Popular author of the Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella, intrigues us once again with her book Remember Me? The title leads us to believe the story is about being reinserted into someone’s life; but what if it was your own life you needed to be reintroduced to? Lexi Smart awakens from a coma and can’t remember the last three years of her life. She doesn’t recognize herself physically and can’t believe the life she is being told is now hers.
A Break From Reality
The prologue places Lexi with her three best friends Carolyn, Debs and Fi at a girl’s night out. Lexi is stood up by her boyfriend Loser Dave and heads into the rain to hail a taxi. The reader is led to believe that Lexi falls and hits her head.
It is a little confusing when Lexi then wakes in a hospital, a victim of a car accident. Lexi comes to the conclusion that she has been in a coma for three years but is reassured by the hospital staff that she has only been unconscious for five days. “Enough. I can’t cope with this anymore. I came into hospital five days ago in 2004-but now magically it’s 2007? What are we, bloody Narnia?”
Coming to Terms
Lexi’s life has changed dramatically over the last three years. Not only did she get a huge promotion at work but Lexi married a handsome, seemingly perfect real estate mogul Eric who has written a marriage manual to help Lexi remember their daily routine. Lexi, who remembered herself as being plain and average, has difficulty adjusting to the new physically enhanced, luxury loft living, designer brand wearing woman she has become; a woman who is having an affair and has managed to lose her best friends along the way.
Finding the Truth
Because she cannot remember the last three years, Lexi finds herself unable to adjust to the new life she had built for herself over the missing time in her life. After a failed attempt at adjusting to her new life, Lexi struggles to reconnect with her friends and family. She questions her job and her marriage and decides to simplify her life. Does Lexi find love with her husband or love with the man she had an affair with? Will she be true to herself?
Up to Par?
While Remember Me is intriguing and keeps the reader interested, it is not quite up to par with the popular Shopaholic series. There are some funny lines and situations but not as quirky and engaging as the heroine of the aforementioned series, Becky. Overall the book was enjoyable and entertaining.
Kinsella, Sophie, Remember Me? The Dial Press. 2008.
