People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper
Expected Publication: May 24, 2016
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Format: via NetGalley
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis
Everything was fine fourteen years after she left New York.
Until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t.
Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.
Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily---now Connie Prynne—forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her thirteen-year-old daughter.
My Thoughts
People Who Knew Me is the emotional story of Emily who is happily in love with her husband but with the stress of her husband quitting his job to take care of his sick mother she soon discovers that love can’t always conquer all. She struggles with having to put her life on hold while her husband makes his mother his top priority. In the process of it all and with her husband moving back home and her staying put she becomes lonely and takes comfort in an old acquaintance.
Emily never imagined that she could cheat on her husband when she becomes pressured to leave her husband then finds out she is pregnant she doesn’t know what to do. So what is one to do in this situation? She finds herself on Sept 11 held up in her lovers' apartment and finds out that her building has been struck by one of the planes. Her lover/coworker is in the building and never comes out. Her family and friends all try to find her but she takes this as a sign to start over and get a new identity. She feels that she can’t go back home and face the fact that she cheated and is having another man’s child. She starts her life over in California until the day she must confront her past in order face her present.
People Who Knew Me is a story that makes you think this can’t be possible. Something so out of this world that makes you wonder how bad things must be that you use 9/11 as an excuse to cover your cheating? I won’t lie I was kind of applaud by the notion of this but once you read it and discover all that happens your opinion of Emily kind of changes. You see her as a mother and the love and protection she has for her is breathtaking. I know this doesn’t make excuses for her behavior but some things aren’t just cut and dry. This is one read that is intriguing and definitely worth the time.
Sounds like your on a trend with the "knew me" books. ;)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really interesting take - almost like a coming of age story in the middle of someone's life. Taking the mid-life crisis and making it into a story about what it means to come into your own after a crisis. I'll have to pick it up!
Lol I know right! it is really interesting I went in having a certain opinion only to have it waiver once I truly got to know the character better.
DeleteHmmm.... I can't tell if I would like this one or not, but I am intrigued. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way and I'm glad I took the chance.
DeleteInteresting. I find adultery appalling as well, so I don't know if I'd like this one or not. I might have to give it a go just to see. Thanks for the excellent review!
ReplyDeleteI read this recently and had the complete opposite view -- but I appreciate that you liked it. I just couldn't identify with a character like Emily.
ReplyDelete