Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. Daniel has "the memory", the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he's previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short.
Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel's unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now "Lucy" in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their attraction, the mysterious force that has always torn them apart reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.
A magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking story of true love, My Name is Memory proves the power and endurance of a union that was meant to be.
My thoughts: The book follows the story of Daniel and Lucy through their many lives. Daniel falls in love with Lucy in his first life and in his following lives he is constantly searching for her and trying to get her to remember him. The book starts off in present day with Daniel and Lucy still at high school, the story continues forward from there, but there are also chapters set in the past. At first I was a bit confused, especially as all of the characters except Daniel have different names in each time period. But as the story went on I got used to the way it jumped around through time and it started to make more sense.
My favourite part of the book was the bit set in England in 1918, this was when Lucy first started to believe Daniel about their past lives, and for me it was where the 'love story' really started.
The book seemed to take a while to get started properly, but towards the end things start to get more exciting, the final part of the book is full of adventure.
The author did a great job of describing how the past life/reincarnation works in this story. At the start of the book some things didn't seem to make sense to me, but they were explained throughout the book. So any questions I had, such as do men always reincarnate as men?, were answered further on in the story.
The ending of the book is a bit open-ended and I can't wait for the sequel because I'm dying to know what happens next!
I have an extra ARC of the book to giveaway, so if you'd like to win in it, please fill out this form. Open internationally! Closing date June 20th. This giveaway is now closed. Sorry!Thanks to
Hodder UK for providing the book.
Dublin, Midsummer: While absent in New York, the celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house to a playwright friend, who is struggling to write a new work. Over the course of this, the longest day of the year, the playwright reflects upon her own life, Molly's, and that of their mutual friend Andrew, whom she has known since university. Why does Molly never celebrate her own birthday, which falls upon this day? What does it mean to be a playwright or an actor? How have their relationships evolved over the course of many years? Molly Fox's Birthday calls into question the ideas that we hold about who we are; and shows how the past informs the present in ways we might never have imagined
On midsummer's day, Phoebe Bowler - star-sign demon - should have returned home an ecstatically happy new bride. Instead, she's been jilted at the altar. In need of sympathy, perhaps she could turn to her neighbour, the dishy Rocky Lancaster? But with problems of his own he's turned into Mr Grumpy and wants to be left alone. That is until Essie Rivers arrives on the scene, and then Phoebe and Rocky's paths seem destined to collide with a very big bump. Essie knows far more about astrology, personolgy, numerology - any 'ology' you care to mention - than Phoebe has ever heard of. But it is the secret magic of 'birthday-ology' that catches Phoebe's eye. Can she really use a birthday to find a perfect match or to set her and Rocky back on the path to happiness? Phoebe thinks so, but that's when things start to go really wrong...
"Two of the things Benjamin Hunter received for his twelfth birthday took him completely by surprise: a room and a letter. The room was from his parents. The letter was from his uncle." A room and a letter--both so vague in the abstract, and so full of possibility. On Ben's birthday, however, both weigh heavily on his mind.
