Revie: Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, I'm not sure quite what to say about this one. Although it was a fairly compelling read and kept me interested throughout, this was not a book that I ultimately liked. I think that is primarily because I HATED the main character AND the ending. This was VERY reminiscent of her first book for me. Many of the flaws in that first one carried over into this second novel. Up until the last 50ish pages, I would have given it a 3. Once the 'final reveal' was revealed, it went to a 2. Ugh. That was NOT a successful book for me!

The author seems to be following a pretty clear formula with her stories and characters. There are a lot of moments during the read that I was asking myself why this felt familiar and then I'd realize it felt familiar because of my having already read her first novel. Although distinct stories, there are a number of areas of similarity which made them blend together in some way for me.

I rarely dislike a character, even truly unlikeable characters. Yet, this woman, Sara, that is so key to this novel was just one of the most annoying characters that I've read in some time. She's just annoying, infuriating and simply FRUSTRATING. I can sum this novel up easily - an infuriating character spends the second third of the novel talking/struggling over and over and over with the same thing until it finally ends in one of the most irritating, ridiculous and annoying ending that I have read in ages. Ugh.

The story had such potential but the pacing was off for me in the middle (back and forth, back and forth, no resolution, same dialogue over and over and over again) and it was taken into outrageous territory which made the ending ridiculous and frankly stupid (to me). I just couldn't get behind such an idiotic ending. Once the story culminated in what one would have assumed was the ending/resolution, I realized there were still a considerable amount of pages remaining which was the first red flag telling me that I was going to be annoyed. The author's need to add a SECOND ending/resolution is what really pushed me over the edge. It didn't make sense nor did I even CARE about the second resolution. It was overkill. I'd have preferred to have the earlier resolution be the big reveal & removed the last 50ish pages completely.

Anyway, as you can tell, this was not a novel that I loved. It's got MANY flaws. If you really loved her first novel, it might be worth a read but I wouldn't recommend it to most readers.

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