Book Review – Remember When (The Remember Trilogy #1) by T. Torrest

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• Buy REMEMBER WHEN (Paperback)

“Years before Trip Wiley could be seen on movie screens all over the world, he could be seen in the desk behind me in my high school English class.”

4 stars

A light-hearted quick read that took me right back to high school and that whole first crush/first love feeling! Of course, my high school crush didn’t grow up to be the next Brad Pitt, but I digress.

This book had me smiling, swooning and chucking to myself from the first chapter. There were a few moments so that were so funny that when I tried to read them aloud to my husband, I was laughing and crying too hard to get the words out!

“Are you there, God? It’s me, Layla. I know I just jerked off some guy who is not even my boyfriend in the bathroom of this crappy, brown house. But if you could find a way to kill me quickly and painlessly within the next ten seconds, I promise to never touch another penis again. Well, I’ll be dead so, I guess I promise not to whore it up in heaven. Which, of course is where you’ll be sending me, right? I mean, I’d hate to think you’d deny me an eternity behind your pearly gates just because of one impetuous hand job. Thank you. Sincerely, Layla Warren. Amen.”

LOL! See what I mean? 😉

The trilogy is a second-chance romance. The hero, Trip, and the heroine, Layla, met in high school and fell in love. But, at the end of the year, their lives took them in opposite directions and it was years before they reconnected. This entire book is a flashback showing us how they met and taking us through their year together in school and is told from Layla’s POV, as though she’s looking back and directly telling the story to the reader.

It’s all total high school fun. There are crushes and jealousies and miscommunications but I found everything really endearing. The characters were quite lovable and I really  just enjoyed my read.

Most of the time, the purposes of a high school party were to socialize, drink and hook up. The latter of which I was reminded of while waiting in line for the bathroom as Coop Benedict tried to stick his tongue in my ear…
“He your boyfriend?”
I stammered out, “Uh, no. God, no. Why’d you think that?”
Trip raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know… Maybe because I saw him tonsil-deep in your ear a few minutes ago and yet he still has his balls.”

I absolutely adored all the parts of the book which were focused on Trip and Layla. I do wish their romance had developed a little further though. They certainly had feelings for each other from the start but a part of me wished that there was more time in the book spent on “them” but I’m sure we’ll see more of that when they reconnect in the next book.

“No, Layla. I won’t stop.” He moved closer, cradling my head to his chest before continuing. “I know you’re leaving and I would never try to keep you from going, and I guess I have my own path to follow as well. But don’t ever ask me to stop loving you, because I can’t. Don’t ever think I’ll be able to forget you, because I won’t.”

I read it in one quick sitting but I do wish that I had waited because this book does end on a cliffhanger. Well, technically it wasn’t a surprising cliffhanger (‘cuz we all know they get separated after high school) but still… I wish I had the rest of the story ready to go because fucking hell, I hate goodbyes 🙁

“Is there anything so powerful as the love of two teenagers bring ripped apart?”

I heard book #2 has a cliffhanger that’s even bigger than this one so I’m going to wait til the third and final book is released and then read 2 & 3 back to back but I will definitely be reading on in the series. The little snippet I saw from book #2 had me intrigued so I’m looking forward to seeing where their story goes from here 🙂

** Edit: all books are now available!!

4 stars

• Buy REMEMBER WHEN (Kindle)
• Buy REMEMBER WHEN (Paperback)

My casting:

• Trip (just imagine him in high school for this book)