Impossible to Forget

Impossible To Forget caught my eye as an Amazon First Reads book and I was immediately intrigued by its premise that revolves around a group of university friends - their friendships over the years, their struggles, and triumphs. 

The story begins with the death of Angie, a homeopath and mother of 18-year-old Romany. When her solicitor brings Angie's three university friends and another woman in for a meeting, they're told that Angie has asked these four people to be mentors for Romany. Maggie (lawyer), Tiger (roving free spirit) and Leon (engineer) have been friends with Angie since their first days in university residence. Hope, the beautiful young woman, is unknown to the others and her inclusion is a mystery to the three friends and the reader. Unsure of whether they're up with this task, the story takes readers back in time to see how these friends met, the bumps in the road and how Hope fits into things.

This is an engaging character-driven read and while I found some behaviours irksome, they were authentically portrayed and hit their emotional target. Clark slowly reveals the personal quirks, pasts and passions of this group of people, and we see how each of them change over time and grow to know each other (and themselves) better than they ever thought possible. Don't miss this impressive read!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this through the Amazon First Reads program in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Imogen Clark

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: eBook from Amazon First Reads

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

First Published: February 1, 2022

Opening Lines: My dear friends ... If you are reading this, 

then I must be dead.

Book Description from GoodReads: In this poignant novel from the bestselling author of Where the Story Starts, an extraordinary final wish brings five lives together forever.

Just turned eighteen, Romany is on the cusp of taking her first steps into adulthood when tragedy strikes, and she finds herself suddenly alone without her mother, Angie, the only parent she has ever known. In her final letter, Angie has charged her four closest friends with guiding Romany through her last year of school—but is there an ulterior motive to her unusual dying wish?

Each of the four guardians possesses an outlook on life that Angie wants to give her daughter as a legacy. Three of them have known each other since university: the eternally nomadic and exotically named Tiger; the shy and practical Leon with his untapped musical genius; and Maggie, a brilliant lawyer who doesn’t know her own abilities. But the fourth guardian is a mystery to the others: they’ve never even heard of former model Hope before…

As the guardians reflect on their friendship with Angie, it becomes apparent that this unusual arrangement is as much about them as it is about Romany. Navigating their grief individually and as a group, what will all five of them learn about themselves, their pasts—and the woman who’s brought them all together?