‘Say You’ll Remember Me’ Chronicles the Challenges of Young Love [REVIEW]

When two teens from opposite sides of the tracks meet, it feels like kismet in Katie McGarry’s Say You’ll Remember Me. (Photo courtesy Pexels)

Two teens, one who just got out of juvie and one whose life is always in the spotlight, soon discover that we don’t always fall in love with the person we should. Will they have the courage to defy the odds and make a go of it? Find out in Katie McGarry’s delightful new novel, Say You’ll Remember Me. 

Harlequin Teen

Hendrix isn’t looking for love when he gets a second chance at life, or a “clean slate” as his brother Axle describes it. Nine months in juvenile detention and another three in the wilderness have clearly changed his priorities, even if he served the time for a crime he didn’t even commit. But his freedom didn’t come cheap. Now he’s the poster boy for the governor’s new rehabilitation program and has to walk a straight and narrow line for his entire senior year, ready to be paraded before the public at a moment’s notice.

Ellison is beautiful and smart and has ambitions of her own, even if she never manages to measure up to her parents expectations and the only person in her life who really gets her is her cousin, Henry. She doesn’t get to see him as much as she’d like since he joined the Army, so she’s struggling to be happy on her own, despite her growing need to assert her independence outside of her father’s shadow (who just so happens to be the governor of Kentucky). But that is easier said than done.

When Drix and Elle meet, the attraction is immediate and their connection is real. Suffice it to say, however, that this isn’t going to be an easy romance. After all, her parents aren’t going to exactly be over the moon about her falling for the very bad boy the governor is using to fulfill his campaign promises. And Drix’s complicated, unorthodox life and family isn’t very easy for a privileged girl to always understand either. Still, sometimes worlds collide and love blossoms where it wants, come what may, and now it is up to this unlikely pair to make a go of it. With so much going against them, will they be able to do it?

Katie McGarry’s Say You’ll Remember Me is a romantic coming-of-age novel that entertains from the start. Both Drix and Elle are enigmatic, fascinating, and charming teens with so much weighing on their shoulders, it would cause Atlas to shrug. Watching them struggle to balance it all even as they come into their own is fascinating, and readers won’t be able to resist cheering them on, hoping against hope that they can find a way to ultimately be together.

For everyone who loves a good story about star-crossed lovers (think Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, or any number of Nicholas Sparks’s novels), they are sure to find something to enjoy here. McGarry writes with authority and empathy, crafting characters who are authentic and troubled, all the while valiantly struggling to be optimistic and determined.

Teens will undoubtedly relish this story in the same way they did John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower. That being said, although this novel is marketed as teen fiction, like the aforementioned books it is ultimately a story for readers of all ages. After all, weren’t we all young once? That’s what makes Drix and Elle’s trials so powerful and moving, and what makes Say You’ll Remember Me one of my favorite new books for 2018.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katie McGarry

Katie McGarry is the author of Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On, Breaking the Rules, Chasing Impossible, Nowhere but Here, Walk the Edge, Long Way Home, and the novellas Crossing the Line and Red at Night. 

She was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She loves music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a closet University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie loves to hear from her readers and invites them to visit her at her home on the Web at KatieMcGarry.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME
By Katie McGarry
464 pgs. Harlequin Teen. $18.99

Purchase Say You’ll Remember Me at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble. Want to order a signed copy? Visit CarmichaelsBookstore.com.

Say You’ll Remember Me is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.