book by Hannah Mary McKinnon

Blog Tour, Review, and Author Interview

Description

He wakes up on a deserted beach in Maryland with a gash on his head and wearing only swim trunks. He can’t remember who he is. Everything—his identity, his life, his loved ones—has been replaced by a dizzying fog of uncertainty. But returning to his Maine hometown in search of the truth uncovers more questions than answers.

book by Hannah Mary McKinnon

Lily Reid thinks she knows her boyfriend, Jack. Until he goes missing one night, and her frantic search reveals that he’s been lying to her since they met, desperate to escape a dark past he’d purposely left behind.

Maya Scott has been trying to find her estranged stepbrother, Asher, since he disappeared without a trace. Having him back, missing memory and all, feels like a miracle. But with a mutual history full of devastating secrets, how far will Maya go to ensure she alone takes them to the grave?

Shared fates intertwine in a twisty, explosive novel of suspense, where unearthing the past might just mean being buried beneath it.

Details

  • Title: You Will Remember Me
  • Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon
  • Publisher: Mira (Harlequin)
  • ISBN: 9780778331810
  • Categories: Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Siblings
  • Publication Date: May 25, 2021
  • Page Count: 294

Purchase Links

My Thoughts

This is a story that caught my attention from the get-go. Though amnesia is used often in books, if it’s done correctly it still works. When a man wakes up on a beach in Maryland with no idea who he is or what he’s doing there, I wanted to know more.

But it takes some time to work everything out since the chapters jump back and forth between “the man on the beach;’” Lily who is upset because her boyfriend, Jack, has disappeared from a beach; and Maya, who in a very unusual way discovers that her missing stepbrother is the man on the beach, whose name is Asher. Sound confusing? Well, it is and it takes a bit before everything starts to come together. So bear with it. And just continue reading.

You Will Remember Me is interesting and kept me turning pages. Fairly quickly I was pretty sure I’d figured everything out, but the pages continued flying. Surely I hadn’t. It was way too easy. I’ll let you see if you have this ending pegged.

What Concerned Me

In this case it’s going to be difficult to say much without spoiling the plot for you. But I was left with a hollow feeling when I finally hit the last page. The characters were okay, but kind of flat and I didn’t really connect with any of them. And, yes, the plot did keep me turning pages, but all and all, it just missed that something special. The wow factor didn’t even pan out for me at the end.

Final Thoughts

When I rate a book 3 Stars it only indicates that it didn’t stand out for me. But since rating a book is completely subjective, this type of rating doesn’t negate the possibility that you’ll love it..

I say, You Will Remember Me is pretty predictable up to a point, and you will have to decide if it works for you or not. If the description sounds good, then this is a thumbs-up. Give it a try.

My thanks to NetGalley & Harlequin for the chance to read this eBook and to review it with no stipulations.

Rating

Rating: 3 out of 5.

About the Author and Interview

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing, and is now the author of The Neighbors, Her Secret Son, and Sister Dear. She lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.

Interview

Describe YOU WILL REMEMBER ME in three words or fewer?

Twisted, dark, surprising.

 Five facts readers don’t know about the book

1.      I set the book in Maine because we visited family in New Brunswick and stayed in Portland on our drive there. It’s a beautiful city and I can’t wait to go back. Newdale and Brookmount (the towns in the book) are fictional – I need to be able to take creative liberties.

2.      One of the characters finds a library book, Creep by Jennifer Hillier. Creep propelled me to the dark side of writing suspense, and Jenny and I have become great friends. It’s an homage to her work, and her friendship.

3.      One of the characters is originally from Portsmouth—so was my lovely mum.

4.      While writing this book, I had a conversation about “could you kill someone using a…” with my husband. He still sleeps with one eye open.

5.      I mention Meg White from the White Stripes in the book, and I think she’s a phenomenal drummer!

  How long did it take to write the book, and how many drafts do you usually write before publication? 

It took me about two weeks to plot the story and develop the characters before opening a new document and writing “Chapter 1.” After that I wrote a basic, largely unedited manuscript that was about two-thirds of the final word count before going over the manuscript again and again, layering and developing until I was ready to call it a first draft worthy of my editor’s eyes. That process took about another six months and I still wasn’t happy with it. That’s when I asked my editor for input and she helped me shape the story. There was a substantial amount of rewrites and we went over a couple more drafts before the valuable input from the copyeditor and proof-reader. I’d say from my initial basic draft to final version I probably went over the manuscript fifteen times. Minimum.

 How do you market your work?

In collaboration with my publisher, HarperCollins who are incredibly supportive and have a fabulous team I can’t praise highly enough. I’m also very active on social media and love connecting with readers, reviewers, and bloggers. My author friends are fabulous champions of my novels, too. Their tireless enthusiasm is a balm for the writerly soul and I’m grateful to every single one of them. It really does take a village.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started writing.

Writing novels wasn’t on my radar until we moved from Switzerland to Canada in 2010. When we arrived, and my HR start-up company failed, it catapulted me into deciding what I truly wanted to do, and whether I wanted to reinvent myself. After a long while (with a lot of moping about) I realized the answer was to become an author, and I got to work, making a ton of mistakes along the way (more on that later…).

My debut was a rom com called Time After Time (2016) a light-hearted story about paths not taken. After that I decided I wanted to write grittier stories, and quickly transitioned to the dark side of suspense. The Neighbors published in March 2018, Her Secret Son in 2019, Sister Dear in 2020, You Will Remember Me in May 2021 and Book 6 is scheduled for 2022 – all of them in the suspense genre. Sister Dear also published in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It’s an exciting journey to say the least!

·         What would your job of choice be if you didn’t write books?

I worked in IT recruitment for fifteen years before coming to Canada and was the CEO for a European company. Perhaps I’d still be doing that if I didn’t change careers a decade ago. If I was told I had to stop writing today, then I’d have to find a job in publishing somewhere. I can’t imagine working in another industry now.

·         What is the first book that made you cry?

I have absolutely no idea, but the last one was Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. I was a blubbering mess, which doesn’t happen very often! Stiff British upper lip and all that.

 What are you working on now?

My 6th book is done and in my wonderful editor’s hands. It’s written from the anti-hero’s point-of-view, which I’ve never done before, and is the story of Lucas, who hired a hitman to kill his wife. A month later, Lucas receives a partial photograph of his wife in the mail. Who sent it? What do they know? And, more importantly, what do they want? I can’t wait to introduce you to my characters! In the meantime, I’m plotting and outlining Book 7, but it’s too early to give anything away.



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