★★

Despite what the blurb tells you, Aria does not live the perfect life or a good life. She is unhappy and unfulfilled.

After waking up with a traumatic brain injury two years ago, Aria, with the help of her husband Austin, spent a lot of time relearning everyday tasks to slowly rebuild her life. Unfortunately, the injury left her with retrograde amnesia, meaning she has no memory of the first thirty years of her life, and it appears her neurologist isn’t too hopeful that she will ever fully recover her memory.

While Austin was a big help during her recovery, more recently, he has started struggling with his own mental health. As he continues to neglect his mental and physical health and becomes more erratic, Aria is increasingly revolted by her husband but feels guilty about leaving him after all he has done for her when she was at her worst. When fragments of her old life return, Aria becomes convinced that Austin is hiding something…

The blurb of the book sounded intriguing and could have been a great psychological thriller. Unfortunately, it was obvious from the first chapter where the book was headed. Austin’s bizarre behavior, his gaslighting, and belittling make it quite clear that Aria is extremely unhappy in her marriage, which is in direct conflict with what the story initially promised. The remaining chapters were incredibly predictable, lacking any twists or turns that could have evoked a feeling of suspense or justified the label psychological thriller. I kept waiting for some big reveal to catch me off guard, but the book ended just as I had anticipated.

It looks like plenty of readers still enjoyed the story very much, so don’t let my review deter you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Inkubator Books, and Theo Baxter for a copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was absolutely brilliant. It was fast paced, had real authentic and complex characters and made a trope ( amnesia ) that is often predictable and a little dull, feel new and exciting as Theo Baxter created characters that felt so real, especially Aria and Austen.

Spoilers——————

What I liked :

- Aria and her journey throughout the story, she felt so complex and at moments I wanted to reach into the book and hug her.

- The depiction of emotional and psychological abuse, and how difficult it is for the person in it to identify. I thought this part of the book was really tough to read but so sensitively written.

- The element of the manosphere, and how that affects, promotes and enables a person to feel entitled. I found this part of the novel so compelling as the fear Aria felt when she read his computer, I felt too deep in my bones, making the thriller so engaging and all the more frightening.

- The themes of isolation, loneliness and guilt when in a relationship this toxic, the way these themes are explored are so well done and the silent strength of Aria made me cheer for her when she finally had enough.

- The pacing

What I didn’t like:

- I wasn’t that in love with the relationship between Max and Aria, and kind of wished we seen her build a friendship with Mellisa first and foremost, but the epilogue did kind of change my mind.

Overall, this was a brilliant thriller that I am so honoured to have been able to read.

If you like reading about emotionally abusive relationships, then this book is for you. It surewasn't for me though. The first half was very painful to get through, as it's almost exclusively depictions of the MC being controlled, gaslit, sexually coerced and otherwise emotionally abused by her husband.
Still, I was hopeful, that suffering through the first half would be worth it - it wasn't. The twist turned out to be exactly what I expected, which isn't something you want, when it comes to a twist.
Overall, this was a predictable "mystery" with one-dimensional characters and an awful lotof repetition.. The writing style itself was the saving grace for this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Good book. I really liked the survivor/victim parts. I could see the end coming though, it wasn't a surprise how it ended.. I also could see how her relationship with her new psychologist was going to go too.

Thought provoking, eye -opening. Gives you a window inside what it is like to be in an abusive relationship. I have known people in similar situations but I never know the whole story, this one shows me one POV and I’m glad I read it!

Even though part of the story was predictable, I really enjoyed it, especially Aria's character. She was well developed and quite interesting. Besides, I think the whole victim-survivor issue was well developed too. Congratulations to the author to Inkubator Books and NetGalley for sending me this ARC.

Sadly, this book was predictable for me…a good storyline, but I just seemed to see what was coming. I sure was cheering Aria on, however, in her quest for answers to her past!

Aria West woke up in a hospital two years ago, dealing with a serious head injury and a total blank slate when it came to her past. Now, she’s carved out a life as a successful sculptor in a secluded cabin in upstate New York with her husband, Austin. Everything seems calm and good, but those nightmares keep haunting her—frightening snippets of the trauma that erased her memories. The catch? They don’t match Austin’s version of events from that day. As he starts acting more strangely, Aria begins to suspect he’s hiding something really unsettling. To feel secure moving forward, she knows she has to uncover the truth about her past, but getting her memories back is going to be tough, especially with someone willing to do whatever it takes to stop her.
𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
This is my fourth Theo Baxter book, and I’ve got to say, I really like his writing. As for his latest one, I Remember You... the ending was pretty predictable from the start. But did I still have a blast reading it in a single day? Absolutely! It’s a fast-paced thriller packed with suspense, unexpected twists, and solid character development. Basically, it has everything you want in a good thriller.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Inkubator Books for allowing me to review this ARC.

First book that I have read by this author and it was thrilling, twisty, with a lot of suspense. The characters were great and it had my attention from the very start!

Unfortunately this book did not grip me and it was quite predictable. I had to force myself to continue reading. I think it could be good for an entry level thriller reader, but for me, I guessed the ending and struggled through it as I was comparing it to other great works.

This author always writes solid thrillers, so I was not at all surprised this book checked all the boxes for me. The storyline was so intriguing and kept my attention the entire time. I had so many questions throughout the book, but the author did a great job answering them by the end. I would definitely recommend this book and any other book by this author.

Thank you Netgalley, Theo Baxter, and publisher for allowing me to review this book early!

The author did an amazing job setting the scene with this book. From the very beginning, I was dying to know what happened to Aria and who was the dead man beside her. How did she end up there? I cannot even imagine only having a couple years of memories and nothing else.

I did guess the plot twist very early on which was unfortunate, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Bit of a predictable storyline but the book flowed nicely and was very tense, overall an enjoyable read.

My Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5

I am BEGGING authors when they are writing thriller and/or suspense novels to stop giving everything away in the opening chapters. Seriously, NINE pages into this story and I already knew who the dead body was that was laying beside Aria and therefore, who the most likely culprit was going to turn out to be. Even when the author tried to throw in a few red herrings to make you re-think your initial assumptions, they were not done well enough to truly make you doubt what you already knew.

Another problem that I am noticing with this particular sub-genre of suspense novels is that they always seem to make the main male characters the most unlikable, unsufferable jerks ever. In this book, it was Aria's husband Austin. We are told at first that he was the best husband ever when he first brought Aria home from the hospital after her accident. He carried her around, he taught her how to cook, he even built her a shed outside for her kiln and pottery wheel so that she could use her hands more as one of her doctors had recommended.

However as the story goes on, we begin (or at least I began) to see his true colors. The author tells us that Austin has anxiety and agoraphobia, but his behavior goes far beyond either of those things. For starters, he belittles Aria and her mental health issues (mainly her amnesia causing nightmares). When she tries to get help to better herself he point blank asks her what HE is supposed to do if HE has a panic attack while she is at therapy. Even going so far as to claim she was deserting him when in reality she was just trying to move on with her life. Later, he gets on her about her sleeping on the couch (literally one room away). When she explains that it is due to her nightmares and not wanting to disturb him, he asks her what he is supposed to do if he wakes up and needs her. Telling her that he's not going to drag himself out of bed to come to her.

There are also the many times that he goes into her workspace and destroys her unfinished art pieces, or goes inside and begins throwing things around their house during one of his temper tantrums forcing her to clean up after him (usually before either demanding she make dinner or demeaning her because dinner isn't made). These tantrums usually happen while she's at therapy because she's doing something that he doesn't want her to do, or after she has done something else that he perceives as a slight towards him. It became tiring quickly to the point that I was hoping what eventually did come to pass would happen sooner. And in a much more violent way.

That being said, there are still people to whom I think this novel will appeal (ones who are new to this sub-genre and who aren't as jade by it as myself for example), or already established fans of this author who know what to expect. As for myself, I may give one of their other stories a shot to see if this was just a one off for them, or if I can expect all of their male characters to be raging misogynistic pigs.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Aria, an artistic sculptor, and lives in a secluded cabin with her writer husband, Austin.
Two years ago, Aria was in an accident. As a result, she now suffers from retro-grade amnesia, remembering nothing of her life before, including the accident. Austin took care of her afterwards, as any husband would. Two years on and plagued by nightmares, Aria needs to uncover whats behind them and get back her memories. But with Austin now struggling and no longer taking care of himself, Aria needed to return the care he gave her.
Will Aria ever recover her memories? Theres someone doing everything to try stop her.

I very quickly became hooked on this book, wanting to read just one more chapter each time I had to put it down. Just as I was thinking I knew what was going to happen, we were given another little snippet, leaving me to re-think again! With all the twists and turns, once we had the full picture, I actually gasped out loud!
This was a brilliant story, easy to follow, and keep track of what was happening.
I will definitely be looking to read other books by this author.

A tense and emotional thriller that keeps you turning the pages until the shocking ending. A great read!

The story line was different to other books I have read which I liked, the twist was really good. I did feel like the book was flat at certain points but overall I enjoyed it.

When a harrowing accident leaves Aria with no memory of the last 30 years of her life, she has to rely on the fragments pieced together by her husband. But as Aria digs deeper into her past and deeper into the truth, she finds that her husband might not have her best intentions at heart.

I DEVOURED this book in a little over one day. I loved the suspense and the pacing of the book. I fell in love with the ease in which the author told the story.

This story has all the hallmarks of a great psychological thriller, however, I kept waiting for some kind of twist or some kind of shock that would flip everything I was thinking upside down. I found myself at times questioning myself and didn’t know who to trust, much like the FMC, and that kept me on the edge of my seat. If there had been some major twist I would have easily placed this in a 5 star.

The story is good even though a bit predictable. I enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone looking for an unputdownable story.

A quite predictable storyline but still enjoyable all the same. I enjoyed seeing the story unfold and had a bit of intrigue and suspense thrown in. I would recommend this book

Such a great thrilling read. I did find the storyline a bit predictable but it doesn't take away from the story. It still left me on the edge of my seat and being unable to put the book down. Highly recommend.