And yes, I have read (or tried to read) some amnesia books I couldn’t finish. Maybe it’s just my adoration for Mary Jo Putney’s Uncommon Vows that makes me view amnesia books with rose-colored glasses. And in that book, it’s accompanied by prayers, a bolt of lightning and a vision of angels so I pretty much took it to be a paranormal event.

I think what I really love about amnesia in the context of romance, is not just how dramatic it is but how vulnerable it renders the hero and heroine. One doesn’t know who she or he is, and the other knows that if the loved one remembers, he or she might leave. Something about that just calls to my imagination.

I vaguely remember an ATBF (I think) article about it at AAR that summed it up much more coherently than I just did. After quickly rereading it, this heroine didn’t suffer from head banging so much as forgetting to keep her from suffering from the memory of a traumatic event.