Stories We Never Told

by Sonja Yoerg

From the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of True Places comes an emotional novel of love, secrets, and obsession.

Psychology professor Jackie Strelitz thinks she’s over Harlan Crispin, her ex-lover and colleague. Why should she care if Harlan springs a new “friend” on her? After all, Jackie has everything she ever wanted: a loving husband and a thriving career. Still, she can’t help but be curious about Harlan’s latest.

Nasira Amari is graceful, smart, and appallingly young. Worse, she’s the newest member of Jackie’s research team. For five years, Harlan enforced rules limiting his relationship with Jackie. With Nasira, he’s breaking every single one. Why her?

Fixated by the couple, Jackie’s curiosity becomes obsession. But she soon learns that nothing is quite what it seems and that to her surprise—and peril—she may not be the only one who can’t let go.

• ISBN10: 1542019729
• ISBN13: 9781542019729
• Publish Date: 1 May 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Amazon Publishing
• Imprint: Lake Union Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 332
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Excellent Work Partially Marred By Problematic Ideas About Autism. This book, as so many of its type, starts relatively slow and low key - a woman goes to dinner with her husband and a friend, and the friend announces he is bringing someone along out of the blue. It begins to spiral from there, and we get into a mystery with the requisite twists and turns, some of which were noted long before their respective reveals, others of which were more shocking. Random and sporadic chapters taking us to other perspectives other than the primary narrator, to give the backstories of those characters - and at least two major reveals that our primary narrator will only learn about much later. Truly excellent work on that side of the story.

It is within the subplot of the primary character's actual work that things get more problematic, as this researcher is trying to diagnose Autism in babies. As an Autistic adult that only learned that label in my teens - and didn't fully learn just how much it affects my life until my 20s - I can tell you without hesitation that by and large (there are always exceptions to any rule), a label of Autism tends to be more problematic than helpful at such early ages. (Later in life it becomes less problematic and generally easier to use as a means of communication - a bit ironic, really - to help explain to others about your own neurological divergences in ways they can more easily understand at least some modicum of.) But this review isn't exactly the place to really dive into that particular rabbit hole, so with it simply noted I'll move on.

On the whole, a very well written and executed story, and much recommended.