He makes me burn. He makes me ache. He makes me forget.Since grade school Murphy Wilcox and I fought incessantly. But one drunk night before my last military deployment changed everything. At least that is what he tells me. Along with the hundreds of scorching hot emails we shared.Fast forward four years and Murphy is the only connection I have to my past. The only connection I have to the woman … only connection I have to the woman I used to be. Amnesia is a bitch but apparently so was I.
25% of the profit from this book will be donated to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, in hopes that it can help fund further research into PTSD
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Make Me Forget by Monica Corwin is a love story about Mara Williams and Murphy Wilcox. If you think it is the usual love story, it isn’t. Their story is gritty, raw with feelings and realistic in its subject matter. They are both fighting internal demons and, at times, I wondered whether one or the other could survive these battles. Monica Corwin’s characters face PTSD, amnesia, depression and overall despair. However, in the gifted way she writes, you don’t get sucked under by the characters’ emotional fallout. What you do get are two flawed individuals searching for answers, searching for love and ultimately searching for each other.
Make Me Forget was emotional, angsty and stark. I took the characters into my heart and wanted to soothe them when they were needing it most. Mara and Murphy are heros to me because they fought battles that many of us do. Monica is also my hero as she addressed these tough subjects in an honest, sensitive manner.
I wholeheartedly recommend Make Me Forget. Once you read it, I doubt you will forget Mara Williams and Murphy Wilcox for some time to come. I know these two will remain with me for a long time.
I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Make Me Forget shows you a side of mental illness that many don’t get to see. I liked the twist of the female character being the one who served and was wounded. Mara and Murphy have known each other since school days, there seems to be some tension between them from the earlier days. Years later Mara is upset she’s being sent back overseas and ends up in Murphy’s bar. Some harsh words, a PTSD attack, and a night to make her forget and is non-stop anguish from there.
Murphy has been in love with Mara basically his whole life. Mara never noticed. Mara goes through so much, it breaks your heart. She isn’t in a good place in her head when she comes back to Murphy. Both make mistakes but the story of love and the battle with internal demons is a beautiful one. Murphy will make you melt, he makes mistakes and owns up to them. Mara realizes her head isn’t in a good place and takes the steps needed to heal herself. This is a wonderful story of hope and love. Murphy and Mara will break your heart, but they will also put it back together again.
While I loved the concept of this story, a servicewoman dealing with the effects of post-war life as well as her disability and a man trying to be whatever she needs to make it through even at the cost of his own heart, it left me struggling to put together some of the pieces of what was going on between the two. The questions I had, hoping it would help me understand the motivation behind Mara’s need to come home, while answered left me with wanting.
I love what the author was trying to bring light to, as I have been in Murphy’s shoes myself, and know what a roller coaster ride that kind of lifestyle can bring. The interaction between Mara and the rest of the therapy group made me want to keep reading and see what came of all of it, along with making me love that Murphy was trying to get her help. I wish there was more of Murphy’s back story as well.
Murphy has loved Mara for a long time. But Murphy is tied to the town that Mara left behind. Whenever Mara comes to visit, they verbally spar with each other, which leads Murphy to believe that she doesn’t feel the same way. Until she does. But Mara is about to be deployed over seas again. However this time is different. They keep in touch. Until tragedy strikes, leaving Mara changed.
When Mara finally comes back to find Murphy, it’s like they are getting to know each other all over again. But Mara is still haunted by what happened to her.
I wasn’t sure how they were going to get past the issues that seemed to be stacked against them, but everyone deserves a HEA. I enjoyed the realness of the characters, and the fact that the issues they had and the lives they led were realistic. The pure chemistry that they had hooked my attention from the beginning. The focus on the very real issues our military face when coming back from deployment grabbed my heart. This was a great book, one I’d recommend.