Book Review~Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Title: Remembrance
Author: Michelle Madow
Series: Transcend Time Saga #1
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Pub Date: July 27th 2011
Format: e-book (ePub)
Pages: 162
Links: Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Book/Author Site
Summary: Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's high school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, fighting fate isn't going to be easy.

Rating: 9/10

Source: Received a copy by the author. Thank you so much Michelle for sending me this book! 

Cover Talk: I love the cover! The girl is very Lizzie. But I just wish they had used a different, a more.... interesting font. I'm a big font buff and this font just brings the whole cover down. It's so simple.... BTW I entered a cover contest for Remembrance a while ago and made a few covers myself, click here to check them out. 

Reason I read the book: I've been wanting to read this book since it came out. I read Michelle's interview on a Taylor Swift fan blog long ago and I was like "a book inspired by Taylor Swift's music video, who happens to be my favorite singer, and about incarnation? Yeah, I HAVE to read this book!" But I couldn't get my hands on it and books in Pakistan don't really arrive early. So anyway, I read in Michelle's blog that she would be happy to give an e-copy for review and I jumped at the offer! Thanks a lot Michelle! For writing such an amazing book and for providing a copy to me! =)

My Thoughts: Wow! Have you ever read a book and felt the feelings and emotions so intensely that it was like you were actually living in the book? That you were the character and all of this was actually going on with you? I've felt it before while reading other books, but this book was different. It was like I was Lizzie. If she cried, I cried. If she laughed, I laughed. If she was irritated, I was irritated. If she was angry, I was angry. I even found myself doing actions that I read Lizzie doing. I felt all the emotions she was feeling. It was crazy! But good crazy :)

So bottom line is, I fricking LOVED this book! The story itself was so amazing! I've never read a book about incarnation (which must be weird because everyone is always saying "everyone's writing about incarnations these days" and I'm like "really? cuz I haven't read any books about incarnations" I must read more I guess) so the idea alone really appealed to me. And the fact that this was something 'paranormal' didn't interfere with the romance or the average high school life was great! And there were many twists I didn't see coming. Sometimes the scenes or dialogues became too cliched but the story as a whole and the writing overcame that.

I really enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice references. And some of the lines reminded me of songs. For example:

"But it was time to realize that I wasn’t Cinderella, and no matter how hard I wished it were true, life wasn’t a fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after."

These lines reminded me of Taylor Swift's song White Horse which goes like:

"I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale"

I also liked Lizzie's humor and sarcasm :)

"It was simple and to the point, and judging from the unfamiliar number, I assumed it came from Shannon. If not, I would see who came by my house at 4:30 and go with it. Maybe it would be Mr. Darcy coming to pick me up in an extravagant horse-drawn carriage, but I couldn’t picture Mr. Darcy using a cell phone."

I loved Lizzie. She sometimes became a little unrealistic to me, but I still loved her. She was flawed and her feelings were very true. If she would've been fine with Drew being with Chelsea, I wouldn't have believed her for a minute! She felt guilty but she also tried to fix her mistakes. And I also liked the fact that Chelsea was flawed. She was a real person. I get why she did what she did. She was hurt and she had to do something. Jeremy was the typical high school football player. I never really liked him with Lizzie, he didn't treat her that nicely, but I did feel sorry for him in the end.

I've had plenty of book crushes. Trust me, the list is long. Drew just falls in a whole new category of book crushes.... in fact, I think I'm in love. I mean even at the mention of his name my stomach started doing crazy things. It was like my stomach was actually doing somersaults! He was so sweet and so nice and so.... perfect! I don't know if that makes sense but he seemed like the perfect prince ready to sacrifice everything for the people he loves. I'm glad this is a series (trilogy) because I would love to read more about Drew. BTW Drew is one of my favorite boy names. And you can never go wrong with Carmichael (If there are any Chuck fans out there reading this they would know what I'm talking about ;)). Andrew Carmichael has such a nice ring to it!

I'm looking forward to reading the next book. And the final book comes out later this year! When this book is available here in my country, I'm totally going to buy it! I always did like Michelle as a person and now she's one of my favorite authors!

Extras:

Michelle has a lot of Remembrance Extras on her blog. So go over there and check them out! They're amazing! From deleted scenes to playlists to actors who Michelle thinks look like the characters in the book.

P.S I seriously think this book should be turned into a movie! It would be so awesome, don't you think?