This is very satisfying as a relationship novel. The "thriller aspect" is a little less so; the masked intruder who appears at the beginning of the book is the driving force behind the plot, but I found the reveal (person and motive) rather unconvincing. I still really enjoyed the story and will definitely keep reading Strawser.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I would give this 3.5 stars. It starts out with a bang when childhood friends Liza and Molly are having a video chat and Molly steps away from the computer and Liza sees a masked intruder enter Molly's home. When the video feed is disconnected, Liza is extremely worried, and, unable to get in touch with Molly, drives overnight to check on her friend, only to have Molly slam the door in her face with no explanation.

So, BAM! Great beginning and I was very intrigued. Unfortunately, after that the pace slows down and, though there were some interesting plot points for both Molly and Liza with complicated relationships for both characters, I never found myself highly invested in either "friend."

Side note: I thought the multiple references to Liza's brother not liking Molly when they were growing up strange.

I read it because it was well-written and I wanted to know what happened in the end, but it wasn't a book that made me put down everything and read late into the night.

Liza tries to reacquaint with her long distance friend Molly via Skype. She witnesses an intruder entering Molly's home, which is the catalyst for Liza and Molly's world to be turned upside down. Forgot You Know Me explores relationships and how secrets and tragedies effect them.
Jessica Strawser's characters are vivid and flawed but they become endeared to you, as you root for them to be happy. The story moves quickly and captures your attention as you want to see what happens next. I greatly enjoyed this story. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.

Forget You Know Me is a story about how time, distance, and life, can strain otherwise good friendships...leaving one to question whether or not friendships are meant to last. Molly and Liza had a great friendship that started deteriorating after marriage and relocation. I could absolutely relate to this, which is one reason I wanted to read this ARC. However, the plot twist (masked man potentially hurts/kidnaps Molly) seemed a bit farfetched for me. I did keep reading, though, but the storyline slowed down a little too much for me. Overall, this is a good read; better suited for passing the time versus keeping one engaged.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this title. It's available February 2019.

There's so much happening in Forget You Know Me (especially for such a relatively small cast of characters), you'll be forgiven for not remembering it all. It starts with a late night Skype call between Liza and Molly that goes horribly wrong, leaving the long time friends estranged (and giving the book its title). From there we learn Molly hasn't told her husband Daniel about the massive debt she's accumulated in search of a cure for her unrelenting, but as of yet undiagnosed, chronic pain, or the threatening calls she's getting from the predatory lender Molly borrowed the money from. Not to be outdone, Daniel hasn't mentioned he's being blackmailed after uncovering evidence his boss is stealing from the company they work for. Then there's Molly's flirtation with her widowed neighbor that Molly doesn't want to give up because their kids are best friends (and she really has a thing for the guy). Liza doesn't know if her relationship with Max could be more than platonic because Max can't decide if he's gay, straight or bisexual. Liza's apartment building burnt down so she has to move in with her brother and his pregnant wife, but there could be something wrong with the baby. Part thriller, part domestic drama, Forget You Know Me packs a punch-you just don't know who's doing the swinging or where it's gonna land. Things start to fall into place in the second half of Forget You Know Me, and the ending is a satisfying surprise. Jessica Strawser's third novel is a melting pot of story lines, but the mix might have worked better if she had saved a few of them for her fourth.

I liked this book. It’s well written and fairly fast paced. This is the story of two childhood best friends who have grown apart while living in two different cities. When a traumatic event happens to one and tragedy strikes the other they have to try to make amends and find there way back to friendship while trying to overcome personal obstacles.

The book starts out great did get me in the first chapter 2 friends talking over skype when 1 goes to attend to her crying child the other sees a masked man entering her friend's house. Of course Liza loses her mind, calling the police and her friend over and over to no avail. Imagining her friend has been hurt or killed -- because her friend isn't answering her phone or texts. What really is going on. Have to say it was good book and I look forward to more from this author.

II received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. What a disappointment. I was not sure if this was a love story or thriller. received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. What a disappointment. I was not sure if this was a love story or thriller. received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. Molly and Liza have been friends all of their lives. Once they are adults, they still remain long distance friends and have an evening of drinking wine and talking face to face on their computers. When Molly goes to her child who is calling out for her she leaves the computer on. Liza then sees a masked man come into Molly's home and when she yells to him, he closes the laptop. Being in Chicago with her best friend in Cincinnati, Liza is beside herself and ends up calling the police. She is not able to get in touch with Molly and frantically drives to Chicago. What she finds there is not at all what she expected. This book was just okay for me. I really didn't feel like it was a "thriller".

I didn't love nor hate this book. I really enjoyed her previous book "Not That I Could Tell" better. There was just so much going on in this book with each character...maybe too much. Made it hard to get through all their "crap" and really pull for a character. Wished I had liked it more, but will look for her next book and want to go back and read her first book, "Almost Missed You"

I'm rating Forget You Know Me 4 stars. The story is told in the alternating voices of two best friends, Liza and Molly. These two friends have been closer than any sisters could be over the course of many years. As Liza and Molly mature, Molly marries and Liza moves some distance away, time and distance prevents them from speaking every day and distance in the relationship forms. One night while trying to catch up on a video computer chat, Liza witnesses an intruder in Molly's home via the computer screen while Molly is upstairs checking on her daughter. The story is highlighted around this one specific event but in addition to the event, Ms. Strawser brings in the daily happenings of each women's life - past and present; husband, friends, love interest, children, work, finances. Molly's husband has some unorthodox things happening at work, Molly is hiding some things from her hubby, Liza has her own problems that manifest after a fire. I don't want to give away too many details so I won't elaborate but it gets really good. This story is all too realistic, it made me thoughtful about my own life and friends and how easily it is to get into trouble with a path paved on good intentions. Personally I detested Molly's character, her self absorption and constant ailments made my head ache. I wanted to scream at her "SUCK IT UP!" Read this book and let me know what you think!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Jessica Strawser, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced readers copy of this book.

Liza and Molly have always been very involved in each other’s lives until Liza moves to Chicago. As time goes by, Molly shares less and less with Liza. After a terrifying event where Liza swears Molly’s life is in danger, Liza is shocked to realize Molly really doesn’t want her in her life anymore. Something else is going on here, and Liza refuses to toss years of friendship to the curb.
The book transitions away from a thriller, doing a beautiful job of developing the characters, their flaws and strengths. Why is Molly so fixated on her neighbor? Is her heart in the right place, trying to help him with his daughter? And Daniel, the typical carousing young working man, who couldn’t resist temptation and thinks every day is the day Molly finds out and rips him to shreds. Liza is the strength, the island in the stream, and maybe the only hope Molly may have to save her family from falling apart.
A bit slow at times and confusing to follow the actual plot, but this book was still an enjoyable read that I wanted to finish.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for making it available.)

Thanks for the early review copy!

This was an interesting domestic mystery, well-written with interesting characters. I recommend this book to fans of adult mystery or thrillers.

4.5 rounded up. This novel starts out with a bang when two friends who have been growing apart are trying to reconnect via Skype. When Molly goes to check on her daughter, leaving her laptop open and on, Liza sees a masked man enter her friend’s house. Naturally, Liza loses her mind, calling the police and her friend over and over to no avail. Imagining her friend has been kidnapped—because why else wouldn’t she answer her phone or call Liza back?—Liza leaves Chicago, the city she relocated to two years earlier, and hightails it back to Cincinnati to check on Molly.

I can’t tell you what happens next without giving away major plot points, so I’ll simply say that while this is a mystery/suspense novel (who was that masked man?!), it’s also about friendship and marriage and the challenges of nurturing relationships over time, distance, and other obstacles.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES FEBRUARY 5, 2019.

Liza and Molly, long time best friends, who have grown apart, set up a video chat so they can catch up with each other, during which Liza sees a masked intruder enter Molly's home. The fallout from this event leads to exposing major problems in the marriage of Molly and her husband Daniel. Molly and Daniel have been keeping secrets from each other for years and with all those secrets, the intruder could be any number of people. Still, this isn't a search for the intruder but instead a character study about how two best friends can have grown so far apart and how a marriage that seemed to start out so well, could become so dead.

Liza, the concerned friend, who that same night, loses everything she owns, is a likable and sympathetic character, during an extremely upsetting time in her life. Molly, who suffers from chronic pain and health problems, is an angry, bitter women who has gone to dangerous extremes in order to find help for her pain. Her husband Daniel has his secrets at home and at work, although he appears to be putting in a real effort to mend his relationship with Molly. Both Molly and Liza spent an enormous amount of time overthinking things and their overthinking affects their lives in detrimental ways.

I actually enjoyed reading about the side characters of Max, Henry, and Rick more than reading about Molly and Daniel. Hard to believe these two disconnected people could have such witty children and I spent a lot of the book feeling sorry for the kids and for Molly and Daniel's neighbor, Rick, who is treated horribly by Daniel. I wish this book were easier for me to describe but with all the overthinking of the two women characters, I often felt overwhelmed reading the story. Which brings me to why I probably enjoyed the side characters more than the main characters...the side characters weren't bogged down by the overthinking, run on thoughts, of the main characters.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this Advance Read Copy.

"Forget You Know Me" by Jessica Strawser is about the dwindling friendship of Molly and Liza, who grew up together, went to school together, but are now feeling the distance of Liza's move to Chicago from Cincinnati where they grew up. In an attempt to rebuild their friendship, they attempt a video call. Molly's husband Daniel is away on business and her kids are in bed, and she and Liza sit down at their respective computers with some wine and awkward conversation. When Molly has to go upstairs to check on one of the kids, Liza witnesses a masked intruder before he notices her and closes Molly's laptop. Liza calls the police, which apparently scares the intruder away, but when Liza tries to talk to Molly about what happened, Molly completely shuts Liza out. When Liza then experiences a near miss of her own and ends up moving back to Cincinnati, what develops is a twisted series of events that makes the reader wonder what actually happened that night and why Molly is being so secretive.

I really struggled with this. It started strong, and even though it's classified as women's fiction, the description really made it sound more like a thriller. Do not make the mistake of thinking this will be more action-packed than it is. You will be disappointed. This book reminded me of a short-lived TV series called "Consequences," in which the main character makes one bad decision after another in an attempt to cover up his previous bad decisions.

I thought Liza's character was believable in her response to her near miss (which I won't give away), and I appreciate her loyalty to her best friend, but I'm not sure Molly was worthy of loyalty. I found her to be completely unsympathetic, and I really disliked her at the end of the book. And don't even get me started on how I felt about Daniel at the end. The number of secrets everyone was keeping was just ridiculous it was like everyone in their circle had something major to hide.

I am a fan of well-written women's fiction with strong characters, and while I think the author writes in a great, realistic voice, her strongest character, in my opinion, was Liza's sister-in-law, who has a secondary story line. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will love this story, but it's not one I would recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This title is scheduled for publication in February 2019.

“Forget You Know Me” by Jessica Strawser is a novel about friendships, marriage, growing apart, and whether it is possible to be honest with anyone including oneself.

Liza and Molly have been close friends since childhood. Liza is perpetually single, but Molly met and fell in love with Daniel and has two kids. While the two women did everything they could to maintain their friendship, when Liza took a job in Chicago and left Cincinnati, the two started to grow apart. At the same time, as Daniel became wrapped up with his job and Molly started to suffer unexplained physical pains, the marriage experienced its own growing pains.

Molly and Liza, determined to renew their friendship, connect via Skype while Daniel is out of town on business. When Molly walks away from the computer screen to check on a crying child, Liza views from the computer screen a masked man enter through the back door. Liza screams for her friend, and then tries to reach her friend by cell phone, but the intruder’s response is to close the laptop.

Panicked, Liza continues to try and contact her friend and then the police in Cincinnati. When Molly finally returns Liza’s call, it’s not to thank her friend for her concern, but to abrasively dismiss the issue and insist she is fine. Concerned that Molly is hiding something, Liza heads to Cincinnati (with her best Chicago friend, Max), but when she arrives the next morning, it’s not a grateful friend who answers the door, but one who is angry at Liza for checking up on her. At the same time, Molly’s husband, Daniel, has returned prematurely from his business trip. He is confused as to why his wife failed to contact him about the intruder (nor mention it once he returned home) and without his wife being aware, witnesses his wife slam the door in Liza’s face.

This is a lot of plot for the reader to digest in the opening chapters of the book and so many details require patience on the part of the reader, especially when Liza returns to Chicago where she discovers that she escaped an apartment fire that could have ended her own life if she hadn’t made the decision to go check up on her friend. Because of the fire, she returns to Cincinnati. Liza has to decide whether her friendship with Molly is worth salvaging as at the same time, Molly decides whether her marriage to Daniel can be rebuilt.

The novel revolves among the three points of view of Liza, Molly, and Daniel and the reader learns quickly that none of these narrators are reliable (or quite that likeable). Keeping track of the different plot twists can be a bit difficult, especially when Rick, Molly’s neighbor whose daughter is a friend of Molly’s daughter, may or may not have been the intruder. When the issues facing Liza, Molly and Daniel become clearer, the mystery of the intruder continues (though a savvy reader may be able to figure it out before his identity is revealed).

Despite so much plot, parts of the novel feel slow as if Strawser felt obligated to emphasize a point that perhaps did not need so much emphasis. Another issue with the novel is that its not sure if it wants to be a thriller or a more serious exploration of relationships, and unfortunately, it does not quite succeed in either of those categories. While her main characters are developed and somewhat believable, as mentioned above, they’re not necessarily likeable and the reader may find it difficult to decide whether any character (or relationship) is worth rooting for.

If you are a fan of Strawser’s two earlier novels, expect this to be a departure. But if you enjoy her writing style and her strong characterizations, this novel will not disappoint you.

“Forget That You Know Me” is set to published by St. Martin’s Press on February 2, 2019. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in providing me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I liked this book,however it was not much of an edge of your seat kind of story. More of a character study between the two female leads, with friendships strained, and plenty of secrets. Pretty good, just not great.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of FORGET YOU KNOW ME by Jessica Strawser in exchange for my honest review.***

Best friends since childhood, stay-at-home mom Molly and Liza keep their relationship alive on Skype when one night Liza witnesses a masked intruder in Molly’s home. When the police find nothing amiss Liza drives hours overnight, only to be turned away by Molly, the fate of their friendship in question.

FORGET YOU KNOW ME starts off as a promising thriller, but after the first few chapters become more women’s fiction. I wouldn’t have still requested this ARC had I known the genre switch, but would have preferred to know what I was reading to keep my expectations realistic. I’m the type of reader who does a lot of research before choosing what type book I’m in the mood to read, so if I’m expecting a white knuckle read, I can feel let down by domestic drama.

Jessica Strawser’s characters proved deeper and more complex than I initially thought. I loved that Molly and Liza looked toward Eleanor Roosevelt as inspiration beginning in their teen years and into adulthood as she’s always been one of my role models. I didn’t agree with many Molly and Liza’s choices, but won’t say which to avoid spoiling.

FORGET YOU KNOW ME will intrigue and delight readers of women’s fiction.

This is a story that is jump started by a BFF video chat and a masked man. Liza lives in Chicago, and Molly lives in Cincinnati. These longtime friends arrange a virtual "Girls Night Out" at their respective homes to catch up over a glass of wine.

It starts with a fast thriller vibe that is slightly sinister, but then morphs into a slow and steady pace. The masked man fades into the background, and brought to the forefront are the themes of female friendship, marital discord, family, finances, identity, home, secrets, lies, scandal, and personal crisis. It's a character study of two women trying to find their way in life when things fall apart.

The characters were not likeable for me, but they are well developed and by the end I knew them well. I didn't agree with their actions, but Liza and Molly's separate situations are relatable and found myself wondering how I'd face them. How they handle their issues is a test of their own character and the strength of their friendship. By the end, the masked man's identity is revealed and all of the loose ends are tied together with a satisfying conclusion. I liked that the characters changed their perspectives, examined their flaws and decisions, and opened up to doing things differently than they had in the past.

Jessica Strawser is an excellent storyteller. Some have referenced her books as thrillers, but this one is really a domestic drama. If you start the book with this perspective, then you will enjoy it.

Liza and Molly have been best friends since childhood but lately they have found themselves growing apart. Molly, married with two young children and living in Cincinnati, is also experiencing a dis-connect with her husband Daniel. She is in the throes of a deep fibromyalgia pain cycle that has dominated the bulk of her time and attention. When she isn’t immersed in childcare, she hopefully searches out one costly alternative treatment after another in the hopes of relieving her chronic pain. Molly works part time but finds herself in the midst of a financial disaster along with a potential emotional one involving a single male neighbor. To further complicate matters both Molly and Daniel are hiding heavy secrets from one another.

Liza is living in Chicago after making a bold move there for what once seemed a trendy, glamorous job. She is unresolved that this is the place she wants to set down roots. Her dating life has slowed to a crawl and she is generally out of sorts. A tragic event shakes her to her to the core and Liza decides to return to Cincinnati.

A Facetime Girls Night complete with wine is meant to re-connect Molly and Liza to each other’s lives. At one point, Molly puts down her wine glass to go check on her children. Liza is left waiting, looking at the computer screen showing Molly’s family room when she witnesses a masked intruder entering Molly’s home while Molly is upstairs tending to her kids. Liza calls out to the intruder, hoping to scare him off. She dials 911 and then tries over and over to contact her friend to no avail. Finally Molly texts back saying that everything is fine and that she is going straight to bed. Frantic, Liza decides to drive to Cincinnati to check on her friend.

It does not go as expected.

The big mystery of the story is discovering who the masked intruder is. The problem though is that there are too many stories happening at once to hold the reader’s attention. It’s not much of a thriller. The story is mildly entertaining but lacked a certain punch needed to elevate it to next level. I found it a bit boring and disjointed. There is the stuff between Molly and Liza, between Molly and Daniel, between Molly and the neighbor. There are those secrets between Molly and Daniel. There is Liza’s trauma, and her new and promising relationship. The chapters move back and forth between the two women along with Daniel’s work drama however none of the moving parts seem to gel into one cohesive story. It’s just too much.

BRB Rating: Skip It.