Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Say You’ll Remember Me by Katie McGarry

Crushed on by Kelly BookCrushin, on February 2, 2018, in Blog Tour, New Releases, Reviews / 1 Comment

Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Say You’ll Remember Me by Katie McGarry

Say You’ll Remember Me by Katie McGarry was just released this week and I am thrilled to be a part of the blog tour! Check out my all the book details, an excerpt, as well as my spoiler-free review! Be sure to enter the tour-wide giveaway 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 is now available. Grab your copy today!

Say You’ll Remember Me by Katie McGarry

Category: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: January 30th, 2018; Harlequin Teen
Purchase: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, BAM, TBD

“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.

Review:

[book rating=4/5]

“My issue is my life. It’s closing in on me, and there’s no escape.”

Say You’ll Remember Me is a novel full of second chances, a trope I really enjoy (so relatable!), especially when the second chance has to do with bettering yourself and growing up, and less about relationships.

Ellison (Elle) and Hendrix (Drix) are characters that come from very different backgrounds and lives but they can’t resist their connection to each other. I related to their characters even though my life experiences as a teen were completely different. They just were so real.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I have a thing for broken boys with golden hearts. The broken just want to feel like they deserve love and I just want to love them! Drix is broken and enrolled in a Second Chance Program to help stop the school to prison pipeline. He excelled at his rehabilitation and was tasked to be a spokesperson for the Governor’s election campaign.

Elle is the perfect daughter, she does whatever her parents tell her, but she isn’t taking to the whole political spotlight well these days. She has a passion for rescuing animals and computers, both of which her parents insist aren’t the best path. She lets her family change her appearance and puts her interests aside for the better of the campaign.

Elle and Drix have the best meet-cute at the midway playing games and they just can’t seem to take their eyes off of each other. Drix knows she is out of his league and doesn’t think he deserves to even look at a pretty girl. Elle just can’t believe this cute boy is talking to her. They both figure out who they are under trying circumstances in which the media blows out of proportion. They start to become friends on the campaign trail even though they have been forbidden to be seen together.

What Drix doesn’t know is that the Governor’s daughter is irresistible and politics are a slimy business. They break all the rules and eventually can’t imagine their lives without one another. Scandal rocks them both, and eventually they each have to decide what it is they truly want in life and what are they willing to give up to be the person they are inside.

This story is full of love, growth, and emotion. Like get the tissues ready because my eyes are leaking. I can’t say what happens because it is a spoiler, but damn McGarry I am MAD at you!

Katie McGarry is an auto-buy author for me, she is my number one recommended YA contemporary author and I tell everyone they should read her books. Her books always have something to learn and a love so fierce it is easy to get lost within. Say You’ll Remember Me is another winner to add onto the wonderful, poignant look she takes to the world of YA contemporary.

Excerpt:

~Ellison~

Sean points, and a woman in the back asks, “You never met Mr. Pierce before?”

I shake my head, and Sean gestures to the microphone. “No. I was playing a midway game earlier, and he ended up playing beside me, but then we went our separate ways. I left the game, and these guys started to harass me, and hen Hendrix asked if I needed help. I agreed, and he suggested we talk. He said that if the guys thought we were friends they would eventually lose interest, and they did. Hendrix played a game, and we talked until Andrew showed.”

“Andrew?” someone asks.

“Andrew Morton.” That causes enough of a stir that nervousness leaks into my bloodstream and makes my hands cold and clammy. Why is it that I feel that I said something terribly wrong?

“Are you and Andrew Morton friends?” someone else asks, and the question hits me in a sickening way. I name-dropped the grandson of the most powerful US Senator…the position my father is campaigning for. Sean is going to roast me alive.

“Yes. We’ve been friends for as long as I remember.” Friends, enemies, it’s all semantics at this point.

“Did you and Andrew Morton plan to attend the festival together?” Another reporter.

“Yes.”

“Were you on a date?” a woman asks.

My entire body recoils. “What?”

“Are you and Andrew Morton romantically involved?”

I become one of those bunnies who go still at the slightest sound. “I thought we were talking about Hendrix.”

“Did Mr. Pierce confront the men?”

Finally back on track. “No, he was adamant that there should be no violence.”

More questions and I put my hand in the air as I feel like I’m the one on trial. “Isn’t that the point? Hendrix went through my dad’s program, and one of the first chances he had to make a good decision, he made one. We’re strangers, and he helped me without violence. That, to me, is success.” A few people nod their head, and because I don’t want to be done yet… “Mr. O’Bryan—grown men shouldn’t be following seventeen-year-old girls. I’m curious why you didn’t step in when I was being harassed. If you saw Hendrix and me together, then you know what happened, and it’s horrifying you didn’t help. Hendrix made the right choice. You did not.”

A rumble of conversation, Sean places a hand on my arm and gently, but firmly pushes me to the side. The raging fire in his eyes says he’s mentally measuring out the room in the basement he’s going to let me rot in for the next ten years.

My father approaches the microphone with an ease I envy. “Any more questions for Ellison can be sent to my press secretary. As you can tell, it’s been a trying day for my daughter, but we are most grateful for Mr. Pierce’s actions. We promised a program that was going to help our state’s youth turn their lives around, and, thanks to Mr. Pierce’s admirable actions, we are proud of our first program’s success.”

He offers Drix his hand again, and Drix accepts.

Lots of pictures and applause, and Dad leans in and whispers something to him. I can’t tell what it is, but I do see the shadow that crosses over Drix’s face, his throat move as he swallow and then the slight nod of his head.

I don’t know what happened, but I don’t like it. The urge is to rush Drix, but Sean has a firm hold on my elbow, keeping me in place, silently berating me for causing problems.

Drix stands behind the podium and drops a bomb so huge the ground shakes beneath my feet. “Because Ellison had enough courage to explain what happened today, I’m going to tell you what I was convicted of…”

Author Bio: Katie McGarry

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, and NOWHERE BUT HERE 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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