Customer Reviews

If She Only Knew

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you like romance and mystery, then go get this book now. I have read everything Lisa Jackson has written and this is my favorite. When Marla wakes up in the hospital after a car accident,(or was it) she has to rely on the man that says he is her husband, although she does not remember him.Her memory has been wiped away, but she knows enough to know that something is wrong and that she is in danger for her life. She puts all her trust into her husbands renegade brother and together they set out to find out who is trying to kill her. Before you read the last few pages, you will have suspected everyone.If you have never read a book by Lisa, this is a good place to start.

This is a page turner from the word go!!! Just when you think you have the mystery all figured out something else happens that blows that all to heck!

Marla Cahill wakes up from being in a horrible car accident. The fact of the matter is she is lucky to be alive. The person who was traveling with her died. Her mouth is wired shut and she does not remember who she is or who the people that call themselves family are. She does not feel safe and thinks that Alex who is her husband is not what he says he is and does not trust him. How could it be possible that they are husband and wife? She feels nothing for him.

Nick Cahill is the black sheep of the family. He has turned his back on his wealthy San Francisco family and now lives in Oregon with his dog "Tough Guy" doing what he can to live down his past. You see before Marla had married his brother they had been lovers and he never fully got over her. Alex come up to Oregon and asked Nick to come home to help. He explains that Marla has been in a horrible accident and has been asking for him. Or has she and why would Alex want Nick to come home to her?

Marla is released from the hospital and tries to deal with her confussion and her feelings for Nick. She has nothing to link her to her past. Her purse is even missing with ID that shows her old face. Her cloths are all to big for her, and she does not remember people that claim to be her friends and does not understand why her husband does not want these people to come and visit. And then there is the problem with her feelings towards Nick. How can she be so attracted to him and not his brother Alex? Why is her daughter Cissy so upset with her? Why does she remember the birth of James who is only a few weeks old but not that of her daughter? Why does Alex and Marla not even share a bedroom and why is she literaly locked our of that room? What is he trying to hide? And did she really hear someone in her room late at night telling her to die or was that just a dream?

This is one of my favorite books by this talented author. The twists and turns in this book are great. You are not going to be de-railed by more then necessary love scenes and those that are in the story are indeed wonderful. The mystery of who is Marla will keep you reading and turning the pages. The Cahill family is a huge mystery and it is fun to read to read about. You won't be disapointed by this book. It's a perfect example of why you want to read a suspense romance book!

Marla Cahill wakes from a coma, having survived a deadly car accident. The woman passenger in the car has been killed and soon the driver of the on-coming truck is dead too. Marla has amnesia and can't remember (or trust!) any of the people around her, a wealthy, disfunctional San Francisco family. Seems like a good premise? I wish I had known that that this book which uses truly classic romantic suspense plot devices as its groundwork would turn out to to be so unsatisfying. There is no one to sympathize with in this story. At first you hope that what Marla finds out about her behavior before the accident will mean that she's not actually Marla. By the end, you almost wish she was. The hero is her brother in law (he calls him self the "outlaw" since he's the requisite black sheep), Nick. He spends most of the book complaining that he's been dragged back into the family dynamics again. Marla's husband is clearly up to something, but it's so obvious he's not a good guy, you scarcely care. Throw in a traditional "apricot-haired", disapproving matriarch, an illegitimate child or two, a large fortune tied up in a draconian will and you've basically got the main milestones. Unfortunately, dialogue was stilted and the hints and red herrings dropped with the subtlety of bricks and the (unsatisfying) ending was telegraphed way too soon. I'm sure the author can do better!

The book opens with a chilling scene about a staged car wreck that resulted in two people dead and one in a coma. In the hospital, Marla can hear people talking, but why do they claim to be her family? She doesn't remember them, or anything else. They're calling her "Marla" but she has no recollection of that name. For some reason, she whispered the name "Nicholas" - Nick is presumably her brother in law. (After finishing the book, I found this to be a slight inconsistency - hmmm!) Still in her coma, she can also sense a chilling presence. Once she recovers she's thrust into a life she can't remember but does adapt to in order to help solve her tormenting mystery. Who's after her? And why? This was an excellent story, very fast-paced, and made for great Thanksgiving Day reading!

In California, the man standing on the road flashed a mirror at the woman driver, causing her to crash. He escaped, but left behind her passenger dead, her unconscious, and the driver of a truck near death.

Six weeks later, Marla Cahill remains in a coma at San Francisco's Bayview Hospital. Although comatose, she can hear her spouse Alex, her mother-in-law Eugenia, and her teenage daughter Cissy talk. She recognizes no one and is shocked to learn she has a newborn. Alex turns to his brother Nick, who fled his relatives for Oregon, to help with Marla and the failing family business. Nick reluctantly agrees though he hates seeing his former lover even if fifteen years have passed since Marla dropped him for Alex. As Marla regains consciousness, she begins to regain her memory, but none of it coincides with what her family believes. Worse yet, she is falling in love with Nick even as someone plans to finish the job that failed on the road.

IF ONLY SHE KNEW is a taut romantic thriller that proves how talented best-selling author Lisa Jackson is. The story line has been used many times before, but Ms. Jackson injects freshness through Marla's behavior. The climax is also obvious, but does not take away from a strong, suspense-laden tale starring an intriguing cast of characters.

Harriet Klausner

Ms. Jackson has again proven she can write a romance novel with the perfect amount of suspense. Marla wakes up from a coma not knowing who she is. She doesn't recognize anyone around her. She doesn't even know her husband. She is drawn to her brother in law and feel guilty. She learns that she had a baby before the accident and somehow remembers the birth. Is she who they say she is? Why does she feel attraction to her brother in law, and why does she feel like someone is trying to kill her? This book will keep you guessing. have a fun read..

On a darkened highway in the hills above Santa Cruz, a man steps out in front of an approaching car in hopes that the driver will lose control and cause an accident. Her passenger dies immediately, and Marla is barely conscious.

Marla lies in a coma not recognizing the voices of the people in her room. Her husband has remained at her side, but travels to Oregon to ask his estranged brother to return home since his name is the only one she has uttered. Nick has not really been back in the family home since Marla dumped him and took up with his brother Alex 15 years earlier.

When she returns to her home, nothing is familiar. She and her husband have separate rooms and appear to lead separate lives, which she finds curious since they just had a baby. Her daughter does not like her much, and her mother in law simply tolerates her. About the only friendly face in the bunch is nick. Though she does not remember Nick, she finds herself attracted to him, while he seems to both lust and hate her at the same time.

The more Marla learns about herself, the more she dislikes what she finds. As she tries to remember the accident, other memories start to pop up, memories that do not correlate with Marla's life. Could she possibly be someone else? And where does Alex disappear to every night? With Nick's help, she uncovers the truth and finds out that her accident was no accident at all.

The story is light on the mystery and heavy on the romance. Jackson's writing pulls the reader in and keeps you attention until the conclusion.

Boy do I find I regret my occasional forays (or mistaken choices) into romance novels. The "star characters" are always so beautiful and rich but none are ever believable. I care about real people but not about cartoon characters. So I don't care about any of these characters.

Credibility is really a joke - people who see someone every day can't recognize a different person? Not the mother, or the servants, or the friends? The "expert" has access to all company records, 90% of the corporate assets have been drained, and he needs days to study the problem? Alex has a Rolodex right next to his computer(?) and the heroine recognizes 1/3 of his entries and immediately finds her name? A life of destructive behavior is erased by childbirth? And on and on it goes.

I actually expected that the villain was going to turn out to be someone other than the man who had the "villain" label tattooed on his forehead - I didn't think the "mystery" could be that shallow.

And even the writing was so-so - e.g., "a thousand watt smile" doesn't deserve repetition.

Yes, I am a guy. My daughter (13) selected the book. Circumstances caused me to read this book. But I think she would find it disappointingly shallow.

I will recommend A Breach of Promise by Anne Perry as a well-written romance novel if you don't care about suspense being maintained to the end. The ideas are much more impressive, the "history" is educational, and the characters unusual but they have real texture.

This book had the worst editing ever. The main character was either Marla or Maria but I did not know which since it switched back and forth throughout the entire book. I found this very distracting. I also wish I had known this was a Harlequin Romance style of book rather than the mystery it had been promoted as.

If She Only Knew was a great book by a very talented author! I literally could not put it down! I stayed up all night just to finish it! It really has you guessing til the very end! Wow! I was so very impressed with this book! If you have not read it, go right now and buy it today! Be prepared to be drawn into the action till the very end!