My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

Daniel's soul has been around for a very long time.  And he remembers every life.  In each life, he searches for his one love, Sofia, who, like most people, does not remember her past lives and cannot recognize him.  While Daniel and Sofia are drawn to each other in each life, they have always been painfully separated.  Now Daniel has found her again, and this time he's determined to keep her.

Poor Lucy (that's Sofia in her current life).  Daniel has been screwing up her life from the very beginning when he burned down her house.  If you really think about, he's done nothing but cause her pain every single life, whether he actually finds her or not.  Lucy is doomed to wait around for Daniel, who very rarely gets there, and when he does, he dies.  And then Lucy either feel unsatisfied and doesn't know why for the rest of her life, or wants to die herself because she briefly had what she was waiting for and now it's gone.  Depressing.

The audio was OK.  There were two readers, Lincoln Hoppe and Kathe Mazur.  Mazur's reading was uninspiring and kind of flat (which actually fit the Lucy that I was picturing).  When Lincoln Hoppe started his first section I thought, "Is that Doug Swietec?!"  And it was.  Since I'd just listened to Okay for Now, which I loved and thought Hoppe was an awesome voice for Doug, I had a little trouble excepting him as Daniel, who is a very different character.  Daniel is intense.  Like, super intense, and Hoppe's voice didn't fit that picture well for me.  Still, it wasn't painful to listen to or anything.

I didn't realize when I was listening to this that it was the first book in a trilogy.  Knowing this now, the pacing makes a lot more sense.  The first half of the book was very slow.  We get Daniel's background through all the lives he remembers finding Sofia and what happened.  This is intercut with Daniel in the present day stalking Lucy but not talking to her, and Lucy trying to remember more things and both of them being completely mopey and miserable that they can't be together but convinced the other one doesn't want them anymore.  It dragged.  But now that I know it was all set up for another two books I feel better about it.

Spoilers

That doesn't change the fact that more than half the book was back-story and then suddenly, all at once, we have action that felt very rushed and then the book suddenly ended with Daniel in New Orleans doing something, we're not sure what, and Lucy pregnant hiding in a monastery. 

While sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble claim this is the first book in a trilogy, that that it's already been optioned for a movie, there is no information on Brashares' web site about a trilogy or when the next book might be coming out.  It's been almost two years since My Name is Memory was released, so you'd think there'd be something.

I'm not sure if I will follow along with this series, should any more books ever appear.  I am curious as to what happens, but I think the longer I'm away from the book the less I'll care.  Neither Lucy nor Daniel is an especially memorable character, although they are less annoying now that they're together.  When they were both feeling sad separately I wanted to smack them.  "Snap out of it Daniel!  What are you waiting for?  Either stop lurking behind bushes and go talk to her or move on!  And Lucy!  Your life is passing you by!  Either put some effort into finding Daniel or forget him!"  Seriously, years are going by and they're both still in the exact same place.

But if you are in to star-crossed lovers stories, you'll enjoy this.  You might want to wait until there's at least talk of the second one coming out though, otherwise it will only end in frustration.