Reviewer: Holly
(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo
Series: Again #1
Publisher: Intermix, Penguin
Publication Date: October 15th 2013
Genres: Fiction, New Adult
Pages: 242
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Series Rating:

Just when she had finally moved on…
…He moved back.When college freshman Liz Wagner hears her ex's voice for the first time since he moved clear across the freaking country, she does what any respectable girl would do: Dive into the girls' bathroom.
Zach Roberts—the Zach Roberts—is back. And he’s everywhere Liz looks—infiltrating her friend group, buddy-buddy with her brother. It’s enough to ruin college altogether. But what choice does she have but to put on a happy face and pretend he didn't leave her vulnerable and alone in a pile of emotional wreckage?
Pretending works, until tragedy strikes and the only person available for comfort is the one person she wants to stay away from. When Zach turns out not to be the jerk she convinced herself he was, but the boy she used to love, Liz needs to decide whether to open her heart again to the boy who tore it out.

When a story is told in first person I really need to engage with the narrator for it to work for me. Sadly, I didn’t connect with this narrator at all, which kind of killed the story for me.

Though I enjoyed the basic premise – high school sweetheart turns up at college and wants girl back – it wasn’t executed as well as I’d hoped it would be. Liz, the heroine, was on the immature side of young, which made for some contradictory thoughts and actions. I had a hard time putting myself in her shoes, so I couldn’t really understand why she made a lot of the decisions she did.

Though I finished the story, I never really engaged. Not a terrible read, but not a great one either.

2.75 out of 5

This book is available from InterMix. You can buy it here or here in e-format.