The Reading Perusals of Rose Summers

So quick review for a quick read. "Never Never Part Two" was much weaker, in my opinion, than the first part. Granted, we get a few more answers in terms of Charlie and Silas's experience as far as the ongoing conflict between their families and a few of the relationships and connections they have. However, I honestly feel like this narrative didn't make the most of its respective space, and the pacing was uneven for what the serial's space allotted. There were absolutely no answers as far as to why Charlie was locked in a facility, no insight in terms of the time-sensitive selective amnesia the two of them are going through, and no answers as to what or whom might be following Silas even as he tries to search for Charlie and figure out what happened to her in the course of the story. (And the two of them seem to be very avoidant of the police, but yet they're willing to go to a fortune teller? Figure that out.)

I will say that I liked some of Charlie's chapters the most because it held the most suspense and peril. Silas's chapters got a little too melodramatic for me in terms of laying the romance between him and Charlie too thick. For this short of a story - the connection is really threadbare and doesn't stand alone very well in this installment. I understood it was meant to be heartfelt (particularly since Charlie was said to have had a significant personality change due to her father's imprisonment and that conflict), but I didn't feel it from the presentation of the narrative.

Colleen Hoover's heroes have a tendency of dictating to the heroine what actions they need to take in order to be happy and that was another pet peeve of mine as I read this (I knew it, because it's in every single story Hoover's written to this date). I mean...I don't get it - I don't think that's romantic, I think that's not allowing the heroine to think or feel for herself really, as if Silas has any right to tell her how to feel about anything she's grieving over.

And I'm not saying this to absolve irritation from Charlie's character, because she's said to have belittled and bullied people. She's still very judgmental even when she's held captive in parts of this book.

*sighs* This has a promising premise, but I'm wondering how this is going to wrap up in just one more installment (not sure how long it's going to be), because I have a feeling if it's going to wrap up in one final part, it's going to be very rushed to try to catch up with the development needed for the first two parts to hit home and tie the loose ends together. I'll read the next, but only because I really want to have some definitive answers as to how this mystery ends. I hope it's better than the quality of this part was.

Also: ending a serial part mid-sentence is NEVER a good idea. It's not even a cliffhanger, it's just a cheap form of an ending. =

Overall score: 1.5/5 stars.