Love was waning, and the seventeen-year relationship between Jax Levine and Gretchen Mills was no longer worth fighting for. The last few years of their marriage had been hellish. But after an accident that left Gretchen unconscious in the hospital for days, she woke up to Jax sitting by her bedside and without memories of the past three-and-a-half years. She couldn't figure out what broke their marriage apart or what memories were real. Would this incident be the almost-clean slate the soon-to-be ex-wives needed to love again?

"What the Heart Remembers Most" is about pain, trust, and hope. I love almost everything about the book – how both main characters were flawed and fierce in their own ways and that every detail mattered. It was important that Jax grew up in foster care system because the experience definitely fuelled her protectiveness of children. I also really appreciate that the supporting characters were crucial for the story to come full circle.

The simple settings worked remarkably well. With most of the plot occurring at the hospital and Gretchen's home and only a handful of characters involved, Ullrich enhanced the sense of intimacy to this very personal story.

A big part of Jax and Gretchen's relationship was them connecting through writing. I love this choice of media, and whether it was proclaiming love or just communicating, nothing brought them closer than handwritten words.

We pretty much woke up with Gretchen. The blur between false memory and reality caught me off guard, briefly making me just as confused as both Gretchen and Jax in the most engrossing way possible. I really enjoyed this way of storytelling.

As readers, we see very little of the downsides of Jax and Gretchen's relationship. Maybe that helped us root for them to reconcile all the way through. I'd like to think both characters wanted a second chance, but the ugly past forgotten by Gretchen and scarred Jax was too much of a landmine that both feared would go off at any time. I reminded myself that both were seeking closure, and should the story had different endings, it would still be wondrous.

"What the Heart Remembers Most" is a romance that tears through the readers' hearts. It is a reevaluation of what is important in life. As we experience the traumatic recovery of Gretchen along with all the characters, we feel the desperation and tension and love. We live it all through with Jax and Gretchen, and upon finishing, dared to believe in forevers again.

I really enjoyed What the Heart Remembers Most. It seems that the big question is if the huge twist in the book works for me or not. Well, i guess it did. I must admit I was confused for a handful of pages but I got use to it rather quickly and was happy for the twist. So that is why I said I guess.

This is a second chance romance and also a romance featuring an interracial couple (that made me extra giddy). Jax and Gretchen have been together since college and 20 years later they are getting a divorce. Jax now lives separately and is in a relationship and Gretchen is a work-a-holic. Gretchen has an accident leaving work and loses the last 3 years of her memory.

So this for sure was a very emotional read. Both Jax and Gretchen were very likable characters and I found myself rooting for them. Both characters seem to have there set of issues though we really see Jax issues and have to figure out what is going on with Gretchen. That did not bother me at all because Ullrich was able to bring it all together in the end. I must admit sometimes I get a little bored with a book if there is way to much inner dialogue. I found What the Heart Remembers Most has a very good balance of inner dialogue and actual conversations. This for sure is one of the better books i have read this year.

I rate this one 4.5 stars

IT WORKED FOR ME!
I had to start off with this sentence because reading the reviews and discussing with friends who are reading this as we speak, I realized that there's a twist in the book that will either work for you or it wont! Thankfully it worked for me :)
So M. Ullrich is a good writer and I like her books because they are so different. She's one of those authors where it's rare that you would say "oh this is typical M. Ullrich".. And this specific read is definitely not typical! I was very interested in the blurb and when I finished this book I was happy that I chose it!
This is a book about second chances with a twist, it's not an easy read because it's about marriage and the difficulties you face in long term relationships and in real life in general!

It's a very emotional read as I mentioned before, not easy :) But I really ended up enjoying this because it's very twisted. I don't want to give spoilers here but a I am going to give a tip: please concentrate with timelines, and if you get stuck thinking there is an error, no it is not..

I recommend this book if you're in the mood for an emotional roller coaster, if you're in the mood to think and re-think and try to solve a puzzle while reading :)

My rating is a 4.5 rounded up to 5 and I received an ARC for an honest review.

NetGalley gave me a copy for a honest review. Thank you!!
4.00 stars.
I love M. Ullrich's books, they're so easy to immerse into the stories. The topic I imagine it must have been difficult to write and make it a plot: retrograde amnesia.
Gretchen has a son, and a soon-to-be ex-wife. She's a therapist. Jacqueline (but everybody calls her Jax) shares the custody of their son Caleb, and has a relationship with their nanny, Meredith.
In the beginning, Jax wakes up with a emergency call, about her ex-wife who is in the hospital after an accident at work. After Gretchen wakes up, she realizes that a lot of things changed. She lost the memory of four years. The last thing she remembered was when Caleb was still a toddler and still married with Jax, but wakes up separated of her partner and with a four year old son.
It's important to mention that in every chapter begins counting the hours, minutes and seconds. After a few chapters, you see that it's extremely essencial to count them. I will try not to give anything away, but trust me, if you haven't read it yet, don't forget about the hours in every chapter.
I think Jax is a good character, very complex, but realistic. She didn't make Gretchen believe everything was fine with them after she wakes up, because it wasn't, She loved her, but they fought a lot, Gretchen worked too much, and never had the time to stay home and be a mother and a wife.
Gretchen was a great character too. She saw her amnesia a way to change her behaviour toward her marriage, and other stuff in her life, like a second chance, and she really tried. The problem was that Jax was too tired to try too. They had a beautiful history together (seventeen years is a long time), but I kinda missed the romance a little. But the whole book, the characters, the bad and the good stuff was so natural. The dialogues was so real, like everything really happened, and I like it, a lot.
The thing that bothered me, was how Jax handled the whole thing. When I started reading the book, a really thought that Gretchen will be the one who will affect her and others negatively with her amnesia. I've read retrograde amnesia stories enough to know that, when you lose your memories, you lose a part of your personality. So you have to catch up with your life and the lives around you, and It's pretty tough. But Jax, I don't know, at first, she probably offered to take care of Gretchen for a while in their house out of guilt. And I understand. But one time she tried to help, and the other she got angry with Gretchen for not remembering, and it was really frustrating. Toward the end of the book, they're kinda on the same track, then Jax finds an envelop with the divorce papers, and the petition for Caleb's custody on Gretchen's drawer. She's instantly furious and they go back to square one. Jax didn't even try to put in Gretchen's shoes, to try to imagine how hard it must be for her not remember the bad choices she made, because Gretchen realized it in the moment she saw that Jax treated her differently after she woke up; that their marriage was in a bad place.
So many discomunication that it's so common between partners/couples through the years, and the book explores that well. I loved Amanda and Wyatt, they balanced the book as secondary characters. Caleb was cute, and Meredith was a nice woman, it's hard not to like any of them.
It's a great book, i'm not intirely disappointed with it, but I expected more. I don't know, more of their life before. I have to admit that I'm such a sucker for flashbacks lol. There's a lot of drama/angst and I love it.

I LOVED EVERY MINUITE OF IT. I finished this quite fast I might add, I just could not get enough. How can I say that I felt everything Gretchen went through. she was written beautifully. She represented strength and her development was convincing. Jex was Ok too I understood her ego and all, but Man I wanted to slap her many times, she's always ready to start a fight even when it was not necessary! Like chill for a sec. the book talked about marriage, the problems within and how important the communication is between both parties.

One thing tho, around the middle I was so confused. I went back and forth just to make sure that I did not jump by accident few chapters back !

thank you for the author and her team for the free copy in exchange of a honest review. Very very recommended. it's sad but not devastating, at least to me.

I liked the premise of the story, but I found the time jumps incredibly confusing. It also seemed to get wrapped up in too nice of a bow right at the end, and I would have liked more story with the resolution in place.

This story has been really good for me and I liked many things about it. First, I liked that it deals with such a complex issue as marriage, but when the initial passion has moved towards routine and a certain obligation. Also that the two women in the couple are loyal to the end, despite the effort and sacrifice that this may have cost them. Also that the couple is biracial without having treated the subject with cliches or topics.

And I always liked stories with amnesiac characters, but this one has been outstanding.

But the main thing and what I liked the most is the surprise that lies within.

Everything has been so well headed and was so amazing to read at times. Exciting, tender, sad, sweet, painful. It has everything and more. Don't pass this one up.

This story begins with Jax Levine and Gretchen Mills who've been together for seventeen years with a four-year old son, Caleb, but who have grown apart over the last several years due to a variety of marital issues. When Gretchen slips on some ice when leaving her job late on evening their lives are further transformed. She wakes up in the hospital after many days in a drug induced coma and has some form of amnesia where she doesn't remember the last four years of her life. These are the years with the intense marital issues.

When reading this book it's very crucial to pay attention to the details including the time stamps at the beginning of each chapter. About half-way through the book those time stamps begin to generally repeat with another medically-related issue that impacts Gretchen. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but it ratchets up the intensity of the story between Gretchen and Jax.

In the second half of the book at lot of the details that lead to the downward spiral of Gretchen and Jax's relationship are revealed.

I would highly recommend this book to other readers. It's the type of book that causes the reader to contemplate the relationships in their life and think about what can be improved. This book will stay with me for awhile.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

M Ullirch has really thrown a curve ball with What The Heart Remembers Most. As an author, she certainly doesn't have a "type", with each of her novels being completely different from each other. She also assumes a level of intelligence among her readership with this book.

From the beginning, immediately I noticed that each chapter began with a time stamp, which I knew would come to be important. At the midpoint, the story goes back in time a few days and I thought maybe we were going to get the viewpoint of the second MC as the events unfolded, but it wasn't really that. I'm not really sure what happened. There's some difficult subject matter in the unfolding of the history between Gretchen and Jax, and I admire the decision to include that.

This couldn't have been an easy book to write, or to live through while writing. And it's definitely a book that requires a recovery period after reading.

From the beginning this book had my attention. The title and cover seem a little sappy, but it makes total sense after reading the book and I feel it’s less sappy.

When Gretchen has an accident she ends up in the hospital with a head injury. Jax, her (ex)wife is by her side for all of it, as is Gretchen’s sister Amanda. Gretchen lost 4 years of her memory in the accident, in those 4 years many things changed and people drifted apart and small ones grew up. She has a hard time coming to terms with this and fully understanding what is going on. The book is time base, chapters are named in days and hour from the accident, so you understand the full journey and how long it takes. Until it makes no sense any longer. What is real and what’s a memory or a dream seems twisted. Will Gretchen and Jax find their way together, or is there love lost forever?

I really like the writing style of this author and this book is no different. The story unfolds nicely, there is some mystery, some romance and definitely some heartache. But there was one fault in this book for me. Groundhog Day isn’t one of my favourite movies and I think this book takes it to the next level. I felt like I was reading the same thing twice, which I guess was the point, but I didn’t really like it. I like how the story unfolded in the end, but I’d love to have had more of an explanation for the Groundhog Day things.

I am the type of reader that reads a book cover to cover because you never know what gem, surprise, or anecdote the author may slip in seemingly unnoticed. While reading the Acknowledgments portion before Chapter 1 the author states, “from concept to final product, this was a long and bumpy road.” Gretchen and Jax’s journey is exactly just that. Gretchen’s road to recovery from a traumatic brain injury is devastating for both women and we carry their weight of heaviness throughout the first half of the book. However, the author skillfully meanders the plot for us to see each woman’s POV and how they interpret or misinterpret the growing chasm that is slowly becoming the demise of their marriage right before the accident. I found myself not necessarily switching sides, per say. I gradually became very aware of how human and flawed both women are while also observing how strong theIr devotion to love can be to overcome such bad behavior. Moreover, the message of hope becomes the harbor in their storm. I encourage you to read the entirety of the Acknowledgements as it the perfect summary of this marvelous journey that two souls undertake to weather one hell of a storm. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I recently read another book very similar fun plot to this title. I did like some of the fun plot twists and also just enjoyed the writing itself. I would love to recommend this book to other readers with an open mind about unrealistic plots.

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The book itself wasn't bad- it has interesting enough, but I couldn't really connect to it or the characters.

Gretchen has a accident that cause her to have major head injury which result with her waking up missing four years of her life.

When Jax is contact at the hospital Gretchen doesn’t understand why she distant until she learns they are separate and it’s four years later then she remember.

As she adjusts to this it’s about second chance to make it right as we go through their past yes both were right and wrong. I like Gretchen because she was to determine to get back the life she wants with Jax and their family I was rooting for her but Jax made me dislike her especially the way she treated Meredith who you could tell had strong feelings for her.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. Wow. I was not expecting to love this but was so surprised at the effect it had on me. I was entranced from the second chapter on. This love story and journey is epic and you will fall madly in love with the characters and their journey. I was confused after she was in the hospital the second time, there was never an explanation if the first half was all a dream or if time really did reset itself. This is the one thing that caused this book to not receive 5 starts from me. I will most definitely be re reading this again in the future though!

When Gretchen Mills fell on some icy steps, she suffered a severe head injury and lost four years of her memory…her life with her soon to be ex-wife Jax and son. She didn’t remember the disintegration of her marriage nor her child’s toddler years. Since the doctor warned Gretchen’s family that she shouldn’t get upset in her condition, she was initially supplied with half truths. Eventually, truths were revealed but all was not what it seemed.

This was an interesting and different second chance romance from other books I recently read. Gretchen and Jax’s marriage problems felt more realistic and relatable such as working long hours or stuck in a job you hate with a boss that makes the job even more miserable, worrying about bills, or even discussing the appropriate actions to take when their child was diagnosed with ADHD.

As I was reading, I was fully engaged with the direction of the story, the diverse characters and the emotional dialogue. Then I reached a point where I was confused. I thought I lost my place in the kindle and was rereading chapters. But I was not. It was just the clever writing of this author, and this reader not paying attention to each chapter’s time frame and the doctor’s note taking apparatus. So if you pay attention to those details from the start you’ll enjoy the story without any confusion.

Even though my reading was interrupted by my confusion, I still found this to be a well written and entertaining read. Highly recommended!
ARC given in exchange for an honest review.

Gretchen Mills has a fall, is badly hurt and is hospitalised. Her emergency contact is her wife Jax Levine. However, Jax and Gretchen are estranged and in the process of getting divorced. A month after moving out of their house and out of a relationship of almost a decade and a half, Jax is already involved with a younger woman (and the nanny of Jax and Gretchen’s son), Meredith. Responding to the call, Jax goes to the hospital where Gretchen is admitted. When Jax and Gretchen’s sister Amanda arrive, Gretchen is in coma. She is kept in a medically induced coma for a while as she has hurt her head and the brain needs time to repair itself.

When Gretchen revives, she has amnesia – she has no recollection of the past four years of her life. In her reality, she and Jax are deeply in love, her son is a baby, her relationship with Amanda is not so great and her estranged mother is alive. She tries to grapple with what new life she’s woken into – Jax is at best a reluctant presence at her bedside, her son is a hyperactive toddler, Amanda is fiercely protective and the strongest anchor she has and her mother has been dead for two years.

This book is obviously about second chances. As their past unfolds (mostly through fights and some notes that they had once exchanged), you get a real feel of the relationship. As in any long-term relationship, both the women have been right and wrong. However, since she has no memory of the worst years of their lives together, Gretchen is desperate to get back to what they had (and to what she remembers) while Jax is completely unwilling (and angry that she is the only one who remembers). Despite the author trying to keep a balance between the two, slowly Gretchen becomes the more likeable person and Jax becomes increasingly unlikeable. She is just not good enough as a person, a partner or a friend.

There is a steady timeline used as the chapter headings – and this is an important part of the story because suddenly, bam! Groundhog Day! Gretchen is back in the hospital and everything starts repeating except that she has the memory of all the things that happened and all the information she’d got the first time round while no one else seems to have lived that period.

We’re not sure about this narrative choice by the author because it detracts from the sobriety of the storyline making it kind of unbelievable. In fact, it served to disengage us from the relationship for a while, for quite a while.

We are also not either fans of or even understanding about collateral damage to a third person outside the relationship between the MCs in an effort to get the MCs together. In this, from not-quite-liking we slipped into intense dislike for Jax after she dumps Meredith. Valentine’s Day, Meredith has made the evening special in every way, bought a really thoughtful gift for Jax and declares that she loves Jax. In response to the ‘I love you’, Jax dumps Meredith. After that we truly couldn’t care about what happened with Jax though we felt for Gretchen.

The writing is strong. Characters and relationships, well developed. But...

But, this book didn’t leave us positive feelings – in fact, quite the opposite.

When Gretchen wakes up in the hospital after a terrible accident, she thinks it's the 4th of July and her son is only a year old. She's lost the memories of the last four years, ones where she and her wife Jax are on the brink of divorce after years of fighting. Jax remembers every lonely evening and every harsh word, but for Gretchen she's every bit in love with Jax as when they first got together seventeen years ago. Will this accident be a chance for them to rebuild their family? Or is it gone forever, just like Gretchen's memories?

I have loved the memory loss trope since I was a teenager and I read Mirror Image by Sandra Brown so by the synopsis, and the fact it was written by M. Ullrich, I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy this book. I wasn't prepared for how much this book was going to blow my mind and how much I was going to love it. It's one of the best books I've ever read. I got my heart broken, I fell in love, and I felt like I was going a little insane. The characters were written so beautifully and the depth of their emotions was something very tangible to the reader. The raw anger and sadness Jax felt mixed with Gretchen's confusion and pure love for Jax was really something else. The chemistry between Jax and Gretchen was amazing as well. I loved witnessing their relationship in present time, but also through letters they once wrote to each other.

This is one of those books I would bring to a desert island if I were only allowed 10 books to read for the rest of my life.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So first off I would like to thank Netgalley and Bold Strokes books for providing me with the arc in return for my honest opinion. As many that have read any of me reviews I tend to stay away from telling what the book is about but rather stick to if I liked it or not. So I have read a couple of other of Ullrich's books and I follow her. I had read the blurb for this book and thought it looked like it would be interesting so tried for the Arc. The book grabs you from the start and is time based on the chapters starting from the accident time. It cruises right along and keeps your interest up nicely and than all of a sudden you get a big HUH???? moment..its was more than a moment..I thought maybe it was a error or I was missing something and took more than a few pages to grasp what was going on. It's not what I was expecting and frankly I did not think this plot change was going to work for me. I kept thinking that for a while and then it just did? You need to read it. Overall I really enjoyed the book and it kept me thinking pretty much right up to the end. All the characters were for the most part likeable. Do not hesitate to pick this up as it has a little bit of mystery and I was not thinking I would see that. 4 plus stars