Review: Until I Remember by Karla Sorensen

About the Book

She has no memory of choosing him. Her heart, apparently, didn’t get the memo.

I wake up in a hospital with a year of my life missing—and Grant Hastings at my bedside. I remember him, all right. He’s wealthy. Arrogant. British. And my late brother’s best friend. The last man I’d ever want to marry.

Except apparently I did.

Now I’m living in a beautiful house I don’t recognize, wearing a ring I don’t remember receiving, and expected to play the devoted wife while his aristocratic family, unaware of the gaps in my memory, descends for his birthday. Grant is patient and attentive, dropping hints about an explosive relationship that makes my pulse race. He’s nothing like the cold, haughty man I remember.

Torn between suspicion about this inconvenient marriage of convenience and an attraction to my husband I’m not ready to name, I have to make a choice: leave the past buried or trust Grant to help me find my way back to a life I can’t remember choosing.

The terrifying part? I’m starting to think past me knew exactly what she was doing

Review

Until I Remember was my first time reading the amnesia trope, and I’ll admit I was hesitant going in. Karla Sorensen proved me wrong. This was such a beautifully written and emotionally engaging story about two people finding each other after grief, only to have to find each other all over again after tragedy.

The last thing Mercy remembers before her accident is telling Grant to leave her alone. When she wakes up, she can’t remember the last year of her life. Somehow, she is now married to Grant.

The first half of this book was easily the strongest for me. For much of it, Grant’s POV is withheld. We experience him almost entirely through Mercy. I loved that choice because we know exactly as much as she does. We’re trying to figure out this version of Grant right alongside her.

And Grant? So charming. Even from Mercy’s POV, it was obvious how hard he was trying to restrain himself and give her the space she needed. I loved watching Mercy slowly fall for him while trying to reconcile the man standing in front of her with the version of him she remembers. I wouldn’t necessarily classify their past relationship as hate-to-love. She disliked him, but even that felt more like a mild dislike than genuine hatred.

Mercy was so much fun. Losing a year of her memories never meant losing the personality that made her Mercy. She still had that spunk, and I loved watching her struggle with how to take all the pieces of the Grant she remembered and reconcile them with someone who now felt almost unrecognizable. More than anything, I liked that she had to get to know the man standing in front of her instead of simply relying on who everyone told her he had become.

And the entire scene of Mercy returning to her classroom after the accident? Amazing. No notes. I tear up even thinking about it. I desperately wish we had gotten more of Mercy returning to work and reconnecting with her students because that was one of my favorite parts of the entire book.

Where the book lost me slightly was in the second half. Sorensen had slowly begun this beautiful romance, and the latter half just felt a bit rushed. I wanted more longing. More time. More of them having to find their way back to each other before everything came together again.

I also would have loved more alternating POVs toward the end. Staying firmly with Mercy worked incredibly well in the beginning because Grant needed to remain somewhat unknowable. However, there was a stretch at the end where it was all Grant’s POV. I think alternating POV’s could have maintained some of the emotional momentum that I felt was lost near the end.

Honestly, I think that my biggest complaint is that I wanted more. I wish this book had been longer. There was so much more I would have happily read. Mercy returning to work, more time with her students, more of Mercy and Grant rebuilding their relationship, and more of their life after everything settled. Sidenote, the scene where Mercy returns back to work made me sob.

Can I get a novella? A bonus epilogue? Something? Because there is still so much that could be done with these two.

Final Thoughts

I found Until I Remember to be beautifully written and emotional. I was highly invested in Mercy and Grant’s love story. Despite the rushed second half, I adored these characters and wish I had gotten more time with them.

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Review: Head Over Heels by Karla Sorensen

About the Book

There’s only one course of action when your dad wants you to marry a clammy-handed wimp to make one of his board members happy—you get yourself stuck in an elevator with a hot stranger and have the steamiest make-out session of your life. Years of etiquette lessons went out the window thanks to Cameron Wilder, who managed to unleash my hidden bad girl with naught but his talented mouth and deliciously rough hands.

Afterward, he went back to his small-town life, and I marched home to inform my dad there would be no business-centric nuptials. As punishment, he shipped me off to Sisters, Oregon and demanded I turn a healthy profit on a not-so-healthy property.

You see where I’m going with this—the buttoned-up city girl stuck in a small town hires a local builder to help her … and he’s the hot stranger from the elevator. Turns out, I have a weakness for the broad-shouldered nice guy who’s not so nice behind closed doors. Keeping things professional gets harder the longer I’m in town, until the only lesson I have left to learn is how to keep both our hearts from getting broken.

Review

Head Over Heels might be one of my favorite books of the year. I absolutely adored this one, and even days later, I’m still just as obsessed with it as I was while reading. I hadn’t known this book was a part of a series, nor did I know that all of Karla Sorensen’s books were a part of a shared universe. I found that fact interesting, and I’m almost determined to dive into the entire universe. 

One of my favorite things about this book was the family-- the Wilder family. I loved their dynamics, and each other their relationship with Cameron, the main male lead. There’s a lot of history there, and even though I hadn’t read the other books about Cameron’s siblings, the history was still easy to follow. In fact, it made me want to go back and read the previous books. 

Speaking of Cameron. I loved him. He has golden retriever energy, but he’s also a little stubborn. At one point in the story, someone mentioned that he had the desire to save everyone. I think that really summed him up. Despite him and Ivy having a rocky/awkward post-meeting relationship, he wanted to ensure that she was okay, and he saw through her façade. Cameron had the patience that Ivy needed in her life. He wasn’t perfect by any means. He still had his ghosts and issues. 

As for Ivy, she’s my favorite type of female main lead. I’ve always loved main characters with thick skin; however, they are dealing with a lot, but they put on a brave face. There’s so much to Ivy’s character. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when she’s invited to dinner with Cameron’s family. She takes the time to learn something new. She’s determined, and even though labels have been placed on her for her entire life, she’s constantly proving them all to be incorrect. She is someone who cares about people. 

I appreciated her character development. Though, I would have preferred there to be more focus on her learning about her mother. I’m still pleased with what I got with Ivy. 

I have no complaints about the romance. It was amazing. I live and breathe them. They created the standard for me this year. 

I was fully prepared to give this book five stars. The only reason that I did not is because of the ending. I want to begin by saying that there were no lows for this book. Everything was the highest of highs until the end. To me, the ending didn’t feel like an ending. There’s more story to tell. Part of this could be me wanting to never let go of the characters; however, I feel like Ivy and Cameron deserve a better epilogue. And maybe, Karla has written it as a bonus, and I just haven’t looked hard enough. 

Final Thoughts 

Before writing this review, I knew I loved Head Over Heels. And as I wrote it, I realized that I loved it more, something that I hadn’t thought was possible. There was something so beautiful about the characters and romance. The story is emotional, heartbreaking, and engaging. I might have had issues with the ending, but I still absolutely loved this one.