Girls in the Stacks.com - Read. Review. Laugh.

Lucy is a senior in high school with a crush on the loner boy, Daniel.  At the last high school dance she hopes to see Daniel, but when they meet he calls her Sophia.  After a kiss that makes Lucy feel strange and an even stranger conversation, Lucy becomes unsettled and runs away.  She leaves for college, cutting off contact but still preoccupied with Daniel.

Daniel has “the Memory” – he is one of a handful of people who can remember his past lives.  He has been in love with Lucy’s soul for over a thousand years and with each reincarnation looks for her.  He has found her many times but has never been able to live happily with her.  Sometimes they were kept apart by age or circumstance, sometimes by a malevolent soul named Joaquim.  Daniel rescued Sophia/Lucy from her abusive marriage to Joaquim in ancient Pergamum, and now Joaquim eternally seeks revenge for this betrayal.

 I liked the way the story alternates between Daniel’s flashbacks of the history of their relationship and Lucy’s modern day search for answers about Daniel.  Brashares brings to life the exotic settings and the flavor of the time periods described.  Bit by bit we learn about their past, and how Lucy’s soul had tried to hang on to the memory of Daniel for her next incarnation.  Brashares also touches on the theme of holding on to the past versus living in the now.

This book was so good I sprinted through it in one day – I literally could not put it down.  It’s haunting and romantic and tragic at points, but you will have to read it to find out if love wins the battle.  The ending is satisfying but left somewhat open, because Brashares has two more books planned to make this a trilogy.  Yay for us – I want more of this wonderful story!

I give this book 4.5 STACKS!

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy- who is in a romantic swoon over this book.

Tags: adult, Ann Brashares, My Name is Memory, paranormal romance, Penguin/Riverhead
Posted in Adult | 5 Comments »