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Obsession
Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere. Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for—what? She doesn’t know. She knows only that, unless they can escape, whatever it is they are searching for could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.
But Katharine’s nightmare is just beginning. When she awakens in the hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her that things aren’t right—and it’s not the attack that’s disorienting her. She doesn’t recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside—Dr. Dan Howard—is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She’s twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she’s lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.
Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her newfound protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows him to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, and Katharine is left confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both their lives are at stake.
But Katharine’s nightmare is just beginning. When she awakens in the hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her that things aren’t right—and it’s not the attack that’s disorienting her. She doesn’t recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside—Dr. Dan Howard—is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She’s twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she’s lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.
Acting on instinct, Katharine runs for her life, with Dan, her newfound protector, at her side. By turns grateful and unnerved by his presence, and unable to shake a feeling of profound dread, she allows him to spirit her to a secluded safe house. Instead of finding a haven, they stumble into a tangled web of government conspiracy, and Katharine is left confused, frightened, and desperate to uncover the truth. As the pair is drawn further into this shadowy world where almost nothing is as it seems, as fear gives way to a firestorm of attraction, the cat-and-mouse game grows more deadly, and soon both their lives are at stake.
Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
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About the author
Karen Robards
126 books3,244 followersKaren Robards is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than fifty books and one novella. She has won multiple awards including six Affaire de Coeur Silver Pen Awards for favorite author.
Karen has been writing since she was very young, and was first published nationally in the December 1973 Reader's Digest. She sold her first romance novel, ISLAND FLAME, when she was 24. It was published by Leisure Books in 1981 and is still in print. After that, she dropped out of law school to pursue her writing career.
Karen was recently described by The Daily Mail as "one of the most reliable thriller....writers in the world."
Karen has been writing since she was very young, and was first published nationally in the December 1973 Reader's Digest. She sold her first romance novel, ISLAND FLAME, when she was 24. It was published by Leisure Books in 1981 and is still in print. After that, she dropped out of law school to pursue her writing career.
Karen was recently described by The Daily Mail as "one of the most reliable thriller....writers in the world."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews
February 8, 2010
I rarely take the time to write reviews (good or bad) but I feel the need to warn unsuspecting readers away from this twaddle. Where to even start?
The title - It makes no sense. Even after completing the book (a real chore) I cannot comprehend what 'obsession' had to do with anything. At all.
The plot - Suspension of disbelief does not even begin to cover it. Just check reason and common sense at the door. The plot is so utterly farfetched and beyond belief that it's incredible. My biggest complaint is that the pacing was so incredibly slow. More than 100 pages in to the book and less than 12 hours had elapsed. I was begging for something, anything, to happen. For God's sake, get on with the story already.
Heroine (and I use the term loosely) - How difficult is it to create a protagonist that you want to see make it to the end of the novel? Apparently it is beyond the capacity of Robards because our intrepid 'Katharine' was so annoying and scatterbrained that I couldn't be bothered to care if she survived her ordeal or not. Being privy to her every passing thought grew tiresome quickly. And her ability to function and stay on the run despite a physical attack, a hospital stay, lack of sleep, torture... come on... I'm so not buying it.
The ending - The ending, which was supposed to tie back into a seemingly unrelated first chapter which was never mentioned again over almost 400 pages, felt too pat and, again, beyond belief.
This was my first try at a Robards novel and I do believe i have learned my lesson. Run. Run away. Fast.
The title - It makes no sense. Even after completing the book (a real chore) I cannot comprehend what 'obsession' had to do with anything. At all.
The plot - Suspension of disbelief does not even begin to cover it. Just check reason and common sense at the door. The plot is so utterly farfetched and beyond belief that it's incredible. My biggest complaint is that the pacing was so incredibly slow. More than 100 pages in to the book and less than 12 hours had elapsed. I was begging for something, anything, to happen. For God's sake, get on with the story already.
Heroine (and I use the term loosely) - How difficult is it to create a protagonist that you want to see make it to the end of the novel? Apparently it is beyond the capacity of Robards because our intrepid 'Katharine' was so annoying and scatterbrained that I couldn't be bothered to care if she survived her ordeal or not. Being privy to her every passing thought grew tiresome quickly. And her ability to function and stay on the run despite a physical attack, a hospital stay, lack of sleep, torture... come on... I'm so not buying it.
The ending - The ending, which was supposed to tie back into a seemingly unrelated first chapter which was never mentioned again over almost 400 pages, felt too pat and, again, beyond belief.
This was my first try at a Robards novel and I do believe i have learned my lesson. Run. Run away. Fast.
December 23, 2025
El libro no ha estado mal, la pega es que la autora no ha sabido como llevar esta historia y cuando realmente se descubre todo las situaciones no encajan y parece puesto a presión. No puedo ponerle menos nota porque me ha tenido enganchada
February 27, 2015
Tiresome beyond belief. Threw away copy about 85% in (yes, it is so bad that a) could not care to find out how the silly plot came to its denouement,and b) enough time wasted on it already). I long for the time when a RS will come up with a heroine who's interesting, intelligent, has common sense, and is mature enough to understand her vulnerability and be aware of her limitations. How refreshing and exciting would that be!
A word of advice to RS writers, from a fan of the genre, don't try to sell me the most stupid heroine ever in a package that says 'tough' and 'spirited', it does not work. And FFS put some medical and biological realism into your novels, people with an upset stomach take longer to recover than these heroines who've been attacked, shot, beaten, tortured, thrown through glass windows, and all without ever being in need of food or sleep.
A word of advice to RS writers, from a fan of the genre, don't try to sell me the most stupid heroine ever in a package that says 'tough' and 'spirited', it does not work. And FFS put some medical and biological realism into your novels, people with an upset stomach take longer to recover than these heroines who've been attacked, shot, beaten, tortured, thrown through glass windows, and all without ever being in need of food or sleep.
May 11, 2011
By this point in my life, I should realize that it's never a good sign when someone wakes up with amnesia. In my defense, I was hooked before I realized that was going to happen. Both the prologue and the first chapter set up exciting possibilities, and when Katherine woke in the hospital, she was more disoriented than fully amnesiac. The book had just the right level of creepiness to keep me furiously turning pages for about the first half. She doesn't feel like this is her body? She doesn't trust her boyfriend? The floor tiles being the wrong size was particularly creepy.
But when we finally figured out what was going on, it was just plain stupid. I hate to write reviews with spoilers, so I won't, but the implausibility factor was through the roof.
I read this because I wanted to read something quick and brainless, and it was definitely that!
www.christineamsden.com
But when we finally figured out what was going on, it was just plain stupid. I hate to write reviews with spoilers, so I won't, but the implausibility factor was through the roof.
I read this because I wanted to read something quick and brainless, and it was definitely that!
www.christineamsden.com
December 16, 2019
Katharine Lawrence survives a terrifying home invasion, in which her best friend was killed. But when she wakes up in the hospital, things don't feel right. When she looks in the mirror, she sees a different person. Other things don't add up. When she gets a phone call from her boyfriend, Edward Barnes, a higher-up in the CIA, she feels frightened of him and doesn't even recognise his voice! Not knowing what else to do, she takes off from the hospital. She receives assistance from her doctor neighbour, Dan Howard, and feels an instant attraction to him, but events have her questioning whether she can trust him too.
This was a pretty good offering from Karen Robards. For the most part, I had no idea the direction it was headed, and was wracking my brain trying to figure out what was going on! A nice change from the last few predictable books I've read! I quite enjoyed it, and it was nearly a 4 star read, but there were some inconsistencies that bothered me, and ultimately, the storyline stretched my willing disbelief way too far. Karen Robards also tends to be just a bit too descriptive. You know what I mean: a trip from the hospital to her townhouse takes three pages because we have to be told what all the houses look like and who and what she sees.
I don't need to know all that!
Robards also really overdoes it with the descriptions of how nervous and terrified Katharine is. Every second paragraph is telling us that her heart is pounding, her stomach is clenching, or some variation thereof, over and over and over again. I got the point! The book could have been 100 pages shorter without all of that!
As for the inconsistencies and over-the-top plot twists that ultimately also helped drag it down a star? That would involve spoilers!
I should add: that title, Obsession? I have absolutely no idea what relevance it has. A truly generic, random title that has zero to do with the contents therein.
A lot of this reminded me of Shadow Woman, an awful, awful book by Linda Howard. Of course, this was 100 times better than that (and written before it, which makes me wonder if Howard drew some inspiration from this one.) All in all, I got enjoyment out of reading this, because it did have me trying to figure out what was going on, had some good action/suspense bits, and generally kept me wanting to come back to it and finish reading it.
This was a pretty good offering from Karen Robards. For the most part, I had no idea the direction it was headed, and was wracking my brain trying to figure out what was going on! A nice change from the last few predictable books I've read! I quite enjoyed it, and it was nearly a 4 star read, but there were some inconsistencies that bothered me, and ultimately, the storyline stretched my willing disbelief way too far. Karen Robards also tends to be just a bit too descriptive. You know what I mean: a trip from the hospital to her townhouse takes three pages because we have to be told what all the houses look like and who and what she sees.
I don't need to know all that!
Robards also really overdoes it with the descriptions of how nervous and terrified Katharine is. Every second paragraph is telling us that her heart is pounding, her stomach is clenching, or some variation thereof, over and over and over again. I got the point! The book could have been 100 pages shorter without all of that!
As for the inconsistencies and over-the-top plot twists that ultimately also helped drag it down a star? That would involve spoilers!
I should add: that title, Obsession? I have absolutely no idea what relevance it has. A truly generic, random title that has zero to do with the contents therein.
A lot of this reminded me of Shadow Woman, an awful, awful book by Linda Howard. Of course, this was 100 times better than that (and written before it, which makes me wonder if Howard drew some inspiration from this one.) All in all, I got enjoyment out of reading this, because it did have me trying to figure out what was going on, had some good action/suspense bits, and generally kept me wanting to come back to it and finish reading it.
June 25, 2013
This book started out really great but went downhill from there. I was about 40% through when I realized that the synopsis on Goodreads does NOT match the one for the book, and actually gives away some spoilers. WTF GOODREADS? It might have been better if I didn't know that Dan/Katharine were Nick/Jenna. I mean I would have figured out Nick, but not Jenna.
The guy was hot. The first half of the book was really interesting, even if it was confusing. Then it goes downhill from there. Lots of running from place to place and the ending sucked.
It started out so promising!
And then the worst part of all that I literally laughed out loud at the cheesiness: Tastes like strawberries. If you have read it, you know what I'm talking about.
The guy was hot. The first half of the book was really interesting, even if it was confusing. Then it goes downhill from there. Lots of running from place to place and the ending sucked.
It started out so promising!
And then the worst part of all that I literally laughed out loud at the cheesiness: Tastes like strawberries. If you have read it, you know what I'm talking about.
March 1, 2011
I liked the concept of this story, however I just feel as though it lacked quite a bit to make it 5 star rating. First of all, I have no idea why it was titled "Obsession"? It has nothing to do with the meaning of the word? Then, I felt as though there wasn't enough character development. I like reading books where I feel as though I am sitting right beside them experiencing what they are experiencing and I didn't feel that in this book. Some parts didn't make any sense and some points were never resolved.
I did however read it cover to cover, the author does have a way with grabbing your attention. It was suspenseful and it did keep my on the edge of my seat. I was dying to find out what was going on. I really did enjoy it, I just don't think I will pick it up again.
I did however read it cover to cover, the author does have a way with grabbing your attention. It was suspenseful and it did keep my on the edge of my seat. I was dying to find out what was going on. I really did enjoy it, I just don't think I will pick it up again.
May 8, 2012
Overall, this book was pretty great. It had an excellent beginning and ending, but the whole middle part, while I was reading it, confused the hell out of me. It all made perfect sense in the end, but while I was reading the middle, I read really slowly.
Almost every chapter ends with intense suspense, which was great, but really annoying when I would tell myself to only read one chapter and then there would be something crazy and I'd have to keep reading.
The ending was pretty great, and I recommend it, but you really need to stick through it, and not give up in the middle.
Edit: And the whole concept was really really cool and the main guy was sexy.
Almost every chapter ends with intense suspense, which was great, but really annoying when I would tell myself to only read one chapter and then there would be something crazy and I'd have to keep reading.
The ending was pretty great, and I recommend it, but you really need to stick through it, and not give up in the middle.
Edit: And the whole concept was really really cool and the main guy was sexy.
April 18, 2017
I know a lot of readers did not like this book too much. I will be the one to differ. Amnesia may sound like a lame storyline, but it was not your usual amnesia. I liked the storyline to this book. It has several mysteries to it. I admit I did not see the last one coming at all. Yes, it was a little slow going but not too much for me to even consider giving up on it. I was up until midnight finishing it last nite!
January 31, 2024
I’m not going to lie this is my first 2 star, and greatest disappointment of a long time. Lesson read the reviews. I like this author, must have been an early one for her because the last one was great. Chapter 1 was so far apart from the next section of the book, didn’t know what was going on. Main characters next 12 hours took forever. Her descriptions of absolutely everything dragged. Omg. Waste of my time for an actual good book. Sorry but this was poor. 2nd star probably for authors rep.
August 12, 2024
maybe this obsession needs a different name too
March 28, 2017
This book was sooooooooooooo (I can't emphasis that enough) slow!! I seriously would dread picking up this book and reading more of it; but I don't like leaving books unfinished, so I kept on reading. I don't know if I can say too much that's good about this book. It had an ok storyline, that's about it.
July 20, 2018
Great book! Lots of twists I never saw coming. I really like Karen Robards writing. It was an easy read and with good suspense.
August 10, 2025
Bought for $1 at a vinnies in WA. Very odd plot. Still finished it but wouldn’t recommend
February 18, 2025
“Nick Nick Nick… I love you, Nick.
“When he lifted his head she told him so, and so of course he kissed her again, quick and hard but amazingly thoroughly for all that. She was still reeling from it when he pulled his mouth from hers.”
That might just be the worst-written passage in Karen Robards novel Obsession, although there are other candidates. To be fair, a lot of the writing in her book is better than the above, but her style can be repetitive and riddled with clichés. For example, all of the main and several of the minor characters, at some point, “fish” things out of some recess or other. (I myself fished the book out of the wastebasket where I threw it after I had finished reading it.)
Ordinarily it does not matter how I came to read a book, but this odd book came to me in an odd way. I was sitting in the public library, quite bored, and I reached out for the first book that caught my eye. Its cover advertised it as being a New York Times bestselling suspense novel. Robards has evidently written many suspense novels, but this is the first that I have read. Anyway, I read the first several pages and took it home.
Robards’ genre is a mix of suspense and romance, but you probably already guessed that.
One thing that Robards delivers is action, even if the protagonist sometimes has an odd way of reporting the action. What kept me reading is the puzzling way that Robards handles perception. The plotting certainly raises more questions than it answers, at least at first. The trouble is whether the answers are actually satisfying when they come. (Which is largely why my final impulse was to toss this potboiler into the wastebasket.)
The prologue introduces an FBI agent named Nick who hears a desperate message on his answering machine that compels him to rush to his sister’s house, only to find that she appears to have committed suicide. Nick’s brother-in-law says that she was driven to suicide by a blackmailer, and Nick vows to discover the identity of the blackmailer and exact retribution.
Next comes chapter one, set nearly fourteen months later, and the only thing in common between the story in the prologue and the one that begins in chapter one seems to be that both take place in Alexandria, Virginia, which is located near Washington, DC.
A new character, Katharine, is in the midst of being terrorized by a pair of home invaders. One masked man is threatening Katharine and her friend Lisa with a knife, while the other man trashes the living room, looking for a safe. The man with the knife seems to think Katharine knows where it is. She says she doesn’t, and I think the reader is meant to believe her. It is the perfect nightmare: Someone is threatening to kill you if you don’t give them what they want, and you have no way of giving it to them.
Lisa dies, but Katharine manages to escape when someone, apparently a neighbor, interrupts. Not before Katharine sustains a concussion, though. She wakes up a few hours later in the hospital, unable to account for a lot of what has happened. When her boyfriend, Ed, calls on the phone in her hospital room, she does not recognize his voice. It does not help that he talks to her with as much sympathy as he might treat an employee who had not done her job properly. Then, when she looks in the mirror, she does not even recognize herself. Her hair color and even her physique have changed, and she does not remember changing them.
“AMA” stands for “against medical advice” and that is how Katharine leaves the hospital—without telling anyone. She relies on her instincts, which tell her not to trust anybody. Not her boyfriend, and not even her neighbor, Dan, who happens to be a doctor and sat by her bedside until she came to. She is forced to rely on him, though, even accepting a ride home from him, although his medical advice is that she ought to go back to the hospital. Katharine trusts him only up to a point. She does not want to tell him that she is afraid that anyone could be someone who wants to hurt her. Even—or especially—her boyfriend, Ed, who happens to be a CIA officer.
At this point, we are one hundred pages and several chapters into the novel and still do not know what is going on except that Katharine is clearly in trouble and has nobody she can fully trust. Can she confide in Dan? Will he turn out to be another villain? And how does Nick, the prologue’s protagonist, fit into the story? One thing is for sure, and that is that Robards is playing a dangerous authorial game with her characters’ identities. Katharine does not trust who she is herself, and she has no grounds for trusting that anyone else is who they say they are.
How can Katharine be so deeply in the dark about who she is? A concussion could explain a great deal, but perhaps not everything. The reader must be forgiven for imagining that the author has layered in a metaphysical conundrum worthy of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who often played with questions of identity. Yet the reader might suspect, with more assurance, that there will be, finally, a logical explanation for everything.
Robards is competent at plotting suspense, but I find her language repetitive and cliché ridden. Occasionally, she throws in the name of a thing—a newel post, for example—that she probably had to look up, but easily could have done without naming. (I admit to giving in to the same obsession in my own writing, but I recognize that it is not my best quality as a writer, and it is not Robard’s, either.)
To nitpick, I noticed that on page 108, the author begins a sentence, “With her periphery vision, she saw….” Then on page 127 she begins a sentence, “With her peripheral vision she saw….” This wording and comma placement are exactly as they appear in the book and seem to be the result of bad proofreading.
Then there are the not-quite-authentic details. The descriptions of the silenced gunshots that kill Katharine’s friend early in the book and the villain during the climax suggest that the author has never heard suppressed gunfire, except in the movies where it is always presented as being much quieter than it actually is.
Another oddity: The author repeatedly capitalizes “Dumpster” as if it were a trademark, which it once was, going back to the 1930s, but it has since become a generic term and can be written in lower case as “dumpster” without fear of complaint from the original patentholder.
BTW Robard’s description of eating McDonald’s takeout is one of the most unappetizing accounts of the effect of a poor meal on an otherwise hungry customer that I have ever read. McDonald’s is never going to endorse this novel for its product placement.
This book presents a strange and seemingly metaphysical problem whereby the female protagonist doubts not only her identity. (Is her name even really Katharine?) She further questions some aspects of physical reality. The reader will surely wonder how the author is going to resolve this puzzle and connect Katharine’s story to that of Nick, the main character in the prologue. Meanwhile, Katharine gets involved with a man she is simultaneously attracted to and afraid of. It is an action-packed, formulaic novel, combining the clichés of suspense with those of the softest soft-core romance novel. The only true novelty lies in wondering how the author will solve the problems she has created. Amnesia and PTSD only seem like partial solutions in need of supplements and I was not overly satisfied when the solution arrived. Even though it does make sense, it is a bit pat.
The most interesting question is what the title means. Who is obsessed? This question is answered satisfactorily at the climax. It is certainly not Katharine, as the reader might suspect. The P.O.V. is a noteworthy experiment. The Prologue and final chapter are written from Nick’s perspective, while the books other 28 chapters are written from that of the female protagonist.
I did not pay anything for this book, and I suspect I will not read another book by Robards, unless I am ever again bored while sitting in a public library, and reach out for the first book I see, and somehow do not realize that Robards is the author.
Back to the wastebasket.
“When he lifted his head she told him so, and so of course he kissed her again, quick and hard but amazingly thoroughly for all that. She was still reeling from it when he pulled his mouth from hers.”
That might just be the worst-written passage in Karen Robards novel Obsession, although there are other candidates. To be fair, a lot of the writing in her book is better than the above, but her style can be repetitive and riddled with clichés. For example, all of the main and several of the minor characters, at some point, “fish” things out of some recess or other. (I myself fished the book out of the wastebasket where I threw it after I had finished reading it.)
Ordinarily it does not matter how I came to read a book, but this odd book came to me in an odd way. I was sitting in the public library, quite bored, and I reached out for the first book that caught my eye. Its cover advertised it as being a New York Times bestselling suspense novel. Robards has evidently written many suspense novels, but this is the first that I have read. Anyway, I read the first several pages and took it home.
Robards’ genre is a mix of suspense and romance, but you probably already guessed that.
One thing that Robards delivers is action, even if the protagonist sometimes has an odd way of reporting the action. What kept me reading is the puzzling way that Robards handles perception. The plotting certainly raises more questions than it answers, at least at first. The trouble is whether the answers are actually satisfying when they come. (Which is largely why my final impulse was to toss this potboiler into the wastebasket.)
The prologue introduces an FBI agent named Nick who hears a desperate message on his answering machine that compels him to rush to his sister’s house, only to find that she appears to have committed suicide. Nick’s brother-in-law says that she was driven to suicide by a blackmailer, and Nick vows to discover the identity of the blackmailer and exact retribution.
Next comes chapter one, set nearly fourteen months later, and the only thing in common between the story in the prologue and the one that begins in chapter one seems to be that both take place in Alexandria, Virginia, which is located near Washington, DC.
A new character, Katharine, is in the midst of being terrorized by a pair of home invaders. One masked man is threatening Katharine and her friend Lisa with a knife, while the other man trashes the living room, looking for a safe. The man with the knife seems to think Katharine knows where it is. She says she doesn’t, and I think the reader is meant to believe her. It is the perfect nightmare: Someone is threatening to kill you if you don’t give them what they want, and you have no way of giving it to them.
Lisa dies, but Katharine manages to escape when someone, apparently a neighbor, interrupts. Not before Katharine sustains a concussion, though. She wakes up a few hours later in the hospital, unable to account for a lot of what has happened. When her boyfriend, Ed, calls on the phone in her hospital room, she does not recognize his voice. It does not help that he talks to her with as much sympathy as he might treat an employee who had not done her job properly. Then, when she looks in the mirror, she does not even recognize herself. Her hair color and even her physique have changed, and she does not remember changing them.
“AMA” stands for “against medical advice” and that is how Katharine leaves the hospital—without telling anyone. She relies on her instincts, which tell her not to trust anybody. Not her boyfriend, and not even her neighbor, Dan, who happens to be a doctor and sat by her bedside until she came to. She is forced to rely on him, though, even accepting a ride home from him, although his medical advice is that she ought to go back to the hospital. Katharine trusts him only up to a point. She does not want to tell him that she is afraid that anyone could be someone who wants to hurt her. Even—or especially—her boyfriend, Ed, who happens to be a CIA officer.
At this point, we are one hundred pages and several chapters into the novel and still do not know what is going on except that Katharine is clearly in trouble and has nobody she can fully trust. Can she confide in Dan? Will he turn out to be another villain? And how does Nick, the prologue’s protagonist, fit into the story? One thing is for sure, and that is that Robards is playing a dangerous authorial game with her characters’ identities. Katharine does not trust who she is herself, and she has no grounds for trusting that anyone else is who they say they are.
How can Katharine be so deeply in the dark about who she is? A concussion could explain a great deal, but perhaps not everything. The reader must be forgiven for imagining that the author has layered in a metaphysical conundrum worthy of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who often played with questions of identity. Yet the reader might suspect, with more assurance, that there will be, finally, a logical explanation for everything.
Robards is competent at plotting suspense, but I find her language repetitive and cliché ridden. Occasionally, she throws in the name of a thing—a newel post, for example—that she probably had to look up, but easily could have done without naming. (I admit to giving in to the same obsession in my own writing, but I recognize that it is not my best quality as a writer, and it is not Robard’s, either.)
To nitpick, I noticed that on page 108, the author begins a sentence, “With her periphery vision, she saw….” Then on page 127 she begins a sentence, “With her peripheral vision she saw….” This wording and comma placement are exactly as they appear in the book and seem to be the result of bad proofreading.
Then there are the not-quite-authentic details. The descriptions of the silenced gunshots that kill Katharine’s friend early in the book and the villain during the climax suggest that the author has never heard suppressed gunfire, except in the movies where it is always presented as being much quieter than it actually is.
Another oddity: The author repeatedly capitalizes “Dumpster” as if it were a trademark, which it once was, going back to the 1930s, but it has since become a generic term and can be written in lower case as “dumpster” without fear of complaint from the original patentholder.
BTW Robard’s description of eating McDonald’s takeout is one of the most unappetizing accounts of the effect of a poor meal on an otherwise hungry customer that I have ever read. McDonald’s is never going to endorse this novel for its product placement.
This book presents a strange and seemingly metaphysical problem whereby the female protagonist doubts not only her identity. (Is her name even really Katharine?) She further questions some aspects of physical reality. The reader will surely wonder how the author is going to resolve this puzzle and connect Katharine’s story to that of Nick, the main character in the prologue. Meanwhile, Katharine gets involved with a man she is simultaneously attracted to and afraid of. It is an action-packed, formulaic novel, combining the clichés of suspense with those of the softest soft-core romance novel. The only true novelty lies in wondering how the author will solve the problems she has created. Amnesia and PTSD only seem like partial solutions in need of supplements and I was not overly satisfied when the solution arrived. Even though it does make sense, it is a bit pat.
The most interesting question is what the title means. Who is obsessed? This question is answered satisfactorily at the climax. It is certainly not Katharine, as the reader might suspect. The P.O.V. is a noteworthy experiment. The Prologue and final chapter are written from Nick’s perspective, while the books other 28 chapters are written from that of the female protagonist.
I did not pay anything for this book, and I suspect I will not read another book by Robards, unless I am ever again bored while sitting in a public library, and reach out for the first book I see, and somehow do not realize that Robards is the author.
Back to the wastebasket.
June 21, 2008
Damn near ‘Unputdownable’!
Right from the prologue and the first chapter, Robards sucked me right into the story and wouldn’t let go!
While the story can be confusing at times, I think there’s a reason for that confusion, and it all has to do with Katharine, the heroine of the story. The reader is confused because she is confused, and you’re drawn into the goings on surrounding her.
Katharine isn’t who she’s made to believe she is - and we get the why of that later. Dan isn’t who is supposed to be either. The confusion and suspense are thick in this book, and I enjoyed that thoroughly. As the story progresses, you finally begin to understand who Katharine is, and why, and what Dan has to do with it.
Twist upon twist make this novel an unbelievable and damn near unputdownable page-turner that will have you going on well past the time you should be in bed sleeping. Action scenes are great, suspense thick enough you can slice it with a knife, and lots of electricity between Katharine and Dan to get you hot under the collar. Excellent read!
Right from the prologue and the first chapter, Robards sucked me right into the story and wouldn’t let go!
While the story can be confusing at times, I think there’s a reason for that confusion, and it all has to do with Katharine, the heroine of the story. The reader is confused because she is confused, and you’re drawn into the goings on surrounding her.
Katharine isn’t who she’s made to believe she is - and we get the why of that later. Dan isn’t who is supposed to be either. The confusion and suspense are thick in this book, and I enjoyed that thoroughly. As the story progresses, you finally begin to understand who Katharine is, and why, and what Dan has to do with it.
Twist upon twist make this novel an unbelievable and damn near unputdownable page-turner that will have you going on well past the time you should be in bed sleeping. Action scenes are great, suspense thick enough you can slice it with a knife, and lots of electricity between Katharine and Dan to get you hot under the collar. Excellent read!
November 2, 2017
I was initially entranced in the storyline and even more so later on. I loved the premise of the amnesia of the heroine and the mysterious doctor, but when the reveal as to the “why” it happened came about...was when the luster of the story was lost to me. Nobody that cares about another person; no less “loves” them would have put that person into that sort of situation. When I realized at about 85% where it was going...I didn’t even want to continue reading. However, I did keep reading and I absolutely hated the ending. The reality is that there would be no HEA for such a couple, because no self-respecting woman would have forgiven such deceit; the “deal” made earlier was beyond sick. It was quite disappointing to have a book I was totally absorbed in, to fall apart for me like it did. I’ve never read anything by the author before and I will keep an open mind that her other works are worth my time reading. This one just seemed like I’d wasted it...and what was up with the title???? Who was obsessed with whom? I guess I missed that one....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2016
This book was s-l-o-w. Ten minutes of listening while Katherine, the heroine, tries to decide whether to answer the phone. Over and over saying that she can't remember anything - yes, we know, you have amnesia. I was about 1/4 of the way through disk 5, which was about Katherine and Dan, the hot man who was helping her for some undefined reason, riding in a van trying to escape bad guys, when there were technical difficulties and I had to switch to disk 6. It didn't matter - Katherine and Dan were still riding in the van. (I went back and found the print version and saw that indeed, I had missed the van trip and a stop at the grocery store).
In addition to the fact that this book could have been much shorter, I just didn't find the story compelling at all. I should know better than to read a book in which the premise is amnesia. Shame on me for that.
In addition to the fact that this book could have been much shorter, I just didn't find the story compelling at all. I should know better than to read a book in which the premise is amnesia. Shame on me for that.
April 22, 2009
Sometimes you just gotta do it... read a good whodunnit, I mean. And that's what this book is. It has a few weird twists and turns and surprises and kept me going back for more until I finally finished it and knew what was really going on. A little sexual innuendo, some frightening scenes now and then, a lot of puzzles to solve... maybe a bit too wordy, but Robards writes in a way that almost makes you think you're talking to one of your good friends. Sometimes you just gotta do it!
July 17, 2010
I liked the waking up in someone else's body thing but I think it's been done better elsewhere. There were parts that were nicely creepy like the floor tiles. Still after about halfway she just lost me.
I got to just wanting to get to the end. The heroine was a bit TSTL while being unrealistically tough. The willing suspension of disbelief didn't carry me through and the resolution wasn't believable to me.
I got to just wanting to get to the end. The heroine was a bit TSTL while being unrealistically tough. The willing suspension of disbelief didn't carry me through and the resolution wasn't believable to me.
January 13, 2009
I could not put this book down. As in, reading until the early hours of the morning. (Just one more chapter! Okay...one more!) Incredible mystery, increasing suspense and really engaging characters. When you take a step back from the plot it seems a little far-fetched, but damn, when you're reading it, it's absolutely absorbing.
August 12, 2009
I liked the storyline of this book. However, the main female character annoyed me. There was way too much repitition in this book. She felt this, but then she felt that, but then she felt this way again.....so very annoying to me. If this book had been several pages shorter, with all of the repetitive crap cut out, I probably would've given it four stars.
January 26, 2011
Great book. It had some surprises that I didn't expect. I loved the characters. This is why I love Karen Robards! Also, I love Joyce Bean's voice. She is an excellent reader!
April 7, 2013
Story moves fast, sometimes so much that it is hard to follow. The story is ok, but requires suspension of belief sometimes.
September 12, 2015
Enough loose ends to knit a sweater, an utterly implausible plot, and characters who indulge in flirty banter within moments of one being rescued from a horrific event. Don't bother.
Read
June 23, 2016I loved it! This book had me scared and thinking logically about plausible reasons for what was going on.
September 11, 2023
This was the first book I read by Karen Robards; it is the reason I buy her books consistently.
March 26, 2019
I felt like this book had all the elements I usually love - suspense, mystery, romance and action. Yet the elements were not properly mixed together.
A harrowing night forces Katherine to come face to face with two ski capped villains as they break into her town house and assault her - looking for something extremely important. Scared and confused, she narrowly escapes.
Katherine wakes up in the hospital, fuzzy-minded, now coming face to face with a friendly face. It's Dan, her next-door-neighbor. However, when she finally gets a chance to see her own face, it is not familiar at all. More confused than ever, Katherine is on the run and doesn't know who to trust - her boyfriend, his people, her sexy neighbor? It's hard to know who to trust when you cannot even trust your own reflection - or your own memory.
I've read quite a few amnesia stories and thought this sounded intriguing since it was a different take on this trope. That's the thing, it was intriguing - the disjointed memories and recollection were a bit different than the usual faire of "who am I?" "where am I?" "help me remember those lost moments of my life because I need them to figure out who is out to get me." However, I could not connect with Katherine - or "Fake Katherine". The story was so concern about creating this confusion for her and the readers alike that we didn't know who "Fake Katherine" was until the last few chapters of the book. And I don't just mean her name and how she became tangled up with this craziness - I mean who she was an individual - as a person. There was no real personality or character traits to latch onto and make me see her other than "Fake Catherine". Then when we do find out who she really is - Jenna - she is still not completely fleshed out. Yet, I still did not care about her. She could have been shot or killed and I would have been "meh"
The one character that did catch my interest was Nick. We are first introduced to him when he is slapped across the face by his sister's predicament. Allie's situation humanizes Nick and I felt for him. Then he disappears. Then he reappears and we realize that he is connected to "Fake Catherine" but not sure how. We just know he cares - though he shouldn't. I wish we got more from him, more about him, more with him.
Actually, I wish we got more from all the characters. They all became more or less 2D versions of their role - the controlling, sinister villain; the double team henchmen; the serious FBI agent who is battling with his emotions; the vulnerable yet spunky yet emotional yet confused heroine; the creepy man who gets off on torturing people . . . No depth
Maybe in a year or two I will come back and re-read this book and get another take on it, yet after just finishing it for the first time I just have to say I was disappointed. The pacing was all over the place, the characters lacked depth, the mystery was complicated, the romance was stilted then sudden then ridiculous The premise was intriguing but the layout and everything mentioned above did not do it justice. Sigh.
A harrowing night forces Katherine to come face to face with two ski capped villains as they break into her town house and assault her - looking for something extremely important. Scared and confused, she narrowly escapes.
Katherine wakes up in the hospital, fuzzy-minded, now coming face to face with a friendly face. It's Dan, her next-door-neighbor. However, when she finally gets a chance to see her own face, it is not familiar at all. More confused than ever, Katherine is on the run and doesn't know who to trust - her boyfriend, his people, her sexy neighbor? It's hard to know who to trust when you cannot even trust your own reflection - or your own memory.
I've read quite a few amnesia stories and thought this sounded intriguing since it was a different take on this trope. That's the thing, it was intriguing - the disjointed memories and recollection were a bit different than the usual faire of "who am I?" "where am I?" "help me remember those lost moments of my life because I need them to figure out who is out to get me." However, I could not connect with Katherine - or "Fake Katherine". The story was so concern about creating this confusion for her and the readers alike that we didn't know who "Fake Katherine" was until the last few chapters of the book. And I don't just mean her name and how she became tangled up with this craziness - I mean who she was an individual - as a person. There was no real personality or character traits to latch onto and make me see her other than "Fake Catherine". Then when we do find out who she really is - Jenna - she is still not completely fleshed out. Yet, I still did not care about her. She could have been shot or killed and I would have been "meh"
The one character that did catch my interest was Nick. We are first introduced to him when he is slapped across the face by his sister's predicament. Allie's situation humanizes Nick and I felt for him. Then he disappears. Then he reappears and we realize that he is connected to "Fake Catherine" but not sure how. We just know he cares - though he shouldn't. I wish we got more from him, more about him, more with him.
Actually, I wish we got more from all the characters. They all became more or less 2D versions of their role - the controlling, sinister villain; the double team henchmen; the serious FBI agent who is battling with his emotions; the vulnerable yet spunky yet emotional yet confused heroine; the creepy man who gets off on torturing people . . . No depth
Maybe in a year or two I will come back and re-read this book and get another take on it, yet after just finishing it for the first time I just have to say I was disappointed. The pacing was all over the place, the characters lacked depth, the mystery was complicated, the romance was stilted then sudden then ridiculous The premise was intriguing but the layout and everything mentioned above did not do it justice. Sigh.
May 16, 2018
This was a head scratcher Um, it had some good parts I had a hard time figuring out who was who. She writes great books but this one, trying to figure out who was being Obsession? This is my version and If you don't agree you read it. The players are Allie Houston Dr. Nick's little sister- FBI Special Crimes Unit agent Nick Houston/Dr. Nick aka Dr. Dan Howard, Jenna/Katherine her best friend Lisa. The Bad guys are Ed Barnes, Starky, Bennette, Det. Keith who work for a Mr. M.also Muffy the Cat. It starts off as Allie gets scared that there is an arrest warrant out for her and she hooked on drugs. Next, we are witness to a crime which is playing out in front of us. Jenna and Lisa are coming home to her apartment in which Jenna is living there temporary thanks to Ed Barnes. But 3 men break into the apartment ransacking it looking for something like a thumb drive. Looking for a safe and she has no idea what they were looking for assuming that she is a rich person the men all have on black ski masks and are threating both women since they are on the kitchen floor tied up. I think it's Starky who is threating to cut her face up with a pocket knife. Lisa decided's to make a break for it w/ help from Jenna who is fading in and out of concussion she was punched in the face, getting beat up by the robber trying to make her talk. About this thing, he is looking for. They go into to another room because the 2nd robber thinks he has found it but finds the safe which is to heavy to move. Lisa has a plan to leave and take Jenna with and trying to get help. But they try to get out and get stuck between 2 doors because one needs a key the deadbolt won't open Jenna presses the alarm it goes off but they can't leave Jenna reaches for the key the 2nd robber noticed that they both left and shoots at the door to stop the ladies but ends up killing Lisa. Now it flashes forward to being in a hospital with Jenna who survived. Now Jenna looks like this other woman named Katherine which her father has a law firm and he also works along with the mob boss Ed Barnes & Mr. M. by money laundering. The FBI wants George & his daughter to turn over state evidence against the mob family. Now they have roughed up George her father and Mr. Burns said they are going after Katherine next here is where it gets bizarre they bring in a Dr, Freyah who gives her a shot which is supposed to block her memories and she is hypnotized and told over and over that she is Katherine and she acts just like her and her mannerisms. And told she will never remember again. Now were in a wild ride for our lives. This is all I can say. I've listened to an 11 CD audiobook 2 times on certain CD's to understand what was going on for myself and trying to make sense of it.
August 21, 2022
Title: Obsession
Author: Karen Robards
Release Date: May 27th, 2008
Page Count: 484
Start Date: August 19th, 2022
Finish Date: August 20th, 2022
Review:
Story: I didn't love this book all that much. I didn't hate it either. I think my biggest issue was that the characters weren't really all that relatable. Or personable. The story was decent. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a book that I wanted to add to my DNF pile, but it also isn't a book I'm ever going to reread. I also don't want to continue reading. I believe it's a standalone novel. So I don't have to worry about continuing a series at least. This book was recommended to me by a good friend of mine. And honestly,
Characters: I don't think I'll get into my opinions of the characters this time around. I don't really want to be cruel. I don't want to turn people off of this book by my personal opinions. I mean it really is a lovely book. I just didn't love it.
Critiques: None
Narration: I really enjoyed the narration of this book.
Final Thoughts: I really did like this book. I just didn't love it. I won't reread it. If I owned this book in paperback, I'd probably give it away. Despite that, I still recommend it. It's not really a romance forward book. Not that I had a problem with that. I saw some reviews that were complaining about it not being like this author's other books. I wouldn't know. This is the first one I read. I may give some of her other books a try. We will see.
Author: Karen Robards
Release Date: May 27th, 2008
Page Count: 484
Start Date: August 19th, 2022
Finish Date: August 20th, 2022
Review:
Story: I didn't love this book all that much. I didn't hate it either. I think my biggest issue was that the characters weren't really all that relatable. Or personable. The story was decent. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a book that I wanted to add to my DNF pile, but it also isn't a book I'm ever going to reread. I also don't want to continue reading. I believe it's a standalone novel. So I don't have to worry about continuing a series at least. This book was recommended to me by a good friend of mine. And honestly,
Characters: I don't think I'll get into my opinions of the characters this time around. I don't really want to be cruel. I don't want to turn people off of this book by my personal opinions. I mean it really is a lovely book. I just didn't love it.
Critiques: None
Narration: I really enjoyed the narration of this book.
Final Thoughts: I really did like this book. I just didn't love it. I won't reread it. If I owned this book in paperback, I'd probably give it away. Despite that, I still recommend it. It's not really a romance forward book. Not that I had a problem with that. I saw some reviews that were complaining about it not being like this author's other books. I wouldn't know. This is the first one I read. I may give some of her other books a try. We will see.
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