Reviews — Forgetting August & Remembering Everly (Lost & Found Duet) by JL Berg

Do you think it’s possible to be in love
with a woman you don’t remember?

• Buy #1 FORGETTING AUGUST (Kindle)
• Buy #2 REMEMBERING EVERLY (Kindle)

WOW! I just finished a mini reading marathon where I read both books in the “Lost & Found” duet back-to-back!!! It was so ADDICTIVE!! I couldn’t put it down! If you read the blurb, you’ll notice that it’s quite a unique story — the hero wakes up from a coma with amnesia and doesn’t remember the heroine! But when he starts piecing his past together, he realizes that it’s so much uglier than he ever expected and he has to fight like hell to fix it and win back the love of this one girl who he can’t stop thinking about!!!

This was one of those stories that I just flew through without breaks! The more I read, the more questions I had!! And I couldn’t stop until I got to the very end!! It’s a romance duet (meaning a 2-book series) and the first book “Forgetting August” is already available, and the second book “Remembering Everly” is available for pre-order now (I read an early copy). Definitely be sure to check ’em out!!

First, I’ll share the blurb from the first book because it was what made me want to read it:

She can forgive, but can she forget?

Some days, Everly still thinks she sees him. In the food court at the mall, or in a car speeding past as the light changes. It only lasts a second, but when it happens, she slips back to a time when she was ruled-and nearly ruined-by August Kincaid. And it doesn’t matter that she’s moved on, that she’s about to marry another man. In those moments the only thing she can do to regain control is take a deep breath and remind herself that August can’t hurt her-because he’s in a coma. Except that he’s not anymore.

August is awake. With no memories, he sets out to solve the mystery of his lost life. He unearths a photograph of a beautiful redhead named Everly and knows instinctively that she’s the key. But when he finds her, the August she describes is more monster than man.

Tortured by the thought of having hurt her, August wants only to become the man Everly deserves. As the new August emerges, Everly glimpses the person she first fell in love with. But can she trust that thisAugust is real? When the final secret of their shared past is revealed, one of them will make a choice that changes their future forever…

Pretty intriguing, huh?

I was hooked from the first page of the Forgetting August. As you read, the story goes back and forth between August and Everly’s hugely different perspectives as he awakens to a life he has absolutely no memories of and as she desperately tried to heal from the emotional ruin he’d left her in.

So many questions were running through my mind…
— what put him in the coma in the first place?
— what kind of man was he now?
— would they get back together? should they even?
— was it fair to Ryan that she consider going back to August?
— would she be foolish to ever consider returning to a man who’d once put her through hell? or was there a chance he’d genuinely changed for the better?
— was there more we didn’t know about why he used to be the way he was?
— was there even right or wrong answers? or were there just choices and consequences?

These types of questions were what kept me flying through the pages of these books. I really liked that even though Everly had clearly been through a lot, she was trying to be strong while still recognizing that she needed help and was regularly going to therapy. One way or the other, she was determined to never again allow herself to be claimed by any man. She belonged to no one other than herself.

No matter how much he loved me.
No matter how much I loved him in return.
I would never, ever belong to another man.
For as long as I lived.

I feel I should say that August never physically abused her in their past. It’s not an excuse and things definitely got ugly, but you do get an explanation for how things deteriorated to that state. I’m only saying this because I know it can be a trigger for some readers so I wanted to put out that reassurance.

I have to say that I couldn’t help but root for her and August to get back together. I think there are some people in life that you just have a connection to — a connection so deep that nothing can erase it no matter what happens. In his purest form, without the influences that had changed him in his past life, August  was actually a really wonderful guy.

That was what scared me most of all. That after everything, there was still a fraction of me somewhere deep down that missed him as much as the rest of me hated him.

A few of you are bound to be wondering about the love triangle aspect so I just wanted to say this without giving any spoilers — as a reader, I’m not a fan of love triangles at all, but I was totally okay with both the situation in this book and the manner in which it was resolved. I don’t want to say more because a huge part of the thrill is figuring things about along the way, but the titles of the books alone are big hints and you should just know that I was totally fine with everything given the specifics of this situation.

As you get closer to the end of the first book, the intensity builds and yes, you’re left on a huuuuuuuge cliffhanger. Luckily, the next book does pick up right where the first one left off though. Thankfully, I had both books available to me at once because I deeeeeesperately needed to know what happened next.

At this point, beginning the second book, I’d began putting two and two together — clearly things were not as they seemed and there was definitely a story behind the story so to speak… And in this book, the stakes were raised as the dangers of August’s past collided with the present forcing him to make some heart-breaking decisions.

I think it’s a sign of really good writing when you literally don’t want to put the book down, and I read both of these books back-to-back in one fell swoop with barely time to breathe or blink.

“Do you every think of me — when I’m not around?” she asked softly…

Stepping in closer, so she could feel the breath of my words as they fell from my mouth, I whispered, “Every second, Everly. Every damn second.”

Overall, this was an addictive series that I really enjoyed! August and Everly’s story had me madly turning pages as I desperately tried to find out how they’d ever be able to find their way back together.

I loved how different this story was. I knew from the first time I read the blurb that this would be a series I’d want to read and now that I’ve finished it, I can say that I’m so glad I did!

“I don’t know how or why, but it’s only ever been you since the moment I woke up.”

Rating: 4 — 4.5 stars! Contemporary romance book duet.

• Buy #1 FORGETTING AUGUST (Kindle)
• Buy #2 REMEMBERING EVERLY (Kindle)