Never, Never: Part Three by Coleen Hoover

Finished: July 8, 2016
Overall Rating: 2 stars

For those who haven't read this series yet, this actually a series of short stories. Each story covers approximately 48 hours of time. The main characters keep losing their memory, over and over again, so each book starts with them having lost their memory and not remembering who they are. The main premise is their race to solve the mystery of why they're losing they're memory before the 48 hours is up and they lose their memories again.

Now, the first two books were a race against time to solve the mystery and to find each other again. In the first book we find out that they were having major relationship issues and had just broken up. After losing they're memories they are trying to remember why they broke up in the first place as they find themselves falling in love all over again. The premise was fairly romantic, despite all the bad blood in their history. The second book was a little different as they spend most of the time separated. And in this book, they lose their memories again, but this time it's a little different.

To start with, they are together for the first time when they lose their memories. They have notes explaining everything to themselves and they have a plan set in motion. But the biggest difference is that Silas doesn't lose his memories this time. So, this amps up the mystery. What happened to Silas that didn't happen to Charlie and can they replicate it?

And then, it all goes downhill from there. After a visit to dear old dad they return to Silas' house where they turn over missing evidence to Silas' dad with heals the rift between his dad and Charlie and basically paves the way for them to stay together if they ever manage to recover their memories.

All that was okay, my main problem was the explanation that they give for them losing their memory. Forget all the running around, all the evidence, all the mystery. They decide that the universe randomly wiped their memories because they're soulmates, and they can only regain their memories by falling back in love with each other. Now, I have a number of issues with this.

First, this is a mystery that has been building up for three books. You can't build up a mystery like that, a mystery that is the center of everything that happens, and then just essentially ignore it all. While they give an explanation (a lame one at that), this isn't really a resolution of the mystery. All the evidence built up, all the odd things happening and the characters just say, Hey, we should stop trying to blame other people and just recognize that this means we are supposed to be together.

Second, as far as I'm concerned, soul mates or no, there's never a good reason to stay in an emotionally destructive relationship. I don't care how much you love each other or how much past you have, if your relationship is destructive physically, emotionally, or otherwise, GET OUT. Them losing their memories may have erased their memories of the issues they had in their relationship, but it won't completely get rid of it. They are still the same people, they will still face the same pressures, and they may still end up in the exact same downward spiral over and over again. And while the authors end it with them happily married and still getting butterflies every time they see each other (and if you really think that happens than you've never been married), I think that ending completely erases the reality of life and stress and everything that love should be. Overcoming trials and obstacles, not continually erasing them until you love each other again.

Third, what right does the "universe" have to force them to be together. I can understand their memories being erased once, which would give them a chance to start over. But setting it up so that their memories are erased over and over again until they fall in love again? You're basically saying that you have to love each other and stay together for the rest of your lives, otherwise your condemned to a life of never knowing who you are! I'm sorry but that is wrong in so many ways. I'm sorry if I'm not romantic enough for some of you out there, but lets be honest, love doesn't just happen, and love doesn't just last, love is a choice. It's a choice you have to make every single day. And this "universe" erased any choice they had in the matter and forced them to be together whether they want to or not. And may I remind people that we are talking about High Schoolers. Think of your high school sweetheart and imagine being forced to be with him for the rest of your life. Maybe some of you married our high school sweetheart and you like that idea, but I think that most people look back on high school and realize what idiots we were. You think that every little thing is the end of the world. You grow and experience life and you find someone that can love the new you, and probably end up wondering what you ever saw in the guys you dated in high school.

 And if that wasn't bad enough,then they have the same thing happen to their daughter. What kind of universe forces your teenager daughter to stay with her high school sweetheart forever because supposedly their soul mates. And how are you okay with that as parents! My daughter will be lucky if I have a steady boyfriend at that age at all, yet alone deciding who she's going to marry. It was all just completely ridiculous to me and a very unsatisfying ending to the series.