YA Weekend: Like Never and Always by Ann Aguirre
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Like Never and Always by Ann Aguirre
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tor Teen (July 17, 2018)
Length: 336 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
In the history of real mistaken identity cases, the one about the fatal accident involving two girls and one survivor is probably the most heartbreaking. Most of us have probably heard about the incident or seen the story or some variation resembling it in popular media, but in Ann Aguirre’s new YA thriller Like Never and Always, the scenario is given a disturbing and paranormal twist.
On a hot summer evening, best friends Liv and Morgan are passengers in a car along with their boyfriends, brothers Clay and Nathan Claymore, when an accident changes all their lives forever. Liv wakes up in the hospital, but the visitors by her bedside are not her parents or her boyfriend Nathan but instead Mr. Frost, Morgan’s father, and Clay, Morgan’s boyfriend. They and all the hospital staff are also calling Liv by her best friend’s name, which frightens and confuses her—especially when they break the news that Liv did not survive the crash.
Any hopes that this is just a horrible case of mistaken identity are dashed, however, when they remove Liv’s bandages and it is Morgan’s face starring back at her in the mirror. Not wanting to appear crazy or upset anyone further, Liv decides to go along with it in order to buy some time to figure out what’s going on, but becoming Morgan and stepping into her life is turning out to be more difficult than Liv realized. Her best friend, heiress to her father’s successful tech company, had lived in privilege and luxury, but her life had not been as well put together as anyone thought. Liv also discovers that, despite being popular and beautiful, Morgan Frost was a lonely girl with not a lot of close friends. And underneath that perfect and happy exterior, she was hiding all kinds of dangerous secrets, including an underaged affair with a married man. All of it was part of Morgan’s plan to uncover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious death ten years ago, and now it is up to Liv to finish what her best friend started.
I was of two minds regarding this novel. On the one hand, I loved the premise, as well as the mystery and suspense. On the other, this being a Young Adult novel, it also comes with a heavy dose of romance, as practically required by the genre. Normally, I wouldn’t mind so much, but when soppy romantic drama starts encroaching on my thrillers, that’s when I can get a little cranky. Aguirre had an amazing opportunity here to drum up some real tension behind an interesting conflict, and to be fair, she did a great job exploring the tumultuous relationships behind what I thought was a seriously messed up love triangle involving Liv and the Claymore brothers. But where the story faltered was the timing. I could never tell whether this novel wanted to be a thriller or a romance; the plot would be constantly swinging back and forth between these two genres, and more frustratingly, these shifts always seemed to come about at the worst times. It’s never wise to stop when you have momentum on your side, and yet, so many times it would be interrupted just when the mystery was heating up, and I would get brothers drama when all I wanted was for Liv to get back to investigating Morgan’s mom’s death.
Apart from those complaints though, this book was actually quite good. I enjoyed the premise, as well appreciated the story’s attempt to at least provide an explanation for Liv and Morgan’s body-switching, which in fact turned out to be rather touching. I would even praise this one as an emotionally charged tale of female friendship, which might sound weird at first, considering how one of them is dead, but everything Liv does is because of how much she loves Morgan. After literally living in her best friend’s shoes, Liv begins to understand Morgan as she never did when both girls were still alive and in their own bodies. The story also boldly delved into some difficult and delicate subjects, not shying away from them even when things got dark.
Had the plot stayed on this track a bit better, I might have enjoyed Like Never and Always a lot more. That said, it is by no means a bad book and I still had a great time, but too much mishandling of the romance and wonky pacing ended up dragging the experience down a little. I suppose I would still recommend it, especially if you don’t mind a hefty amount of romantic drama served with your thrills and chills.
The BiblioSanctum 
The romance stuff always puts me off, more so when it sounds so shoved in like this!
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I’m usually okay with the romance stuff – I like it in well-balanced doses, in fact! Not so much though, when they start getting the way of the thriller elements in an actual thriller novel 😀
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I liked this one more than you did, Mogsy:). Given this is YA, I thought the romance worked reasonably well – and, like you, I appreciated that she didn’t shy away from the bleaker consequences of that involvement with the older man.
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To be honest, I actually thought the romance itself was handled quite well, but it was the moments the author chose to inject romance elements into her story that I did not like. I felt I was thrown around quite a bit.
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Ah… yes – I see what you mean:)
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*ouch* 😀
Your mention of “soppy romantic drama” did cool my enthusiasm a little, since I was eager to sample this new book from Aguirre, and my past experience with her work never entailed having to deal with ‘soppy’… Nonetheless, I will give this one a chance: being forewarned will prove helpful, indeed!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Yes, it’s still quite worth it to check out!
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Ah great, thanks for the review because I was actually condering about this one! So now I know how it is. Maybe I can try too
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I think you’ll really like this one!
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Great review! Based on your thoughts I think I might pick this up. Sometimes I get caught up in the romance plots/subplots, if this one has a lot of that it may be a good fit for me. 🙂
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If you like romance subplots, you’ll love this! I actually liked the love story here a lot too, the only thing I took issue with was how haphazardly those elements were shoved into the story 🙂
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Cool. I will add it to my list then. Thanks!
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Clay Claymore? Really? The author did that to one of her characters?
Funny what one notices in a review sometimes 🙂
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LOL! I had that exact same thought when I first started the book and were introduced to the Claymore brothers. The author ended up addressing it midway through the book though. Clay was the older brother and his name turned out to be a nickname derived from the last name. His real name was Noah or something!
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Hmmm, sounds like story padding to me….
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In my opinion, there is definitely a time and place for romance. But teens reading YA are probably not going to complain, so I always feel like my complaints about too much romance are unfounded. I have a copy of this I’d like to check out, so we’ll see!
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Yeah, these types of books might not be 100% targeted at us, especially since we also love our thrillers 🙂 But I still think you should give this a try, you’ll enjoy it!
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The whole what happened does have me wondering, but at the same time I just do not know. It would be a library thing for me
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Curiosity about the bodyswitch did keep me reading – I actually liked the “ghostly” explanation and found it a bit touching 🙂
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I kept looking at this one and couldn’t make my mind up – but, I think some of the things you mention would irritate me. I do still like YA but, like you, I’m a lot more careful now.
Lynn 😀
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Yep I used to request any and all YA that looked interesting to me, lol! Nowadays I’m a lot more picky.
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That’s the hardest part of reading YA. They always have to bring in the romance.
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It’s like a must now, so I’ve come to expect and live with it 😀 And for the most part, I don’t mind having romance, it’s just a bummer when it starts tripping up the story.
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Lol a weird romance encroaching upon a good story and generally being irritating sounds so familiar… 😂 Fantastic review! The premise of this book sounds reallly interesting, and I can definitely see the emotional aspects in terms of exploring a female friendship, but I get easily irked by romances in general, so I think this is another I’ll steer clear of for now. 😉
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