It all started with the bereavement flowers with my name on them.Not the best way to wake up, right? I work in a flower shop. I know a funeral arrangement when I see one.I know a killer when I see one, too. And one is standing in my hospital room right now, straight behind the man who saved my life.I can’t tell anyone the truth, because that’s the fastest way to really die. So I do the next best … way to really die. So I do the next best thing. I “lose” my memory.
I fake my amnesia.
Pretending not to remember a brutal attempted murder has its perks. The killer is backing down, spending less time around me, loosening the noose.
The less I claim to recall, the more my rescuer, Duff, works to help me “remember.” I hate lying to him.
But he doesn’t understand that my memory is dangerous. To me. And to him.
Fooling everyone isn’t easy. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Except it’s starting to look like I’ve been fooling myself.
In more ways than one.
Read Book 1 in the newest series from USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine.
“…intrigue and dark humor on display in this thriller…”
While the immediate—and more compelling—tension in Raine’s (A Shameless Little Bet, 2018, etc.) heart-pumping series opener comes from Lily’s constant proximity to her would-be killer, the action takes place against a backdrop of secret government scandals.
Fortunately, Lily’s voice is captivating, wry, and tough enough to sell this thriller. The novel ends with a cliffhanger that startles, if only because readers will have become so attached to Lily.
— Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Meli Raine’s books:
“Fresh, riveting, and thrumming with emotion and romantic suspense, False Memory is absolutely unputdownable. You need this book!” – New York Times bestselling author Meghan March
“I accidentally lost a day to this trilogy! It is unputdownable. Apparently I’m on a dark-and-twisty binge, and this book is addictive.” – USA Today bestselling author Sarina Bowen (Harmless series)
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I’ve been seeing this everywhere! I FLOVE this cover!
Sucked in again! Meli Raine books are my kryptonite! They grab you from page one and don’t let go. I’m enjoying the heck out of this one. Which means I’ll be enjoying #2 and promptly #3. Because that’s how these things work.
See you on the flip side!
I think this is the only author that can happily get me to sign up for a trilogy. Every book I have read by her has been excellent, and this one was no different. I am not going to write an overly detailed review for this book. I’ll save that for the last book when the trilogy is all wrapped up.
Needless to say, I enjoyed this one a lot. It didn’t quite have the same impact out of the gate as the first books of the other two trilogies did. I am chalking that up to the fact that we are basically in Lily’s head as she lays in a hospital bed for almost half the book, so everything takes place in that one room and I found it a bit slow moving. Things pick up around the halfway point and I am super intrigued to see where this is all heading. I am not 100% sold on the baddie actually being the baddie. There are still two more books, so I assume there is going to be a lot more twists and turns to come. I for one, can’t wait! Bring on book two…
Excellent plot lines. Couldn’t put it down. Definitely a page turner. The downside is that it doesn’t end. It continues with the second and third books. That is frustrating but worth the wait. Absolutely loved this story.
5 stars
arc review For honest review When Lily is in a coma she knows who the man that shot in the head and that the shot was ment for Jane brokov but can’t tell anyone . This is her story after she wakes up and gives a more of the story . Awesome story can’t wait for more.
A well written, gripping and suspenseful read of twists and turns, trauma, danger, mystery, deception, trust, and an attempted murder gone wrong. This edge of your seat story will is highly addictive and will grab you from the start and keep you in its hold until the very end. I’m looking forward to reading the next to books is this series.
I volunteered to review an advance reader copy of this book.
Lily is a friendly and easy going florist which is why she connected with Jane from the Shameless trilogy. She never expected to have been shot instead of Jane and being in a coma for the last year. She has regained consciousness and she is trying to handle not only what happened to her but how to protect herself from the person who tried to kill her.
Duff was protecting Jane when Lily got shot and he has been dealing with the guilt and grief for the last year. One she regains consciousness all he wants to do is protect her and keep her safe so that they can find out who is behind it.
Lily knows much more than she appears, but she decides that amnesia is the best way to protect herself until she can determine who is a friend and who is a foe.
Full of suspense and twists this the first book in the False trilogy and does end on a cliffhanger.
I am at a complete loss for words. All I know for certain is that I need to know the rest of the story RIGHT NOW! These interlinked series all lead from one to the next, and when we reached the end of Jane’s story, I knew I wanted to know what happened to Lily. This book about the memories she’s hiding to prevent a killer from succeeding in ending her life sucked me in. It’s now hours after I should have been sound asleep, and yet the story is still spinning through my brain. I was so desperate to know how it ended I couldn’t put the book down. After seeing where it ends, I’m pretty desperate to get my hands on the next book.
I received a complimentary advanced copy of this book from the author.
This is an emotionally gripping beginning to what promises to be a thrilling trilogy…. looking forward to learning more about his journey that begins with a woman waking up from a coma in a room with two very different men. One is the man that attempted to kill her and the other saved her. Love it! Can she convince everyone long enough to save her life??? Highly entertaining and on the edge of my seat for the next book.
Holy crap the suspense!!! Who can she trust? What if she puts her trust in the wrong person and they come after her? There was so many times that I was asking myself what if?!!! I was on the edge of my seat wondering if she was going to accidentally give it away. I was worried that she would slip in front of the wrong person.
Total nail biting territory here!!! Then with the question she’s asked by Duff at the end!! Oh my!!!
I would have liked to see more of her and Duff together to get a better connection between the two but I’m really looking forward to part 2!!
False Memory is book one in a brand new three part series by Meli Raine. So, for fans of Meli, it’ll come as no surprise that it ends on a cliffhanger. Thankfully, the books are being released closely together, so if you prefer to wait until the series is complete, then it won’t be too long. January next year in fact.
As with all Meli’s books, it doesn’t take long to be sucked into the story and forget where you are, or what you’re supposed to be doing. I told myself, I’ll just read a few chapters then get started on dinner but, ha, ha, did that happen?
Nope.
Kids went hungry, hubs remained unfed, well, until he wrenched my kindle from my hot, sweaty hands.
So, beware.
This is not a dip in and out story. It’s fast paced with an amazing assortment of characters and some with questionable motives to say the least. Lily doesn’t know who to trust and after what happened to her it’s easy to see why.
She wakes up after months of being in a coma, and she has to decide who put her in that hospital bed with only one thing in mind.
Surviving.
Can she keep her secrets and unravel the mystery of her attempted homicide?
With a cast of characters from both the Shameless and Harmless series of books, this was quite a riveting and thrilling story. Can’t wait for part two. Just a few weeks more. Thank goodness.
This is False Memory, book 1 of the False series, written by Meli Raine. It’s quite a detailed and deceptive book. Who do you trust when you are afraid of everyone? Lily suffered a gunshot to the head 14 months prior and is now trying to reacclimatize into her normal life. She is scared and can’t trust anything or anyone. It’s a fast paced book and now I’m just dying to read the next two in the series! They just can’t come out fast enough!!
False Memory by Meli Raine is the first book in the False trilogy. This book starts the story of Lily and how she is dealing with being almost killed with the killer still looking over her shoulder. Lily pretends to not remember anything to protect herself while trying to work out everything she can. This is a page turner story that does leave you wonder what will happen next which leaves us wanting the next book in this series.
This is book one in a trilogy by Meli Raine. There are two other trilogies before this one that I recommend. Each trilogy is a stand alone, but part of the same story. But be warned, once you finish False Memory,you will be rushing to grab False Hope! Unfortunately at the time of the writing of this review, False Hope is not available. I enjoy stories with intrigue and this has it in spades! I feel for everything Lilly is having to go through, emotionally and physically! One word of caution, don’t start this story until you are ready to NOT put it down!! So, grab your favorite drink, get comfortable and get ready to be fully captivated!! Enjoy!!
Yvette, Book Haven Book Blog
This was a FANTASTIC start to a series!
This book was something different… but definitely in a good way. I am used to more in your face romance and not something so gripping. It did take a bit of backstory to get it rolling, but I felt it was just the right amount of time for the author to get her point across for the beginning of a series.
Was it different from what I normally read?
Yes, very much so yes.
Did that turn out to be an amazing thing?
Yes, very much so yes!
First of all, amazing blurb by the author, it got my attention and really put the book into perspective. I might be a bit vague with my review because I went into this only seeing what the blurb said and then finally reading it was like eating that first bite of amazing pie! I am NOT spoiling that for you, but I definitely want to give you some insight!
Anyways, Lily is one of the strongest leading ladies I have read in a while. She was a fun loving florist that worked at her family flower shop before the incident. She was shot in the head after being mistaken for someone else. She has her woeful moments, but can you blame her? She just woke up from being in a coma after being SHOT in the head. Not something you are going to bounce back from even after therapy. Combine this with absolute terror of knowing exactly what happened to her AND who did it, but not being able to say anything because she is so scared they are going to finish her off.
The fear was real in this story and it was like whoa.
Then we meet Duff, strong security man Duff. He was on duty as bodyguard when all of this went down and he feels that he failed his job when Lily got shot. He definitely has some demons in his past and boy do I want to learn more about them! Since he feels so attached to Lily, he is with her all of the time during her recovery and trying to help her heal mentally and physically. Somewhere along the way, his need to help turns into more for both him and Lily. This totally makes her torn because can she trust that he is not trying to kill her? (SUPER HEAVY STUFF!!)
This story is definitely a journey and learning how to cope when there are REALLY big obstacles in your way. It ends on a cliffhanger, but I am not too upset about it because the next book will be out soon and I WILL be reading it!
PS: I received an ARC of this book for free in return for my honest feedback.
3.5 Stars – A good start into Lily’s story.
I can’t even tell you how excited I was for this book! I devoured the Harmless and Shameless series and absolutely love this ongoing suspenseful story! After what happened at the end of Jane’s story I counted the days to have Lily’s book in my hands. I had high expectations because although this series can probably be read as a standalone, the storyline goes through all of those series but with a different main character in each of them. So now we have Lily’s story and I was looking forward to her talkative and fun personality. Sadly though, after what happened to her, she was the exact opposite (which was understandable but I still needed to get used to it).
As was known from previous series, Lily was shot and now lying in the hospital. She knew who tied to kill her but couldn’t trust anyone and feared for her life. So she decided to keep her secret to herself, but this still didn’t guarantee her safety. Duff was one of her security details, whom we’ve also met in the previous series. I liked Duff in the Shameless Series but he didn’t show much of himself in this book so I am looking forward to finding out more about him.
The pace of this story was very slow and I am not sure how I would have liked it if I hadn’t read the other books and wouldn’t have known the characters already. Lily’s thoughts and thought process was very strange at times even though I understood where it was coming from. But she was so young and a lively spirit before she was shot that I couldn’t connect her way of thinking with her character from Jane’s story.
Well, Lily was in the hospital for a while and there’s only so much one can do with a story when the main character was bound to the hospital bed. Obviously, her thoughts were the only thing that was available to use for those chapters, but it got a bit drawn out after a while. Everything considered it was very well written though especially because I knew that this couldn’t have been rushed along because it would’ve been unreal to have her healed in a day. So I think it’s well thought through but might be a little hard to start from for someone who’s new to the big picture of this story that goes on for a while now, to enjoy it as much as others do that know the characters already a lot better. But who knows, maybe it’s even easier without any knowledge of what happened before because Lily doesn’t know most of it either.
There wasn’t as much suspense as I hoped for but I am sure there’s a lot to come with the next books and I can’t wait for more. Especially because – like in the other series – the ending was thrilling and made up for the missing action from the rest of the book.
Ps.: It was a good start into this series but compared to the other ones this was just not as good so I couldn’t give a higher rating. I am sure though that the best is yet to come.
Meli Raine never steps lightly into a new series and this book proves it true again. This is why I do love her work!
Lily took a bullet to the head by a gunman trying to kill someone else. She fights for her life for 14 months in sleep only to awaken to her worst nightmare. The man who tried to kill her is in her security detail.
How would you handle that? Lily handles by feigning amnesia because she doesn’t know who to trust anymore. Not even Duff who seems to understand her more than she’d like.
This book kept me in my toes. It kept throwing me for one loop after another. Then it left me absolutely breathless! Bravo Meli Raine! You have me begging for more…again.
False Memory begins with florist Lily waking from a coma, having been shot by an unknown assailant some 14 months before. The thing is, Lily knows who her attacker is but doesn’t know who to trust with that information. What follows is a fantastically suspenseful game of cat and mouse, where neither Lily, or us as readers, can be certain there is in fact anyone she can rely on. I loved hearing what was going on inside her mind, her need to play a role to avoid giving anything away. Her feelings of helplessness seemed so real and at times I found myself holding my breath, waiting for a scene to play out and wondering what was going to happen next.
This book is definitely heavy on the tension and intrigue. Although there’s lots of smouldering heat and sexual chemistry between Lily and her bodyguard Duff, there’s not much by way of romance in this first book of the trilogy, which was fine by me. I was much too invested in the murder mystery that was unfolding. It does end on a cliffhanger and the last sentence leads me to believe things are going to heat up in the next book in more ways than one. Can’t wait.
Another great installment to this political thriller. Lillie is finally awake after being shot, but who can she trust? Why was she shot? Was is her or Jane that the killer was after? I could not put this down. Well written and gripping, keeps you on the edge of your seat. Don’t miss this one!
Audio Review
Keeps you guessing
This is the beginning of a trilogy that will keep you on your toes guessing who done it and who can you trust. I enjoy this authors series and even though this is a cliffhanger I highly recommend it.
Lili wakes up in the hospital or does she? She was shot but by who and why? Is her protector the person trying to kill her or was she the target at all? This is a great beginning and I am on to the next to see what happens with Lili and Duff and to try to figure out who done it.
Andi Arndt is amazing as always. Loved listening to her.
I am loving this series and recommend it.