Review: Remember When 2 by T. Torrest

Posted August 12, 2013 by Kim in Reviews / 1 Comment

Review: Remember When 2 by T. TorrestRemember When 2 by T. Torrest
Series: Remember Trilogy #2
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Publication date: June 20, 2013
Publisher: Diversion Books, Self-Published
Format: eBook
How I got it: I bought it!
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My rating:

You know how sometimes, your high school crush grows up to be an insanely famous movie star? Okay, probably not. But I do. ~ Layla Warren

Back in high school, Trip Wiley’s fanbase only encompassed the denizens of the nothing little suburb of Norman, New Jersey. 

Ten years later, all that is about to change.

In the summer of 2000, Layla Warren is enjoying her career as a journalist in New York City (well, sort of), while Trip spends most of his time grabbing Hollywood by the balls. In the days before what will turn out to be his skyrocketing fame, they’ll find themselves confronted with some life-altering choices. 

Remember When 2 is the second story in an NA romance trilogy. It will bring you back to that exuberant and riotous time of life in your twenties when you struggled to figure out your place in the world and the person you were meant to be…

…and the person you were meant to be with.

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My Thoughts

If you haven’t already read Remember When you might want to back slowly away from this review. There will be spoilerish things that might ruin your enjoyment of the first book.

Consider yourself warned. 😉

“It was excruciating at first, getting over Trip. Not that I ever really did, mind you. But during those first years, I had no other choice but to go on with my life. Because do you ever really get over your first love? Even during your twenties, when you experience that initial taste of being a grown-up… that teenager still lives inside you. That person you were before the world started telling you how to be, what to say, who you should be with. Before you lost yourself in expectations and plans, and could just be a work-in-progress with only the vaguest results in mind.”

Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t walk away. Trip and Layla’s story, and this author’s writing, is all-consuming. I simultaneously want it all right now and never want it to end. It’s that good amazing. This book made me feel all the feelings. I laughed, I cried. I remembered what it felt like to see the guy I thought was “the one” years later. It all broke my heart, but in the best way possible.

While Remember When was lighter and fluffier, Remember When 2 is decidedly more mature. It’s so much deeper than the first. Layla and Trip have both moved on and become the people they think they want to be. Began living the lives they want to live. But there’s one problem – neither of them has ever fully given up the other. Regardless of the circumstances or where they are, they’re just not finished with each other.

“When do you quit wishing for things to be different? Months? Years? Decades? You think that if a sufficient amount of time goes by, it should be enough to help you stop caring anymore. But it doesn’t. Ever.”

Trip is a total heartthrob Hollywood star. He’s dating a model. He’s untouchable… or is he? Layla is a more mature version of the girl I loved in the first book. She knows what she wants, at least with regards to her career, and she’s not afraid to go for it. She’s stronger, but more conflicted, than she was in the first book. She’s also engaged to another man. Shortly after the book opens (with a HUGE tease!!!! UGH!!!), Layla schemes a way to meet trip during a press tour he’s doing for an upcoming movie. The chemistry between them is still there. It’s stronger than ever. The writing was so real, so honest, the dialogue so perfect, you could feel what they were feeling. You could feel the insecurity, the vulnerability, the yearning, the heat that still exists after all these years, though they’re in very different places.

“When you want something you can’t have, it can get… frustrating.”

Trip and Layla are both such insecure and vulnerable characters. Both with good reason, though their reasons are very different. Trip wants someone to want him for HIM, not the movie star he’s become. Layla is concerned that Trip is acting. That he just wants a fling. That the feelings aren’t real. Of course, they could communicate with each other and move past these issues, but where would the fun be in that… 😉 So much of this novel is about timing. Very, very poor timing. At times (see what I did there?), I wanted to scream at both of them. I was so frustrated that, even though they’re both with other people, they won’t take that jump. They won’t admit their feelings when they’re both so pure and strong. So right.

Trip’s “grand gesture” near the end… huge swoony sigh. I melted… and maybe shed a couple tears. I adore Trip.

The only problem I have with this book is that I have a total love/hate relationship with cliffhangers and OMG. Talk about a cliffhanger. It leaves you wanting more. The third book can’t get here soon enough! Speaking of the third book, make sure to take a few minutes to read the prologue that was posted on TotallyBookedBlog back in July, if you haven’t already. (Major spoilers, of course.) It wrecked me in the best possible way.

Layla and Trip are on a beautiful journey and I am so, so grateful to T. Torrest that she’s taking us along for the ride with them.

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Kim

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