Remember Me Always

by Renee Collins, Jessica Almasy (Read by)

Overview

Shelby is nervous to start her senior year after spending the whole summer away from home. After all, it's hard to be carefree when you're trying to protect a secret.

Shelby was in a devastating car accident, and everyone in town thinks that she was undergoing more physical therapy in Denver. Instead, Shelby's mother enrolled her in a clinical program to stop the panic attacks that started after the crash. The treatment erased Shelby's memory of the accident, but she can't help feeling as if a piece of herself is missing, that the treatment took more than the doctors claimed.

So when Shelby starts hallucinating a boy with dark and mysterious eyes, she knows it must be a side effect of the clinical program. Except you can't kiss hallucinations. And this boy insists that they know each other and are in love....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978600805
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	03/13/2018
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Renee Collins grew up on a beach in Hawaii. Sadly, she never met anyone from the past on those shores, but she did go on to get a degree in History, which is almost the same. She currently lives in Colorado with her family. Visit her at reneecollinsauthor.com.

Editorial Reviews

"...engaging and sympathetic...a pleasant read for those who like a little mystery in their love stories. " - School Library Journal Connection

From the Publisher

Shelby is a typical teenage girl, sort of. Typical, except that she has a past she does not remember. After a terrible car accident, trial, and several panic attacks and bouts of PTSD, she undergoes an experimental treatment designed to erase the trauma from her memory. Expecting to start her senior year in high school as good as new, Shelby soon realizes that nothing is that easy. After several encounters with a young man named Auden, Shelby begins to realize that the treatment may have also erased the love of her life. Auden and Shelby’s relationship quickly develops as memories flood back, yet, their love is forbidden. Inevitably, Shelby’s mother and best friend discover the rekindling of the relationship and disapprove. They seem to have good reasons for their feelings, but Auden will not reveal that information. Caught among those who love her, Shelby does not know whom to believe. This book is truly about identity. Is it possible to forget oneself? Does that change who the person is now? Another heavy topic at play is that often life is full of grey areas. Sometimes it is hard to know who to trust and even harder to find the objective truth in any given situation. The parallels with the school play, Romeo and Juliet, are a little heavy-handed and cliché, but, despite the melodrama that may cause eye rolls, readers will be concerned for Shelby and wonder what she will decide until the very last page. Reviewer: Cyndi L. Fenske; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, October 2017 (Vol. 40, No. 4) - Cyndi L. Fenske

11/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—Aspiring actress Shelby hasn't had a typical summer vacation. In the months before her senior year of high school, she undergoes a secret procedure to have part of her memory erased after a traumatizing car accident that left her with unbearable panic attacks and anxiety. But when flickers of a memory featuring a mysterious and handsome boy at a moonlit lake appear during one of her treatment sessions, she knows something's not right. Her uneasiness only grows when that boy shows up at her school play audition and seems to know everything about her. Auden causes her to question everything—her sanity, the trust she puts in her mother, her future in her small Colorado town, and even Auden himself. This first-person narrative will satisfy readers craving indulgent, star-crossed romance with a side of coming-of-age angst. Auden and Shelby's electric chemistry is heightened by the mystery of Shelby's true past that will keep teens guessing until the satisfying end. Recommend this book to fans of Adam Silvera's More Happy than Not and the film La La Land. VERDICT A fine purchase for YA collections with a recreational readership.—Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

2017-08-27
A white high school senior, unsure of whom to trust, navigates romance and secrets in Collins' (Until We Meet Again, 2015, etc.) third novel.After her involvement in a devastating car accident during junior year, Shelby's anxiety and panic attacks became so severe that she entered a clinical program for "neural restructuring"—a combination of "brain stimulation" and hypnosis—to wipe her most painful memories. Both she and her mom are ready for her life to settle back to normal, complete with auditions for the lead role of Juliet in the school play. Yet although she has no memory of the accident, Shelby can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. Little, unpredictable triggers still spike her anxiety, and there's a boy—a boy named Auden who claims not only that she knows him, but that they are in love and that the doctors wiped her memories of him too at her mother's request. Drawn to him, Shelby must decide whether she will trust him and secretly explore this old-but-new relationship or whether something feels wrong there, too. Shelby's best friend's escape from an emotionally abusive relationship leads both characters and readers to question the health of Shelby's relationship with Auden, whose power in their relationship frequently wavers over the line of abusive. Shelby's first-person narration sets up readers to discover the truth as Shelby does, but her present-tense voice is so bland it undercuts the tension, and readers will find the plot easy to predict.Forgettable. (Thriller. 14-17)

Kirkus Reviews