Book Blurb:
When all is lost, how do you remember love? When her beloved foster parents pass away, Holly discovers a past both shocking and heartbreaking: the murder/suicide of her biological parents on the South Pacific island of Pitcairn, famous for the HMAV Bounty mutineers. Traveling to a home she does not remember, Holly reconnects with long-lost childhood friend Jack. An old friendship quickly becomes more…until a dark secret is uncovered. Will joyous love remembered become heartbreak? Can she find out the truth before someone else is hurt?
Book Review:
Long lost friends, a murder shrouded in mystery, and a past buried deep within the recesses of the mind; Nadine Christian’s debut romance novel, Remembering Love, is sure to take your breath away. This should be no surprise as it deservedly won the 2013 Reader’s Favorite Silver Medal Award.
The story begins with two children: Jack and Holly. Carefree and playing hide and seek, they suddenly become witnesses to the murder/suicide of Holly’s parents. Jump ahead twenty years to an adult Holly with no memory of her past life or her old friend. She’s grown up happily with loving foster parents who have only just recently passed. When she finds the evidence of her past life among her foster parent’s boxed up belongings, she begins a quest to discover who she was and what exactly happened that fateful day.
Along the way, Holly meets up with her childhood friend, Jack, now all grown up and dangerously attractive. The two rediscover their friendship and love for each other as Holly works to regain the lost memories of her childhood and parents and find the answers to the questions surrounding her parents’ deaths. Nadine Christian mixes mystery with romance in this haunting and at times heartbreaking tale.
A Pitcairn Island native, the author chose to set her story there as well. The reader gets a beautiful picture of the small town life and the quirks of the islanders. My favorite part of this was her inclusion of the Pitcairn language, or Pitkern. The reader can really get a feel for these people and their culture by reading the character interactions through this dialect. I could almost hear the characters speaking to each other, and imagine the unique cadence of their dialogue. There is a real musical quality to it.
Nadine Christian shares her love for this island, giving readers a taste of the remote life in such an isolated place. We really see this in the scene when Holly discovers, as she walks into her parent’s old house for the first time since she was a child, that people from the town have cleaned and left food for her; hospitality you would be hard pressed to find in a big city. The rumor mill also abounds in this novel. Nothing stays secret for long in a place with so few people. You really get the feeling of everyone being privy to everyone else’s business on this small isolated island.
While this book is definitely worth a read, it had a few problems. There were moments when the plot dragged slightly, making one itch to put it down or skip ahead a few pages. The end is definitely worth the wait, however. There were also a few typos here and there. All in all, though, I don’t have too much to complain about.
Whether you read it for the romance, the mystery, or the experience of Pitcairn Island I would suggest giving Remembering Love a try.
Adaptation Recommendation:
I think this novel would adapt nicely into the movie format. It would also be interesting to actually see the Pitcairn lifestyle, which you won’t be able to do any other way without traveling thousands of miles. The novel is also a nice length that would transfer into a good length movie without it having to be cut up and made much shorter. I’d compare its adaptability to that of the movies made of Nora Robert’s books.
Content Warning: This novel contains a few sex scenes of a graphic nature. So, read with care. Thank you.
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Page Count: 145 pages
Publisher: Eternal Press (February 1, 2013)
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Website: www.nadinechristian.com
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