Things I Can't Forget Tour Stop

Today I am beyond excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally.  She has become a fast favorite author of mine and is definitely on my auto-buy list.  My stop will feature my review of the book and also an interview with the MC, Kate Kelly. Read on!

TITLE Things I Can't Forget
AUTHOR Miranda Kenneally
PUBLICATION March 1st 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire
READ March 1st 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire
SOURCE From Xpresso Book Tours as part of the tour

Companion to Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker.

Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt…with her.

Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…

Read an excerpt here.

Note: Mature themes, sexual situations, religious discussions.

Over my time as a blogger I have become a huge fan of Miranda Kenneally’s work. Her stories are sweet, they’re romantic, and she always manages to weave athleticism into them without making them feel like “sports” stories. Things I Can’t Forget became one that I was highly anticipating but I was pretty nervous about it because I was forewarned that it dealt with some hot button issues of mine. Touching quite a bit on religion and abortion, this novel took me by surprise as it was a pretty rough start but as the story wore on I got the Kenneally Feeling and was hooked!

A running theme in this Hundred Oaks series is that the characters overlap; we catch glimpses of characters from the other books. In this one we are Kate Kelly who is a member of Parker’s church. It’s the summer after high school and Kate takes a job working at the bible camp that she frequented as a child. Who else works there? Parker and Will! I was so excited to see that we would be getting a lot of those characters in this one. Parker became a pretty steady character in the story and her storyline of being outcasted by her church became pretty important to Kate’s progression as a character. Jordan and Sam do make their appearances, which was awesome, though they are not a prevalent part of the story.

Kate Kelly started off as someone that I really hated. I despised her judgmental ways and there were many instances where I found myself actually growling out loud at her. She has very strict religious beliefs and at the beginning of the story she tries to impose those beliefs on everyone around her, refusing to even have anyone in her life who doesn’t hold the same ones. I was so mad at her in the beginning and pretty frustrated with how often religion was finding it’s way into the tale but I took a step back and told myself that I was obviously going to go on a journey with Kate and I wanted to see exactly how she changed throughout. In the end, she didn’t exactly come full circle, but as she opened her mind and started accepting people’s faults I really connected with her. She had been raised in a community where everyone held the same beliefs and did what God thought was right, so I can understand why she was the way that she was in the beginning. Watching her come out of her shell and broaden her horizons was pretty amazing and I appreciated who she became and the steps on the road to get there.

Of course there is romance in this tale and I think Matt may have taken over as my favorite love interest in the series. He was funny, he was quirky, he was confident and he was sweet. He wasn’t perfect and he struggled with decisions and accepting people but he was so kind through everything. I loved all the sweet things he did to be closer to Kate, he knew that he was going to have to be pretty patient with her and he accepted it because he knew she was worth it. It was a really sweet love story, that was slow and pitch perfect for the story.

While this one did delve more heavily into religion I did find that the journey Kate went on far outweighed those elements that I didn’t like. This is a sweet story that, I think, fits into the series perfectly. Once again Miranda has weaved in all the beloved characters we could want and written a story that will frustrate you and give you fluttering butterflies in your tummy. If you are a fan of the series you should definitely read this one and if you haven’t started the series yet, hurry up!

Character Interview with Kate Kelly

You seemed to have so many fond memories of Cumberland Creek Camp, I loved reading your memories of your time there. What is your favorite memory from being a camper there?

Getting my first kiss from Matt Brown at the Thursday Night Dance. I was 11 and he was 13. He was an older man!

Andrea gave you a pretty tough time during the summer. How did you stay so calm in the face of all that was happening?

Andrea likes Matt, and Matt likes me. When Matt’s ex-girlfriend dumped him for his best friend, Andrea was there for Matt as a friend when he really needed somebody to talk to. She started to fall for him as they spent more time together. I tried to keep that in mind anytime she acted rudely towards me.

You are a pretty artistic person, when did you start losing yourself in your art?

I’ve been painting and doing arts and crafts since I was very young, but I didn’t start my sketchbook until after I blew out my knee playing soccer senior year of high school. I needed an outlet to deal with the pain and loss of not playing my favorite sport anymore.

Do you have a piece of artwork that you hold most near and dear to you? What is it?

I like to do decoupage, which is basically cutting pictures from magazines and newspapers and using a clear glue to paste them to random objects to decorate them. I took issues of People and Entertainment Weekly, and made a flower vase covered in my favorite movies, TV shows, and movie stars!

Not being able to play soccer anymore must be hard, how long did you play the sport for? What do you miss most about it?

I’d played since I was six years old. I miss running and the speed of the game, not to mention hanging out with the girls on the bus to and from games.

Do you think of yourself as a camper extraordinaire after your summer at Cumberland? What is your favorite technique that you learned?

I still don’t think I’m a camper extraordinaire, considering it still takes me like, an hour to light a fire, but I think I make the best s’mores ever. I like to sneak Reese’s Peanut Butter cups into camp and replace the Hershey bar.

Thank you for having me!

Miranda's Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Growing up in Tennessee, Miranda Kenneally dreamed of becoming an Atlanta Brave, a country singer (cliché!), or a UN interpreter. Instead she writes, and works for the State Department in Washington, D.C., where George W. Bush once used her shoulder as an armrest. Miranda loves Twitter, Star Trek and her husband.

This post is a part of the Things I Can't Forget Blog tour

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