e-Audio, 09:52:41
Narrated by: Teresa Palmer & Zachary Webber
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Published by: Hachette Audio
Read from: April 5-6, 2026
Say You’ll Remember Me, #2
Source: Audible (I also received the e-ARC from Netgalley but there was a problem with the upload and I couldn’t read it. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Alcoholism, Mention of DWI, anaphylaxis (nut allergy), Addiction, Alcohol, Death of a Parent, Vomit, Grief, Panic Attacks/Disorders, Sexual Assault, Violence, PTSD, Socioeconomic Diversity, Animal Death of a garter snake off page, Diet Culture (Athlete), A Rough Kiss Without Consent
For Readers of: Adult, Audible, Audio, Auto-Buy Author, Contemp Romance, Contemporary, Friends to Lovers, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Second Chance Romance, Forbidden Romance, Tear-JerkersA beautiful, compelling novel that revels in laughter, friendship, and the messy choices life can throw our way.
In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything…
For Larissa, it came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.
But Chris isn’t the one who drove Larissa home all those months ago—Chris is her boyfriend’s best friend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was not high up on my priority list because I was NOT a fan of the first one in this series. I did NOT want to read about people reading that lady who used Breonna Taylor’s death as promo. The ONLY reason I read this one is because my co-worker told me there was a peanut allergy and I had to know how it was handled.
As someone who has only a peanut allergy, I was interested in how she was going to do this one. I checked the Content Warnings and it just mentioned anaphylaxis and not death because of it, so I was ok with reading. But thinking I was ready was one thing because I wasn’t actually lol I got SO PISSED this entire book because of how CARELESS this person was. I wanted to cuss them all out so bad. I know they were going through their own struggle, but once you bring someone else into it, it becomes an issue for everyone and that wasn’t ok. She never once made her allergy everyone else’s problem, she just handled it on her own. And the part with the big thing? I yelled out loud, “THE [THINGS]!”I knew immediately what was about to happen and it scared me. I still cried, but I found comfort in knowing it wasn’t what it could have been. Things could have been so much worse.
I also don’t like addiction, but I was semi ok with this one because it wasn’t a family figure and it was alcohol instead. But even still, this was hard. It was hard to see everything matter less to them. It was hard to see them prioritize that but then still hide it from others because they knew it was wrong. Like the other characters I wanted to help them and also give them the benefit of the doubt, but I hated that they basically took advantage of them and basically didn’t see why this was so bad as it was happening.
The romance was a little hard because it was a forbidden one. How do you go about being with someone without being with them? And how could you sit by and let something like that happen because you respected someone? What about the respect for the other person? It was a whole messy, messy thing and I was annoyed at two people. I’ll just say that other person deserved better than that. I was glad they finally got it together. I didn’t like that in-between they were in either. That wasn’t fair. To either of them. But I have to admit, I wanted more for them. I wanted them to be able to have that healthy, safe, accepted, relationship out in the open without all the hoopla, just like everyone else. Their road to being together was so trite and hard, that I wanted to see them soft and gentle with each other. They deserved that. But I will say I was happy they got to at least feel what it was like to be such good friends. They learned each other and their idiosyncrasies so when it was time, they didn’t need to waste time, they were ready. But it did make me think. Are they shitty people because of this? Who should have mattered more? Did what happened with the other person make it ok for them to do this? How big of an influence are family and other outside sources? Would you have done it anyways? This will make an interesting book club book at the very least.
Now the characters as individual were a different story. I felt so sorry for Chris. He was doing all of these things for the woman he loved who he thought had no idea he existed. I can’t imagine that type of suffering. I think I would have lost it. I also felt sorry for Larissa. Not just because of her allergy, but because she was having to deal with the aftermath of her dad. Ugh I did not want her to be responsible but I get why it had to happen. But I also wanted to shake her ass in some instances. Because why did you hang on so long? Why did you act like you were ok?! He was the worst boyfriend ever and you just acted like it was fine.
This was not something I had on my Bingo card to love since I didn’t like the other one at all. It came as a surprise that I even picked this up, so yeah. But I will say, I hope she doesn’t make using that lady in her books the norm. Because then I’ll never know when she actually gets it right. Like in this one.
Overall, I give this
