Review: Archetype by M.D Waters

Archetype by M.D Waters
Publisher: Plume
Publication Date: June 24th 2014
My rating: 5 stars 

Emma wakes in a hospital, with no memory of what came before. Her husband, Declan, a powerful, seductive man, provides her with new memories, but her dreams contradict his stories, showing her a past life she can’t believe possible: memories of war, of a camp where girls are trained to be wives, of love for another man. Something inside her tells her not to speak of this, but she does not know why. She only knows she is at war with herself. Suppressing those dreams during daylight hours, Emma lets Declan mold her into a happily married woman and begins to fall in love with him. But the day Noah stands before her, the line between her reality and dreams shatters. In a future where women are a rare commodity, Emma fights for freedom but is held captive by the love of two men—one her husband, the other her worst enemy. If only she could remember which is which. . . .

With pressure from Lauren, Rachel and Joy to start this series, Rashika and I finally decided to pick Archetype up and let me just say I can totally understand why this book was a favourite for them. I was the worst buddy reader ever (sorry Rashika), I ended up gulping this book in a few sittings, it was that darn good.

I’m always eager to read books that deal with memory loss so I was thrilled that Archetype was one of those books that dealt with this story line brilliantly. Emma wakes up with no memory of who she is, she’s told she’s been married to successful billionaire Declan for the last eight years, but Emma has no memory of this, she’s been told by Declan and her GP that this is all because of the accident that she’d had, but neither of them tell Emma a single thing about the accident, they say she isn’t ready for it. But how come Emma has these strange dreams of another life and of loving somebody else who isn’t her husband? So what is really going on and who is telling the truth? I had an inkling of what really could be happening, but when the truth was revealed it was certainly something that I never expected. I was really torn with what life I wanted to be real for Emma. There was Declan her husband who was always looking out for her, he would step in when Emma would voice her concerns over Dr Travista and he was willing to offer her anything she wanted. Although things didn’t seem right at times I could believe that he genuinely loved Emma. Also did I mention he was hot? *fans self* guys who wear suits tend to do it for me these days, especially ones that have buff bodies that fill up these suits nicely and have floppy sort of hair, that always tend to droop over that you constantly want to push it back into place (okay you can tell me that I’ve been imagining all the time). Also his scenes with Emma were hot; he made you forget this other person Emma had been dreaming about. I’m not going to say whether my feelings change or not regarding Declan as the book progresses, but there were quite a lot of major developments that Waters likes to throw your way that make you want to take a step back and take a whole lot of things into consideration. And then when this other person was thrown into the picture I was all like Declan who? I liked the way that Waters introduced this other character into the picture, by giving us snippets of him from Emma’s memory, it was clear that Emma and him really cared for one another, but how and when could have their love for each other taken place if Emma has been married to Declan for the last eight years? It just doesn’t make sense. And then the more and more memories Waters throws our way I thought I knew what had happened, but Waters then would throw a horrible blow our way that would have my heart and head reeling.

I really felt for Emma, she had no explanation as to what had happened to her and no one was really trusting her to give her any explanation. On top of that she had a voice constantly in her head telling her things, on occasions this voice would be helpful but then at other times Emma didn’t want to hear any more. And the thing was I was pretty torn up too about what Emma should believe, I was hoping that certain things would be true, because in my mind that would have been the better ending for everyone, but even that was twisted upon its head. I’m probably not making a lot of sense right now, but there’s not a lot I can say without giving so much away. This book really messes with your head in the best way with the endless twists and turns along the way. And the romance, my gosh I didn’t think my heart has recovered, especially by the last few pages, I had hoped that things would end up okay in book two Prototype, but when I read the last page of this book, I don’t know what to think. Readers who haven’t read this book yet, all I can say is listen to the hype, this book deserves all the five star ratings and so much more!

On the side note I actually ordered book two Prototype before I started Archetype, I had a gut feeling that I would need it straight away, but being the dufus that I am I didn’t realise that I would devour this book so quickly, so now I just have to sit here twiddling my thumbs for my book to arrive. I don’t think I can read anything else until I know what goes in Prototype.