Forgotten

Forgottenby Catherine McKenzie

When everyone thinks you’re dead, how do you start your life over again?Emma Tupper, a young lawyer with a bright future, sets out on a journey after her mother’s death: to Africa, a place her mother always wanted to visit. But her mother’s dying gift has unexpected consequences. Emma falls ill during the trip and is just recovering when a massive earthquake hits, turning her one-month vacation into a six-month ordeal.When Emma returns home, she’s shocked to find that her friends and colleagues believed she was dead, that her apartment has been rented to a stranger and that her life has gone on without her. Can Emma pick up where she left off? Should she? As Emma struggles to recreate her old life, everyone around her thinks she should change – her job, her relationships, and even herself. But does she really want to sacrifice everything she’s working so hard to gain? (goodreads.com)

There's nothing happier than discovering an author you love and then realizing their next book is about to come out after having read everything else they've written at one time. This is how I feel about Catherine McKenzie. I am actually embarrassed to admit it took being contacted by the US publisher to get me to  fall in love with her, when I'd been looking at and wanting to check out her first novel Spin since it came out here years ago. After devouring both Spin and Arranged, I made sure to pick up McKenzie's latest (in Canada), Forgotten as soon as it came out!I read this book cover to cover on the train ride back home from visiting my parents in their new place. The train ride was just under 3 hours and even with the occasional break to check email, facebook, twitter, take photos (etc... ADD brain that I have) I still managed to finish the book just as we were about to pull into the station in Montreal.Reading three books by the same author in (almost) a row, certainly makes it easy to figure out the similarities in writing. All three books are individual, though they also have a sneaky little one-liner per story that keeps a continuity. I won't say more because I like finding those "easter eggs" in the stories myself. The similarities in the story telling are obviously what draws me to the books. It's the humour and flawed main characters that keep me coming back.That being said, I think Forgotten really had an interesting premise. What happens to someone when the come back home after being gone for months without any contact? What happens when you come home and realized you've been thought dead? Emma's life sort of begins anew and she gets that second chance that so many people wish they could have.Forgotten isn't as heavy on the humour as Spin or Arranged but it's still in there. The humour is subtle though, it doesn't hit you over the head. It's just a sort of "you know, life can be funny" kind of humour. The kind of humour you'd find with a spouse (my husband and I are always cracking up in the grocery store. It's weird but it's true) or a best friend. It's finding the humour in any situation, because there most always is some.I'm going to have to suck it up and admit that these books can (and do) fall under the Chick Lit umbrella. They are happy little love stories that if brought to life on a movie screen would likely star Sandra Bullock or Hugh Grant. One of those. But smarter and fun. At the same time, they are Sarah Addison Allen-ish and I don't like to call those Chick Lit either.Whatever the label, Forgotten is a great story full of sweet moments and fun characters. Catherine McKenzie is now officially one of my favourite authors - and she gets bonus points for being a local, Canadian author, too. ;)