Customer Reviews

Husband Lover Stranger

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Suzanne Forster was stretching when she wrote this book. A husband disappears and suddenly comes back several years later. The wife isn't sure if he is her husband or not. How does he have memories of her husband but then not. Who is this crazy man who breaks into house and looks just like her husband? Why is her husband's mother being secretive. This book does not make sense and the plot was weak. Don't waste your time.

HUSBAND, LOVER, STANGER is the story of Sophie and Jay Babcock. Jay has been presumed dead for five years. Sophie, devastated by his loss, was finally putting her life back together when Jay was found alive. He had been held prisoner in a foreign prison. But Sophie is too uneasy to be happy. The man that has returned to her seems to be different, different from the man that she had loved since she was fifteen. Confusion and doubt plague her because though he is different, in many ways he is the same. Jay himself is having doubts about who he is. His memories feel somewhat unreal to him as if he's watching an old movie reel. He remembers Sophie and feels that the memory of her has kept him alive for so long. But he begins to suffer very painful headaches, blackouts, and violent urges. His family, whose pharmaceutical company he is planning to take over, is providing for the therapy he is undergoing to recover from his ordeal in prison. He begins to suspect that they are somehow responsible for his condition and are behind the dangerous incidents that have been happening to Sophie. Suspicions escalate and begin to tear apart the passionate relationship that Jay and Sophie have worked to regain. Conspiracy, betrayal, drugs, secrets and the bittersweet love between Jay and Sophie make this book a page turner. This is an excellent read worth your time and money. You'll enjoy it. Trust me!

This is one book that readers will either love or hate. A husband dies in Nepal, yet returns 5 years later. His wife Sophie barely survived loosing him once can she take a chance again? And by the way -- who is trying to kill her?

Those that love it will simmer in Jay and Sophie's romance the second time around. And be engrossed in the 2 secondary romances - one with an older couple and the other with a woman considering a lesbian relationship. And will try to figure out who done it.

Those that hate it will find Sophie an weak character. She can not decide if it is or isn't her husband. So much for the DNA tests, finger prints and matching x-rays of a old childhood injury ... no Sophie feels that he has changed (guess 5 years in a POW camp might do that). No rather than try to help him fit back into society, Jay must convince her that he is really her husband.

While parts of this book are strong and well written, the plot is too loosely woven and often doesn't even come close to making sense. My suggestion is to enjoy the romance and skip the endless pages that go nowhere.

When her rich husband Jay Babcock disappeared somewhere in Nepal five years ago, Sophie had to accept the fact that he died and went on to rebuild her life. News soon reaches Sophie that Jay, the only man to set her heart on fire, has been found alive. Apparently, he has been languishing in a prison and now suffers from its aftereffect.

When the man claiming to be Jay returns home, sparks fly between him and Sophie. Even though he has memories that only he and she could have known, Sophie begins to doubt that this man is her husband because he acts so much different than the care free Jay she once knew. She starts to wonder whether a clever impostor has stolen her spouse's identity in order to gain control of the rich family pharmaceutical company. Though she has fallen in love with the new Jay, it remaisn Sophie's choice whether to believe that he is the genuine article or the main character in an elaborate hoax.

Suzanne Forster has acquired a reputation for some of the best romantic suspense novels on the market today, deservedly so. Her latest, and perhaps greatest chiller, HUSBAND LOVER STRANGER is a 14 karat gold thriller that will shock and please fans of the sub-genre. Though the romance is exciting and worth reading for that element alone, it is the rising suspense culminating in a shocking (but realistic) climax that makes this classy keeper a cross-genre gem.

Harriet Klausner

I disagree with some of the writers below. This book was excellent and kept you reading. Sophie had worked so hard to straighten out her life after Jay was "killed" and then to suddenly have him return was quite a shock.

She has strange feelings about her husband, is he or isn't he her husband? Some instances just don't match up. Can she trust him? Can she love him again?

Then there is the additional problem of the Babcock takeover in running the company. Who are the bad guys? Are there bad guys?

What makes this book so interesting are all the characters we are dealing with. The sister-in-law, the mother, the chemist, the attorneys, Jay, the psychiatrist?

I could not put this book down. It is the first of Ms. Forester's books that I have read and I am going to read all the others.

I was really gripped, kept turning the pages, the whole set-up was excellent, lots of motives, confusions, mixed feelings. I couldn't wait to finish it and solve all the mysteries.

The confused heroine and the mysterious stranger, really very well done, utterly convinving! Great job!

But then, when it came to offering solutions, there were just a few sloppy sentences, like sketching a possible direction what might have happened, but no real explanation. When I am kept on tenterhooks for many hundreds of pages, I want to know what actually happened

Without giving away too much: What did Colby actually do to his brother? What was Claude's role in the whole thing? Why were Wallis and El's actions so easily forgivable that El could be fully trusted to complete Jay's treatments at the end? I did not feel satisfied on the intellectual level at all. I hope that Suzanne Forster is going to work on this, as I really like the way she sets up the whole story, I am just left with too many open questions at the end.

Erotica in its finest form: no gratuitous sex, MUCH sensuality. This is my first Suzanne Forster novel, and I couldn't put it down from the time I picked it up Saturday until I was done at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Forster has gift for mining the erotic drama of EMOTIONS as opposed to sex and leaves you breathless and wanting more. Her characters, while remaining faithful to the genre, nevertheless stretch just enough beyond it to keep you guessing about their fates. Each time I thought I saw the next plot twist, I was mistaken. Forster kept me guessing and now I am COMPELLED to grab her other novels. It doesn't get much better than this!

Thoroughly enjoyed HLS - especially Jay - tall, dark, brooding, AND mysterious. Literate and well-written.

Five years after her husband Jay disappeared in Nepal in an avalanche and was declared dead, Sophie has decided to move on and has a new fiance. At her engagement party, news of Jay's return turns her life upside down. It turns out he was held prisoner in and has suffered some memory loss - enough to raise suspicions in Sophie. While his family and various tests indicate that he is Jay, she fears he may be an imposter. Losing him once nearly destroyed her - can she give her heart to him again? As Jay prepares to take over the reigns of the family pharmaceutical empire, strange events surrounding Sophie's safety and his own therapy have him wondering if there is a plot against them to tear away at their fragile reunion.

Forster's back-from-the-dead romance is just far too long. A reader can only take so much hedging, hawing, and red herrings before they say "Uncle." The story could've been cut 100 pages without making a dent in the contrived and predictable plot. The only saving grace is that it is one of Forster's more romantic tales, filled with plenty of tension and longing. But overall, it just falls short of being anything above average.

This book spent its entire length being almost interesting, almost compelling, almost enjoyable.

Sophie was cardboard. The author kept hinting at how her past had affected her. There is a sentence on the last page which made a lot of Sophie's character make sense, but by then it was too late.

The story idea was interesting, but the author was unable to make me care about any of the characters.