Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez Book Summary

Check out the summary of Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, the love story of the perfect match that meet each other at exactly the wrong time. The summary is to remind you of everything that happens in the book before you read the book review, but it doesn’t have all the small details that make the contemporary romance so cute. There are a few trigger warnings at the beginning of the book including mentions of abusive parents, mention of animal abuse, and mention of a cheating spouse of a side character, but also a warning against this one if you just don’t like sad books where a lot of bad things happen to the main characters. 

Chapters 1-3

Samantha brings a lost, tiny kitten she wants to keep to the vet, and the grumpy but gorgeous veterinarian Dr. Xavier Rush recommends putting the kitten down because of a congenital defect that’s expensive to fix. Finding him rude with poor bedside manner, Samantha wants to prove him wrong, so she leaves and sets up a GoFundMe for the rescue kitten’s surgery that ends up being successful. Six weeks later, Samantha brings the kitten back for a check up, and Xavier asks her out on a date because he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her. 

Chapters 4-5

Xavier takes her on a puppy adoption lake cruise, and he finds everything is easy with Samantha even though he usually hates mingling and social events. He even jumps into the lake when Samantha drops her phone off the pier. Xavier doesn’t want the date to end, so he texts his friends for a place open late and decides to take Samantha mini golfing. 

Chapters 6-7

When they show up to the late night arcade with mini golfing, Xavier’s friends are there to surprise him, and even though Xavier seems upset, Samantha seems excited. At midnight when his friends leave, they still don’t want the night to end, so they do the escape room, but when they finish, they get locked in because the employees went home without checking on them. 

They sit in the escape room through the night talking and getting to know each other which leads to Samantha to think Xavier is the perfect guy. 

Eventually, Samantha admits that her mom has early-onset dementia because of a head trauma, and doesn’t remember who Samantha is on the phone. Because Xavier feels so at ease with Samantha, he tells her how his parents were physically and mentally abusive growing up, so he no longer has any contact with them. 

Chapters 8-9

In the morning, an employee finally lets them out of their endless date, but they have to rush because Samantha has a flight to California in two hours. They stop at her apartment to get her stuff, and when Xavier sees it’s empty, Samantha admits she’s moving to California to help take care of her mom. 

At the airport, Xavier gives her his sweatshirt in case the planes cold, and Samantha tells him to forget her after thanking him for everything. 

Chapters 10-12

When Samantha gets to California, her mom doesn’t recognize her at all. After two weeks of thinking about Samantha, Xavier’s friends convince him to go see her with his limited time and money, so he calls to come the following weekend. Samantha is surprised but happy that Xavier wants to come, and then her brother Tristan also shows up to stay at the house with her, her parents, her grandmother, her two nephews, and their mom Jeneva. 

Chapters 13-15

When Xavier gets there, they both admit that they’re not sure what will happen after this weekend with the amount of distance, but still want to make the most of it. Samantha takes him to Santa Monica pier for him to see the ocean for the first time, and they hang out all day. As night sets in, they’re talking on the beach when Xavier finally kisses Samantha. 

Chapters 16-17

Xavier and Samantha make it back to her apartment above the garage of the family home and are kissing when they hear someone crying. Samantha’s mom is in the dark yard not sure where she is, so Samantha and Xavier help her inside while trying to find Samantha’s dad who appears to be gone. After they calm her mom down, they decide to go spend the night at Xavier’s shady hotel he got just in case for the privacy, and go right to bed because they’re so exhausted.

Chapters 18-20

The next day, Xavier and Samantha have another great day together, but that night Samantha tells Xavier to actually forget her this time because it’ll never work out with this kind of relationship. Six weeks later, Xavier still can’t stop thinking about Samantha, but knows he can’t leave or sell his new clinic because he’s in too much debt. Samantha is still thinking about Xavier, too, then her mom has an angry outburst when Samantha’s dad is gone that leads to an emergency room visit. 

While their mom is staying overnight at the hospital for observation, the family decides to remodel the house together. They take out a loan for the remodel, but start destroying the old stuff themselves. 

Chapters 21-23

Another two weeks later, Xavier calls to ask Samantha to dinner as friends because he’s in LA for a vet conference. After they have a great dinner together, Xavier admits that he’s not actually registered for the conference and only came to see Samantha because he wants to try a long-distance relationship. She admits that she can’t stop thinking about him, so they sleep together and stay over night together. 

Xavier realizes that he’s absolutely certain that he wants Samantha as his wife, so he tells her that he’ll do anything to make it work. Samantha agrees even though she doesn’t think she’ll be able to do long distance for long, but she still thinks he’s the right person for her. They also hear Samantha’s dad leaving the house in the middle of the night. 

Chapters 24-26

Samantha and her siblings decide to get a new couch after her mom has an accident on it, and they find their mom’s missing wedding ring at the bottom of the couch. Then, Samantha has to go to Minnesota for an in person meeting for the mustard company she works for as a social media manager, so she surprises Xavier. They have such a good few days together, they both decide that long distance is worth it, and Xavier starts picking up extra shifts at an animal ER on the weekends. 

Chapters 27-30

After four weeks, Xavier is getting ready to go to LA the next morning when his mom calls the clinic to speak to him for the first time in thirteen years. When she says she’s just calling to reconnect, he says he doesn’t want to see her, and she gaslights him that the abuse was all his fault for being a bad kid while they never did anything wrong. The next morning, Xavier makes it to LA but then naps for six hours with Samantha because he’s so tired. 

Chapters 31-32

Later, he tells Samantha about the conversation with his mom, and she helps him feel better about it. At the grocery store, Xavier saves a dog who had been left in a hot car, but the man won’t take the dog back because he’s mad about the broken window. Samantha decides to bring the dog home as her new pet, and then the video of Xavier saving the dog goes viral. 

Chapters 33-35

Back in Minnesota, a retired vet comes to ask Xavier if he can work two to three days a week for free because he needs the socialization and exercise, and Xavier feels like this is an answer to his prayers so he doesn’t burn out with work and the long distance relationship. But then, Samantha calls to say that her grandma died in her sleep, and Xavier gets on a flight that night to be with her that costs all the extra money he had made that month. At the house, Xavier helps the whole family get through the week without grandma, and Samantha only gets through because of him amid the family drama.

Chapters 36-38

As Xavier is leaving for his flight, he tells Samantha he’s in love with her, and she admits that she’s in love with him, too. That night, their dad tells Samantha and her siblings that their grandma had a heart condition she didn’t get the surgery for because the recovery would be too hard with caring for their mom. He also admits to sneaking out at night to meet other women to cope with how hard everything’s been, and he suggests that they put the mom in a memory care facility because her care is getting to hard without grandma. 

Chapters 39-41

Samantha calls Xavier at work to say she’d been fired because her company was bought out by a bigger company, and Xavier wants to go see her but doesn’t have the money. After three months of taking care of her mom, not finding a job, and not seeing Xavier, Samantha is exhausted and depressed. Her attitude is so bad that her brother Tristan buys her a plane ticket to see Xavier, but when she gets there to surprise him, he’s at her apartment to surprise her.

Chapters 42-43

Xavier takes the first flight back while Samantha cleans his neglected apartment, but when he gets back he’s really sick. They go to the ER, and he has double pneumonia from working so much and not taking care of himself. Samantha tries to get him to break up with her because this lifestyle is killing him, but he won’t and they decide to keep trying to make long distance work.

Chapters 44-45

Back at work that week, the retired vet tells Xavier that he would give anything to have more time with his wife who passed, and that his first two clinics went out of business before the third was successful. He encourages Xavier to leave the business if Samantha is worth it. 

Samantha brings her family together for a family meeting to tell them she’ll turn down the job offer she got to be her mother’s full time care taker if they pay her portion of rent and remodeling and help each other more instead of holding onto all the family issues. They all agree because they don’t want to send their mom to a nursing facility. 

Three Months Later

Samantha does some free lance work, and still takes care of her mom, but the family does a better job of helping each other. On the one year anniversary of when they met, Xavier shows up to tell her he’s moving in with her, and he was only holding on to the clinic because he didn’t want his parents to see him fail. 

Eleven months later, Xavier and Samantha are married, and the retired vet got a few of his retired friends to staff Xavier’s clinic in Minnesota. He’s now opening his second clinic in LA soon as Samantha still stays home to take care of her mom who now has advanced dementia. 

Read the Full Book Review

Now you can read my full book review, including how this compares to other Abby Jimenez books. I also have recommendations to read next if you liked the writing style, emotional journey, or the greek god vibes of the main male lead of this romance novel.