The Memory of Us – Dani Atkins | Book Review | #TheMemoryOfUs @AtkinsDani @AriaFiction @soph_ransompr

If you can’t trust your head, can you trust your heart?

If she had been found moments later, Amelia’s heart would have stopped and never recovered. Instead she was taken from the desolate beach to the nearest hospital just in time to save her life. When her sister Lexi arrives from New York, Amelia’s heart is beating, but the accident has implanted a series of false memories. These memories revolve around a man named Sam, and a perfect love story that never existed.

Determined to help her sister, Lexi enlists the help of Nick, a local vet who bears a striking resemblance to Sam. Together, Lexi and Nick recreate and photograph Amelia’s dream dates in the hopes of triggering her true memories. But as love starts to stir between Lexi and Nick, they must navigate a complex web of emotions. How can Lexi fall for Amelia’s dream man without hurting her sister?

Filled with breathtaking romance, heart-wrenching emotion, the magic of destiny and the power of sisterhood, The Memory of Us is a must-read for fans of Holly Miller and Colleen Hoover.

MY THOUGHTS

My thanks to Poppy of Ransom PR for the tour invite and for the ecopy to review. I can never resist a book by Dani, several of her previous books are reviewed here (to find them just type her name into the search bar). I always know that I will be in for an emotional and heartrending read and The Memory of Us didn’t let me down.

There may be a few years between them but twins Amelia and Lexi have a special bond. Amelia is the oldest who has traditionally looked out for her younger sister however when Amelia is found in the most desperate of situations it is Lexi, together with her mother, who must be the protector. The only difficulty is that Lexi lives and works thousands of miles away in New York and needs to put her life and publishing career on hold with no idea as to when she will return.

The story is focused around memories, but not all of them will be true. How far would you go to ensure not just the physical but also the mental recovery of a loved one. Lexi realises that in order to assist Amelia’s recovery and her wellbeing, she has to go above and beyond but needs the help of someone else. There are some aspects of Lexi’s mission where you might just have to go with the flow but I just immersed myself in the story with the desire to know how everything unfolded.

Dani Atkins knows how to write an emotional story that slips effortlessly from sadness to humour. There are some fabulous characters – Amelia we don’t get to know quite so well because much of the story is told from Lexi’s perspective but the relationships there, both old and new, are touching and poignant, whatever the age. I also fell in love with Nick – he is the perfect book boyfriend!

The Memory of Us has so much to enjoy. A heartrending story of drama and romance with characters that are sympathetic and compassionate. As ever with a book by Dani Atkins the reader is taken on an emotional rollercoaster and for me she is very much a ‘must read’ author.

Dani Atkins is an award-winning novelist. Her 2013 debut FRACTURED (published as THEN AND ALWAYS in North America) has been translated into over twenty languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK.

Dani is the author of eight other bestselling novels (THE STORY OF US, OUR SONG, THIS LOVE, WHILE I WAS SLEEPING, A MILLION DREAMS, A SKY FULL OF STARS, THE WEDDING DRESS, SIX DAYS) and PERFECT STRANGERS, a standalone eBook novella. In 2018 THIS LOVE won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award at the RNA awards in London and in 2022 A SKY FULL OF STARS won the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year at the RNA awards.

Dani lives in a small village in Hertfordshire with her husband, a Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie.

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