Review: My Name is Memory

Title: My Name is Memory

Author: Ann Brashares

Publisher: Hodder

Publication date: 20th January 2011

Read an extract

Book Trailer

My Rating: 8/10

Buy the book

---

Summary:

Daniel tells me that he's always loved me. That I feel the same. That I always have.
Not just in this life, but in my last life, and all my lives before.
But I don't remember him.
He says he is always searching for me. Always hoping that one day I will remember. But it is only he that carries the memory of our love.
I know that finding true love is never easy. Perhaps you have fought for it. Perhaps, like Daniel, you have endured the pain of it being unrequited.
But I hope your quest ends happily.
I hope you never have to face the heartbreak that inevitably awaits us.
This is our extraordinary, unforgettable story.

---

My thoughts:

Okay so I officially need to read all of Brashares books. I have fallen in love with her writing. It’s unbelievable. Reading this book was like sitting by a fire with a hot cup of tea while it’s pouring it down outside – not uncommon in England I have to tell you!

The story itself was really romantic and original. I was initially worried that the love story would be really clichéd and all with the whole idea of soulmates but it really wasn’t. It was lovely.

I think part of the reason the book never got to the clichéd stage was that Daniel’s past lives were interwoven into his present life with Lucy. It was like a break from the usual romance when Daniel describes how he was in wars or dying in a hospital and how he met the same girl with different names and different faces. It was certainly refreshing.

I loved how Lucy’s character developed on its own without Daniel. It was nice to read about rather than her being with a guy all her life in one way or another. Instead she grew up in her own time and made her own mistakes without Daniel there. It made the whole story more believable. Daniel’s character developed too which you wouldn’t think of one that had been through centuries of life experience. That was great to read about too; he wasn’t perfect and still changed throughout the story.

I did think that the story dragged a little in places but it wasn’t really anything that put me off. It was kind of relevant to be honest…sort of emphasising how long Daniel has had to wait. That’s just me reading into things too much though!

All in all, this was definitely a captivating read and one that I would definitely recommend. A truly, glorious book!

---

Great quotes:

Love who you love while you have them. That's all you can do. Let them go when you must. If you know how to love, you'll never run out.

Love demands everything, they say, but my love demands only this: that no matter what happens or how long it takes, you`ll keep faith in me, you`ll remember who we are, and you`ll never feel despair.

---

About the author: (Goodreads|Website|Twitter)

Ann Brashares grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with three brothers and attended a Quaker school in the D.C. area called Sidwell Friends. She studied Philosophy at Barnard College, part of Columbia University in New York City. Expecting to continue studying philosophy in graduate school, Ann took a year off after college to work as an editor, hoping to save money for school. Loving her job, she never went to graduate school, and instead, remained in New York City and worked as an editor for many years. Ann made the transition from editor to full-time writer with her first novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Ann and her husband live with their three children in New York.

 

 

 

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner