My Name is Memory. Finished 3-3-19, 3.5/5 stars, YA, pub. 2010

Unabridged audio read by Lincoln Hoppe and Kathe Mazur. 11 hours.

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. For all the times that he and Sophia have been connected throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart.

But just when Sophia (now “Lucy” in the present) finally awakens to the secret of their shared past, the mysterious force that has always separated them reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.  from Goodreads

Do you believe in past lives, reincarnation?  This is an interesting take on the idea.  It introduces the concept, past lives included, without going into a ton of detail.  What happens when you’re a new soul and you see your soul mate, but it’s too late?  What if she keeps showing up in your lives, but never in a way that the two of you can be together?  Not only does she show up in your lives, but the brother you wronged does too and he’s holding onto a grudge?

I never really ‘got’ the obsession over centuries, but I did like the current time that Daniel and Lucy had.  I liked the concept of being surrounded by the same people, life after life, only in different ways each time.  I liked the searching and the yearning that made the story move forward.  I did not like, clearly, the maniac and evil brother that somehow broke all reincarnation ‘rules’.

This was a fun listen, BUT, and this is a big but, this story was to be the first in a series or trilogy and no follow up books were ever published.  The book ended with a cliff hanger, not at all resolved and I don’t know that I’d recommend it without a follow up.