Title: Never Never
Author: Colleen Hoover & Tarryn FisherSeries: Never Never #1
Publisher: Hoover Inc
Publication Date: January 7th, 2015
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
#1 New York Times bestselling author of Hopeless joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of Mud Vein. Together, they have created a gripping, romantic tale unlike any other.
"How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you've never met."
Charlize Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They've been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning...they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love...every memory has vanished.
"I don't care what our real first kiss was," he says. "That's the one I want to remember."
Charlize and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be...the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.
"I want to remember what it feels like to love someone like that. And not just anyone. I want to know what it feels like to love Charlie."
Hmmmm, What can I say about Never Never? There isn't a whole lot to say, really, because there's not much too it. lol. Jen loved this one, I saw she blew through it rather quickly. Me however, it was just alright.
When the buzz first started about Never Never, it was supposed to be a full size novel. Standalone even, I think. But then it was changed. My pre order was canceled and it was now to be a series. You can read more about that here. Never Never preorder cancellation . Which is no big deal. I like standalones and I like series books.
Never Never is pretty darn short. Like 156 pages short. In her post, it reads that they knew they couldn't wrap this story up in one piece. Um... Hopeless was 410 pages. I'm not understanding. Of course it can't be wrapped up in 156 pages. Hell it barely even got started. A full size standalone book would be lots of pages...??? huh.
Which is my biggest issue with Never Never. It's starts off in the thick of things. You're totally confused, your characters are totally confused, you have no idea what the hell is going on. Just when I started to become mildly interested I was faced with the dreaded...
To Be Continued
So maybe I get that it couldn't be wrapped up in one installment, but maybe a dualogy? I'm now wondering how many books will be in this series, since they are so tiny. Some would say this just a ploy to bring in more money. I'm not saying that's the case here, but I've seen these "Novella" series books becoming a thing. But hey, what do I know.
On top of that, I wasn't really feeling the characters. They were kind of assholes. I didn't feel as invested in what was happening to them. Either of them. It's told from two point of views btw. Sillas and Charlie. I'm not sure if it was because Fisher was a part of this project, or what. I don't think so though, maybe it's just a matter of preference. I won't go into any detail as to why I didn't like them, you will see for yourself if you read it.
As far as the writing goes, It seemed on par with how Colleen Hoover usually writes. I didn't notice any difference, like where Tarryn Fisher fit into it all, but it did have a darker feel to it, so maybe that was her contribution. I bought her book Mud Vein a while back, and I've been wanting to pick it up.
So I didn't hate Never Never, by all means. I just wish it had been longer. I think the length was part of why I couldn't connect with the characters. I mean, so much is going on and then bam, it's over.
Will I buy the next one? You bet your ass I will because Colleen Hoovers name is on it, and I have hopes that she can make me fall in love with this story at some point. I'm just not there yet.
About the author:
I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling
could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people's emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories. I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word "smolder". If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don't be mean to me; I'm half badass, half cry baby.
Find Tarryn:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
About the author:
Colleen Hoover is the New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, Point of Retreat, Hopeless, and This Girl. Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
Find Colleen:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
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Hmmm...maybe it's because I was tired of CoHo making me cry and had decided I *wasn't* going to read this one for awhile and hence stopped paying attention to it and didn't know about the length/series issue that it didn't bother me. I actually thought it was the perfect length...and left me craving more, which is always good. =) As far as the characters go, I think it's fine not to really like them at this point...they don't really even like themselves all that much after finding out more about who they were before this weird memory loss thing happened, lol. I really like the confusing, unreliable narrator aspect, though. I mean, we have no idea what the frack is going on, and it's kind of awesome. Sorry you didn't love this one, Apes, but I hope the sequel is more to your liking. ;)
ReplyDeletehaha, I guess when you put it that way, it makes sense. I have come to rely on CoHo to make me cry, so I guess that threw me off. As short as this one was, I had to force my way through it. It took me days to read it. I normally don't mind characters that I hate... they mix things up, but the whole cheating stuff.. Idk, I just wasn't feeling it. But I do have hopes for the next one. I do want to know what happens.
DeleteThere are legal reasons (for CoHo) why this can't be released as a full length novel, it sucks but oh well. I think the full story is gonna be great, but I can see why people wouldn't be satisfied with this. It's more of a serial than a series since we don't get nearly enough of the story.
ReplyDeleteI figured it was for legal reasons, so I totally get that. I knew that it was going to be kinda like a novella, but it just felt so much shorter than other novellas I've read. Or maybe it just felt that way because you don't learn all that much yet. I'm thinking the second one might turn things around for me. :)
DeleteYep, what Nereyda said. I'm very disappointed in the backlash these authors have received over this. In the world of publishing contracts, things aren't so cut and dry, unfortunately. Having to cut this novel into parts was not in any way a ploy to get more money.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't personally think it's a money thing. I have followed Colleen Hoover since before she was anything, and she's not that type, plus she's probably well off at this point. Her writing is brilliant and she continues to sell books out that wazzoo..
DeleteI can see that some will feel that it is because of money. As stated above. I think the killer here is, that they originally presented this as a standalone novel, and then took it back. You can't mess with people and their stand alones. They get cray cray. lol.
Regardless, I think I would have liked it better if part one was longer, but I understand their reasons for doing it this way. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I"m thinking I will just wait until they are all out, and then I can read them together. I think the whole story will be much better that way. :)
It totally sucks that they couldn't publish it all at once or in longer installments than they had to. But it was out of their control, and they didn't find out until after they put it up for pre-order. I thought they handled it as well as possible by pulling the preorders so people didn't feel duped into buying a series.
DeleteIt's a heck of a cliffhanger so I absolutely recommend waiting on all installments if one despises them!
I apologize if I came across rude. I have seen a lot of people jumping on them and judging without finding out it was out of their control. I just wanted to clear up that it wasn't their fault. :)
I'm irritated at the publishing industry about it, honestly. Come March, Colleen Hoover will have 8 full length novels published with the same publisher - I think it's absurd that she can't co-write a novel with someone without it being so short. The first three books or so I get, but after 8???
I understand the trend with the series and they have a point when there is just too much content. But to publish short books series makes no sense to me (other than the difference in money or, maybe, not meeting the deadlines). But oh well, I'll see what people think of the bits and maybe I'll read it all when all parts come out.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely feel the same as you -- maybe my expectations were too high but I was bored reading this and these are two of my favorite authors. The ending didn't bother me as it seemed a natural place to conclude and I will also buy the next book but I guess I was expecting something more
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time with this one. The story was interesting enough, for the most part, but it really was too confusing. Too much mystery and not enough brought to light. Too short, and to me I feel like certainly it could have been longer and perhaps wrapped up in one book if they chose to. I am almost thinking this was done to boost sales and that bothers me, a lot. I didn't rate this at first. I wrote my review and it was just all over the place. And the cliffhanger, well, yeah, it annoyed me, I'll be honest. I had high expectations b/c it's CoHo and I really love most of her writing (I'm not a Slammed fan, GASP *runs in corner and covers head*). Plus, I know it's self-pubbed and it really did read like that, for me. I hate being disappointed by authors I know. It's happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. Of course I will more than likely read on b/c of the cliffy, but I just feel like they could have taken the time to write more of this and not have it dragged into a "series".
ReplyDelete