Review: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 25, 2013
Having read the full trilogy, I knew straight away that the first part of Remember When would forever remain my favorite, and even though I liked the whole trilogy, I knew it would be difficult to rate the last bok, which is basically Layla and Trip's undoing... So here I am, giving 3.5 stars to Remember When, still loving the story and characters, but with a slight disappointment regarding towards the end...The story begins with a very unexpected male/Trip-POV prologue, short but awesome, until we make the jump to year 2005! Layla and Trip have, again, moved on with their lives after their separation in 2000. Trip Wiley is now an Oscar winning actor, while Layla has become her own boss, working as a full-time writer.Right after Trip's POV prologue, Layla takes over the storytelling and tells us how she and Trip reunite at Trip's father's funeral. I was a bit disappointed by that whole kind of "We looked into each others eyes and recognised right then and there that we loved each other and were made for being together". And just like that, 10 years of missed opportunities, heartbreak and pain are forgotten and Trip and Layla are back together.Dont get me wrong, they have a "talk" about everything that happened between them since highschool and since their latest break-up, and again, missed opportunities and misunderstandings are the big words of the day. Anyway - to me this reunion seemed a bit too easy.I also didn't like the Pretty Woman-like turn of the story: i.e. pretty woman gets sucked into millionaire actor's world and has to learn how to deal with fame and paparazzis. And the actor's screwed tendencies. Yeah. Not kinky sex though - I was merely referring to alcohol which becomes another big issue in Trip and Layla's story. But hey, doesn't that sound too much like 50 Shades and Bared To You? I mean, don't get me wrong: I like this kind of plot, but why turn the super realistic Remember When trilogy into something so... unrealistic and difficult to relate to?But then again, the moral of this third part is probably also to enjoy the basic things and deep inside, Trip and Layla are still the same they were back when they were in highschool... And good news: the young adult/chick lit style used before is definitely moving towards much steamier (and duh: long expected!) horizons.So Trip and Layla finally get their long deserved happily ever after, but again, only after a few tumultuous and angsty episodes, which are unfortunately not comparable to the previous books, but still make up for a very nice read.