Obsession [Hardcover]

Karen Robards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2007

A woman survives a horrific attempt on her life, only to feel like a stranger in her own home, in the electrifying new novel from New York Times-bestselling author Karen Robards.

The house is all wrong. Her clothes are all wrong. When Katharine Lawrence recovers consciousness on the kitchen floor, staggers to her feet and looks at herself in the mirror, the beautiful face staring back at her is familiar-but wrong. Despite all the evidence-her pictures are all over the apartment, the clothes in the closets are the right size, and it's her hair caught in the brush atop the dresser-everything feels wrong.

Maybe the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the National Security Agency, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Before she can act on her instincts and run for her life, CIA Agent Nick Huston arrives on the scene. The CIA is conducting a special investigation of Katharine's boss, and the mystified woman in her "unreal" house is the key to the operation. But the real Katharine Lawrence has been whisked away for debriefing, and this expendable lookalike, Jenna Hill, is being used until the CIA gets the information it needs. But no one counted on Jenna Hill's outrage at being used. And no one-least of all Nick-could have anticipated the heat that flares between them as the game plays on.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestselling Robards (Vanished, Superstition, etc.) adds psychological spice to a familiar love-on-the-run plot. While FBI Special Crimes Unit agent Nick Houston goes undercover to track down the drug dealers who killed his sister, ski-masked burglars break into the Alexandria, Va., townhouse shared by Katharine Lawrence, special assistant to the CIA deputy director of operations, and her boyfriend/boss Ed Barnes. The intruders kill Katharine's friend Lisa and almost kill Katharine, who cannot convince them she doesn't know the location of the safe they came to rob. Despite wounds and a concussion, Katharine flees into the arms of good-looking neighbor Dr. Dan Howard, who drives her to the hospital where she wakes up unsure of her memory or who she is. Not knowing which of her protectors she can trust, questioning clues that don't make sense, unfamiliar even with her own face and figure, Katharine has nothing to go on but her instinct, which tells her to run. Nick, meanwhile, reveals his true identity (to Katharine's surprise but not to readers') just in the nick of time. A page-turner that moves too fast to dot every plot-related i, Robards's 23rd novel again spins satisfaction out of appealing characters who fall in love and bad guys who get justice. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Katherine Lawrence is in real trouble. Two men have bound her and her friend with duct tape in the kitchen of her upscale Washington, D.C., townhouse. They keep asking about the location of a safe she knows nothing about, and they seem willing to kill. When Katherine regains consciousness, her neighbor, Dr. Dan Howard, is in the hospital room. Her memories are vague. She recalls that her boyfriend, Ed, a very powerful and scary man, is also her boss at the CIA. She knows that she was living at his place and that her best friend was killed in front her eyes. She knows that she is in danger but not the identities of her stalkers. When Ed calls, Katherine decides to run, but at every step of the way, good old gorgeous Dr. Dan appears. Unsure if she can trust him or even herself, she starts to believe that she is not who everyone believes she is. Robards delivers an intense romantic suspense novel that links an out-of-the-blue beginning with a dynamite ending in riveting and unexpected ways. With vibrant characters and a great plot, this is one of best-selling Robards' best, and a must-read for fans of Nora Roberts and Linda Howard. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1 edition (April 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399154167
• ISBN-13: 978-0399154164
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #451,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Robards is the bestselling author of twenty-seven novels. The winner of six Silver Pen awards for favorite romance novelist, as well as numerous other awards, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, Doug, and their sons Peter, Christopher, and Jack. She says, "I read, I write, and I chase children. That's my life."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Enough loose ends to knit a sweater., April 23, 2007

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shereads - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Obsession (Hardcover)

What a convoluted mess. There are some good moments, especially the nail-biting chapter during which we are introduced to the heroine, who is being brutalized during a home invasion. But later revelations make the events in that earlier chapter utterly implausible.

Also incongruous is the way the hero and heroine seem to need no more than a nanosecond to recover from the most horrific events. He bites back a grin of amusement, moments after rescuing her from torture; she contemplates his powerful shoulders while the cigarette burns on her arm are still fresh. I'll admit I've never been tortured and rescued, but I suspect it would be at least an hour before I'd appreciate being teased.

An ambitious idea that suffers from overplotting.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a roller coaster ride of a story, June 25, 2007

By 

Ann M. Macpherson "passionate reader" (Newcastle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Obsession (Hardcover)

I don't agree with most of those who reviewed this book. First, it's not meant to be a "romance" story. That's secondary to the main story. Or perhaps it's even third in line. And I liked the ending a lot---just don't understand what all the fuss is about.
I loved this book. I thought it was sitting on the edge of your seat and nail biting exciting. In fact, I found myself holding my breath during some of the excitement. I started this book before bed and lost a lot of sleep. I finished it long before 24 hours after starting. And to me---that's an awesome ride.
As you read this, Katherine isn't who she thinks she is----Dan isn't who Katherine thinks he is-----Ed isn't who anyone thinks he is----you spend the entire book wondering what the truth is about everyone and everything. It can be a bit confusing and far fetched. But I think it's truly a nail biter to the end. It keeps you guessing and I doubt too many readers can figure out what happens near the end before you get there.
It's not a romance novel, it's an action packed twisting and turning adventure into the land of the FBI/CIA and other alphabet soup organizations. Perhaps it's not as far fetched as one might think. But it is entertaining.
Karen Robards might be known for romance but not this time---it's an action packed roller coaster ride of a story.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 star thriller - requires suspension of belief, June 12, 2007

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Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Obsession (Hardcover)

Katherine Lawrence wakes up in the hospital after a deadly encounter with masked gunmen in search of the contents of a mysterious lock box located somewhere in her townhouse. The lover of a top ranking CIA official, Katherine doesn't know who to trust, and doesn't even recognize her own reflection. When neighbor Dan offers to help her elude authorities, she reluctantly chooses to trust him, only to discover that he might not be who he says he is either. With memories that don't add up, and only peripheral memories of the event itself (including the death of her best friend), she wonders how close to sanity she is.

Robard's latest thriller is a roller coaster ride of plot changes that really require a reader to pay attention and suspend belief. I had to skip back a couple times to catch up, which normally would annoy me, but I pretty much will read anything Robards writes. It reads like a fast-moving espionage movie, letting the reader in on the secrets at the last second. The romance is pretty limited and undeveloped (most of Robards novels appear to be going in that direction), but what little romance there is, it's crucial to the story. It kept me glued from page one, mostly trying to figure out what was going on. If I hadn't already been a fan of Robards and like her writing and plotting, I probably would have given up.