I have the Blog Tour for The Parts I Remember by A.K. Mills on the blog today. This is a New Adult Contemporary novel and I am excited to share a review with you.
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The Parts I Remember
Author: A.K. Mills
Publication Date: March 1, 2013
~Synopsis~
Act first. Think never. Remember nothing.
Welcome to Kelly
Rockport’s existence at Haysville University, where responsibility is just an
elective. After all, fake IDs, alter egos, and one-night stands are all part of
the college experience, right? So what if she blacks out from time to time? Memory
is overrated.
When freshman year
lasts about as long as a one-night stand and is quickly followed by the Year of
the Blackout, Kelly projects junior year to be nothing shy of amazing. But as
shots, beer, cocaine and men mesh together in an intoxicating haze, Kelly’s
reckless ways get her into serious trouble. The only problem is, she can't
remember what happened.
As she hovers along
the edge of consciousness, Kelly forces herself to think past her pain to piece
together the shards of her life. This is her story, told in her words: The
Parts I Remember.
~Prelude~
When I was asked to be a part of this blog tour, I wasn’t
sure if this is a book that I would enjoy based on my reading preferences. I
looked it up on Goodreads and saw that it had some good reviews so I decided to
give it a shot. I am glad that I did and found it to be right up my alley.
~Review~
The Parts I Remember was a mix
between Contemporary and New Adult and I liked that because it made it unique.
I read a lot of new adult books and this book was very different from anything
I have read.
The Parts I Remember chronicles
Kelly Rockport’s life in college as she starts out as an average college
freshmen. Kelly makes friends with her quadmate, Meredith and they become best
friends. They are so much alike and they are inseparable. Kelly and Meredith quickly
get into partying drinking and sex. As they move through their freshmen, sophomore
and junior years, there partying and random sexual partners becomes worse. In
the end of their junior year, they go through a life changing experience and
they must all deal with the aftermath of their choices.
“One stupid decision,” he said in his most serious tones, “and your
life, the lives of those who love you, is changed forever.”
Kelly wasn't really a likable
character but mostly because of the choices she made versus who she really was.
She was witty, smart and had the potential to be so much more. However, she
made terrible choices and didn't seem to care too much about what she was doing
to herself. I really wanted her to learn from her mistakes but she never seemed
to do that. Kelly was the type of character that didn't grow, but instead, devolved.
She was extremely selfish and took advantage of her sister and everyone else
who cared about her. She never recognized the affect her actions had on other
people and she always made excuses. It took something major for Kelly to truly
understand what she had become and that was so unfortunate.
“I thought I could improve my memory with practice so the alcohol
would have less of an effect on my recollections, but I was never able to run a
controlled experiment because as my tolerance increased, I drank more. And as I
drank more, I remembered less.”
Usually when a character is
unlikable, it takes something away from the book. However, this was the
opposite case in this book because it was the whole point of the story. Kelly’s
selfish, destructive behavior is what drove the plot and made this book what it
was. It really opens your eyes and conveys a powerful message about how our
actions affect not only our lives, but the lives of those around us. Kelly
chose to party and drink and try drugs and have random sex. When she called her
sister to continuously bail her out, she didn’t think about what she was
putting her sister through. When she was called out on her actions, she simply
apologized and felt that was good enough. In the end, they all enabled her by
allowing it to be okay when it wasn’t.
“Unfortunately, I’ve come to learn that in life, there is no Delete
button.”
I really enjoyed this book a lot. It
was really well written, the plot was intriguing and flowed together nicely. I
really enjoyed the flashback style that it was written in and I was eager to
keep reading. I loved the powerful message that this book sent and as much as
Kelly made me crazy and I wanted to scream at her, I felt bad for her and the
downward spiral that her life took. Sadly, this is a reality for many young
adults who lose themselves in self-destructive behavior. The ending was very emotional
and did an excellent job of carrying through the message this book was meant to
convey.
~IPOD Picks~
“Apologize” by One Republic
“The Mess I Made” by Parachute
“Look After You” by The Fray
About A.K Mills
Reading has always been a passion of mine. I remember as a child getting lost in Nancy Drew mysteries late at night with a flashlight long after bedtime, unable to sleep until the story was done. Summer vacations didn't properly start without first visiting the bookstore and selecting a fresh story. Unfortunately, I could never read in the car because of motion sickness. Writing was something I did mostly in private.
I still can't read in the car, but my love of books hasn't diminished. When I opened a time capsule that was buried in 1999, my hope for the year 2010 was to have published my first novel. Three years later, that dream came to fruition as The Parts I Remember was published on March 1, 2013.
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*An eBook copy was provided to me by the author for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and unbiased.*
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