What He Doesn’t Know by Kandi Steiner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
So Kandi Steiner is a big name author to me yet I haven’t previously read her work and let me tell you, I am kicking myself for that at this very moment. This book was utterly INCREDIBLE. By far one of the most amazing books I have read, and I read a lot! Kandi wrote this book as part one of a duet with the second book releasing just two weeks after this one. What He Doesn’t Know is a love triangle that I never saw coming. The quiet, bookish kindergarten teacher Charlie Pierce lives in a beautiful house that was once a home…until the unthinkable happened. Now she is a shell and the first person to notice is the man who left her heartbroken at sixteen, Reese Walker. Now more than a decade later, the two find themselves in teaching at the same school and restoring the friendship that once meant so much. Only Charlie’s unresolved feelings for Reese added to a gap the size of the Grand Canyon between Charlie and her husband, Cameron, open doors that otherwise would never have existed.
While the story isn’t over after the first book, I guarantee you will be one-clicking book two long before you ever reach the end of the first book in this duet. I literally was hooked before I hit the 30% mark on my kindle and rooting for the love-story that I should have been utterly repulsed by as a married woman. Yet, there is a magic about Charlie and Reese that had me completely spellbound. In What He Doesn’t Know, readers get both Reese and Charlie’s perspectives. However, as the synopsis states,
“they say there are two sides to every story, and I suppose in most cases, that’s true. But the one I live inside of? It has three.”
And when this third perspective interjects, (Cameron’s) everything I thought I knew…Everything that I held firm too, was sent into a complete tailspin. Suddenly the entire first book took on different connotations. Cameron’s side of the story is what I assume the second book will cover and I honestly can not wait to get my hands on this book. Like at all. I am jonesing so bad for this book that I can’t even tell you.
Kandi Steiner writes in this exceptionally beautiful cadence that only added to the astounding quality of her work. She is extremely talented, and I am just kicking myself for not picking up her books sooner. Her caliper of work is something that I only see in a handful of indie authors and she deserves recognition for her gifts. The way she wrote this triangle will leave you aching and so emotionally amped up. You’ll feel like you are on a rollercoaster… You’ll literally cry as I did in one breathe. Then need a cold shower in the next because her steam leaves you as turned on as her characters. I went through a gambit of emotions with What He Doesn’t Know, and I am sure those will only increase as I read book two, What He Always Knew. I can promise you that this book will leave you so captivated that you will forgo anything and everything to keep reading and that right there is why I would tell you to one click this book, and the sequel without delay.
