Forget You Know Me

This book has one of the best hooks I’ve read in a while, making me turn the pages for hours into the night. When two old friends are speaking via video chat, Molly steps away to attend to her child for a moment and Liza witnesses a masked intruder breaking into Molly’s kitchen. This clever set up sets the runaway train in motion and the train keeps gaining speed right up to the satisfying conclusion. The characters are flawed, and interesting and real. I appreciate the depiction of Molly’s battle with chronic illness and Liza’s struggle with anxiety. The male characters—Daniel, and Rick, and Max—each have detailed backstories and challenges of their own. Henry is the one character who feels a bit flat, probably because he isn’t given too much time on the page. Despite this, I rooted for them all to figure out what happened and get all of their lives back on the right track. Strawser does an incredible job with the plot and structure of this book, and the dialogue is witty, clever and fun to read. She has definitely hit her stride, and I will anxiously await to see what she writes next.

I was a little confused because I thought this was a thriller, but I think it’s more women’s fiction. Must have been my mistake, but I definitely enjoyed this story.

I found Forget You Know Me to be a tale of our adult lives and how things happen that prevent the closeness that we wish we had with people in our lives. Things happened and Molly and Liza grew apart. Skype calls were being used to try to hang onto their friendship when something frightening and strange happened that ended up blowing this friendship to bits.

Would I be like Liza and drive across several states if I saw something very frightening on Skype and then my friend wouldn’t answer the phone for hours? Probably. I’d probably think the worst.

This is the kind of story that could easily happen in anyone’s lives and does, more often than not. The friendship waning, I mean. If you’re interested in women’s fiction, drama and/or stories about friendships, this is your book.

This is the second Jessica Strawser novel I’ve read and I’ve enjoyed them both. Thank you to her, Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an ARC.

From A to Z, this was a good story line. Good characters and nice description of the surroundings. I did struggle with the length of the story and the numerous situations going on. At times it read like a soap opera, going from person to person, each having their drama, but then how it came together. I never did figure out how the title came to be. I guess in this story line, for me, less would have been better. I did like the outcome for the two females that the story started with.

This story got off to a good start. Intriguing and full of suspense and promise. But then I didn’t feel the characters or the surprising twist and it wasn’t the read I expected it to be. I ended up liking the story, but not loving it.

Author Jessica Strawser knows how to grab readers’ attention immediately. As Forget You Know Me opens, two long-time friends, Molly and Liza, have finally carved out time for a “girls’ night” while Molly’s husband, David, is away on a business trip. But since Liza lives in Chicago, and Molly resides in Cincinnati, they are getting together via a video call, When Molly leaves the room to check on one of her children, the call captures a shocking and frightening incident that no one was supposed to see. And the ramifications forever change the lives of both women, whose friendship has been strained the past couple of years following Liza’s move. Molly’s marriage has also become strained almost to the point of breaking. Molly has ensured a series of physical ailments, and instead of those challenges bringing them closer, the emotional distance between has continued to grow.

In light of what she sees on the video call, Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side, only to be rebuffed when she arrives. She returns to Chicago convinced that their long friendship is really over. However, when she gets home, she is shocked to find that she has narrowly escaped calamity herself and that only exacerbates Liza’s long battle with anxiety.

Female friendships are complicated during the best of times. But secrets and lies can signal their death knell, no matter how close and enduring the relationship has been up to that juncture. In Forget You Know Me, neither Liza nor Molly wants their strong bond and shared history to evaporate, but neither of them is sure whether they can regain the closeness they have enjoyed for so many years. What is clear is that they will never be able to carry on unless they are honest with each other.

Molly and David have secrets of their own. In Molly’s case, her desperate search for healing and wellness has led her to try various alternative modalities that are costly and not covered by insurance. Rather than tell David the truth, she has attempted to negotiate a deal to pay off the bills she has amassed. A deal that has put her and her family in grave danger. David, meanwhile, has not been honest with Molly about his whereabouts, but he has confided in her about the financial malfeasance he has discovered in his workplace. And he has to decide whether he has the courage to stand up and do the right thing, even as he devises ways to save his marriage. David is worried that Molly has launched an extramarital affair with their neighbor, Rick, a widower raising a troubled young daughter with whom Molly and their daughter, Nori, have been spending a lot of time.

Forget You Know Me is a contemporary tale of best friends, spouses, and a mother who has become increasingly isolated by pain and her own unwise choices. Strawser has given her characters multiple challenges and complications with which to deal, but expertly pulls the various unpredictable threads of her story lines together in a cohesive, plausible manner. That video call sets in motion a series of actions that, at long last, mean secrets must come to light and relationships must be explored. The characters have each — in his/her own way — reached a crisis point individually and collectively. Strawser’s portrait of three lead characters under immense pressure unfolds from each one’s unique perspective.

The result is a compelling and emotionally rich story about the ways in which neglect, indifference, and harbored resentments eat away at relationships. Strawser demonstrates, through her characters’ actions, how fear — of judgment, of consequences, of abandonment — feeds that erosion. She also illustrates how truth and honesty can heal. Each of Strawser’s characters is endearing in his/her own right, but deeply flawed in ways with which readers will readily empathize.

Ultimately, Forget You Know Me is entertaining, thought-provoking, and will leave readers feeling hopeful and resolute.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.

As I sit here having just finished Forget You Know Me, I find myself struggling to write this review. This is my 2nd book by Strawser and this one just didn’t QUITE do it for me. Without getting too far ahead of myself, the last 30% or so is what saved this book for me and earned its 3 star rating.

The blurb sounded great and the beginning started off with a bang with what we find out the Liza witnessed, but in the end, that event really didn’t have much to do with the story. This is a story about a broken marriage, love and friendship- all the makings of a great women’s fiction novel. But I felt that there was too much disconnect as to what this book is being marketed as and what this book is really about.

I found it a bit draggy and there is just SO much going on here, with Liza, Molly and Daniel. Maybe a little too much going on. It was slow and confusing at times, and I often wasn’t sure who the narrator was at the beginning of each chapter until I was a few sentences in.

However, once all of the issues started to pick up steam on resolutions, the book started to pick up the pace and I found I that I quite liked the ending. I will definitely be keeping my open for more to come from Strawser, because she can definitely tell a story.

Thank you to St. Martins Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

I’m a little mixed on this story. I enjoyed it well enough, I was certainly captivated as you’d expect when a mysterious and potentially traumatic event occurred early on, eager to uncover the who , what, why. But then the story seemed to slow to a snails pace as we get to know the characters. I liked Liz but found Molly tiresome, creating her own drama in her disregard for her family. The story shakes out in an unexpected way and when all the secrets come out, there are no clear cut victims. In that sense, it’s reflective of real life. I’d like to try another book by Strawser but I just couldn’t connect with these characters.

Molly and Liza were besties from way back and nothing could break their friendship. After Molly got married, Liza was considered part of their family. But Liza and Molly start to grow apart. One night, during a video chat, Liza witnesses a man, dressed all in black, breaking into her friend’s house. Then the screen goes black. Panicked, Liza drives all night to find a standoffish Molly. A confrontation follows and Liza goes home. But Liza finds out, that there is no home to go to. Forced to move in with her brother, Liza realizes that her friendship with Molly might be over. Liza also realizes that there is more going on in Molly’s life than she is letting on. Everything is tied to the man who broke into the house. Who was he? What did he want? Will he be back?

I wasn’t expecting to like Forget You Know Me as much as I did. I enjoyed reading about people who had the same issues that I do. I also enjoyed reading about how the different relationships worked in this book. What I liked, even more, was that I “got” Molly. I “got” Molly and Daniel’s relationship. As a mother to 3 and in a relationship with their father for almost 15 years, I got that they grew apart. Heck, it happened in my relationship. Even Molly’s pains I got. It was nice to read a book where I connected with at least one of the main characters.

I wasn’t too sure if I liked Liza in the book. She rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. It started when she got skeeved out when Max told her that he was bi. Then it was how she acted during the dinner that Daniel and Molly throw and followed by how she treated Henry. She did come back in my eyes at the end of the book. She was able to bridge the gap between Molly and Daniel. But it was almost too late.

I didn’t like that Molly was keeping such a huge secret from Daniel. I mean, she had people tracking her down and threatening her at her job. I would have thought that she would have mentioned something to him before that. I was kind of shaking my head during that. She put herself and her family in danger.

I thought the plotline with Daniel and Toby didn’t bring anything to the story. It did explain why Daniel was so preoccupied during 90% of the book. But still, I could have done without reading it.

Same goes for the storyline with Rick, Molly, and the girls. I, for one, was in the “there is something going on between them” boat. I also had the same suspicions that Liza and Molly did about Rick. So, I was surprised when that storyline turned out the way it did.

I was surprised at who the man in the mask (from the blurb) was. I was also surprised at why he did what he did. In hindsight, I understood why. In his own screwed up way, he wanted Molly to realize that she was the same person she was before kids.

The end of Forget You Know Me was emotional. I wasn’t expecting the tears to come. But they did. So, yes, the ending will need tissues. The author did a fantastic job at bringing all the storylines together. She also did a fantastic job at wrapping the book up.

I’m going to prepare a gourmet dinner for you, all the trimmings. By the time I finish describing it, you can almost taste it. Except, when you get here, I’m going to give you a hotdog and chips on a paper plate – and not even a good hotdog, just a plain, cheap wiener on a bun. Disappointed? Yeah, that’s how I feel about this book.

I read the blurb, which sounds like a thriller or at least a good mystery. This is neither. Oh, it starts out that way. Once the masked man enters the picture, I was sitting up and taking notice. Then, it turns into something else, and the masked man becomes something on the periphery, barely even mentioned. So, even though Amazon has it listed as ranking pretty high in the domestic thriller genre, this is not a thriller. Not even close. Domestic drama, definitely. There’s more drama than you can shake a stick at, but there are no thrills here after that one scene with masked man.

Once things veered away from the mystery man, I became confused. Am I reading the right book? I went back and re-read the blurb. Yep, that’s what I thought it said. So, where is this book that I can’t put down? Let me add here that I have no problem with dramas. In fact, I quite like them if the story holds my interest. This one did not. It’s a story that drags on about a handful of unlikable people who have made a mess of their lives and don’t know how to fix it. I ended up skimming over half of this one, and while I did get some answers about the masked man, even that was less than satisfying.

Maybe this book or this author’s style just isn’t for me, or maybe it’s because I expected one thing and found another. Whatever the reason, this one fell short and left me disappointed.

This novel was an intricate story about relationships, friendships, and marriage. I enjoyed the shocking beginning and the way that the characters were depicted. Something happens to Molly one night while she is on a video chat online with her best friend Liza. This night will affect Molly and her husband, as well as Liza and her friends and family for a long time. Others become involved in this night as well. The characters lives are depicted to us throughout the story. We get to know each character through their stories and their relationships with the other characters. Intricate relationships seem to make up the story. Author Jessica Strawser writes in a way where she keeps the mystery successfully hidden throughout the story. We are kept in the dark until the very end!