An Amazon Top 30 Bestseller On the northeast side of town, there is a house.The house was once magical, filled with love and joy and plans for the future. Inside its walls are many things that belong to me — my books, the china from my mother on my wedding day, the beautiful cage once home to two birds, now empty, just like me.And a man.A man who also belongs to me.A man I no longer wish to keep. also belongs to me.
A man I no longer wish to keep.
A man who, no doubt, has not slept, though the sun is rising. Because the house where he waits is where I laid my head to rest every night for eight years. Until last night.
No one who knows me would believe Charlie Pierce, the quiet, bookish girl who never made waves is pulling out of the driveway of a man who isn’t her husband.
But they don’t know me at all.
I don’t even know me.
Not anymore.
They say there are two sides to every story, and I suppose in most cases, that’s true. But the one I live inside of? It has three.
On the northeast side of town, there is a house.
But there is no longer a home.
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FREE for 3 days only! Book one in the angsty, epic love triangle romance from Kandi Steiner. If you love heart wrenching romance, this is a MUST read. Free Wednesday, March 6th – Friday March 8th!
Book one in the angsty, epic love triangle romance from Kandi Steiner.
My first piece of advice for those thinking about delving in to this book- DO IT! The other is to not read the blurb for the surprise book three. While the duets blurbs are vague, the minute I read the blurb for the upcoming third book, it gave away the ending of the series. I loved Charlie’s story and was so caught up in it that I forgot I spoiled the ending. Sometimes it’s all about the journey. Charlie, Reese and I’m sure Cameron are complex characters. I was left with my jaw hanging open more than once at the end. I’m taking an emotional wellbeing break before jumping into book two. WHAT HE DOESN’T KNOW is definitely on my MUST read recommendation list. I just hope that the sequel is just as good.
This duet was my first Kandi Steiner read and not my last…beautiful writing, characters I loved and a story so touching it broke my heart and then slowly put it back together
This was one of my first reads by Kandi Steiner and this duet was top notch. I couldn’t put it down. I loved it from the beginning to end. I wanted more and more. I highly recommend.
I really liked this and can’t wait to see where the story goes.
Pah! It has taken me a while to write my review… I’m struggling with what to say. The final part to this story lived up to the angsty roller coaster of a ride I knew was coming. I wanted to hate either Reese or Cameron but I couldn’t. They were both flawed in different ways and I loved both of them for different reasons. This author has returned to what she excels at; providing an addictive read, breaking our hearts and keeping the reader hanging right to the very end!
Told from a multiple POV the book will have your emotions in turmoil and as Charli too’d and fro’d between each of them my heart broke for the other. I felt she made the right choice in the end and the author tied up all the loose ends nicely. There was enough of an insight in the epilogue for this story to feel complete. Beware of a Book hangover alert!
I don’t even know how to write a review for this gut-wrenching story. There’s the present, and then the past and then the future. There’s light, life and love and then one heart ache after another. And then there’s the “To Be Continued…”
“What He Doesn’t Know” is so very well written with wonderful characters and so very much depth to the story line and description. I asked myself; when is wrong right and when is right wrong? This book will push boundaries.
My review: To Be Continued, after reading the conclusion in “What He Always Knew”, book two which you’ll want to have on hand and immediately start.
It wasnt an easy read .. There is not one way road to finish the journey… its hard to pinpoint until you read the story.. Naive, I thought this would be a sweet clickflick romance but it wasnt.. the story opened up with a weak almost no shell-life Charlie.. a woman who lost herself in a big house…beautiful garden…. so many layers of emptiness and sorrow..
Cameron..the husband..a man whom she shared the vows..
Reese.. a childhood friend… the new teacher..
Every part of the story was syncing …. it took me awhile to understand the depth of the story.. it can be shallow yet its showing many layers of struggle… not every marriage is perfect.. smile can be a happy gesture.. yet it can mean a shadow of lies.. the face of pretending…
When you were at the lowest point of your life… Emotional Craving is a hunger.. that word speak the loudest to me..
This book! Where Do I even begin. It guts you. Puts you through all these raw emotions and makes you feel all these feelings. Its gut wrenching but so beautiful at the same time. Charlie is in a battle. A battle between her life and the life she longs for. I can not rave enough about this book. I can’t wait for the next book so I can figure out what happens. – Tisha
REVIEW: Please don’t let me suffer……
“I would have been lying to myself if I said my intentions with her were completely innocent.”
What the hell did Kandi do to meeee?? <--- That's how I want to start this entire thing off because I don't know what I am going to do. This wait, while it's only two weeks, is going to be death defying for me. Clawing at my walls, crying in a corner, woe'ing is me'ing by my lonesome. Kandi, what are you doing?? Are you LAUGHING AT ME?? Now, I may joke through this entire review but this is no laughing matter. This is just me trying to use a defense mechanism to hide my poor broken heart. Ok....so, first and foremost, my Kandi is back. MY Kandi is back. My angsty story-writing, heartbreaking, torture-weaving Kandi is BACK. This is what she does so well. This is what she does brilliantly. I've missed this über angsty Kandi. Moments gave me pause. Actions gave me anxiety. Words stole my breath away. I gasped and I sighed. I furrowed my brows and I worried my lip....this book gripped me. The mystery surrounding the problems in Charlie's marriage kept me going, page after page. This was such a delicate and angsty dance between past memories and current emotions. But jealousy was not a pretty color on them thar boys. BOTH of them. This book?? It had some heartbreak, it had some laughter, it even had some truthful sorrow. It encompassed a full range of emotions, but most of all, it had nostalgia and love, memories and comfort. Such a great storyteller in her own right, Kandi makes me giddy with her passion and the angst that she painted the pages with. This book had the beauty of an old love....that didn't feel old. It certainly didn't act old. Every turn of the page brought me a little morsel of a memory; the faded smiles and the wispy sighs. Miniature fire starters that made me want to reach into the pages and hug these characters -- or smack them. But it made me yearn...it made me crave the forbidden, the memory, the desires. There was a spark borne of pain, deceit, sorrow, and compassion. It all played into the pull of hearts, and it allowed a chasm to build. Oh!! And the guilt? Oh gosh, the guilt is not what you'd expect. "It was never about the music when she was sitting there with me." Reese was just sigh-worthy for me. Oooh maaan. When you think about someone that is so in tune with another, you know they pay attention to the little things. They make YOU their priority and they do so because they like to see you happy. Reese was this genuine, down to earth, wanted nothing but the best for Charlie, kind of man. Whether it was to the detriment of his own heart or not, he always had her best interests in mind. His selflessness was completely swoon-worthy, and nothing will ever change my mind about him. Granted....he was jonesing for another man's woman, but semantics. I just want him all for myself. I am completely, irrevocably IN LOVE with him. #MINE Having said that, I am pretty sure Kandi did the virtual impossible with me. I *hated* Cameron. Hated him. Ok? Ha-Ted. So much so that when that ending hit, I was gasping. I was shocked. I was beside myself because I didn't know WHY Kandi did that. Here I was, following along this amazing story and watching myself, umm...I mean, watching Charlie reconnect with her first crush. I was happily watching him be good to her while her husssband was messing around with her heart, treating her like she wasn't important and he had better things to do. What in the world?? Ugh, Kandi!!! I felt sorry for him. What? Whyyy? Why did Cameron make me feel sorry for him?? I blame Kandi....yeah, her. I don't even know how to suffer through the wait for the next book. Do I do it with Whiskey....or do I do it with Tequila. We should ask the expert, right Kandi? In my heart of hearts, I know I don't aaaactually have to wait that long since I will have an ARC to read soon, but having to wait just a few days is going to be extremely painful. I'll take something....on the rocks. ASAP. kthxbye. Oh! And I know what #TEAM I'm on....and I can't wait to see what Kandi does with the next book!! 5 Stars easily, hands down....all the way. "Cameron was her husband. I was the boy who used to live next door." ~BEE
This book took my out of my comfort zone with it being a love triangle but I loved it. Kandi put me on an emotional rollercoaster. I really enjoyed the characters in the story. The narration by Erin Mallon, Jason Clarke and Sebastian York was amazing and brought the characters to life. I’m looking forward to where this story takes Charlie, Reese and Cameron in the second part of the duet What He Always Knew.
What He Doesn’t Know absolutely blew me away! It literally had me in tears from the prologue, which is not something that happens very often.
I won’t get too much into the plot, but basically Charlie is living a shell of a life with a husband who had once loved her with all his heart and now, after going through a mutual tragedy, no longer seems to want her. Then, Charlie’s longtime crush and childhood friend, Reese, returns to their hometown after enduring a tragedy of his own, and he completely shakes up Charlie’s world.
I could relate to Charlie on so many levels, despite never having gone through something like she has with her marriage. You could almost feel the loneliness and helplessness she felt at home seeping through the pages and it absolutely broke my heart. I know I’ve been in a place in my life before where I lost myself and just spent my days going through the motions, not knowing who are how to reach out, which is why I really like how Reese entered and kind of forced Charlie to open up and actually face the issues in her marriage. On a side note, I’m also obsessed with Jane Eyre so I loved how Charlie named her birds Jane and Rochester (and how her old dog’s name was Heathcliff in a nod to another Bronte sister).
Reese was just a whirlwind of intensity and emotion that I’m glad that Charlie got caught up in, only if it was for the sake of allowing herself to feel again. Reese is passionate, caring, loving, and honest, but you can also see he has a lot of issues of his own he hasn’t delt with yet. As for Cameron, the book didn’t paint the best portrait of him—he threw himself into work and neglected his marriage and wife for almost five years. But that one little chapter at the end in Cameron’s POV tells me there’s a lot more to his story than meets the eye and I can’t wait to find out more in the next book!
”Old longings brought to life with new fervor, new discoveries uncovered with old, shaking hands.”
Gahhhh, I love Kandi Steiner! Her characters just suck me in and always feel so REAL. I loved this angst fest! It’s a love triangle and honestly, I feel for all the characters involved.
The heroine, Charlie, is going through quite a rough patch in her marriage to her college sweetheart, Cameron Pierce, after suffering a terrible loss, when in walks the new music teacher and her first love, Reese Walker. Neighbors growing up, they had a 5 year age gap that kept them from ever acting on their feelings. What separates them now is a very big and real obstacle: her husband.
I could feel her slowly opening up to me, slowly letting me in, and the more she gave me, the more I wanted. If she offered me a smile, I begged her for a laugh. When she gave me a sentence, I pried for a paragraph.”
Oh Reese…Reese is struggling with his own heartache and just needs to his “home” again. Charlie has just been walking around as a shell of her former self…struggling to make her marriage work. Fair warning: THIS IS A LOVE TRIANGLE.THERE IS CHEATING.
Okay, I won’t say more. I really enjoyed this book and I immediately jumped into book 2. It’s not incredibly action packed or drama filled but I sucked me in anyway!
P.S. This is book 1 of a duet so you can expect a cliff hanger ending.
AHH!! I don’t even know where to start this review.
Whenever a new book by Kandi Steiner is released, I know that I am going to have to pick it up. What He Doesn’t Know, was one of those novels. As soon as I read the synopsis, I was hooked. It seemed so unique and captivating, that my I knew I was going to be enthralled.
Every single detail of this novel, was written to absolute perfection. The characters had such a presence about them, that you can’t help but fall in love with them. You feel their pain, and their struggle. You witness their emotions, that are often times going all over the board. You experience their love and passion for one another. You also experience their internal struggle and resistance.
If I could this novel a million stars I definitely would. 5 simply isn’t enough for a novel written with this magnitude.
5/5 Stars!
What an intense and emotionally taxing story. I cannot believe what just went on in this book. I had it all figured out, until I didn’t. This was my first book to read from Kandi Steiner. Needless to say, I will quickly be reading another. She has quite the way with a love triangle.
Charlie and Cameron’s relationship is a hot mess. It went from one tragic event to a full blown tragedy. Reese, Charlie’s childhood crush, waltzes into the middle of this sad drama fresh out of his own traumatic experience. He takes it upon himself to blow on the smoldering embers buried beneath this set lighting
the whole stage on fire.
These three and all their angst literally had me reading until I could not keep my eyes open any longer. I then awoke in the wee hours of the morning to continue reading. I could not get to the end of thia book fast enough. The story was suspenseful and highly addictive.
I really don’t know how I feel about what happened. I was cheering for one male character and then, suddenly, I was cheering for the other. The whole time I just wanted the girl in the middle to make a choice. I cannot wait to witness the finale of this epic love triangle. Kandi Steiner is wicked and cruel, but she really is a genius in the art of writing romantic triads.
OMG! I’m so pissed right now! I’m mad at Cameron. I’m mad at Charlie. And I think I might be mad at Reese too. Nothing about this is fair. To any of them. And yet they are all at fault! Ugh! ALL THESE EMOTIONS!! OMG!
Such an amazing read!
I know people have an issue with the “theme” but man does it make for a phenomenal story! The raw emotion and how real the characters and the situation are draw you in like a moth to a flame and I can’t be happier that I got burned!
Author does an amazing job of putting you in your feels.
I was rooting for one in the beginning now I’m not so sure where my loyalties are.
On to the next one!
WOW! Just wow!! I am liking this series.
There is cheating in this book…..Cameron cheated on his wife, Charlie and Charlie cheated on Cameron with, Reese, a man she had known and loved when she was in school with him.
Also, this book has a cliffhanger and I am so glad that book two is available to read right away!
I am loving Kandi Steiner’s books! This is the second book by her I have read and I LOVE her writing! The characters are great!
This story will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions! Definitely will tear your heart in two and leaves you sprinting to grab book 2. It gives you all the FEELS!!! A definite must read!