Customer Reviews

I Remember You

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading this author's last book I couldn't wait for this one to be released and I wasn't disappointed after reading it. At times funny, poignant, and emotionally captivating it was hard for me to put this one down once I started. Evans writes characters that I would want to be friends with and I find myself more times than not either laughing along with them or crying from their pain. If you liked her last bestseller, "The Love of Her Life," you undoubtedly will enjoy this one as well.

This is the old story of boy and girl grow up together, boy and girl move away and remain friends, and boy and girl become emotionally involved to a point where they are more than just friends but with a new twist that you wouldn't expect in the normal chick lit book. I'm not going to reveal the secret but it did throw me for a curve and gave the book the depth that I am used to reading about in her previous books. Tessa and Adam grew up together in a small town (Langford) that is known for its story-book like appearance and small town values. They are known to all as the little married couple because they are seldom seen without the other. As college approaches they both can't wait to leave their small town but for different reasons. Tessa wants to experience the exhilaration of a big city like London and Adam's excited about furthering his education.

Fast forward ten years and each of their lives have taken a different direction than they had originally planned. Upon the death of Adam's mother he loses the dream of going to college and just stays in the house he grew up in, working in the local bar. Tessa has been let go from her job and broken up with her boyfriend and sees a position as a teacher back in Langford where she had grown up. Though they have remained friends all of the past ten years their relationship is strained by Tessa moving away from Langford and Adam's inability to face the reality that his mother has died and he has to move on.

I loved this book for its ability to make me feel the emotions of the characters. At times I found Adam to be very selfish and Tessa to be a pushover but I also think that the flaws in these characters were what made them more human. I found myself hoping that they would find a way to be together but at the same time wondering if it was a good solution for them. This book was a really engrossing read from start to finish and I really hope that she continues writing books that make me stay up all night reading as she has done in the past and in this book as well.

Tess Tennant makes a drastic decision when she moves from London back to her quaint hometown of Langford. After living 12 years in the fast paced town of London, Tess loses her job and her boyfriend, and decides to hightail it back home. She secures a job as a classics professor, and quickly finds another London transplant to room with her. Tess's bests and oldest friend, Adam, still lives in Langford, and their friendship quickly becomes strong once again after Tess moves back. Friends since their childhood, Tess and Adam have survived many tests of friendships. But now, after years living in different cities, they are forced to deal with the situation that almost tore their tight bond apart.

I Remember You by Harriet Evans is a breathtaking read of friendship and love, filled with many surprises and twists along the way. Each time I thought I figured out the plot, another loophole was thrown in to knock me off balance. Evan's writing is fun yet emotional, and though I thought the story started off a bit too slow, the characters easily overpowered me and pulled me into their lives. With so many supporting characters- Tess's London roommate, the elderly and cruel town villain, and the American heartthrob Tess falls for in Rome, it is near impossible not to fall in love with this novel.

I've loved Harriet Evans' other three books and was looking forward to this one - but what a disappointment! It reads like a book that was completed in a hurry to meet a deadline, and edited without much thought. The book starts well, with all the usual romance and humor you would expect of an Evans novel. However, by the time you are half-way, the inconsistencies and flaws become too irritating to allow you to enjoy the plot. I appreciate the book IS a romance and, as such, you should expect some leeway in the writing, but after a while it simply became a relief to get to the last page. See below for a few examples - but be aware, Spoiler Alerts:

Eg - are we really expected to believe that a 5-Star hotel like Claridges in London would allow an unregistered guest into a room before the actual registered guests have checked-in? And would Claridges have a 'sleepy' doorman on the night shift?
Eg - would a College of Further Education organise an overseas field trip without having a contingency plan in the event of one of a party falling ill?
Eg - would travel insurance cover the cost of cancelled hotel rooms and re-booked flights for the whole group of travellers; none of whom are related or even friends with the party member who falls ill? If yes, can you please give me their name for future reference!

I hope the next book is written with more care and with the usual flare for storytelling that Ms Evans has demonstrated in the past.

I had such a good time reading this book that I was sad when it was over! Harriet Evans bases her books on likeable characters and interesting plot developments. "I Remember You" is the kind of book that the reader can get lost in. I remember putting it down on a few occasions to find myself surprised at how much time had gone by. An excellent read by a solid author.

I didn't find the plot of this book to be very believable - the devices of the small college, the Rome trip, and so on were incredibly artificial. But I really couldn't enjoy the book at all after the "first time intimacy" scene was repeated twice in the novel, word for word, to the point that I looked at my Kindle to make sure I hadn't accidentally pushed a button that took me back around 75 pages. Clearly, the author wrote the scene, then used it twice - but it's a shame that the editors didn't pick that up. Other minor details (Adam's father, etc.) were inconsistent throughout.

I loved, loved, loved this book. Harriet Evans just keeps getting better and better in my opinion. This is a story of childhood best friends and first love revisited. I think it's the kind of story that everyone can relate to in some way or another. Wether it be the idea of moving back home, revisitng your first love, struggles with keeping your oldest friend close... it all seems so familar to me. When I started this book I really thought it was going to be totally predictable, but it really wasn't. With all the twists and turns, she had me guessing all the way up to the end. I loved the relationship between Tess and Adam... they were both so frustrating at times, but they seemed very real to me. At times this book was truely heartbreaking, and other times uplifting and touching. And rest assured, you get your HEA... just maybe not the one your expecting as you go. ;)

My only complaint about this book, falls into the Spoiler category so be warned...
** SPOILER **
There also seems to be a re-occuring theme in this book of the past repeating itself. Most aparent when we get the the back story on Tess & Adam's summer fling, and then again when we get the back story on Lenora and Philip. What really bugged me was that this story was almost EXACTLY the same both times! It was kinda annoying, and could have been done much better. I get what Harriet Evans was trying to do here, but she could have gotten her point across without making the 2 stories EXACTLY the same! It just made it unrealistic. Like the fact that both Lenora and Tess started those days by throwing a spoon in the kitchen and breaking a dish. What are the chances that they would both start out the day the lost their virginity this exact same way?? Not likely. And the stories are a full chapter long... so as a reader, we had to read the exact same chapter twice really.

Harriet Evans' I REMEMBER YOU is colorful, entertaining, poignant, heartbreaking -- basically everything I look for in a good novel. What I wanted David Nicholls' ONE DAY to be -- a tale of best friends over the years, reuniting and loving and losing -- was all found here, and what a thoroughly enjoyable book it was.

Tess was a character with whom I could identify immediately: proud but a bit confused about where she's headed in life; adventurous, but still with a yearning to find "home." Adam has been her steadfast friend since they were children, growing up in town together, and everyone assumed they'd eventually find love in each other -- but not so. Through a succession of heartbreaks, heartaches and confusion, Adam and Tess lose touch. And when they eventually reunite, nothing is the same.

It's hard for me to say exactly what I loved about this story. It was emotional, yes, and that's the biggest boon for me: I felt emotionally invested with these people from the start. Their hurts were my hurts; their successes were my successes. Sweet, lovable Adam was hard not to fall for, too, even when he was off gallivanting through Langford, and Evans managed to perfectly capture the bittersweet feelings of first love. Since a terrible breakup, I've seen my first love once more -- and reading I REMEMBER YOU brought on a flood of feeling.

The English town in which Adam, Tess, Leonora and many others live really comes to life here, too. Throughout the novel, a huge tension exists between the "old and the new" -- the longtime residents who want nothing to change, even as a flood of tourists arrive to visit the Jane Austen Centre, and the new regime: younger people, some transplants from London, who are seeking modern amenities in a quieter setting. I loved the resolution to many of the problems that exist in the narrative, especially regarding the water meadows.

Not a novel I'll forget anytime soon -- and one that has me itching even more than usual to tromp around an English village.

I read one other Harriet Evan's novel and loved it but this one was downright tedious and just stultifyingly boooorrrring. I could not wait for it to end.

The story is about a girl, Tessa, who moves back to her small English hometown after having lost her job in London. She proceeds to get a job in the small town of Langdon and meets up with her oldest friend, Adam, who she has not seen for some time.

I did not like the characters and the story is muddled and rambles all over the place. The main characters,Tessa, Adam and Francesca,constantly put down the small town of Langdon and its inhabitants. Tessa the main character does not seem to like anybody in her hometown nor does she like her students. It begs the question: Why did she ever return to her hometown if she dislikes everybody so much?

There is a secondary story, actually there are quite a few story lines going on in this mish mash, about a local aristocrat, a woman that nobody likes and there are flashbacks to her early life as well as the current story of Tess and her return to Langford.

There is a trip to Rome that provides a new boyfriend for Tessa and then that peters out. The characters are unlikeable, the conversations are stilted, and the numerous story lines are rambling and non-cohesive. I would not waste any time on this one. Actually very sorry that I did since there are so many good books and so little time to have wasted my time on this one.

I have seen that this book got such good reviews so I picked it up and honestly, it was kind of a waste of time. It is not funny like Sophie Kinsella, no one is very likeable and the story just meanders back and forth without really gettng anywhere good. Disappointing.