The attention-grabbing first two chapters of Never Again revved up my anticipation for an out of the ordinary and notable story, especially since I have a soft spot for books with magic. However, by page 80, my interest splintered as fast as a glass dish hitting the floor. The premise seemed excellent: magical betrayed by his wife gets approached by his cursed ex-sister-in-law, begging him to marry her, but too many off the wall plot devices caused the conflict to dwindle away, making this an insipid read.

The book is set in a world where in the beginning all individuals had access to magic, but after misusing it, the Goddess restricts its use to only six pure champions. Each champion has its own element to use and protect, and they pick a symbol to remind them of their responsibilities: the keeper of fire chooses the dragon, the keeper of air selects the hawk, the keeper of water picks the shark, keeper of earth is represented by the wolf, keeper of life requests the sun and the keeper of death decides on the raven.

Gray Calhoun, a Dragon, is betrayed by his disgraced wife Kerren who comes from the Raven family. After her ancestors consorted with a demon, her family enjoyed five hundred years of wealth. Kerren discovers this fact years before the family money actually runs out, which would disgrace the family, and contacts her own demon. In order to retain her wealth, all she has to do is provide him with the heart of the dragon, her husband’s heart. After being stabbed in the heart, Gray calls upon his ancestors for help and he is returned to life, but something is bound to his soul now. Fearful of what he has brought back with him, he returns to his hometown of Nevermore, Texas, and becomes a recluse. Ten years later, he is still there, drifting through life just doing enough to get by.

After the fall of her family, Lucinda Blackmore takes the easy way out, and becomes the mistress of Bernard Franco. Living in an abusive relationship for years, she attempts to break free. As punishment, Bernard puts a curse on her limiting and muting her magic. Untouchable now and with no place to go, she flees to Nevermore, Texas, hoping against hope that her ex-brother-in-law will provide her with refuge. She believes that if Gray will marry her, his protection can keep her safe, but Gray refuses to help, leaving her with only one viable option – escape to Mexico. Hitching a ride with another young woman wanting to leave town, the two are attacked, and the young woman suffers an fatal injury. Even though, she knows it will cause her grievous harm, Lucy, attempts to save her. Unsuccessful, she now must live with her failure in addition to enduring excruciating pain for three days. Her suffering devastates Gray, and he takes her to his special dream place, hoping to eliminate her torment.

Within this dream state, Gray and Lucinda frolic on the beach, eat the best dream meal ever, talk, and explore the sexual attraction between them. At this point the my hope for a credible conflict between the two mostly dissipates. The rest of the book deals with an external threat involving Gray, Lucinda, and the town.

I found the characterization a mixed bag. Some of the characters intrigued me, and others bored me. It seemed every time I turned around, the author was giving background information on this or that character, no matter how small his or her role in the book.

The unpredictability of the plot can be both a positive or negative, depending on your viewpoint. Some things are just quirky, like the hero’s grandfather and his surfer dude friend being a talking soul book. Other parts just seem over the top, like the ending.

Whether you like the book or not depends on your expectations. While it is memorable in its setting and in the different twists and turns that the plot takes, the author overall didn’t convince me that the hero and heroine are soul mates.