Title: Never Never
Series: Never Never
Authors: Colleen Hoover & Tarryn Fisher
Date Added: August 26, 2016
Date Started: July 20, 2017
Date Finished: July 30, 2017
Reading Duration: 10 days
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Romance

Pages: 326
Publication Date: December 8, 2017
Publisher: Hoover Inc.
Media: eBook/Kindle

 “How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you’ve never met.” 

Charlize Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning…they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love…every memory has vanished. “I don’t care what our real first kiss was,” he says. “That’s the one I want to remember.” 

Charlize and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be…the more they question why they were ever together to begin with. 

“I want to remember what it feels like to love someone like that. And not just anyone. I want to know what it feels like to love Charlie.”

My first impression of this novel broken in three was of amazement.  Charlize or rather Charlie and Silas have no idea who they or their families are, nor do they have a clue what happened to them to cause this.  Through a series of events, they both realize they’re in the same boat and try to figure out what the hell is going on and why they’re in this situation.  Attempting to both solve the mystery of their memory loss and keep anyone from realizing it’s occurred would be daunting enough, but they also must navigate the social travails of high school, family life, and the fact that there’s bad blood between Silas and Charlie’s fathers.

This novel had so much fucking potential, and the authors completely shit the bed in the third act.  They either didn’t have the skill or didn’t care about all of the plot coupons they presented, but never cashed in.  In the first part, there’s a scene where Silas finds blood in his bed, and you think it’s going to have something to do with how he and Charlie lost their memories.  Not only does it have nothing to do with their amnesia, it’s never even explained nor brought up again.  You think the bad blood between their fathers’ failed business venture is going to have something to do with it e.g. something they were working on together went awry or they used their kids to test some kind of memory melting device.  NOPE, nothing like that.  They fall back on this tired trope about fate and soulmates, which I’m okay with if done properly, *spoiler* as in it’s not the only driving factor behind their condition.  It having a connection to it would’ve been acceptable, but why does the universe care so much if these two particular people stay together?  What about them is important.  These are the questions that need to be answered, but never are. *end spoiler*  There’s nothing in this novel to suggest Charlie and Silas live in a world that’s any different from our own; there are no other magical/mystical elements, nor is it ever brought up or suggested that it’s happening or happened to other couples in the same situation.  Why would it only be them *spoiler* and later their children *end spoiler*?

I feel as though the authors wanted to write this compelling mystery, and the first and second book sets it up perfectly with all of the intrigue mounting to the point where you can’t put it down.  I just don’t think they had the skill/experience to bring everything to fruition.  They probably wanted to make it more than just a YA romance, but sadly with playing this angle, they made it cheesier and less believable.  It’s a such a shame that a book/series that started out so strong had to end so disappointing.  For these reasons, I can’t recommend Never Never.  There’s no reason to read a mystery that’s not only unresolved, but never had a satisfying resolution in the first place.

2 stars.