Will You Remember Me?

by Amanda Prowse

[Leah]

Last year I read and enjoyed my first ever Amanda Prowse novel, A Little Love. It was a delightful read, and I just loved the book cover! Amanda Prowse is a very lucky lady when it comes to her book covers - they are delightful! So when I spotted her new book cover on Amazon I was delighted! It was even better than the cover for A Little Love, would you believe? It's the twinkly stars that get me. I love twinkly stars, especially when they're bright, in a purple-blue sky. When I got the email asking me if I'd like to review the novel, I was delighted. I haven't read Poppy Day, the prequel to this book, but from reading this book it doesn't really seem to be a necessary endeavour (I like when books stand alone).

I was quite surprised when I learned Amanda Prowse had brought back one of her very first heroines - from the sounds of Poppy Day, Poppy has had quite the adventure, so it's always somewhat of a shock when an author brings back their characters for another go round, especially when they intend to make them ill. Gravely ill. It just made me so sad whilst reading the book - that Poppy, a young mum with two kids, and her husband just returned from Afghanistan are going through yet more trauma. It was quite tough to take; hadn't life already thrown them so much? Didn't they deserve to live out their days, happy as larry? But that was not to be, sadly, and we get to see Poppy start a whole different kind of fight, one that isn't always winnable. What surprised me most was the deterioration. I know cancer is awful, but it just seemed to progress so quickly for Poppy.

One of the brightest parts of the novel is most definitely Poppy and Mart's daughter, Peg. She's cute as a button, brighter and more perceptive than most adults, and wants nothing more than to be register monitor in her class. She's full of questions, desperate to know everything, and she lit the book up. In such hard times, it's nice to have a bit of relief, nice to see some innocence still shining and Peg fit that role perfectly. There's a lot that occurs, in such a short period of time in Will You Remember Me? and it's not all great - I wasn't a fan of Poppy keeping her illness a secret, nor that her husband would be so ignorant as to not pick up on some of the signs of illness, even if he didn't guess what it actually was. We're meant to believe Poppy and Mart have this fabulous relationship, so why wouldn't she tell him about her illness? To have someone to lean on? I didn't get that. It baffled me.

There's one more twist to the novel that I didn't care for, involving Poppy's friend Jo. It seemed as if it had been chucked in, and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. Considering what Poppy's going through, I didn't think she needed that extra hurt. JUST NO. I wish I could have scrubbed those pages from my memory. But, apart from all that, it was a really interesting read - I don't dare say it was 'great' because it wasn't, let's be honest. Poppy goes through something so terrible, so hard to watch, and it was hard to watch her be so ill. I just wanted to close my eyes, and pretend it wasn't happening, and I shed a tear or two towards the end of the novel. But the novel had its bright spots - I quite liked the Epilogue, it was SO cheesy (last chapter of the Deathly Hallows cheesy) but it was quite sweet, too. And I liked the St Lucia link, which was surprising and unexpected, but actually quite awesome. Will You Remember Me? is a sad, but ultimately quite uplifting tale, but tissues will be required, I can promise you that.

This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read