Guilt is a crushing presence when you have to grind it in every day, lest it get worse. That's not Daniel's only pressure. He's smarter than he thinks, and dumber - a neat trick to pull off in a character and one I found irresistible. I bought book 2 immediately. ( )

I received The Persistence of Memory: Mnevermind #1 from the author through the M/M Romance Group’s Don’t Buy My Love program for an honest review. The story is told in first person through the eyes of Daniel Schroeder a mnemographer.


The MCs in this story are Daniel and another memorysmith Elijah Crowe. Both are imperfect people in different ways. Daniel has lost confidence in his abilities because of an accident that happened to his father, Big Dan. Big Dan tested a new packet created by Daniel and got caught in a recurring mnem that he’s still married to his wife, when he isn’t. Daniel needs to tell his Dad the sad news every day and it breaks him every time. I did like that Daniel was an older character, I think he was 45.

Elijah is on the autism spectrum. He works teaching mnem classes at a mall because of his inability to deal with university politics. Brilliant, he has difficulty relating to people in real life, but he is neurotypical while mneming, which is where he prefers to talk to Daniel. Daniel is conflicted about starting a relationship with Elijah not only because of his own issues, but because Elijah has trouble communicating. The story ends on a cliff-hanger with Elijah walking out after a hand-job session with Daniel.

The side characters are well fleshed out and I especially enjoyed Larry, Daniel's friend. He seemed like a big dufus on some things, but it turned out he was pretty smart on other things like marketing and people skills.

Daniel and his father's company is Adventuretech. It's slowly gone downhill since Big Dan's accident. It has the reputation of being called a 'sperm bank' by others. You'd have to read the story to get it. Daniel works for a rival company in order to make ends meet.

I will say I didn’t care for the ending because I don’t like cliff-hangers. It was very vague. If the two other books weren’t already out, I’d have to consider whether or not I wanted to read this series because I did find it difficult to understand. It’s not your typical romance story. Not because the MCs are flawed, I like real characters like that, but because there was a lot of talk about computer stuff and abstract mnem stuff that went over my head and when it did that, I didn’t find the story enjoyable, it was like sitting through a class on math for a person who doesn’t like math. I found my mind wandering a lot when Daniel went into monologue mode and that happened a lot too.

It was confusing on whether someone was in a mnem or not and after a while I just started to get annoyed and couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to mess with their minds like that

I’ve read other books by this author, the Channeling Morpheus series and I liked those, but this book was confusing and dry. It was well written and read quite quickly, but I want to be able to sit back and enjoy a book without getting confused and feel like I’m learning math or computer tech and I couldn’t do it with this book. However saying that, I will probably read the last two books because I want to see Daniel and Elijah find their HEA. I give this story 4 stars for its originality and because it’s well written, but in the end only 3 Stars because it had elements that left my mind wandering and not engaged.


( )

//Re-read on March 28 2016

I'm really glad I've read this now and not at the time it came out, because it reads as part 1 of a story, not a separate book. I would've gone mad waiting for book #2.

ETA: But it seems I'll go mad anyway, since it's a trilogy. ( )

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

While this book had a lot of technical terms and a language all its own that made me stop and try to figure out exactly what mnems and mnemology is, it was so fascinating! This was such an interesting concept!! I was very intrigued about how it all worked, and with how Elijah was able to communicate with Daniel. My heart broke for Daniel as we learned about his parents and the daily struggle he has to endure due to a mistake he blames himself for. There is a lot of heart in this book, mushed in between the technical speak. Although the technical speak was difficult at times, I think it was very necessary to truly get an understanding of such a different concept.

I am normally not a huge fan of unresolved books, but when they are continued and available immediately after finishing the first book, it makes me a happy reader! This book was written from Daniel's point of view and I am looking forward to learning more about Elijah and what makes him tick.

I very much want to read the next books in the series. :-)

EDIT: I listened to the audiobook version of this story, and I loved it! I mentioned before that it was hard to get used to some of the lingo while reading it, but listening to it was seemless. This was well narrated, and a great story. ( )

This is a cool story. It's science fiction. People now go in to undergo these lifelike dreams. It's common place and after awhile they fade. Some trippy things happen. It's interesting and definitely not the end of the story arc. I'll continue for sure. ( )