Blog Tour Review: Wait For Me – Elisabeth Naughton

Wait For Me by Elisabeth Naughton
Series:
Release Date:  December 22, 2011
Publisher:   Elisabeth Naughton
Page Count / File Size:  995 kb  
Source:  Amazon, via my own wallet
Buy the book at: Amazon 

A woman without a past…

After a tragic accident left her with no memory, Kate Alexander struggled to fit in with a husband and world that didn’t feel right. She’s had no reason to question what friends and family have told her, not until her husband is suddenly killed and she finds a photo of a young girl in his office. A girl who can’t be anyone but a daughter Kate didn’t know she had.

A man desperate for a reason to live…

Ryan Harrison lost his wife in a plane crash five years ago. To cope with the pain of her loss, he dedicated himself to his job and to raising their daughter. Now a successful pharmaceutical executive, Ryan has everything a man could want—money, fame and power—but he’d give it all up in a heartbeat for just one more day with the woman he still loves.

Two lives about to converge.

As Kate begins to dig into a past she doesn’t remember, evidence leads her to San Francisco and puts her on the path toward Ryan, a man who sees in her the woman he loved and lost. Kate feels a draw to Ryan, one she can’t explain, but is that feeling enough to convince her this is where she’s supposed to be? As Ryan and Kate search for answers, they uncover lies long buried, a passion hotter than either expected and a danger that threatens…even now…when the second chance they’ve both been searching for is finally within reach.

Previous to this book, the only books I’ve read by Elisabeth Naughton are from the Eternal Guardian series (which I adore).  I can honestly say this book blew me out of the water.

When we first meet Kate Alexander, she’s inside a CAT scan and trying to convince herself not to freak out.  From those moments of trying to maintain her sanity and finally being released from inside her plastic tomb, her life spirals out of control.  Through the death of her “husband” she finds out that the short 4 day coma she thought she was in from a car accident was more like 18 months.  She’s determined to find out what happened to her and why her “husband” kept it a secret from her.  She packs up herself and her young son and heads to San Francisco.

While Kate is apprehensive about what she might find, she has this driving need to know why she was lied to and what it could all mean.  She never thought she would uncover such a huge web of deception or that it would unleash the tsunami of hurt, anger, resentment and lust that it does.  She has a husband and a young daughter who most of the time acted as if they wanted nothing to do with her and still no understanding of why all this happened to her.  As a reader, you’re hurt when Kate is hurting and hoping she can find a way to put her life back together given everything she’s learned.

Ryan is a man you equally wants to get down and dirty with while shaking and screaming at him.  He’s a man who had his entire world taken away from him when he thought he lost his wife in a plan crash five years before.  The only way to make it through the day was to lock all his feelings away.  The only problem was, the minute he sees Kate and recognizes her for his dead wife, he unleashes those feelings on her with disastrous results (especially since they weren’t exactly feelings of love that he was cramming down her throat).  This would be when you wanted to shake him and scream at him.  It was like he couldn’t see past his own feelings to think about how all of this must be for Kate.  He just kept taking things out on her, as if she had done all of this on purpose.

Things weren’t easy for Kate and Ryan.  When Ryan was finally able to direct his anger and resentment to the right place, he did a complete 180 with Kate and went into protection mode.  Now that he had her back, he wasn’t going to let her go.  Now he smothered her and kept things from her…for her own good.  When that blew up, Ryan was left wondering how he was going to cope if he lost her again..this time because of his own stupid mistakes.  They definitely had a mountain of emotional issues to deal with, but it came down to love and letting go of the past.

The path the story took to get to who did this to Kate and why was full of twists and turns.  I honestly never even suspected the villain and still couldn’t believe it, even when I read the name three times (just to make sure).  It was masterfully played out and left you with that feeling that justice had definitely been served.

Wonderfully written with characters who’s emotional turmoil seemed to jump off the page and grab you.