Remembrance by Michelle Madow (Transcend Time #1)

From goodreads

New Hampshire high school junior Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's 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 seem to get him out of her mind?

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

review

I remember watching Taylor Swift's music video for Love Story a few years back and thinking it was the prettiest music video ever. It was perfect for the song and I loved the thought of a present-day Romeo-Juliet romance gone right! When I heard that Remembrance by Michelle Madow was inspired by the music video of Love Story, I needed to read the book as soon as I could! 

Remembrance is about Lizzie Davenport who is reincarnated from the Regency Era, England. She has no recollection of her past life until she meets Drew at the beginning of the year. She feels like she has met Drew before, even though she has not. Not in this life, anyway. Flashes from her past life follow and it seems like history may be about to repeat...which may not be the best thing, considering how things ended the last time their paths crossed.

It sounds good, doesn't it? And it was. But it was a little too slow paced for my taste. This was both a good and a bad thing. Little things like insights gained from Lizzie's every day activities wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been this slow paced. 

Lizzie is a fairly normal girl who cares about what grade she gets in school, genuinely cares about her friends and makes it easy for her boyfriend, Jeremy, to push her around. I know people who are a lot like Lizzie. She gets quieter, more involved in other things and at the same time more assertive over the course of the story. I love how gradually she changed. It was only towards the end, when her boyfriend made a remark about how much she had changed that I realised how different she was from the Lizzie we were introduced to at the beginning of the story.

The book also featured one of the most realistic break-up scenes I've ever read.

On the other hand, it was difficult to get what the book was about until the first fifty pages or so. Also, the the idea of reincarnation was dealt with very matter-of-factly- something I found hard to believe. Which is why it took me a long time to get past those fifty pages. I read on because I cared about the main character and had a feeling it would get better. 

Lizzie and Drew's relationship is filled with chemistry and conflict. Lizzie's feelings for Drew, gradual detachment from her boyfriend Jeremy, the flashbacks and her having to deal with the fact that Drew was her best friend's new boyfriend were portrayed very realistically. But I couldn't bring myself to care about Drew. As flawed as Jeremy was, I cared more about what happened to him. Jeremy just felt more real- in spite of how annoying and competitive he could get. With Drew, I just thought 'meh'.

I would still recommend Remembrance because Madow really knows how to write characters! The atmosphere was also very high school. I loved how pretty the cover was, how it was inspired by Love Story, the Pride and Prejudice references (YAY for those!), past life flashes and the themes of change and growing apart. There were many things I didn't like but I will still read the next in the Transcend Time series when it's out because I think the series has potential!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars