You Don’t Know Me By Susan May Warren
About the Book:
A Deep Haven Novel
Sometimes the secrets we keep to protect ourselves can be our undoing.
To all who know her, Annalise Decker is a model wife and mother. She’s a permanent member of the PTA, never misses a sporting event, and is constantly campaigning for her husband’s mayoral race.
No one knows that Annalise was once Deidre O’Reilly, a troubled young woman whose testimony put a dangerous criminal behind bars. Relocated through the Witness Security Program to the quaint harbor town of Deep Haven, Deidre received a new identity and a fresh start, which began when she fell in love with local real estate agent Nathan Decker.
Twenty years later, Annalise couldn’t be more unprepared for her past to catch up with her. When Agent Frank Harrison arrives with news that the man she testified against is out on parole and out for revenge, Annalise is forced to face the consequences of her secrets. Will she run again, or will she finally find the courage to trust those she loves most with both her past and her future?
My Thoughts:
I LOVE thriller novels filled with mystery and suspense. You Don’t Know Me does a great job of capturing that in print. I felt really drawn in to Annalise’s life. Not because of any similarities I have with her, but because of the way the story is written. She went from a drug addicted teen living a wild life to the mom of all mom’s. She did everything with perfection. The entire town loved her. She was beyond devoted to her husband. Yet, no one really, truly knew her. And she dealt with that from day to day. She didn’t just live the life of a lie with ease. She really struggled with it
I think Susan May Warren did a fantastic job with this novel. She involved all of Annalise’s family, not just one or two characters, but her husband and children as well. She gave us a glimpse of what Annalise/Deidre’s mom must have felt when Deidre first began her troubled life, by giving Annalise’s daughter a boyfriend the family didn’t approve of. She finally saw what she had put her own mother through.
You Don’t Know Me is one of those books that make you take a step back and really look at your own life. It makes you take a really long, hard look a your marriage, your relationship with God, your children, etc.
Most people don’t have secrets as big as the ones Annalise carries, but we all have skeletons in our closets. We all have things we wish we could do over, mistakes we wish we hadn’t made. But, like Annalise/Diedre, those things are what makes us grow into the person we are today.
I love how Susan May Warren developed the characters of “You Don’t Know Me”. The book seemed like it was moving a little slowly to the climax but it really gave me the chance to get to know all the characters and develop a “relationship” with them. Some of the characters ended up being very different than I imagined them to be. And their stories went along perfectly with the story of Annalise and her life in WitSec.
I do feel like her parents should have had a bit more of a role in the story. I think in the real world, they would have been more prominent during he climax due to safety reasons. I would hope the Witness protection program would offer them security too if the dangerous criminal were paroled. I would think they would be the first person he tried to contact to find Annalise. So I do wish they had been in the background story a little more.
All in all, this is a great novel with love, faith, danger and a bit of mystery. It is a story of revelation, rebirth and forgiveness and was a pleasure to read!
It was full of suspense. Unlikely characters came to the rescue and really family bonding took place, not only with Annalise and her children but with some unsuspecting characters as well.
You Don’t Know Me is another book I’m adding to my favorites collection and will read it again and again. It would make a FANTASTIC MOVIE!
Buy the book: https://ow.ly/e6zml
Meet Susan:
Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning novelist of over thirty novels. A five-time Christy award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol Award.
A seasoned women’s events speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!.
Find out more about Susan May at https://www.susanmaywarren.com/.
Find out more about her books here.
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Dislcosure: I received a complimentary copy of You Don’t Know me as a member of Litfuse Blog Tours. All opinions are my own.
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I am a stay-at-home- mom, living in KY with my husband and children. I’m a travel and lifestyle blogger encouraging folks to live their life one adventure at a time while also focusing on beauty, essential oils and health. From time to time I also like to showcase my adorable pets along with my family. Along with Cinnamon Hollow I can be found at The Martin Family Adventure … read more
