{My thoughts} – Samara is an interesting character. She has lived a majority of her life with an ability called the Knowing. It’s an ability that the individuals of her civilization are told they are born with, they are told they have this ability from birth. It takes her some time but Samara does eventually learn and understand that, that isn’t the case.

Beck is another interesting character. He and his family drop right into Samara’s civilization. They are there to study and learn from it, well, that’s what they were told. Once they are there, they learn it’s not what they’d been told at all.

Their two stories eventually collide with one another and become one story. Once they become the same story things start to get really interesting. Beck makes choices that he knows he shouldn’t as does Samara. In the end they both come to the conclusion that they need to make their choices based on the things that they think are important to them and not based on the things that they have been told are right over and over again.

I really enjoyed reading this book, not as much as the first book in the series, but it was a nice read none the less. I do hope that the author considers adding to the series in the future, I’d love to read about what takes place in Samara and Beck’s future. ( )

{My thoughts} – Samara is an interesting character. She has lived a majority of her life with an ability called the Knowing. It’s an ability that the individuals of her civilization are told they are born with, they are told they have this ability from birth. It takes her some time but Samara does eventually learn and understand that, that isn’t the case.

Beck is another interesting character. He and his family drop right into Samara’s civilization. They are there to study and learn from it, well, that’s what they were told. Once they are there, they learn it’s not what they’d been told at all.

Their two stories eventually collide with one another and become one story. Once they become the same story things start to get really interesting. Beck makes choices that he knows he shouldn’t as does Samara. In the end they both come to the conclusion that they need to make their choices based on the things that they think are important to them and not based on the things that they have been told are right over and over again.

I really enjoyed reading this book, not as much as the first book in the series, but it was a nice read none the less. I do hope that the author considers adding to the series in the future, I’d love to read about what takes place in Samara and Beck’s future. ( )

While I liked it less than The Forgetting, and thus wanted to rate it two stars, I bumped it up to three because of the great culty-vibe of New Canaan and the realistic way that Samara's horrors of never-ending memory were portrayed.

If I thought the romance in The Forgetting was unnecessary, the romance here was even worse. I understand Beckett didn't like Jill like that, and that Samara was the only other girl he'd ever seen, but their love was so instant and fierce that it was unbelievable. WHY do YA books have to have love interests in every plot, no matter how necessary it is?? If this was just about Samara and Beckett, friends, trying to figure things out together, that wouldn't have changed their dynamic at all and would have gotten rid of that useless dreary "oh does he/she really love me" stuff. And maybe Beckett wouldn't have forgiven her so easily after he and Jill found out that she was initially planning to turn them in.

I did, however, like the concept that the Knowing could only love once, because they would remember so vividly everything having to do with that love, and it played out so well with Sam's parents and Reddix's complex motivations, but so why did we need it hammered in with Sam and Beckett?

And what happened to Gray and Nadia? Genivee was Sam's great-grandmother, Liliya was Nita's, but Nadia just... never came back from exploring? Joined the new colony they found? ( )

It took me a loooong time to get into this sequel to The Forgetting, to the point where I felt pretty apathetic about the storyline and characters by the time I was able to make sense of what was going on. There were a few interesting twists and memorable moments, but the first book, which was very good in comparison, might best have remained a standalone work. ( )

Samara lives in a separate community from the one from "The Forgetting". Her group believes they escaped from Earth for a reason and are obligated to create the utopia that some of the original colonists envisioned. But she discovers, when faced with actual Earth people, that what she thought was true is more complicated. ( )