Review + Giveaway: Say You'll Remember Me by Katie McGarry

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Katie McGarry's new release, SAY YOU'LL REMEMBER ME! I truly loved Drix and Elle's story and I'm excited to be taking part in the release of this heartfelt and emotional novel. See the SYNOPSIS, check out my REVIEW, enjoy the EXCERPT, and don't forget the GIVEAWAY down below!

From critically acclaimed author Katie McGarry, comes SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME—a story of two people from different worlds pushing themselves, and each other, to get what they deserve.

SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME releases on January 30, 2018. Pre-order your copy today!

   

SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME Synopsis:

“Doesn’t matter who did it. Not anymore. I did the time. It’s over.”

When Drix was convicted of a crime–one he didn’t commit–he thought his life was over. But opportunity came with the Second Chance Program, the governor’s newest pet project to get delinquents off the streets, rehabilitated and back into society. Drix knows this is his chance to get his life back on track, even if it means being paraded in front of reporters for a while.

Elle knows she lives a life of privilege. As the governor’s daughter, she can open doors with her name alone. But the expectations and pressure to be someone she isn’t may be too much to handle. She wants to follow her own path, whatever that means.

When Drix and Elle meet, their connection is immediate, but so are their problems. Drix is not the type of boy Elle’s parents have in mind for her, and Elle is not the kind of girl who can understand Drix’s messy life.

But sometimes love can breach all barriers.

Fighting against a society that can’t imagine them together, Drix and Elle must push themselves–Drix to confront the truth of the robbery, and Elle to assert her independence–and each other to finally get what they deserve. 

Preorder SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME here!

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M Y  T H O U G H T S

As the governor’s daughter, Elle lives with constant pressure. The pressure of public scrutiny and the pressure from her parents to always be the best. Their expectations only increase when she agrees to help her father campaign for senator. With every new demand and the push to do better and be better, Elle is buckling under strain.

“I have three minutes until I have to pretend in public 

that the last few minutes didn’t come close to breaking me.” - Elle

Drix was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and is returning home after almost a year away. He’s no longer the guy who got drunk, got high, and used his fists when angry. The problem is, he doesn’t know who he is now or where to go from here. Now the face of the governor’s Second Chance Program, Drix is forced into a role he never wanted.

“What type of man am I going to be? 

That’s the question. 

That’s always the question.” - Drix

Drix and Elle may have come from different worlds but on the inside they are both struggling to find their own way. Elle is chafing at her parent’s control and the knowledge that their love seems to come with strings attached. Drix confessed to a crime he didn’t commit to protect his family, but he’s come home to a new set of problems and an uncertain future. As they spend time together on the campaign trail they both find what they need most: total acceptance. But in the eyes of the world around them, Elle is the pretty and poised media darling and Drix is the guy with a criminal record from the wrong side of the tracks. Neither wants to walk away from the one person with whom they can be their best selves.

It’s no secret that when it comes to contemporary YA, Katie McGarry is at the top of my list. She consistently delivers characters that I come to know and love and stories that have an emotional impact. My heart ached for Elle and it broke for Drix. Elle perfected smiling on the outside while screaming on the inside for the chance to simply be herself. She’s also looking at her parents with new eyes and questioning if they are the people she has always thought them to be. McGarry gave an achingly realistic portrayal of Elle’s perception of her father go from hero worship to the understanding that he was all too human and flawed. In Drix, McGarry created a sensitive, mature young man who was loving and loyal despite a childhood deprived of caring parents or a sense of stability. My heart broke again and again for Drix as he struggled to find his place at home and a new sense of self. While riddled with guilt and pain over his past, he showed who he had become with every selfless decision and every act of redemption.

“It’s an awful place to be, the person responsible for someone else’s happiness, 

because being human, we’re going to fail. And by being human, 

we’ll take the lashing when we never meet expectations.” - Drix

I could rhapsodize about my feelings for these two special characters and how well they supported and comforted and championed one another. And I could go on and on about my love for the richly drawn cast of secondary characters, particularly Drix’s family and friends, that added insight and drama and humor. Instead, I’ll simply tell you that Katie McGarry has once again created an unputdownable story with real heart. 

Say You’ll Remember Me is not to be missed.

E X C E R P T

~Hendrix~

Holiday smacks my arm and wrath owns her eyes. “Why didn’t you talk to her?”

I glance around at my family—Axle, Holiday, my best friend, Dominic, and his younger sister, Kellen.  I’m searching for at least one of them to have my back and tell her to step off, but instead they’re curious for the answer. Even Axle’s giving me a questioning gaze, and the last thing my womanizing brother deserves is an explanation from me in my decisions regarding women.

Last time I was home, his reputation was as bad as Dad’s, minus the progeny. There are three siblings in this family, and we have three different birth mothers. Dad not only didn’t know how to use a condom, but he didn’t know how to stay true to one woman.

“I talked to her.”

My younger sister throws her arms out and drops her voice to what I’m assuming is to mimic me, but I don’t sound like an idiot. “You’re good at this.” She resumes her normal tone which is entering high-pitched. “Seriously? That’s all you’ve got? Did you get some sort of amoeba that eats your brain while hanging out in juvie?”

I fold my arms over my chest and wonder if my sister can read pissed-off body language.

“You can still catch the girl and talk to her,” Holiday continues, proving she doesn’t care I’m silently informing her to quit. “Don’t make me chase her for you because that would be embarrassing. Embarrassing for you. Not me. I’ll have to tell her you sent me, and because you’re a wuss, I’ll have to ask her out for you like we’re in sixth grade.”

I find myself missing the middle of nowhere. Trees, bonfires, mosquitos, mud, bears…. company that didn’t talk.

“She’s out of my league.” I haven’t spoken truer words in months. She was beautiful. She was poised. She was a cool breeze after a hot humid rain. She was that first ray of sunshine in the dark woods. She was the smell of honeysuckle in bloom. She was the first damn thing that made me forget who I am and what I’ve gotten myself into over the past year. That means she was out of my league.

Granted, she was out of my league before I was arrested. Everything from her manicured nails, to her brand-name clothes, to her high-end purse, to the way she held herself said she was about a hundred times higher on the social and economic spectrum than me, but the person I was before would have made the play because I was smooth—just like my father.

“She is not out of your league.” Holiday hounds me. “She smiled at you. I know when a girl likes what she sees, and she liked what she saw in you.”

Tension builds in my neck. Yeah, the girl smiled, but she didn’t know what she was smiling at. I’m a pretty façade on the outside. On the inside, I’m a house of cards teetering on a bad foundation. 

Pre-order SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, register your purchase and you will receive AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER, a novella that features your favorite Pushing the Limits and Thunder Road characters!

From the Pushing the Limits series, Noah, Beth, Isaiah, West and Logan are all grown up. Catch up with your favorite characters as one of them finally says, "I do."

Pigpen, Eli and Addison from the Thunder Road series: Three separate personalities who still needed to find love…and still had someone important to meet.

This is a limited time offer! So hurry! Registration ends on February 3, 2018! You must register your pre-order to receive AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

https://a.pgtb.me/4tLZSM

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Katie McGarry Bio: Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, NOWHERE BUT HERE and WALK THE EDGE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.

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