The Art of Forgetting...Review and Giveaway

About the book:
A moving and insightful debut novel of great friendship interrupted. Can the relationship survive when the memories are gone?

Marissa Rogers never wanted to be an alpha; beta suited her just fine. Taking charge without taking credit had always paid off: vaulting her to senior editor at a glossy magazine; keeping the peace with her critical, weight-obsessed mother; and enjoying the benefits of being best friends with gorgeous, charismatic, absolutely alpha Julia Ferrar.

And then Julia gets hit by a cab. She survives with minor obvious injuries, but brain damage steals her memory and alters her personality, possibly forever. Suddenly, Marissa is thrown into the role of alpha friend. As Julia struggles to regain her memory- dredging up issues Marissa would rather forget, including the fact that Julia asked her to abandon the love of her life ten years ago- Marissa's own equilibrium is shaken.

With the help of a dozen girls, she reluctantly agrees to coach in an after-school running program. There, Marissa uncovers her inner confidence and finds the courage to reexamine her past and take control of her future.

The Art of Forgetting is a story about the power of friendship, the memories and myths that hold us back, and the delicate balance between forgiving and forgetting.

Julia and Marissa have been best friends since high school.  As is often the case in friendships there is an alpha personality who drives things and Julia always took this role.  Marissa rode along in her wake, letting herself be defined by other people.  When Julia suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident, the parameters of this friendship change.  As Marissa comes to terms with this change, she also begins to discover herself and who she is and what she ultimately wants out of life.

This is a fascinating look at friendship. It took me a bit to get into it, but ultimately I enjoyed it.

I really came to like Marissa.  In many ways, I could relate to Marissa and her insecurities.  I loved the truthfulness of how she viewed herself as unworthy and incapable, when those around her saw her as smart, beautiful and successful.   As she comes to discover her own self-worth I found myself cheering.  Especially when she stood up to her mother.

There is mild, unnecessary profanity.  There is also a great deal of information about traumatic brain injury explained throughout the story and references at the end of the book.  The explanations were very much a natural part of the narrative and very informative.

Thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to review this book.  You can learn more about Camille Noe Pagan here.  You can purchase your own copy here.

You can see other stops on the tour here:
Monday, June 6th:  Luxury Reading
Tuesday, June 7th:  Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, June 8th:  Book Addiction
Thursday, June 9th:  That’s What She Read
Friday, June 10th:  Life in the Thumb
Monday, June 13th:  Rundpinne
Tuesday, June 14th:  The Brain Lair
Wednesday, June 15th:  Book Hooked Blog
Thursday, June 16th:  Library of Clean Reads
Friday, June 17th:  Dolce Bellezza
Monday, June 20th:  Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, June 21st:  BookNAround
Wednesday, June 22nd:  Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Thursday, June 23rd:  2 Kids and Tired
Monday, June 27th:  Stiletto Storytime
Tuesday, June 28th:  The Well-Read Wife
Wednesday, June 29th:  Bookworm with a View
Thursday, June 30th:  Unabridged Chick

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GIVEAWAY:
Because I loved The Art of Forgetting so much, thanks to the publisher, I'm offering a giveaway.

It really bugs me when you have to jump through tons of hoops in order to enter giveaways, so a comment with your email address will suffice.

However:
If you change your profile to have your email address visible, if it isn't already, you will gain an additional entry.

I ask this because it's so annoying to have someone leave a comment you would like to respond to, but can't, because their email is hidden. This is especially annoying if a question is asked in said comment.

If you choose to become a follower or tell me you already are, you can gain an additional entry too.

If you wanted to blog or tweet about it, that's great too, and you'd get an extra entry for that.


Just tell me in your comment if you've done any of the extras. You don't need to leave separate comments for each thing (too annoying!).  Seriously though, just commenting is enough for me.

U.S. or Canada addresses only and no P.O. Boxes. Sorry!

This giveaway ends July 14th.

This giveaway is now closed.
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Read  3/11

* * * *
4/5 Stars