A Sneak Peek at Forget Me Not by Julie Soto
Feb 12 2023
Alexa, cue “Easy On Me” by Adele. We need to get ready for Julie Soto’s debut novel.If you’ve browsed Instagram - or rather, Bookstagram - in the last month or two, odds are you will have come across a post about Julie Soto’s upcoming book "Forget Me Not." The beloved fan-fiction author - known as lovesbitca8 on Ao3 - will bring the witty banter, tension, and enemies-to-lovers romance she is known for in her debut novel on July 11, 2023.
Who is Julie Soto?
While "Forget Me Not" will be Soto’s first book, she has been writing tension-filled romances for many years - primarily on “Archives of Our Own” (Ao3), a platform where fans to bring their thoughts and “un-canon” relationships to life. Having been a fan of the Harry Potter fandom and writing Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger fanfic for quite some time, Soto’s writing quickly became a sensation on Ao3. With one of her fanfics - "The Auction" - accumulating over 1 million reads on the platform, Soto and her writing have inevitably made their way into the hearts of millions of readers, many of whom were ecstatic to hear the news of her publishing her very first novel. On top of receiving the news of a new forced-proximity enemies-to-lovers romance releasing this summer, longtime supporters of Soto were ecstatic to hear that she would be working closely with one of her longtime collaborators, Nikita Jobson, to design the cover of "Forget Me Not." Known for making astonishing fan art for Soto’s Dramione fanfic over the years, the announcement of Jobson’s continued collaboration with Soto resulted in even more excitement for the release. Side note: I was one of the fans who absolutely lost her mind when she saw the news. I mean, have you seen the cover??? My tattoo obsession just got worse.What is Forget Me Not about?
Imagine if the movies “The Wedding Planner” and “I Hate Valentine’s Day” had a book-baby, but then you added a little Julie-Soto-twist to it. “Forget Me Not” will have you laughing, blushing, and crying all at once. Ama, an ambitious wedding planner, is asked to plan the most high-profile wedding of her career. How could she possibly deny this offer? She has to accept, even if she’ll have no choice but to work with Elliot, the grumpy florist - who also happens to be the guy she dated some years ago and broke his heart. These two are forced to work together on this celebrity wedding (yay, forced proximity!!), and as much as they want to ignore it, the chemistry they had years ago is still there. While they had planned to ignore each other and do their job, everyone else had something else in mind for the two protagonists. Whether it be the two brides devoted to getting Ama and Elliot alone together or the reality TV film crew documenting everything that’s happening and increasing the tension, Ama and Elliot will once again find themselves - and their hearts - in a tangle.Fan-Fiction versus Fiction-Fiction
From Draco and Hermione to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, and now to Ama and Elliot, Soto still has a soft spot in her heart for fan fiction. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she looked back in awe at her output as a fanfic writer:"God, fanfic is so much easier. It's like if you go bowling, and you have the guardrails because you're a child. Those guardrails are the characters that are already fully formed. You don't have to spend three chapters getting to know them at the beginning. You can jump into the plot. So it's infinitely easier to write fanfic. And there's excitement in community. You don't have to wait for the dopamine, so you're more easily inspired in some ways."
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