Forgotten by Cat Patrick- Advanced Copy

The Gist

Forgotten
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London Lane has a special gift and most people would kill to have a "special" gift but not London.  This gift is that every night after she goes to sleep London forgets what has happened the day before and every other day before that.  The upside to her gift is the London can see into the future so she can remember who certain people are that are supposed to be in her future.  To remind herself of homework and what happened the day before London leaves notes for herself every night so in the morning she can read the note and know what happened the day before.  This isn't the ideal life but she gets by pretty well with her best friend and her mom by her side, that was until Luke decided to show up.  Luke, is a gorgeous new guy at their school and apparently her new boyfriend.  She can't remember who he is in the morning even with her notes as a guide and she can't remember any memories with him in the future.  As things get more complicated with Luke and she gets into a huge fight with her only friend London doesn't know who to turn to.  Instead of figuring out what to do London goes on a search for her father who left when she was a little kid and she has no idea where he went.  All during this time London has a disturbing dream of the future and it all takes place at a funeral leading her to want to know who was the one who the funeral was for.  As things unravel and London learns more about her past she realizes that she is hating her "gift" more and more each day.  


What We Think
Reviewed by The North Star
Number of Pages: 304
I was so pumped when I heard that we were getting this book as an ARC.  I had read the synopsis on Goodreads and had never heard of anything like it before.  A girl who knows nothing of her past and can't remember anything from the day before.  This was a plot line that I had never come across before and appreciated that from the first day of reading.  I also really liked the writing style that Cat Patrick brought to the table. The relationship between London and Luke was very believable and not to overdone or cheesy.  Yes, there were some cheesy parts that were hard to get through but for the most part it wasn't that bad and over-the-top like most teen fiction nowadays.
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Now, the actual characters.  London was an OK lead character, but at points could get annoying.  When her and her best friend were fighting she would make a big deal about it, when she knew that they were going to make-up in the end because she could see the future.  Janie a.k.a London's best friend really annoyed me.  She was my least favorite character in the entire book.  In the beginning she was OK and I really liked her as the best friend but once she got in a stupid fight with London I hated her because the fight wasn't about anything important and she really only should have been mad for a day at the most, but she kept hating London for months upon months.  Her character also did nothing for the story and could have been removed all together.  Luke, who was my favorite character in the entire book was very likable.  He seemed sincere in his feelings for London and I really wanted them to end up together and make-up whenever London would yell at him.  Another thing that I didn't like about London (and most YA novels/series nowadays) she would flip out at Luke for no apparent reason.  He would do something that is sort-of bad and she would treat the problem like he had killed someone and disposed of the body on her doorstep.
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The thing that I really loved about this book besides the plot all of the twists that it had.  For the most part the beginning of the book was straight forward but as you get closer to the end Cat Patrick throws all of these surprises that really made this book good. Before these twists were added I was going to give the book a C because nothing that big was happening.  After these variations that were added towards the end made me keep reading and then I really wanted to finish the book and pick-up the next one instantly (which I couldn't sadly).
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Overall, this was an above average book that was a fun read but had some major character flaws.  The plot was original and much appreciated!  If you see it in the book store and have a gift card, I would buy it but nothing to see-out this very second. 


Real Teen Rating~ B: Read it but there's no rush

Reviewed by ShoreWhisperer

One good thing that appealed me to the book is that I didn't despise the female protaganist which is what I usually do. I really liked London. She didn't complain, she was very level headed and didn't act like she was the only person that mattered in the universe. She was greatful for her perfect boyfriend, who in real life would not exist and that pleased me because most times all the girls do is complain about them or swoon constantly over them. London was different.

Luke, was cute but was definitly not my favorite guy character. He was so very stereotypical I could probably find the exact same character with a different name in multiple young adult novels. I get the fact that young adult novels all have the same aspects but to make a really good young adult novel that appeals to teenage girls you have to have a male love interest that has something different about him and makes him appealing and in some loving way not perfect. Luke just didn't make the cut, although he was cute, he was just too cookie cutter.

As for the plot it was confusing as to what London's strange talent was until the third or fourth chapter where you could just infer. All this was annoying but it was for the sake of the book so it was ok. The whole book was told from London's perspective so every chapter was literally a blank page for her. So to get that message across and make the reader infer was a good sacrifice. The actual story as it got farther in was intriguing and made you want to keep reading which is a plus. I literally read this book in one day, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what happened. The writing was on the easier side so it was definitly not a dificult read but it was good none the less.

London's special talent will be what makes this book stand out because otherwise it would be just like any other young adult novel. There aren't really any other books that go deep into the psychological side of things and that definitly deserves a place on the young adult section of the bookshelves.Hopefully there will be more books that address the pyschological sides of people because that could be a new hit.

Real Teen Rating ~ B- : Read it but there is no rush.