Author: Andrew Dunlop
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: July 2, 2019
Book Description: Katie Cleary has always known exactly what she wants: to be the best skier in the world. As a teenager, she leaves her home to live and train full time with her two best friends, all-American brothers Luke and Blair, whose wealthy father has hired the best coaches money can buy. Together, they are the USA’s best shot at bringing home Olympic gold.
But as the upward trajectory of Katie’s elite skiing career nears its zenith, a terrifying truth about her sister becomes impossible to ignore—one that will lay ruin not only to Katie’s career but to her family and her relationship with Luke and Blair.
With her life shattered and nothing left to lose, Katie flees the snowy mountainsides of home for Buenos Aires. There, she reinvents herself as Liz Sullivan, and meets a colorful group of ex-pats and the alluring, charismatic Gianluca Fortunado, a tango teacher with secrets of his own. This beautiful city, with its dark history and wild promise, seems like the perfect refuge, but can she really outrun her demons?
In alternating chapters, Katie grows up, falls in love, and races down the highest peaks on the planet—while Liz is reborn, falls into lust, and sinks into the underground tango scene at the bottom of the world. From the moneyed ski chalets of the American West to the dimly lit milongas of Argentina, We Came Here to Forget explores what it means to dream, to desire, to achieve—and what’s left behind after it all disappears.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: This is first book I have read by Andrea Dunlop, and I am now going to go back to her backlist. I am not sure how I missed this book, but it 100% in my wheelhouse as this is family drama to it’s core.
This story begins with Katie Cleary leaving on a whim to go to Buenos Aires. We know something terrible has happened but we do not know what it is for the better part of this book. This is written in two timelines, after in Buenos Aires and before starting when she was a child just about merging into the after timeline, with each chapter alternating timelines.
I mentioned at it’s core this is a family drama an it is. Katie aka Liz grew up in a loving family. She was a great skier which her parents supported, she was close to her sister Penny. As the story progresses you will learn things are not just right, especially with Penny. How this family supports one another is amazing, until one particular incident that tears the family apart. The incident is so harrowing that it makes world headlines. That is where we get to Buenos Aires. Katie is obviously there to escape many things. Her once perfect life is in shambles. What she finds there is a group of misfits not unlike her. It was so great to watch a woman recover from loss and heartbreak with a beautiful group of friends.
This book has everything, drama, sports, romance, and mystery. I found myself wanting to read this book as fast I could because I needed to find out what happened. I loved the way the author laid this book out, I am not sure it would not work if it were not in this format. I think this will have an appealing factor for many people. This is not all doom and gloom, there are many uplifting moments in this book. If you love family dramas give this one a chance.
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