Amnesia
When we're forced to forget, we might find what we're looking for
Amnesia and split chronology are two tropes/narrative decisions I find frustrating for similar reasons; I want to move forward rather than wallowing in the past or retreading ground I feel sufficiently familiar with already. That said, there are plenty of both kinds of books I enjoy, because they don’t fall into that trap. These three books, for instance, are examples of when amnesia is used either early enough in the book or effectively enough in the narrative that it’s an additive quality rather than one I wait impatiently for the author to resolve so we can move on. How do you feel about amnesia plots? I’m curious to hear where you land on this controversial device!
When the Marquess was Mine by Caroline Linden. There is just something about a woman gaslighting an amnesiac who wronged her that hits for me. Georgiana hates the Marquess of Westmorland already, but when she’s visiting with a friend who receives a letter from her husband that under no circumstances should she allow the Marquess onto their property for a vague but implicitly sinister reason, her preconceptions are proved true. They learn soon after that he’d be visiting the property because he won it in a card game that Georgiana’s friend’s husband was playing in, so while the husband is the real villain, Georgiana vows they won’t lose their home to an opportunist blackguard.
The unexpected occurs when Georgiana comes across a badly beaten stranger on the road to the house and cleans him up to discover two things: he is the Marquess of Westmorland, and he has no fucking idea who he is. Worried the friend will throw him out (fair, but also, he’s near death), Georgiana pretends he’s her fiance by a different name. Thus begins an adventure of gaslighting and fond looks and shenanigans.
What I liked about this amnesia tale was that it happens early enough in the book we don’t know the marquess well enough to feel like we’ve gone backwards, and he gets a second chance at a life he’s completely fucking up without fully losing his edge that we love to hate, and also love to love. I agree with other reviewers that the climactic scene, which involves a secondary plot about taking down illegal slave trading, gets a little lost because after a cursory mention in the beginning we completely drop it for the majority of the book and then it becomes the big moment at the end almost at random. That said, I love this author and this series, and I love when rascals get gaslit into being better men.
How hot? 🔥🔥
Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas. You know I love a man who says nigh unforgivable shit early in the book, only to be a groveling simp by the end, and almost no one understands this better than Lisa Kleypas. Unlike the other two books in this roundup, this one starts with the amnesia, never introducing us to the heroine before our hero, a Bow Street Runner, comes across her near death in the Thames with no idea who she is.
Grant Morgan, the Runner, knows exactly who she is, though. She’s Vivien Rose Duvall, a famous, and famously horrible, courtesan. She’s also got bruises around her neck and he’s honor-bound to find her attacker and, until she regains her memory, protect her.
The thing is, in addition to Vivien not remembering her infamous life prior to her attack, she’s certain the life Grant Morgan recalls for her isn’t hers. It’s also a little strange he lowkey seems to despise her, but also claims they’re lovers (a lie he tells early both as revenge for a previous slight by Vivien and also to keep her close for protection).
No spoilers, but more is not what it seems than what is obviously not what it seems. And the adventure of discovery and letting go of preconceptions and seeing vulnerability not as a weakness but a boon is a delightful one to follow.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Regarding the Duke by Grace Callaway. This is one of the fastest turnarounds from “read a book” to “putting it in a Forced Proximity roundup” because I knew I had an amnesia week coming up but I wasn’t 100% thrilled with one of the picks and it was one of the earliest books I’d read so frankly I barely remembered it. Then this book finally came off my library holds, and all was right in the world again.
There are a lot of things about this book that make it the platonic ideal of an amnesia plot, particularly in that it is constantly defying expectations. Our couple, Gabby and Adam, have been married for eight years, they have two kids, they’ve been integral in several previous books over the course of two Grace Callaway series, and yet, neither previous couples nor the reader really has any idea how the relationship between a vicious moneylender and a cheerful sweetheart works.
Well, the thing is… it doesn’t. Not really. Gabby was raised by an ambitious and distant single father who worked his way up to influence through money, trade, and underhandedness. His greatest hope is to launch his only daughter into the world he couldn’t otherwise buy his way into, but it’s Adam Garrity, an even more hardcore “rags to riches” new money bloke, who captures her interest. Gabby is criminally insecure because pretty much every world she’s ever tried to be a part of has rejected her, and yet she remains sweetly optimistic and accommodating. Perfect for Adam, who wants the utmost respectability in his new life to fuel a revenge that’s twenty years in the making. So their relationship is built on mutual respect, routine, and politeness. They have proper upper class married people sex every Wednesday, their lives are completely disparate, and though she doesn’t have the vocabulary for it considering she loves her husband desperately, Gabby is miserable.
Then an accident occurs one book earlier, and Adam wakes up with zero memory of his life. Thus, the amnesia plot begins, and though these two have been married eight years, instead of it feeling like we’re narratively moving backwards, we’re in fact, for the first time, moving forward. Without his memories weighing him down, Adam is left with a single thought in his handsome head: wow my wife is gorgeous and perfect. What follows is an exploration of how a loss of holding your cards too close to your chest (because you simply don’t remember you’re supposed to, For Propriety) can finally grant you the relationship you actually want. Adam Garrity loves the hell out of his wife, and he’s furious him with a memory didn’t treat her like the absolute queen she is. Exceptional conceit.
And though I usually find heroines like Gabby, who are near-clinically passive, tiresome, there’s a strength to her I wasn’t expecting and loved dearly. Especially when this occurs to her: “Walking through fire had made her realize that although her marriage had satisfied the needs of the girl she’d been, the woman she was now yearned for more.”
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be continuing a mini series about brain stuff stories with three PTSD-centric books. Fair warning, it’s a bit of a darker week than usual, so strap in.
Don’t forget (get it, amnesia? ey???) that MY book, a workplace marriage of convenience, is coming out soon! Save Rehabbing the Billionaire on Goodreads! Pre-order your copy on Amazon, or mark your calendar for August 1st to snag it on Kindle Unlimited!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
I have a great suggestion where a case of amnesia allows the heroine to get revenge against the hero-The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville.
I don't read a lot of books with amnesia, but the ones where I do, the amnesia starts at the beginning of the book and they're figuring it out over the course of the story.