadness that came with the accident in the beginning, the story held up a happy and satisfying ending. I would definitely recommend this (I actually already have) to anyone looking for a small town, coming of age, lgbtq, finding yourself, feel good (at the ending anyway) novel.

Genre: YA Sapphic Romance
TW: Homophobia, Amnesia, Racism
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[5/5]
Spice: Closed Door
Review written by: M
*Thank you NetGalley & Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this ARC*

I don’t even know where to begin, all I know is that my heart has been shattered into more pieces that I could possibly ever know and as I sit to write this, I am still wiping away the tears. I related to this story on so many levels, it just felt raw and stripped me of everything. I devoured this book in the span of 24 hours because I just couldn’t put it down. The book follows Nora & Stevie who have a secret one-in-a-lifetime kind of love that would be frowned upon by the residents of their ultra-conservative town. After having an accident, Stevie suffers from amnesia and can’t remember the last two years of her life which include remembering Nora, her epic love. This leaves them both having to figure out how to move forward since the future they planned together crumbled in an instant.

It was a heart wrenching story that just had the right amount of sadness, joy, love, and hope mixed in. It had such great lessons that I will be taking into my own personal life. Thank you to Alyson Derrick for writing this amazing, and in my option, deeply personal story. I feel like you can only write something with so much power behind it if are truly passionate about it. It’s a perfectly wrapped gift for all those people who don’t feel like they’re accepted by society or their loved ones and serves as a reminder to never stop being true to yourself.

Whether you relate to the story on a personal level, after reading this you will have a heightened sense of empathy, a deeper understanding for what others may be going through, and the power behind words and actions. I can’t wait for this book to be released and recommend it to everyone.

This book has my heart right now. Being gay and living in a small conservative town, an Asian mc who must deal with racism, just the attention to several big problems for many, many Americans living in this country right now. And, not just mentioning these problems but speaking about them in this story in such an honest way.

Stevie and Nora are in love. They have a new life waiting for them in California. However, all of that changes when Stevie falls into a ravine and has permanent amnesia about the past two years after she wakes up from a coma.

So, this is a story of friendship and finding out who your true friends really are. About finding yourself. This is a story about falling in love, and then forgetting everything and falling back in love with a beautiful human who never gave up.

If you can't tell... I loved every piece of this book. It lives up to the hype and more. It's my new moody read for when I'm feeling cloudy.

Out April 4, 2023!

Some warnings for racism, homophobia, and domestic violence.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

I went into this book fully expecting it to break my heart, and it absolutely did, but in the best possible way. Did I cry? Yes, very much so. (Disclaimer: I cry very easily. But still.)

I grew to love and adore Stevie and Nora, and even Ryan. Stevie's parents, I had slightly more complicated feelings for, but that just means they were real, and honestly, when it came down to it (slight spoiler?) I wish more people had parents like her, and less like Nora's.

Is the whole plot (oh nooo amnesia), a little tropey and contrived? Maybe, but I like that kind of thing, and so do a lot of other people. And the way it's handled here felt a lot more real than some of the other amnesia depictions you see in media. No one's magically cured here by another whack across the head, which I appreciated.

All in all, a beautiful read with a satisfying conclusion.

This young adult sapphic love story was a beautiful second coming of age.

Stevie and her girlfriend Nora have planned to escape their extremely close minded, racist, and conservative hometown. A few months away from their travel date, Stevie sustains a head injury resulting in her forgetting the last two years of her life. Including all her memories of her relationship with Nora.

It was sweet to watch Stevie and Nora find their way back to each other and fall in love a second time. I don’t often read memory loss tropes from the prospective of the person who’s clinging to any scraps of mementos trying to glue their lives back together. And this was a refreshing take on this tried and true plot.

Despite reading this one fairly quickly I felt the pain Stevie endured trying to reconcile her old life with her new one. And having to relive the racism and homophobia she’s attempted to ignore while coming to terms with being a Korean lesbian all over again.

This was a genuine YA romance that will definitely capture the hearts of its readers.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For fans of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, and the classic novel The Notebook, “Forget Me Not” is a beautiful, emotional, imaginative novel all about young love and second chances. The main character, Stevie, is involved in an accident, and tries to regain her life back - and that includes her now-lost love with Nora. Can life and love ever be found again, after a soul-shattering accident? Through the story, love letters, and bits of hope - we follow Stevie into her abyss, and root for her to save herself and the people she loves. I had this “don’t give up….don’t give up…” feeling the entire book. My heart twisted in tension. Memories and truths can float away - but don’t give up on your own, and read along with Stevie, who ultimately, embraces truths about herself. Five out of five stars for this heart-warming story of a young woman’s courage in the face of adversity.

So grateful to Simon and Schuster Publishing via NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this arc. All opinions are 100% my own.

Forget Me Not is a stunning, breathtaking, and fantastic solo debut from Alyson Derrick!

Forget Me Not follows the story of Stevie and Nora who have been dating in secret for the past two years while living in a conservative, rural Pennsylvania town. Because of an accident, Stevie ends up in a coma for two weeks and forgets that the past two years happened. Stevie forgets that she is in love with Nora! When she wakes up, she thinks she’s still 15 and can’t understand why she would choose to push her parents and friends away. Through rediscovering herself and trying to remember the past, she ends up falling in love with Nora all over again.

Alyson Derrick does a really fantastic job of making the reader care about her characters from the very first page and continues to make you care about them throughout the entire story. I was not bored once will reading this book. The letters that Nora writes to Stevie were some of my favorite parts. Derrick’s story telling really shines through in those letters and the angst is so tangible.

The setting for this story couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m from the surrounding Pittsburgh area and being able to read about some of the places that Stevie and Nora go to, that I’ve also been to, was so much fun.

The only reason I docked this book down to 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the ending. I am SO happy that Stevie’s parents accepted her after reading her letter, but it almost felt too easy. It also felt very rushed and I would like to have read more of their conversation, maybe like a bonus epilogue where Stevie’s parents visit her and Nora in California.

It was a treat to read about these two young women finding each other again and falling in love all over again. I hope we get a sequel or at least a novella about their lives in California. I’d love to see how they’re doing!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The romance in this book was so incredibly sweet and I loved the premise of falling back in love with someone. I also loved the internal dialogue of the main character, Stevie.

My issue is that the premise of the book is so far-fetched that it felt a bit silly. It definitely fell into being a little too trope-y at times, which I think lessened the impact of some key moments in the book.

That being said, I still really enjoyed it and think this is a great queer YA romance if that's what you're looking for!

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I added Forget Me Not to my TBR list after reading the summary; I’ve never been one to like amnesia plots in TV shows, but I feel like it’s rarely done in YA novels. Truthfully, I thought this would be from both Stevie’s and Nora’s point-of-view, but the story did work with only one character’s first person. Forget Me Not was a powerful story of choosing love over a life of complacency.

Stevie and Nora have been together in secret for two years. They’re days away from leaving their close-minded small town for a new life in California together—until Stevie is in a horrible accident and loses her memory of the past two years. Now, she has to relearn who she’s become during this time, including befriending Nora—whom she doesn’t remember—and maybe rediscovering their love.

This book was incredibly short, which I actually enjoyed. I do think the story moved a little too quickly at times, but honestly I think that’s better than dragging horribly just for the sake of angst. We do get letters from Nora between chapters, but these are fairly short and add a layer of emotion with her point-of-view.

When Stevie wakes up from her coma, she thinks her life is the same as when she was fifteen. Now, she has to rediscover why she’s drifted away from her parents, who she was close with, and her best friends, who gradually reveal their true colors again. All of this happens pretty quickly, in addition to her “meeting” Nora again. Stevie’s friends also convince her that she had a crush on Ryan, a boy who works at the diner they frequent (which is kinda horrible in my opinion, but they obviously are bad friends in general), and he turns out to be a breath of fresh air amidst the other side characters.

Stevie and Nora live in a small town in Pennsylvania, where racism and homophobia are rampant, and they both know their parents wouldn’t be accepting of them if their relationship became public. They’ve both been counting down the days till graduation to get out, but when Stevie has her accident, Nora decides to stay behind in the small chance that she will remember her. Since Stevie doesn’t remember the past two years, she doesn’t even think about the chance that she’s not straight.

I thought it was very sweet to read about the two of them getting to know each other again. Although Stevie doesn’t remember Nora, she can’t help but feel at home with her whenever they hang out. This isn’t really a story of discovering her sexuality either, but rather she realizes her love for Nora outshines everything else.

Forget Me Not was a sweet story about how love wins against all odds. I liked the characters well enough and enjoyed the short length of the book. You’ll fly through Forget Me Not, especially if you’re a fan of sapphic love stories!

Stevie and Nora have been in love for the past two years, forced to hide their relationship from their family and community in their ultra-conservative, rural hometown in Pennsylvania. They plan to move to California in the fall following their high school graduation, until Stevie has an accident, causing her to lose her memories from the past two years, including her relationship Nora. As Stevie attempts to recover and rebuild her life, she befriends Nora, giving Nora hope that Stevie will find her way back and remember.

After reading and loving SHE GETS THE GIRL, a book the author co-wrote with her wife Rachael Lippincott {one of my favorite authors}, I was so excited to read Alyson Derrick’s solo debut novel. This was an absolutely beautiful, unputdownable story, touching on the heartbreaking hate and bigotry we see far too frequently in our country in regard to homophobia and racism. As a young adult book, it’s a quick read, and will be equally loved by adults and teens alike. I loved following Stevie’s journey as she recovers from her accident and battles amnesia, and I’d highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my gifted e-ARC!

Forget Me not was a beautiful and heart wrenching tale of love and forgetting. Living in a small, backwards, homophobic town, it's not easy for our protagonists to be together and be in love in a committed queer relationship, but what makes it worse is when Stevie gets into an accident and completely forgets her life over the past two years with Nora. Nora's beautiful and poignant letters to Stevie and she recovers and the way she inserts herself back into Steview's life show that they were always meant to be and you can never truly forget your true love, despite prejudices aiming to pull them apart

Wooooo okay 😅 this book was hearbreaking and the sweetest thing ever. Stevie & her girlfriend of 2 years Nora unfortunately live in a small, very homophobic town and have to keep their relationship a secret. I hate that for them but love it as a premise. Imagine my heartbreak when Stevie gets into an accident and ends up losing her memory of the last two years 😭😭😭 and her extremely shitty friends decide to pop up and LIE like little brats (ugh I am not over it).
Nora’s notes give me so much joy—I love that it’s an unusual (at least for my usual reads) mode of communicating what’s going on, and Nora is just a joy anyway. I am endlessly proud of Stevie standing up for herself, and finding real friendship post-accident. I don’t want to spoil but gosh the last bit of the book absolutely had me in tears 😭😭😭 I loved it so very much
🏫🐄🗡️
“ɪ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪꜰ ɪ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ɢᴏ ʙᴀᴄᴋ…ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴇʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ’ꜱ ᴏᴋᴀʏ. ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴇʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴏ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴡʜᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴀʟʟ ɪɴ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ, ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴜʀᴄʜ ᴏʀ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ ᴇʟꜱᴇ ꜱᴀʏꜱ. ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ’ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪᴛ’ꜱ ʜᴀʀᴅ, ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴀᴠᴏɪᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀʀᴅ ᴛɪᴍᴇꜱ. ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴇʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ’ᴍ ꜱᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ᴛᴏ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀꜱᴇʟꜰ ᴡɪᴛʜ, ᴀɴᴅ ɪ’ᴅ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴘᴇɴᴅ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇʀ ꜱᴏ ɪ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ꜱᴇᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱᴇᴇ ɪɴ ʜᴇʀ.”

Alyson Derrick has officially become one of my favorite authors. She truly wrote a book was will stay with me for the rest of my life. Excuse me while I go cry over it forever.

Let me start off this review by saying please don’t let my rating deter you from reading this book. Forget Me Not is a gorgeous story that hit a little too close to home that made it harder for me to fully enjoy it.

Stevie and Nora have secretly been dating for two years in their ultra Conservative town and plan on moving to California at the end of the summer. But when Stevie has an accident, she loses her memories from the past two years, thus forgetting Nora altogether. I do wish there was more of Stevie and Nora’s relationship prior to Stevie’s accident, though Nora’s journal entries to Stevie help fill the gap. The two are extremely adorable together and their relationship is definitely the highlight of the book for me.

Go into this book knowing most of the secondary characters are garbage humans. Stevie’s “best friends” are awful people and don’t get me started on Nora’s mom who is a literal trash can. Spoiler alert, but I was happy to see Stevie’s parents be supportive towards the end of the book.

Overall, Forget Me Not is a heartbreaking beautiful story of true love and finding your way back home.

I received an ARC from Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

this was a beautifully done romance novel, it does a great job in keeping you invested in the story and the characters. I enjoyed what Alyson Derrick wrote this and getting to meet these characters. I was glad I was able to enjoy this young adult novel.

"There’s a pressure building in my sinuses that makes me feel like my head is going to explode, which would probably be the very last thing it needs right now. I have to get out of here. I can feel it all the way to my bones, this need to run. I throw my legs over the bed and push myself up onto them, but they’re too weak. My body gives out underneath me and I end up on my hands and knees, crawling. Through the black spots strobing across my field of vision, I see a door ajar, yellow light escaping through the crack."

Alyson has been on my radar ever since SHE GETS THE GIRL, and her solo debut did not disappoint. Full of heart, with a touch of humor and a cast of instantly lovable characters, FORGET ME NOT is not a book to miss. This is quite possibly going to clock in as one of my favorite books of the year!

i just just finished reading FORGET ME NOT by alyson derrick, a sapphic young adult contemporary romance about two girls in a secret relationship—stevie & nora—who plan to leave their small, conservative town & move to california where they can be together freely. but after a tragic fall takes stevie’s memory, she’s unable to remember nora at all.

i first fell in love with alyson’s writing in SHE GETS THE GIRL (which she wrote with her wife, rachael lippincott) & every page of her writing in this solo debut was beautiful. FORGET ME NOT is romance as it’s meant to be: tender, devastating, and hopeful all at once. the main character, stevie, is a korean-american lesbian living in a town where very few people look like her & even less are queer. though the small town of wyatt she lives in is fictional, her experiences are very real ones. as a black lesbian from rural ohio, i saw myself in stevie; the way she made herself smaller in the face of homophobia & racism, the loneliness she felt, and most devastatingly—the shame in her own identity her living situation caused.

but as the dedication promises, it gets better. as hopeless as stevie’s situation is with her losing not only herself but the love of her life, she’s able to find light in the darkness that looms over her life in herself, in nora, and in the most unlikely of places.

FORGET ME NOT was a breathtaking ode to the power of love, hope, and dreams in the face of impossible odds. i highly recommend everyone pre-order it before it releases in april. 🌷🤍

I thought parts of this book were really good. I love YA contemporary, especially LGBTQ YA, and I really loved the relationship between the two girls in this story. I think (as a vegan) that there were some weird parts in the veganism discussions, but overall that it definitely doesn't take away from the story. I will definitely pick up more books by Alyson Derrick. 4 stars!

Sometimes you start a book and you just know from the start that it will be a shining 5/5 and that it will stay with you for a long time. This was one of those books. I loved every second of it! Such a beautiful book about losing someone and finding your way back. I really felt their connection and love throughout the entire book.

From the beginning of the book its clear why Stevie and Nora need to leave the small town and its beautifully shown through the way they keep their relationship hidden. When Stevie gets in the accident and forgets the past two years her ”friends” acts horrible and tries to get Stevie to become someone else that she wasn’t, and her mother tries to re-establish a close relationship since they’ve grown apart. Stevie has also hidden her relationship with Nora so well that she forgets it completely herself.

I love that we dont only see Steve’s pov in here as she finds her way back to herself and who she is, but also get to read letters that Nora writes to Stevie (but doesn’t send).

I would honestly recommend this book to everyone - its so beautiful, raw, emotional and full of love! Alyson Derrick really did the damn thing with this, I cant wait to see what she writes next! I love both this book and She gets the girl (which she co-wrote with her wife Rachel <3)

Sometimes you start a book and you can tell right away that it's going to be great, that it's going to stick with you for a while and you won't want it to end. This is that book. What a beautiful story about losing someone and finding them again. I devoured the entire thing in one sitting because I didn't want to step away from Stevie and Nora's love. Their chemistry and connection was felt the whole way through. I'm going to he gushing over this book for awhile and recommending it to everyone I can.

A perfect 5/5

READ THIS BOOK!!!