My name is Memory by Ann Brashares was, in a way, somewhat of a reinterpretation of Romeo & Juliet, which let's be real, is the greatest love story of all time. A little dramatic? Yes, but sometimes I feel like one can only be affected by other's experiences when those experiences are super dramatic and therefore have the extra emotion to go around.
ANYWAY. In a few words, this is the story of a love as old as time. The premise is that reincarnation exists, and that there are a few people who are gifted enough to recognize that fact and remember their previous lives. Those people find their true mates in some early life and then spend the rest of their lives searching for that person in the rest of THEIR lives. Does it always match up? No, sometimes he comes back as a baby and she's back as an 80 yr old woman (she doesn't just pop into the 80 yr old woman's body, she's actually lived the entire life. It's not always clear how long they spend in between lives before being reincarnated). Their strong connection draws them together life after life even though she's unaware of the connection. The problem is that the strong connection can go both ways - both positive and negative. Meaning that while your partners can follow you throughout your lives, so can your enemies. It wouldn't be as interesting if the sweet didn't come with the sour, right?
So it's a story we've heard before, but told in a completely different way, which I really appreciated. Oh, and one of the characters attends UVA in one of their lives. But the author clearly did not go to UVA, nor did she know anyone who went to UVA because the terms she uses (Jefferson Park Avenue instead of JPA, for example) are not terms a Wahoo would use. The student also appears to live in Hereford which is a little strange. But we'll give her an A for effort. When is it ever NOT great to have a romance and UVA in the same book?
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