Remember When by Judith McNaught

About the book

Remember When is a romance novel by Judith McNaught. It was published on 25th April 2006 by Pocket Books and the book is 418 pages long.

Plot

Alone on a moonlit balcony at Houston's White Orchid Charity Ball, Diana Foster courageously upheld the sparkling image of her family's "Beautiful Living" magazine. Recently jilted by her fiance for an Italian heiress -- an insult delivered via a sleazy tabloid -- Diana was now very publicly unengaged, and surrounded by humiliating rumors. So why was billionaire Cole Harrison closing in on her with two crystal flutes and a bottle of champagne?

The former stableboy had received an ultimatum from his uncle: bring home a wife -- soon -- or lose his share of a booming multinational business. Coolly analytical and arrestingly attractive, Cole knew what he wanted in a bride, and Diana Foster -- rich, beautiful, principled -- fit the role perfectly. But while a long, slow kiss sealed the bargain that solved both their dilemmas, neither imagined the extraordinary journey that would begin on that unforgettable night…

What I thought

The beginning of this book was fantastic. The introduction is quite long and drawn out but very necessary in order to explain both Diana and Cole's traits, dreams and personalities. I really enjoyed reading about Diana and how she gets to grips with having a new family and her crazy obsession with being neat and organised was funny. I was more drawn to Cole's character though. He had a far more interesting background and big dreams. It was quite obvious that he was going to achieve what he wanted in regards to business and money because of the nature of the books but I loved reading about how he planned on doing it. It was very clear from the beginning that Cole was intelligent and that he was going to do great things.

The minor characters, like Diana's sister, Corey, kind of seemed a bit pointless to me unless McNaught was going to write a book about her as well, which she didn't. A lot of time was spent explaining about Corey's feelings for Spencer which could have gone to much better use and I didn't end up really caring for her. For me, she could have been mentioned a couple of times and I would have been happy with that. I didn't need to know anything else about her.

I really didn't like the ending to this book which was a shame because I loved the rest of it. The end seemed to come about too quickly and was very rushed. It was like all of a sudden Cole and Diana became this happy couple when they went to see Cole's Uncle but for me, there should have been something in-between these parts of the story. It was far too easy a relationship it and I would have liked a bit more to make this book amazing. At 418 pages, it is already quite long and I can understand that it would have been too long any other way.

Not my favourite McNaught book but it was an OK read.