Even though I expected to enjoy this book, I didn’t realise I’d love it as much as I did. It was such a good read!
Never Never starts off with Charlie. Suddenly she jolts awake in the middle of class, and she’s completely unaware of who she is, where she is or any details about her life. She panics – as you would – and scarpers somewhere quiet to make sense of it. Then she realises she’s not alone.
The viewpoint then switches to Silas, who has undergone the same amnesia as Charlie. Together they have to figure literally everything about their lives – who they are, what they meant to each other, why they can’t remember anything – and little do they know that time is running out.
This was a really brave project to undertake and I have to take my hat off to the authors. Creating three novellas instead of one book isn’t the same as writing a book and chopping it into thirds – each novella needs its own arc within the greater story. And I think these women have really done an excellent job. From the very first page I wanted to keep reading and didn’t stop until the end.
The pace did slow down a bit in the third quarter where things started getting all mushy and romantic, but it wasn’t enough to make me lose interest and the final quarter of the book was real edge-of-seat reading.
There are some really potentially-awesome plot points in this novella, like the fact that it’s set near New Orleans, or the fact that Charlie and Silas’s fathers were in business together. So many threads are left dangling that you’re constantly wondering what the real reason behind this shared amnesia is and what is a red herring. Is it a conspiracy? Paranormal? We just don't know. And here’s fair warning – absolutely nothing gets resolved in this book!
And holy mother of crap – that ending. That ending is what you need to show someone when they ask what a cliffhanger is. It was total did-not-see-THAT-coming genius and made me desperate for the next book.
So yeah, I’m just about to start book two and damn, I have to wait until January for book three.
4.5 stars