The Memory of Us - Dani Atkins - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Dani Atkins

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

RATING: 2.5 stars

In a Nutshell: There are some beautiful moments herein, but on the whole, it was a mixed read for me. If you are prepared for a whole load of suspension of disbelief, this will work better for you. And if you enjoy cutesy + emotional books, this might even be a winner.

Plot Preview:

Somerset. When Amelia is found unconscious with no discernible pulse on the mudflats outside her home, it is almost a miracle that she survives. When her younger sister Lexi rushes over from New York, she finds Amelia in the hospital but with false memories of being happily married to someone named Sam. Neither Lexi nor their mother have any knowledge of a ‘Sam’ in Amelia’s life.

Determined to help her sister, Lexi ropes in a local vet named Nick, who bears a striking resemblance to the non-existent Sam and gets him to recreate some of Amelia’s dream dates with Sam, in a bid to help her “remember”. But (as you might have rightly guessed), Lexi soon finds herself falling for Nick. Can they have a future together when Amelia thinks she is married to him?

The story comes to us in Lexi’s first person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

😍 The prologue: Utterly marvellous in its description and action. It is a treat when authors use the prologue well without merely repeating some future event from the plot.

😍 Nick: Too goody-goody to be real, but this book required someone like him for strength and steadiness, and he delivers what is required.

😍 The emotions: The book covers an entire spectrum of human emotions, mostly resulting from Amelia’s diagnosis and the family’s reaction to the same.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 Lexi: Loved her sincerity, her emotions, her strong feelings for her family, and her determination to do anything to make Amelia happy. But I simply couldn’t believe she was 31; she never acted her age.

😐 The other characters: Amelia is impressive but we don’t really understand her or her decisions. The girls’ mum, who is “Mum” for almost the entire book, has a powerful role, but her portrayal was somewhat unsteady. She was one character with an amazing potential that was not realised. Amelia’s neighbour Tom is the only other major character. He was a typical coconut with a grumpy exterior and a soft heart. While I liked him, I wish his depiction hadn’t been so clichéd.

😐 The twin bond: Amelia and Lexi are supposed to be twins but born eight years apart. (Twin eggs separately implanted through IVF.) I liked how the book uses their “twin sense” to understand each other’s feelings, but the story never explains why their parents, so desperate to have children, waited eight years before going ahead with the second egg implantation.

😐 The mishmash of genres: The book tries to be a medical fiction, a family drama, and a romance all at once. The medical part was decent, and the family drama was quite good – both of which were reasons I picked up this book in the first place. Unfortunately for me, it spends most time on the romance.

😐 The romance: The connection between Nick and Lexi is written very well, with some sweet moments and fun banter. But it doesn’t help that we already know they will end up together. The middle section is too repetitive because of the elaborate detailing of their recreations of Amelia’s “dates with Sam”. There is also an extensive steamy scene that had nothing to offer to the core plot.

😐 The overload of themes: The story includes too many tropes, some of which are not even necessary to the main plot of Amelia’s health. It feels very cluttered. That said, a couple of the themes (can’t mention them as they come up towards the end) are well handled.

😐 Amelia’s imaginary marriage with Sam: The best and the worst feature of the book. It was intriguing to see how Amelia’s temporary “death” created such fake memories in her about an entire life not lived. However, the resolution of this issue was eyeroll-inducing!

😐 Lexi’s first person perspective: As the entire story is from Lexi's pov, we feel her emotions as she goes through the uncertainty and frustration of her elder sister’s medical struggles and her growing feelings for Nick. Because we don't get a glimpse of what's going on in Amelia's mind, her struggles are known only to her, and we, just like Lexi, are on the outside, trying to make sense of what's happening. However, a part of me feels that at least some interlude chapters should have come from Amelia’s perspective. These would have added a greater poignancy to the story.

😐 The ending scenes: The final few chapters of the main plot and the epilogue are really beautiful, and if you are the crying type, these might even leave you sobbing. However, I hated that the ending left many things unexplained.

Bookish Nays:

😟 The time jumps: There’s no time/year reference anywhere, but many a time, months have passed. The epilogue even jumps years. Most of the time jumps happen in the final section. So the middle part feels dragged out and the finale feels rushed because of the quick span of months and years.

😟 The plotholes: The story disappoints in how much it leaves unsaid and also in how much it takes for granted. To give just two examples without going into spoilers, 1. We never know what Amelia was doing on the mudflats that ill-fated night. 2. Lexi’s plan to recreate photos based on Amelia’s description of her dates has one great flaw: Amelia was mostly describing her *imagined* dates with Sam, not the photos of the dates. How does Lexi know exactly how and where to recreate the pics, and more importantly, that there was a pic of the said date? (It is tough to accept that a couple took a pic of themselves while passionately kissing in heavy rain. Think about the poor phone! And the phone doesn’t get even a little waterlogged! What magical brand is it?)

😟 The plot jumps: Many events happen just in the background and we learn about them only later through the conversations. Some of these were crucial to the narrative, such as how Amelia never realises that her house has nothing owned by “Sam.”

😟 The suspension of disbelief required: There is no way to accept the plot without keeping your head firmly locked up. My heart did enjoy the initial part of the read, and did its best to ignore my head going “But… but… but…” BUT after a point, even my heart felt tired of being flexible about the proceedings. The whole thing was too farfetched!

This was my first book of this well-rated author, and based on this experience, I feel like she is good in writing human emotions but I am not the right reader for her works. Such stories require readers to listen only to their heart while ignoring their head, and I simply can’t do that.

Nevertheless, there are some truly touching moments in the story. So if you can go into this book ready to suspend disbelief and not ask too many hows and whys, you will surely have a better experience than I did.

My thanks to Aria & Aries, The Pigeonhole, and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Memory of Us”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.