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Splintered Memory
Splintered Memory tells the story of Matt and Charlie Grayson, a young, successful and charismatic couple that have been together since school.
The two of them seem to have everything - an all encompassing love, great childhood friends and a seemingly idyllic life. That is until tragedy strikes and one of them is left unable to remember anything about the other, their life together, or their love for one another.
This story will take you on a journey through heartache, hope, trust and betrayal and will leave you breathless for more. It will make you question your emotional responses and ask you what you would do, how you would feel, and how you would cope.
Splintered Memory is not just a story of the heart but of the mind as well. Memories define us and Charlie and Matt must find a way to overcome all the hurdles that fate puts in their way, in order to find a way back to love and to each other.
The two of them seem to have everything - an all encompassing love, great childhood friends and a seemingly idyllic life. That is until tragedy strikes and one of them is left unable to remember anything about the other, their life together, or their love for one another.
This story will take you on a journey through heartache, hope, trust and betrayal and will leave you breathless for more. It will make you question your emotional responses and ask you what you would do, how you would feel, and how you would cope.
Splintered Memory is not just a story of the heart but of the mind as well. Memories define us and Charlie and Matt must find a way to overcome all the hurdles that fate puts in their way, in order to find a way back to love and to each other.
292 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 29, 2013
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74 people want to read
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March 14, 2019
This book was painful, so much drama. The heroine should have run for the hills! I understand it must have been hard for everyone after the amnesia entered the story, but it must have been harder for the heroine. So then because the heroine is not herself and is finding it hard to adjust, what does her loyal spouse do? He cheats! Oh then the heroine leaves as she is hurting everyone! So the hero shacks up with his fling and leaves the heroine be! What a gem of a fella! Most of the friends were the worst! The guy friend who is about to get married and used to be besties with the heroine, says he doesn’t blame the hero, and that if it happened to him and his fiancée he couldn’t stand by her! Swordplay what a tool! This guy is about to get married. So commitment is only involved if things are easy? So more drama follows, the heroine trying to be a martyr and let the hero be happy, even though she has regained her memory, but don’t worry they lovers reunite and get a HEA! Ha as if, the heroine should have divorced his ass and found a better guy and new friends!
Mai favourite highlights:
‘When she had first come home from hospital Matt had been polite, if not a little distant with her, but over time he had become quieter and quieter and this had made Charlie feel awkward. She didn’t feel at home in their house, and she instead felt far more like a guest. A guest that had long outstayed their welcome, but had never formally been asked to leave.‘
‘The first night that Charlie had come home from the hospital, had without doubt been one of the most miserable in his entire life. He’d known that he ought to have been ecstatic that his wife – whom he knew had nearly died, was in good health and had been released from the hospital, but as he’d helped her pack up her things he hadn’t felt the slightest trace of happiness. He hadn’t been bringing Charlie home, he’d been bringing home a stranger that merely looked and sounded like her.’
‘He watched the light gradually creep in through their window, and he felt the last trace of hope fade away as a sense of disillusionment settled deep within him. He was trapped inside a nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. He was living with a woman that resembled Charlie in every way, but in his heart he knew that she wasn’t the Charlie that he loved and had married.’ (This is all after the first night home!)
‘Matt felt like his body had just plummeted twenty feet again at the mention of Charlie’s name.
“We didn’t talk that much on the way home. It was cold, and we both had our chins tucked into our scarves and coats. When we got back I asked if you wanted to come in for a coffee or something, and you said,” but Emily didn’t get to say what he’d said because he said it instead.
“Just for coffee though,” Matt said quietly. It was all coming back to him now. It was all coming back in a dreadful torrent of remorse and regret.
Emily nodded, but she wasn’t looking at him.
Matt now remembered coming up to her flat, and how that conversation had ended. He also recalled being the one to initiate everything that had happened between them, and he started to feel increasingly sick.’
‘Matt’s own face flushed too as he understood what she was alluding to. He remembered her telling him that she was a virgin.
He couldn’t believe it. When he’d walked into this room minutes earlier to leave, he’d honestly thought that he’d been drunkenly taken advantage of. He now knew though, that he’d been the one doing the taking advantage last night.’
When Charlie decides to try and make an effort, and make things better with Matt, he is with someone else:
‘She waited all evening for Matt, but finally at nearly two in the morning she gave up on any hope of him coming home and went to bed. She assumed that he must have gotten caught up in an emergency at the hospital, and that even if he did come home now he was unlikely to be feeling romantic or spontaneous.
Charlie woke up a little after eight, and she was disappointed to find that Matt still wasn’t home. She got up and went downstairs, but there was no sign that he’d been back during the night at all. So she assumed that he must have slept at the hospital.’
He gets even better, I know Matt feels guilty for cheating, but this is why he does after Charlie and him have sex agin for the first time:
“Was it always that good?” Charlie asked him with a note of curiosity in her voice, and he could feel the light touch of her finger tips moving slowly around his belly button.
“Yes,” he said feeling suddenly choked with emotion. Then out of nowhere tears began running down his face.
He pushed Charlie off him, and he walked out of their room and into the bathroom where he grabbed his discarded clothes. Once downstairs, he put his clothes on and left the house. He didn’t know where he was going, but he just knew that he had to get away from the house and away from Charlie.‘
Leaving Charlie to feel likethis:
‘She was embarrassed because she knew that she’d have to face Matt when he came home, and they’d have to address what had caused him to react the way that he had towards her. Yet as the image of him getting up and leaving her on the bed shot through her mind again, she felt mortified and she shook her head to try and chase the memory away. Had she really been that bad she panicked? She’d thought that the sex had been good, but perhaps she’d been a disappointment for him she worried.’
This particular snippet shows the strength of Rich:
“I slept with Emily,” Matt said still not looking at Rich.
Rich again didn’t respond, and Matt found his temper rising at his best friends seeming indifference to what he was telling him. He looked up at Rich and said; “I slept with someone else, someone other than Charlie. Aren’t you shocked, angry, disappointed even? Aren’t you going to say something?” He asked angrily.
Rich still looked indifferent as he said; “you’re not going to want to hear what I’ve got to say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Matt retorted angrily shocked at Rich’s reaction to his confession.
“How long has it been since you last had sex?” Rich asked, and then catching Matt’s eyes started to laugh. “Okay, I’ll re-phrase that as clearly that came out wrong. Obviously it wasn’t that long ago, but what I meant was that you and Charlie haven’t been you and Charlie since before her accident. You may have been living together, but you haven’t been living together as man and wife. And all I mean is that a man can only go so long you know?”
“But its Charlie,” Matt said imploringly; “it’s me and Charlie.”
“But it isn’t though is it? She’s not your Charlie,” Rich said; “and you two haven’t been you and Charlie since she came home.”
“You’ve changed your tune,” Matt said suspiciously.
“Oh come on man. I’m getting married and my fiancée and your missus are friends. I don’t think Charlie’s the same as she was before, but the girls want to believe that she is. I think Bex is scared to death that if this ever happened to her, that I wouldn’t be able to take it. I think she’s terrified that I’d leave her. She needs to believe that you and Charlie can make it,” Rich said almost ashamedly.
“Would you leave her?” Matt asked.
It took a couple of seconds for Rich to reply, but when he did he looked deeply ashamed. “Yeah,” he said; “yeah, I think I would.”
Matt looked into Rich’s face, and he felt shocked.
Rich looked back at him and said; “I don’t know how you’ve coped. I feel for Charlie and everything of course I do, but I just don’t recognise her or know her anymore.” (Of these are his true feelings, he should definitely not be getting married and making a lifelong commitment! I secretly wish Bex had heard him and called the wedding off!).
Even more loyalty from these two idiots:
“I also slept with Charlie,” he said into the counter unable to bring himself to look back up at Rich.
“At the same time,” Rich said sounding shocked but equally impressed.
Matt laughed as he looked up and saw Rich’s face. He just couldn’t help himself, but as he did he felt the more familiar feeling of guilt return.
“No,” he said. “Emily last night and Charlie this morning, but both of them were accidents and huge mistakes,” he said despairingly as he put his head back in his arms.
“Not bad mistakes though?” Rich asked trying to make light of the situation, but Matt didn’t answer and there was silence between them for a whole minute.’
Oh I also forgot, Rich used to date Charlie before Matt:
“It’s Charlie,” Rich finished for him. “Was it good?”
“Always is,” Matt said with a smile.
“I remember,” Rich said. To which Matt did his best not to scowl at him.’
So does Rich offer good advice, tell Matt to end things with Emily? No:
“Are you going to tell Charlie?” Rich asked; “or just keep seeing Emily on the sly?”
Then after Charlie leaves, Matt is of course in pain, but he just degenerates into a scumbag:
‘He didn’t like the man that he’d become, but he also didn’t know what to do about it. He knew that those around him were either too concerned or too disgusted with his current behaviour to confront him about it, and he was grateful for that. He knew that it was common knowledge that he’d been sleeping Emily, but then it was also no secret that he’d slept with half of the female staff at the hospital in the months following his abandonment by Charlie.’
Even thought she messed up by not visiting Charlie in the hospital, and she did not treat her ex partner well, the only friend worth anything is Claire:
“Oh chill out Rich, like I give a shit that I wasn’t asked to be one of her bridesmaids. Although I am a bit surprised that she didn’t ask Charlie,” Claire said.
Rich shifted uncomfortably and said; “she did initially, but after Charlie left… and with Matt being my best man... she didn’t think it was such a good idea anymore. Charlie didn’t seem to mind though,” Rich added as though an afterthought.’
‘It’s not just one. It’s all of them. She remembers everything. She came back here with her dad to tell Matt a couple of weeks ago, and what does she see? Not a husband pining for his wife, but a man that looks like he’s got no troubles in the world. From what I heard,” Claire said; “he was just merrily strolling out of his and Charlie’s home with Emily in tow. It hardly sounded like he was in hell to me Rich.”
Claire is the only one who tries to help Matt and Charlie when her memory returns, Rich the dick just wants an easy life:
“Okay grateful yes and I can see why you like her. It sounds like we’ve all got a lot to be grateful to her for, Charlie included. None of us would’ve wanted to see any harm come to Matt, and Charlie would’ve been beside herself. But Charlie’s better now, she’s back. She’s Charlie again. Surely they’ve earned the right at another shot at happiness together?” Claire asked.
“Okay so she remembers what they had, but do you really believe that they can go back to that? Both of them are carrying scars from everything that’s happened, and Matt’s are pretty brutal. I’m not sure that they can go back, or what the fallout or potential damage would be if they tried to. If you want my opinion, we say nothing to him and you tell Charlie not to say anything to him either. If you tell her that Matt’s happy,” Rich said; “I know she’ll accept that.”
“I’m not here on Charlie’s orders,” Claire said looking disgruntled. “She’s already made the decision not to tell him. She made that decision when she got her dad to drive her away from Birmingham.”
“Then leave it alone,” Rich said.
“I can’t. He should know. Surely he’s got the right to choose who he wants to be with,” Claire said. “If he decides that he wants to stay with Emily then that’s his right, but maybe he’ll…”
“Choose Charlie?” Rich finished for her.
Claire nodded and asked; “does he hold her round the waist and kiss her neck?”
Rich looked up at Claire, and he knew that if Matt knew the truth he’d choose a life with Charlie every time. Yet he worried that he couldn’t watch Matt go through all of what he’d just been through again, if a second chance with Charlie did not turn out to be all that he’d hoped for.
“Yeah,” Rich lied; “he does.”
At Bex and Rich’s
When talking to Matt:
“The girlfriend,” Claire said. “Although has there been any need to flaunt her around quite as much as you have been doing. You are aware that your wife’s also in attendance right?”
“What do you want Claire?” He asked dropping any pretence of politeness.
“I’d like for you to stop hurting my best friend. But tell me? Did you come here with that as your sole intention? Flaunt the new girlfriend around, and then make some unfunny derisive remark about Charlie in your best man’s speech. Did Emily think that was funny?” She asked.
‘She had to put a stop to the lies, and to Charlie’s selflessness. She had to put a stop to all of it, and she’d known that just as Rich had chosen Matt’s happiness over Charlie’s all those months ago. She had to do the same, but this time she’d be looking out for Charlie rather than Matt.’
When she tell’s Matt that Charlie actually remembers everything:
‘You’re divorcing her?” Claire asked.
“Well technically I believe she’s divorcing me,” he said still without the slightest show of emotion in either his voice or in his face.
“But I just told you that Charlie, your Charlie has her memory back. How does that make it okay to divorce her? You were having doubts, but now that she’s all recovered you want out?” Claire asked feeling both confused and angry.
“She’s made a choice, and I’m choosing to respect that. I also have someone in my life now that I need to consider. I think it’s best that Charlie never know that I know though. Once we’re divorced,” Matt said calmly; “I very much doubt that we’ll need to see each other again.”
“And you don’t care that she’s alone and miserable?” Claire demanded rising up from her chair.
“Charlie won’t be alone forever Claire, trust me. She’ll find someone who’ll make her happy, and he’ll be a lucky guy,” he said flatly handing Claire the divorce papers.
“I can honestly say that I’ve never hated you, until now that is. She seemed happy with you, but you really are a joke. I knew she should’ve stuck with Rich, but maybe when she finds hubby number two he’ll value her more than you do. Who knows I may even get along with him, it’ll help I suppose if he’s nothing like you,” she said irately before slamming the door behind her.‘
‘The only thing that she knew for sure was that she wasn’t going to tell her that she’d been to see Matt. Charlie had been hurt enough, and she didn’t deserve to know that Matt had chosen Emily over her. She deserved instead to believe as Claire had done before today. She deserved to believe that Matt would come after her in a heartbeat the moment he knew about her memory.’
Emily was pathetic, and I felt no sympathy for her, as she knew Charlie and was friends with her before the accident, Charlie had been nothing but kind to her, but Emily put up with this:
‘She’d stood by him as his long suffering girlfriend whilst he’d slept with anything and everything that was female at the hospital and had a pulse. She’d endured the mocking looks from the nurses, those that he had and hadn’t yet slept with, whilst she’d treated his patients and charted for him when he’d been too drunk or drugged to do it himself.
Emily had, with the help of Nurse Willis, prevented him from being fired and stopped from ever practicing medicine again. She’d been the one to go with him when he’d finally agreed to see Oak for help, and she’d been there for him when he’d come home from rehab.’
‘She’d earned her place in Matt’s life. Oak and Nurse Willis had acknowledged this, and so had Matt’s closest friends. Claire could either acknowledge this too, or she could go to hell Emily thought.’
More gems from Rich when talking to Claire:
“Yeah, I think I would,” Rich said honestly; “and I told Matt the same thing. Six months is a long time to be with someone who can’t remember anything about you, or a life you shared together. Matt was becoming a shadow of himself, but do you know what’s awful? Do you know what keeps me awake at night feeling endlessly guilty?”
Claire shook her head.
“I chose Matt over Charlie. I picked sides. I could see that being with her was killing him. The situation was eating away at him, at his soul, and it seemed to me that we’d already lost Charlie. She wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t the Charlie that we’d all known. So I told him that I’d leave her if I was in his shoes, but knowing that it’s probably what I said to him that led him to go home and end things with her keeps me awake at night. The idea that I’m the kind of person that abandons friends when they need me the most,” he said sounding choked; “makes it kind of hard to sleep.” (Yeah right, that is why he makes such an effort to make amends!).
Matt literally made no effort after Charlie left:
‘Although he now felt guilty that he hadn’t bothered to speak to Charlie before today. He knew that he owed it to her, or to the old her at least, to have found out where she’d moved after Cheddar and to have told her that he was with Emily.‘
Charlie’s weight loss was also focused on far too much, and seemed to equal being thin made her better:
‘He noticed as he continued to look at her that her hair cut shaped her face and framed her features. It looked styled but also understated, like she’d just woken up and had run her hands through it. Her eyes seemed bolder somehow with the hair cut, and her cheekbones looked more defined and prominent. Yet he knew the definition might have been from her weight loss.
From the front it was even more evident that Charlie was much thinner than he’d ever known her, but she looked amazing and it made her look taller. Matt couldn’t help but stare at her as he tried to look her over as subtly as possible, but he guessed that he’d failed at subtlety when she smiled at him. It was just that all of her clothes were figure hugging, and she’d looked really good in them.’
Followed later on by this comment from his mother:
“We were just telling Charlie that she must be living it up in London too much to have lost all this weight,” his mum said; “but that we do like this fancy new haircut of hers.”
But no need to worry, because all the pain and drama that has happened is resolved in one conversation:
“I’m sorry that I was such a rotten husband to you when you had no memory,” he said.
“Please don’t say things like that,” she said putting her right hand on top of his. “It was a rotten situation, and you did the best that you could. The best that anyone could have done, but I didn’t know how to be around you and I pushed you away. God, Matt, if it had been the other way around I don’t think I could have coped with you not knowing me.”
He felt a huge wave of relief. It seemed that all of the guilt that he’d felt about how he’d handled those six months after she’d come home from the hospital had suddenly gone. To hear her say that she didn’t think that she’d have been able to cope had the shoe been on the other foot, seemed to have him in some way absolved him of his guilt about how he’d been with her. He no longer felt as torn apart as he had done just minutes earlier. She didn’t hate him, and she didn’t blame he thought happily.’
Unbelievable, how Charlie forgave any of them! They were terrible! How can she be around knowing they are not loyal and she cannot trust them? Horrible book, where the heroine should have run for the hills! I don’t know if the author hated the heroine, or thought marriage was temporary, but Charlie deserved better!
Mai favourite highlights:
‘When she had first come home from hospital Matt had been polite, if not a little distant with her, but over time he had become quieter and quieter and this had made Charlie feel awkward. She didn’t feel at home in their house, and she instead felt far more like a guest. A guest that had long outstayed their welcome, but had never formally been asked to leave.‘
‘The first night that Charlie had come home from the hospital, had without doubt been one of the most miserable in his entire life. He’d known that he ought to have been ecstatic that his wife – whom he knew had nearly died, was in good health and had been released from the hospital, but as he’d helped her pack up her things he hadn’t felt the slightest trace of happiness. He hadn’t been bringing Charlie home, he’d been bringing home a stranger that merely looked and sounded like her.’
‘He watched the light gradually creep in through their window, and he felt the last trace of hope fade away as a sense of disillusionment settled deep within him. He was trapped inside a nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. He was living with a woman that resembled Charlie in every way, but in his heart he knew that she wasn’t the Charlie that he loved and had married.’ (This is all after the first night home!)
‘Matt felt like his body had just plummeted twenty feet again at the mention of Charlie’s name.
“We didn’t talk that much on the way home. It was cold, and we both had our chins tucked into our scarves and coats. When we got back I asked if you wanted to come in for a coffee or something, and you said,” but Emily didn’t get to say what he’d said because he said it instead.
“Just for coffee though,” Matt said quietly. It was all coming back to him now. It was all coming back in a dreadful torrent of remorse and regret.
Emily nodded, but she wasn’t looking at him.
Matt now remembered coming up to her flat, and how that conversation had ended. He also recalled being the one to initiate everything that had happened between them, and he started to feel increasingly sick.’
‘Matt’s own face flushed too as he understood what she was alluding to. He remembered her telling him that she was a virgin.
He couldn’t believe it. When he’d walked into this room minutes earlier to leave, he’d honestly thought that he’d been drunkenly taken advantage of. He now knew though, that he’d been the one doing the taking advantage last night.’
When Charlie decides to try and make an effort, and make things better with Matt, he is with someone else:
‘She waited all evening for Matt, but finally at nearly two in the morning she gave up on any hope of him coming home and went to bed. She assumed that he must have gotten caught up in an emergency at the hospital, and that even if he did come home now he was unlikely to be feeling romantic or spontaneous.
Charlie woke up a little after eight, and she was disappointed to find that Matt still wasn’t home. She got up and went downstairs, but there was no sign that he’d been back during the night at all. So she assumed that he must have slept at the hospital.’
He gets even better, I know Matt feels guilty for cheating, but this is why he does after Charlie and him have sex agin for the first time:
“Was it always that good?” Charlie asked him with a note of curiosity in her voice, and he could feel the light touch of her finger tips moving slowly around his belly button.
“Yes,” he said feeling suddenly choked with emotion. Then out of nowhere tears began running down his face.
He pushed Charlie off him, and he walked out of their room and into the bathroom where he grabbed his discarded clothes. Once downstairs, he put his clothes on and left the house. He didn’t know where he was going, but he just knew that he had to get away from the house and away from Charlie.‘
Leaving Charlie to feel likethis:
‘She was embarrassed because she knew that she’d have to face Matt when he came home, and they’d have to address what had caused him to react the way that he had towards her. Yet as the image of him getting up and leaving her on the bed shot through her mind again, she felt mortified and she shook her head to try and chase the memory away. Had she really been that bad she panicked? She’d thought that the sex had been good, but perhaps she’d been a disappointment for him she worried.’
This particular snippet shows the strength of Rich:
“I slept with Emily,” Matt said still not looking at Rich.
Rich again didn’t respond, and Matt found his temper rising at his best friends seeming indifference to what he was telling him. He looked up at Rich and said; “I slept with someone else, someone other than Charlie. Aren’t you shocked, angry, disappointed even? Aren’t you going to say something?” He asked angrily.
Rich still looked indifferent as he said; “you’re not going to want to hear what I’ve got to say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Matt retorted angrily shocked at Rich’s reaction to his confession.
“How long has it been since you last had sex?” Rich asked, and then catching Matt’s eyes started to laugh. “Okay, I’ll re-phrase that as clearly that came out wrong. Obviously it wasn’t that long ago, but what I meant was that you and Charlie haven’t been you and Charlie since before her accident. You may have been living together, but you haven’t been living together as man and wife. And all I mean is that a man can only go so long you know?”
“But its Charlie,” Matt said imploringly; “it’s me and Charlie.”
“But it isn’t though is it? She’s not your Charlie,” Rich said; “and you two haven’t been you and Charlie since she came home.”
“You’ve changed your tune,” Matt said suspiciously.
“Oh come on man. I’m getting married and my fiancée and your missus are friends. I don’t think Charlie’s the same as she was before, but the girls want to believe that she is. I think Bex is scared to death that if this ever happened to her, that I wouldn’t be able to take it. I think she’s terrified that I’d leave her. She needs to believe that you and Charlie can make it,” Rich said almost ashamedly.
“Would you leave her?” Matt asked.
It took a couple of seconds for Rich to reply, but when he did he looked deeply ashamed. “Yeah,” he said; “yeah, I think I would.”
Matt looked into Rich’s face, and he felt shocked.
Rich looked back at him and said; “I don’t know how you’ve coped. I feel for Charlie and everything of course I do, but I just don’t recognise her or know her anymore.” (Of these are his true feelings, he should definitely not be getting married and making a lifelong commitment! I secretly wish Bex had heard him and called the wedding off!).
Even more loyalty from these two idiots:
“I also slept with Charlie,” he said into the counter unable to bring himself to look back up at Rich.
“At the same time,” Rich said sounding shocked but equally impressed.
Matt laughed as he looked up and saw Rich’s face. He just couldn’t help himself, but as he did he felt the more familiar feeling of guilt return.
“No,” he said. “Emily last night and Charlie this morning, but both of them were accidents and huge mistakes,” he said despairingly as he put his head back in his arms.
“Not bad mistakes though?” Rich asked trying to make light of the situation, but Matt didn’t answer and there was silence between them for a whole minute.’
Oh I also forgot, Rich used to date Charlie before Matt:
“It’s Charlie,” Rich finished for him. “Was it good?”
“Always is,” Matt said with a smile.
“I remember,” Rich said. To which Matt did his best not to scowl at him.’
So does Rich offer good advice, tell Matt to end things with Emily? No:
“Are you going to tell Charlie?” Rich asked; “or just keep seeing Emily on the sly?”
Then after Charlie leaves, Matt is of course in pain, but he just degenerates into a scumbag:
‘He didn’t like the man that he’d become, but he also didn’t know what to do about it. He knew that those around him were either too concerned or too disgusted with his current behaviour to confront him about it, and he was grateful for that. He knew that it was common knowledge that he’d been sleeping Emily, but then it was also no secret that he’d slept with half of the female staff at the hospital in the months following his abandonment by Charlie.’
Even thought she messed up by not visiting Charlie in the hospital, and she did not treat her ex partner well, the only friend worth anything is Claire:
“Oh chill out Rich, like I give a shit that I wasn’t asked to be one of her bridesmaids. Although I am a bit surprised that she didn’t ask Charlie,” Claire said.
Rich shifted uncomfortably and said; “she did initially, but after Charlie left… and with Matt being my best man... she didn’t think it was such a good idea anymore. Charlie didn’t seem to mind though,” Rich added as though an afterthought.’
‘It’s not just one. It’s all of them. She remembers everything. She came back here with her dad to tell Matt a couple of weeks ago, and what does she see? Not a husband pining for his wife, but a man that looks like he’s got no troubles in the world. From what I heard,” Claire said; “he was just merrily strolling out of his and Charlie’s home with Emily in tow. It hardly sounded like he was in hell to me Rich.”
Claire is the only one who tries to help Matt and Charlie when her memory returns, Rich the dick just wants an easy life:
“Okay grateful yes and I can see why you like her. It sounds like we’ve all got a lot to be grateful to her for, Charlie included. None of us would’ve wanted to see any harm come to Matt, and Charlie would’ve been beside herself. But Charlie’s better now, she’s back. She’s Charlie again. Surely they’ve earned the right at another shot at happiness together?” Claire asked.
“Okay so she remembers what they had, but do you really believe that they can go back to that? Both of them are carrying scars from everything that’s happened, and Matt’s are pretty brutal. I’m not sure that they can go back, or what the fallout or potential damage would be if they tried to. If you want my opinion, we say nothing to him and you tell Charlie not to say anything to him either. If you tell her that Matt’s happy,” Rich said; “I know she’ll accept that.”
“I’m not here on Charlie’s orders,” Claire said looking disgruntled. “She’s already made the decision not to tell him. She made that decision when she got her dad to drive her away from Birmingham.”
“Then leave it alone,” Rich said.
“I can’t. He should know. Surely he’s got the right to choose who he wants to be with,” Claire said. “If he decides that he wants to stay with Emily then that’s his right, but maybe he’ll…”
“Choose Charlie?” Rich finished for her.
Claire nodded and asked; “does he hold her round the waist and kiss her neck?”
Rich looked up at Claire, and he knew that if Matt knew the truth he’d choose a life with Charlie every time. Yet he worried that he couldn’t watch Matt go through all of what he’d just been through again, if a second chance with Charlie did not turn out to be all that he’d hoped for.
“Yeah,” Rich lied; “he does.”
At Bex and Rich’s
When talking to Matt:
“The girlfriend,” Claire said. “Although has there been any need to flaunt her around quite as much as you have been doing. You are aware that your wife’s also in attendance right?”
“What do you want Claire?” He asked dropping any pretence of politeness.
“I’d like for you to stop hurting my best friend. But tell me? Did you come here with that as your sole intention? Flaunt the new girlfriend around, and then make some unfunny derisive remark about Charlie in your best man’s speech. Did Emily think that was funny?” She asked.
‘She had to put a stop to the lies, and to Charlie’s selflessness. She had to put a stop to all of it, and she’d known that just as Rich had chosen Matt’s happiness over Charlie’s all those months ago. She had to do the same, but this time she’d be looking out for Charlie rather than Matt.’
When she tell’s Matt that Charlie actually remembers everything:
‘You’re divorcing her?” Claire asked.
“Well technically I believe she’s divorcing me,” he said still without the slightest show of emotion in either his voice or in his face.
“But I just told you that Charlie, your Charlie has her memory back. How does that make it okay to divorce her? You were having doubts, but now that she’s all recovered you want out?” Claire asked feeling both confused and angry.
“She’s made a choice, and I’m choosing to respect that. I also have someone in my life now that I need to consider. I think it’s best that Charlie never know that I know though. Once we’re divorced,” Matt said calmly; “I very much doubt that we’ll need to see each other again.”
“And you don’t care that she’s alone and miserable?” Claire demanded rising up from her chair.
“Charlie won’t be alone forever Claire, trust me. She’ll find someone who’ll make her happy, and he’ll be a lucky guy,” he said flatly handing Claire the divorce papers.
“I can honestly say that I’ve never hated you, until now that is. She seemed happy with you, but you really are a joke. I knew she should’ve stuck with Rich, but maybe when she finds hubby number two he’ll value her more than you do. Who knows I may even get along with him, it’ll help I suppose if he’s nothing like you,” she said irately before slamming the door behind her.‘
‘The only thing that she knew for sure was that she wasn’t going to tell her that she’d been to see Matt. Charlie had been hurt enough, and she didn’t deserve to know that Matt had chosen Emily over her. She deserved instead to believe as Claire had done before today. She deserved to believe that Matt would come after her in a heartbeat the moment he knew about her memory.’
Emily was pathetic, and I felt no sympathy for her, as she knew Charlie and was friends with her before the accident, Charlie had been nothing but kind to her, but Emily put up with this:
‘She’d stood by him as his long suffering girlfriend whilst he’d slept with anything and everything that was female at the hospital and had a pulse. She’d endured the mocking looks from the nurses, those that he had and hadn’t yet slept with, whilst she’d treated his patients and charted for him when he’d been too drunk or drugged to do it himself.
Emily had, with the help of Nurse Willis, prevented him from being fired and stopped from ever practicing medicine again. She’d been the one to go with him when he’d finally agreed to see Oak for help, and she’d been there for him when he’d come home from rehab.’
‘She’d earned her place in Matt’s life. Oak and Nurse Willis had acknowledged this, and so had Matt’s closest friends. Claire could either acknowledge this too, or she could go to hell Emily thought.’
More gems from Rich when talking to Claire:
“Yeah, I think I would,” Rich said honestly; “and I told Matt the same thing. Six months is a long time to be with someone who can’t remember anything about you, or a life you shared together. Matt was becoming a shadow of himself, but do you know what’s awful? Do you know what keeps me awake at night feeling endlessly guilty?”
Claire shook her head.
“I chose Matt over Charlie. I picked sides. I could see that being with her was killing him. The situation was eating away at him, at his soul, and it seemed to me that we’d already lost Charlie. She wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t the Charlie that we’d all known. So I told him that I’d leave her if I was in his shoes, but knowing that it’s probably what I said to him that led him to go home and end things with her keeps me awake at night. The idea that I’m the kind of person that abandons friends when they need me the most,” he said sounding choked; “makes it kind of hard to sleep.” (Yeah right, that is why he makes such an effort to make amends!).
Matt literally made no effort after Charlie left:
‘Although he now felt guilty that he hadn’t bothered to speak to Charlie before today. He knew that he owed it to her, or to the old her at least, to have found out where she’d moved after Cheddar and to have told her that he was with Emily.‘
Charlie’s weight loss was also focused on far too much, and seemed to equal being thin made her better:
‘He noticed as he continued to look at her that her hair cut shaped her face and framed her features. It looked styled but also understated, like she’d just woken up and had run her hands through it. Her eyes seemed bolder somehow with the hair cut, and her cheekbones looked more defined and prominent. Yet he knew the definition might have been from her weight loss.
From the front it was even more evident that Charlie was much thinner than he’d ever known her, but she looked amazing and it made her look taller. Matt couldn’t help but stare at her as he tried to look her over as subtly as possible, but he guessed that he’d failed at subtlety when she smiled at him. It was just that all of her clothes were figure hugging, and she’d looked really good in them.’
Followed later on by this comment from his mother:
“We were just telling Charlie that she must be living it up in London too much to have lost all this weight,” his mum said; “but that we do like this fancy new haircut of hers.”
But no need to worry, because all the pain and drama that has happened is resolved in one conversation:
“I’m sorry that I was such a rotten husband to you when you had no memory,” he said.
“Please don’t say things like that,” she said putting her right hand on top of his. “It was a rotten situation, and you did the best that you could. The best that anyone could have done, but I didn’t know how to be around you and I pushed you away. God, Matt, if it had been the other way around I don’t think I could have coped with you not knowing me.”
He felt a huge wave of relief. It seemed that all of the guilt that he’d felt about how he’d handled those six months after she’d come home from the hospital had suddenly gone. To hear her say that she didn’t think that she’d have been able to cope had the shoe been on the other foot, seemed to have him in some way absolved him of his guilt about how he’d been with her. He no longer felt as torn apart as he had done just minutes earlier. She didn’t hate him, and she didn’t blame he thought happily.’
Unbelievable, how Charlie forgave any of them! They were terrible! How can she be around knowing they are not loyal and she cannot trust them? Horrible book, where the heroine should have run for the hills! I don’t know if the author hated the heroine, or thought marriage was temporary, but Charlie deserved better!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2014
What a terrible reason to cheat!!! This was no hero and the female lead made me feel sick with her being super nice and understanding of her husband's betrayal what a silly woman she was!
September 7, 2014
This book could have been really good - Perfect marriage, good friends, H is a doctor, h is nice and funny; then h gets amnesia and miscarries in a car accident. For 6 months, she can't remember her husband, etc. Hubby H can't deal- h can't deal - so h leaves.
I was reading this one and was intrigued until the amnesia part. After this point, things begin to fall apart in terms of the story and to some extent, the editing. I put this one down and started other books a couple of times.
The way the H goes off the rails created good angst but the execution fell flat. I ended up despising the H as a selfish, a weakling & a spineless jerk. The h is too good to be true and I lost patience with her self-pity for not trying to regain her life.
I just didn't understand the motivations of the characters in the last half of the book. . The story did get back on track at the end, but it was too late. The H did gain a little respect back with the final handling of the girlfriend. 2 stars.
I was reading this one and was intrigued until the amnesia part. After this point, things begin to fall apart in terms of the story and to some extent, the editing. I put this one down and started other books a couple of times.
The way the H goes off the rails created good angst but the execution fell flat. I ended up despising the H as a selfish, a weakling & a spineless jerk. The h is too good to be true and I lost patience with her self-pity for not trying to regain her life.
I just didn't understand the motivations of the characters in the last half of the book. . The story did get back on track at the end, but it was too late. The H did gain a little respect back with the final handling of the girlfriend. 2 stars.
August 13, 2014
I didn't realize that this story have a cheating hero... I'm all into cheating heroes. I actually loved reading cheating hero.. but damn it, I didn't like this one! I'm so angry right now. lol
SPOILERS AHEAD
They have been married for 10 years, the heroine had an accident and got an amnesia. The Hero couldn't coped up and accepted this so he cheated.. yep... cheated.. You want to know who he cheated with?
I hated all the characters in this story.
Half way through the book I was angry and wanted to just throw the darn book but for some ungodly reason I couldn't look away! I ended up finishing it around 5am. The funny thing is- when I was done with the book, I was still thinking about it! lol
Sorry for ranting.. I just need to get that out of my system! lol
Don't get me wrong, this is a well written and fast paced story. But I have a love-hate relationship with everything.
Anywho~ Despite all my ranting, I think ima give this a 5 stars. Coz eventho the characters pissed the shit out of me, it was still a good story. It made me feel so many emotions. I felt the love in Matt and Charlie. (I just wished Matt was not too weak) omo.
In this story, you'll understand forgiveness and trust. There is just something in this that pulled so many emotions in me. I believe this is her debut book, and I am very impressed! It's been awhile since the last time I felt like this in a book and I applaud Ms. Natascha Holloway for getting in my head. ^_^
SPOILERS AHEAD
They have been married for 10 years, the heroine had an accident and got an amnesia. The Hero couldn't coped up and accepted this so he cheated.. yep... cheated.. You want to know who he cheated with?
I hated all the characters in this story.
Half way through the book I was angry and wanted to just throw the darn book but for some ungodly reason I couldn't look away! I ended up finishing it around 5am. The funny thing is- when I was done with the book, I was still thinking about it! lol
Sorry for ranting.. I just need to get that out of my system! lol
Don't get me wrong, this is a well written and fast paced story. But I have a love-hate relationship with everything.
Anywho~ Despite all my ranting, I think ima give this a 5 stars. Coz eventho the characters pissed the shit out of me, it was still a good story. It made me feel so many emotions. I felt the love in Matt and Charlie. (I just wished Matt was not too weak) omo.
In this story, you'll understand forgiveness and trust. There is just something in this that pulled so many emotions in me. I believe this is her debut book, and I am very impressed! It's been awhile since the last time I felt like this in a book and I applaud Ms. Natascha Holloway for getting in my head. ^_^
May 26, 2013
Cheating heroes are not my cup of tee, but this time I didn't mind it so much because you could say that there were extenuating circumstances. It can't be easy to wake up every day for 6 months with the love of your life, when that person doesn't know you anymore. In a perfect world, he would have fought for her and not stray but I can imagine how painful it can be looking to the eyes of the person you love and seeing nothing there.
The worst part of this book is that I disliked the rest of the characters more than Matt .
Their friends were annoying, selfish and absolutely disloyal. I couldn't stand Emily and not because Matt cheated Charlie with her, but for who she was. Because this was not a woman Matt just worked with, or had just met but Charlie's "friend"and having to read her point of view just made me want to puke. I was near the end, thinking about giving this book 2 stars when Charlie's character decides to go and visit Emily and even tells her that she was sorry. The whole book had been annoying me to no end and this was just the breaking point. Finished it, deleted it, felt so much better!
The worst part of this book is that I disliked the rest of the characters more than Matt .
Their friends were annoying, selfish and absolutely disloyal. I couldn't stand Emily and not because Matt cheated Charlie with her, but for who she was. Because this was not a woman Matt just worked with, or had just met but Charlie's "friend"and having to read her point of view just made me want to puke. I was near the end, thinking about giving this book 2 stars when Charlie's character decides to go and visit Emily and even tells her that she was sorry. The whole book had been annoying me to no end and this was just the breaking point. Finished it, deleted it, felt so much better!
March 6, 2018
Snort. Self publishing at its finest. By the way - you forgot the kitchen sink.
November 20, 2020
Hero is irredeemable. Heroine will forgive anyone of anything.
April 22, 2025
Back in the early days of Kindle, one of my SiLs bought all the SiLs a kindle and then subscriptions to kindle books for Christmas (for years) with the intention we would read “trashy books” together and chat about them. We have private FB accounts/groups and everything…we use hysterical flamboyant fake personas and we only post or chat about our book shit. 🤦♀️ What can I say, GenX is apparently easy to please.
One of the SiLs took it upon herself to download every free “trashy book” ever offered on Kindle or from an author sponsered link…for all of our accounts since this journey started. Like, my kindle account has 6 digits of just free/sale romance books since 2009. Thanks, Beck. I really owe you. I find the most unexpected gems this way thanks to GR unearthing them for me.
This book is OOP, the author isn’t even listed on Amazon any more. I cannot tell you how much I wish I had more of her books.
This isn’t stellar, the writing vacillates between colorless and mundane to occasionally surprisingly gripping. The characters are a mixed bag of faulty, slightly terrible humans. The plot is often screwed by both the dry delivery and the implausibility of characters’ actions.
The angst, however, could be felt through the author’s language, but it was all, and I mean A-L-L, tell. Though, to be fair, those gripping moments were the very few times the author managed to show the reader the damage/recovery occurring.
The h was so self-sacrificing and forgiving my eyes might’ve rolled a few times. It made her such a martyr I didn’t care about her. She was way too cardboard for such a major character.
The H made the entire breakdown of their relationship about him from the moment the h regains consciousness and has amnesia to the moment he wins her back…so easily I just wanted to kill them all. He never does the right thing by her. He never fights for her. He never fully engages with her. He just complains and withdraws. I’m not sure where the through sickness and health ever came to play in their vows for such a loved up couple…all the sarcasms implied. He just threw his little man-boy arms up in the air, fucked another woman who was in love with him and then ghosted the h the next afternoon after fucking her for the first time since the accident. All because he felt guilt but couldn’t step up for the woman he loved.
But damn did we feel every minute of that.
The side characters were just as fucked, all but the OW were life long friends, since single digit years. The h’s BFF ghosted her as soon as she left the hospital. She was the worst bestie ever. The H’s BFF congratulated him for being such a stand up guy for waiting so long to fuck the co-worker OW. Told him to leave the h for her. Though, since he took the h’s virginity and not so quietly pined for her and poked the H about that fact I think he secretly wanted to tank their marriage.
The OW was so obviously in love with H prior to the accident that everyone noticed and even commented/joked/teased about it. Like, ALL. OF. THEM. Then there are the amount of women he fucked after the h left. They were still married…and he was openly dating the main OW while fucking all of their other female co-workers. My mind was just blown by how little this is all addressed. The h befriended the OW before and after the accident in a ways that were so highly unbelievable it was actually hilarious. They’re still BFFs at the end.
The plot meandered all over the landscape with the scene and POV shifts done with such wildly little finesse I was often left confused or angry by the whiplash. I feel like 3 BFF characters were little more than wallpaper, 1 was just a plot device, and the 2 main BFFs were toxic and terrible and in their own ways the exact reason the H/h found themselves so terribly damaged.
So as much as I’m complaining, I really enjoyed this. The angst was high, the H was irredeemable, the h a martyr…but I couldn’t put it down. I’ll probably read it again to see if it holds or if it was just my current frame of mind. The potential here is so high, I’m sad I can’t read more of this author’s work.
One of the SiLs took it upon herself to download every free “trashy book” ever offered on Kindle or from an author sponsered link…for all of our accounts since this journey started. Like, my kindle account has 6 digits of just free/sale romance books since 2009. Thanks, Beck. I really owe you. I find the most unexpected gems this way thanks to GR unearthing them for me.
This book is OOP, the author isn’t even listed on Amazon any more. I cannot tell you how much I wish I had more of her books.
This isn’t stellar, the writing vacillates between colorless and mundane to occasionally surprisingly gripping. The characters are a mixed bag of faulty, slightly terrible humans. The plot is often screwed by both the dry delivery and the implausibility of characters’ actions.
The angst, however, could be felt through the author’s language, but it was all, and I mean A-L-L, tell. Though, to be fair, those gripping moments were the very few times the author managed to show the reader the damage/recovery occurring.
The h was so self-sacrificing and forgiving my eyes might’ve rolled a few times. It made her such a martyr I didn’t care about her. She was way too cardboard for such a major character.
The H made the entire breakdown of their relationship about him from the moment the h regains consciousness and has amnesia to the moment he wins her back…so easily I just wanted to kill them all. He never does the right thing by her. He never fights for her. He never fully engages with her. He just complains and withdraws. I’m not sure where the through sickness and health ever came to play in their vows for such a loved up couple…all the sarcasms implied. He just threw his little man-boy arms up in the air, fucked another woman who was in love with him and then ghosted the h the next afternoon after fucking her for the first time since the accident. All because he felt guilt but couldn’t step up for the woman he loved.
But damn did we feel every minute of that.
The side characters were just as fucked, all but the OW were life long friends, since single digit years. The h’s BFF ghosted her as soon as she left the hospital. She was the worst bestie ever. The H’s BFF congratulated him for being such a stand up guy for waiting so long to fuck the co-worker OW. Told him to leave the h for her. Though, since he took the h’s virginity and not so quietly pined for her and poked the H about that fact I think he secretly wanted to tank their marriage.
The OW was so obviously in love with H prior to the accident that everyone noticed and even commented/joked/teased about it. Like, ALL. OF. THEM. Then there are the amount of women he fucked after the h left. They were still married…and he was openly dating the main OW while fucking all of their other female co-workers. My mind was just blown by how little this is all addressed. The h befriended the OW before and after the accident in a ways that were so highly unbelievable it was actually hilarious. They’re still BFFs at the end.
The plot meandered all over the landscape with the scene and POV shifts done with such wildly little finesse I was often left confused or angry by the whiplash. I feel like 3 BFF characters were little more than wallpaper, 1 was just a plot device, and the 2 main BFFs were toxic and terrible and in their own ways the exact reason the H/h found themselves so terribly damaged.
So as much as I’m complaining, I really enjoyed this. The angst was high, the H was irredeemable, the h a martyr…but I couldn’t put it down. I’ll probably read it again to see if it holds or if it was just my current frame of mind. The potential here is so high, I’m sad I can’t read more of this author’s work.
October 18, 2020
Giving it 5 stars for the sweetness, craziness, angst and heartbreak.
The Hero and heroine have a great life filled with love and happiness.
Then a train-wreck decimates their lives.
Heroine survives but is not the same. Betrayals occur.
The Hero and heroine have a great life filled with love and happiness.
Then a train-wreck decimates their lives.
Heroine survives but is not the same. Betrayals occur.
November 25, 2017
4.5 stars
I very rarely give 5 stars. I cant believe that this has such low ratings. This was such an amazing book. It evoked so many intense feelings within me. And although I didn't agree with some of the behaviors and handling of situations by the characters (especially Rich, and with Charlie at the end with Emily), I could completely understand where every ones actions came from, they were completely realistic and the author wrote them believably well. A good book evokes emotions from you. A good book makes you cry and laugh and swoon but also feel hate, frustration and anger. This book did all of this- in spades.
To me, all the badness was overcome and reconciled. The redemption was there for both of them . The love was so believable that it was palpable. An amazing love story.
4.5 stars story/plot - lost .5 because of the ending Emily situation and some minor annoying bits.
5.0 Angst - can I give this 10 out of 5? So good. Almost too much.
5.0 Writing - though some minor editing issues, Wow. Did my emotions get sent through the wringer
5.0 characters - Fantastic. I hated Emily so much. I loved Matt and Charlie so much. I loved and hated at times their friends.
N/A sexy times - these were average and not a lot of heat in the very few there were but it wasn't necessary for the story.
The last book i read I noted in my review that I just really want a good book to read with good angst. Wow, I really got what I wished for. Now I've got to struggle with the book hangover. :-)
I very rarely give 5 stars. I cant believe that this has such low ratings. This was such an amazing book. It evoked so many intense feelings within me. And although I didn't agree with some of the behaviors and handling of situations by the characters (especially Rich, and with Charlie at the end with Emily), I could completely understand where every ones actions came from, they were completely realistic and the author wrote them believably well. A good book evokes emotions from you. A good book makes you cry and laugh and swoon but also feel hate, frustration and anger. This book did all of this- in spades.
To me, all the badness was overcome and reconciled. The redemption was there for both of them . The love was so believable that it was palpable. An amazing love story.
4.5 stars story/plot - lost .5 because of the ending Emily situation and some minor annoying bits.
5.0 Angst - can I give this 10 out of 5? So good. Almost too much.
5.0 Writing - though some minor editing issues, Wow. Did my emotions get sent through the wringer
5.0 characters - Fantastic. I hated Emily so much. I loved Matt and Charlie so much. I loved and hated at times their friends.
N/A sexy times - these were average and not a lot of heat in the very few there were but it wasn't necessary for the story.
The last book i read I noted in my review that I just really want a good book to read with good angst. Wow, I really got what I wished for. Now I've got to struggle with the book hangover. :-)
June 13, 2023
The hero of the book is the father of the heroine and herione Claire.The author is confused with being kind and having backbone.Kind people too have self respect while this heroine trying to be passed on as kind is the ultimate doormat who lies on the door for everyone to wipe their feet and she is pretty happy being there.Her friends are awful except Claire.Hero gives true meaning to in health and in sickness.I wonder why the entire gang married,they can all have a go at each other still because nobody minds it.The least the heroine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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