Love Me If You Must

Patricia Amble #1

by Nicole Young

A professional house renovator, Tish Amble hardly waits for the paint to dry before selling up & moving on; but when she arrives in small town Michigan the plan begins to go awry. For a start she discovers something unsettling in the basement that interests the police officer next door.

Genres: Mystery, Romance, Christian Fiction, Christian, Fiction, Contemporary, Suspense

379 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Nicole Young holds a bachelor's degree in communication arts. In 2004 she won the Noble Theme Award for the Best First Chapter from the American Christian Romance Writers. She is the author of LOVE ME IF YOU MUST, KILL ME IF YOU CAN and KISS ME IF YOU DARE. She lives with her family in Michigan.

Reviews

[Jeanette Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of people rated this book poorly because of Tish's character, but that's exactly why I liked it. People DO have wild imaginary fantasies, make blundering mistakes, get desperate about relationships, and become completely paranoid when living alone in a house with a strange history. As an avid reader of Christian fiction, I found the authors approach to life and 'religion' based in more reality than many contemporary authors of ppb novels today. (The publishing restrictions often create a speudo-holy, sterile environment for the characters that I find unrealistic.) You don't 'find religion' and everything is magically better - as Officer Brad told her, life is a spiritual journey and I look forward to keeping up with Tish in future books as she goes down her path...

[eRin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to start? Another Christian fiction title masquerading as not. These things pop up on the free Kindle book list faster than chicken pox on a five-year-old. It's really my fault, I should know better; but I keep hoping that I'll find a jewel somewhere. I don't have anything against Christian fiction, except that I don't particularily like to read it. I don't need to be preached to through a book. It's just not my thing. I simply request that it's properly labeled in the categories.

I could deal with the Christain fiction aspect if the rest of the book wasn't so bad. It was pretty preachy throughout, emphasizing how *alone* Tish is, over and over and over. Can deal with that as well; except for the fact that she's plain crazy. A couple of brief encounters with a guy and she's already envisioning her life with him before their first date. I, too, have an overactive imagination when it comes to dating and relationships, but this is absurd. Completely absurd. One page she's extolling the virtues of singlehood; the next she's imagining the children she'll have with the guy she first met a week ago. She's paranoid (only some of it justified), jumpy, and nearly constantly frightened.

Most of the mystery aspect was over-the-top, but I have to say that the ending almost surprised me. Almost. And for that, I'm almost grateful I hung in until the end. Almost.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patricia Amble Mystery Series Book 1

A professional house renovator, Trish Amble hardly waits for the paint to dry before selling up and moving on; but when she arrives in small town Michigan the plan begins to go awry. For a start, she discovers something unsettling in the basement that interests the policeman next door.

Tish came to Rawlings to renovate a Victorian house that she had purchased. She had bad taste in men. In fact Tish wasn't all that likeable but I did like the police officer, Brad. There was some spooky elements to the story, but there usually is where a basement is involved. There's a little religion intwined in the story. This is a quick and easy book to read.

#FreeKindleBook

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is so difficult to write a review when a plot has such potential but in the final analysis the execution was poor. This is the case with "Love Me If You Must." Patricia Amble is a house restorer who recently purchase an old victorian house to turn for a profit. The problem is the house is rumored to be haunted, Tish's past is about to come back and bite her and two attractive local men are vying for her affection. Sounds good right? Well, here are the problems. Tish is not some young girl. She is in her late twenties to early thirties but at times she possesses the maturity of a 16 year old.

Initially, Tish is attractive to a handsome British neighbor named David. After meeting him she goes on these endless daydreams of how they will marry, what their wedding will be like, where they will live and debate over whether they should have kids. Give me a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then, after one date, he swears he loves her and asks her to marry him. I don't know what shocked me more that David asked her or that she was actually considering it.

Next, her neighbor the police officer manages to break through her emotional shell and gets her to accept a lunch date with him. After this date, now she begins her daydream tirade about their wedding, kids etc. And of course, he now loves her too! Enough already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also have one final criticism. The character of Tish was not very likeable. She is bitter, critical, self pitying and just plain judgmental towards other. I could not get beyond this at time to truly enjoy the wonderful shocking ending, intrigue and mystery.

Some other reviewers have criticize this due to the Christian nature of the subject matter at times. However, this did not bother me at all. I just could not fathom how a older twenty year old woman could function the way this character does. I guess this explains the low cost of the download. Sorry. This just did not work for me.

[Julie Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. The heroine was feisty and had moxie and I appreciated her difficult past and her subsequent inability to forge connections with people and leave her loneliness.

The mystery started off very interesting; got me hooked and kept me guessing. I also appreciated the unconventional ending.

What I didn't like was a) her inane flip flopping when it came to the men she meets. One minute, they're scary, the next, she's ready to marry them. It didn't make sense or ring true. And the other thing I struggled with was b) the Christian sermonizing, which, quite frankly, surprised me, as I wasn't expected it. It came about third of the way in, and came on too strong. i didn't find it subtle at all. Especially how all the 'good' people went to church and had God in their lives, while the 'bad' people of the book did not. I did appreciate how her spirituality helped her heal from her past, but it really just came on way too strong for my tastes.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this would qualify as a Christian "creepy mystery" novel with some romance. After the first few chapters, the only thing that kept me reading was wondering if there really was a body in the basement. About halfway through, I started skimming simply to discover the answer to that.

The romance part was a bit odd. The heroine was dreaming of a wonderful future married life (complete with kids) while on her first date with a handsome guy she barely knew. Yet she kept calling her cop neighbor (despite not trusting cops) to save her because he's the one she trusts deep down. She keeps being mean to him, yet he still wants to date her. And the title gives you an idea of how the romances all turn out--she leaves and hopes to forget the people there who love her.

I found the mystery to be quite creepy. The heroine was so jumpy that she'd jump at her own shadow. Then again, if I was seeing creepy images of tortured dead people in my basement and hearing ghostly mental whispers for help, I'd probably do the same. The mystery was fine, but I don't think the author did much research on how police operate.

The heroine calls in that she found a dead body (not the potential "ghost" body). They immediately arrest and book her for the crime without even asking her for her version of what happened or checking out time of death, alibis, etc. Then she has bail set within hours. Once out of jail, she's determined to uncover the true killer before her trial by....hiding in her house and intensively working to renovate it. And she makes no move to get a better lawyer.

The cops are apparently still actively searching for other potential suspects because her alibi panned out, yet they don't drop the case until they can get more evidence to assure a win on the case. And she keeps expecting to be arrested again for the crime, even though she has a trial date for that crime and is out on bail for that crime and isn't trying to run away. Considering the heroine has been in jail and gone to trial before, her wrong ideas about how the system works ruined the potential realism of the story for me.

There was no bad language or sex that I noticed, but I was skimming part of it. The Christian part mainly seemed to be how nice the Christian characters treated her at first along with some invitations to church. I think it got a little deeper later on, in the part I skimmed over.

[Kati · Rating 1 out of 5]

At best the main character is written inconsistently, at worst - she's so annoying I hate her. The other characters aren't much better.

Tish Amble buys a old victorian that is so bad it looks haunted. She creeps herself out because its old and "haunted", freaks out when others mention ghosts and hears voices in the house* (*her head...she's a wackadoo). Then she sees a body in her cistern and flips her shit. Except no one else sees this body. She spends the rest of the book being terrified of the basement and the "body". She freaks out and calls on handsome cop next door TWICE to save her from the stick in her basement window and someone outside. She assumes someone broke in and then someone is trying to break in. Logical assumptions driven to panic. Fine, I get it, she's easily creeped out and maybe a little crazy or easily suggestable. That's her personality. Except it's not. When she finds blood in the basement, she calls handsome cop to investigate again, and he finds a dead body. Tish is as cool as a cucumber about it. Two people actually broke into her house and one killed the other and left him. But she doesn't panic about the basement being legitimately creepy now or that someone actually, 100% broke into her house....and could come back. How is she freaking out about figments of her imagination but not real creepy shit?!?!?!!?

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a real jumble of elements.

The basic premise of a single female renovating a home and finding what she thinks is a dead body buried in the cellar cistern was a good start. But add to the mix the fact that she has a secret past, she's the only one who can "see" the buried body, she picks up strange vibes coming from the basement, and the fact that our heroine is a complete idiot, then the story goes downhill fast.

I've never come across such ridiculous characters. There's the handsome British guy with the accent who proposes marriage after one week - Can anyone say "green card"? - and the not-as-handsome cop who's only interested in bringing our heroine to church.

I couldn't tell at first what genre this story fit into.
I finally decided it's a "Christian-fiction, paranormal, not-so-mysterious mystery."

Oh, and if anyone can explain the title of the book to me, I'd appreciate it!

For anyone interested in home renovation mysteries, pick up a Sarah Graves book.

[Dlora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of restoring homes in this book and I wish there had been more detail about that. I also was interested in the conflict that homeowners get into trying to get permits to update old homes without destroying historical features. Main character Tish Amble says she likes "creepy romances" and this book falls into that category when she thinks she sees a dead body covered by not-enough cement in her basement cistern. Her intuition leads her to try to uncover a murder that she believes the police are not aware of. But then she stumbles onto a real murder--the body dumped in that very cistern--and Tish spends a few days in jail as a suspect, which also brings to light the fact that she has a murky past: she helped her grandmother commit suicide and served three years in jail for it. This was an interesting story but was unevenly written. Often Tish would move from one emotional state to another without enough transition. For instance, when the details of her past came out, she vowed never to leave her house and face the embarrassment, but after a few days she suddenly decides to run for a position on the city council and goes out knocking on doors. We needed a transition for her change of feeling. The end was unsatisfying as well--opening up room for a sequel but unsatisfying for me. And I do like a good title, whereas this one didn't tie to the book that I could tell. Love Me If You Must!: Who's loving who and why must they?

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A first novel by this author. It appears she has written 2 more in this series. The main character has just moved to a new city and has bought a house to remodel and then sell. The author alludes to the possibility of ghosts, seeing the dead, and leads us along about the main character. We know she was somewhere locked up (mental facility, jail)? It kept up a pretty good pace. Possible murders that happened before she arrived and murders that happened after she got there. Because I didn't solve it right away that was a perk also. I liked it enough that I will probably read the next book in the series sometime.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. The main character, Tish, moves around renovating houses and then selling them. With no place to call her permanent home, and questions about her own background, a body is found in the basement of her new house. She becomes involved in solving the murder with her own life in the balance. This is book one in a series and I have already started book two. I highly recommend this book if you like a modern day mystery with a dash of romance. I do believe this book is classified as Christian fiction (or should be) and it was refreshing to read a book that did not contain cursing or blatant sex scenes.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. Tish is a psycho who jumps to conclusions all the time, with no evidence to back any of it up. I admit, I couldn't even bring myself to read the last 50 pages or so because I was sick of tish. She is always jumping at her own shadow and changing her mind about other characters ever 10 pages or so. Thank God this book was free on amazon. I would be wicked mad if I actually had to pay for it. I dont know why it was ever published.

I almost never take the time to write reviews but I am so outraged at the stupidity and ridiculousness of this book that i had to. If I could of given it a half a star, I would of.

[Berryparfait · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story about how God forgives us of our past and loves us no matter what.

Even though the book has a Christian theme to it, the theme is subtle and the author writes an intriguing murder mystery with a small, town feel to it. The story line and characters are great. And the main theme of forgiveness shines through at every corner.

My only issue, is though it had a happy ending....it didn't have quite the happy ending I thought it would. But then the slight references to "Casablanca" should have foreshadowed that. Still a great book.

[Loraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the twists and turns in this romantic mystery. In small town Rawlins Michigan, Patrcia Amble is all set to renovate an old Victorian house. But things seem to go awry right the day one. No one in town is whom they seem and her two single neighbors both are courting her. She is afraid of Brad, a police officer, because of her past encounters with the law; and she is drawn to David, the suave British computer geek. But who will see the real Tish and who will draw her into a web of intrique and murder; that is the question?

[Britney · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good mystery, but the main character Tish Amble needs help. She can't make a good decision for anything. You just knew she was going to make the wrong decision everytime. Some people have a hard time with her because she comes off with a harsh attitude.

The mystery flowed well throughout the story. It's a quick read if want to just sit a relax for a day.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading this on and off for a year, and finally finished it.

Pros: first-person perspective made the occasionally wacky/daffy actions of the protagonist easier to buy.

Cons: still slightly unbelievable reactions to marriage proposal, and the religion got heavy-handed towards the end of the book.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

My interest was held through the book. It is will written. Tris' story is nicely woven through out. Paranormal aspects of the story are poorly done. Romance is almost non resistant. What happen is not reveal until the end. The next book is now on my TBR pil

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book turned out to be a great mystery. I had guessed it all wrong as I usually do. A story of dealing with the past and accepting forgiveness.

[books_with_sass · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free ebook on Kobo, and it took a long time for me to get around to starting this, and a pretty long time to read it. Although full disclosure, I only read it on my phone every now and then while sitting in my car waiting to go in to work in the mornings. This was an alright book for being free...other free books by various authors left a little (or a lot, as the case may be) to be desired. I do not have high expectations for free books. However, this one had some interesting things going on, and it moved relatively quickly. The time frame for the entire book is pretty tight, but in that span of time Tish has TWO men fall desperately in love with her (don't we all wish we could have that lol). There were definitely times where I was a little bit lost when it came to Tish and her Grams. A few times I had to read sections over again, and still didn't really understand. You don't get the full picture until the end, so don't feel bad if you think you're missing something. A murder mystery is always a great storyline, especially when there are numerous suspects but nothing makes sense.

I have seen other reviews about this being "Christian fiction" and honestly, if I hadn't seen those reviews before I read this, it wouldn't have even occurred to me that this fell in that category (sidenote: I didn't know that was actually a category). Yes, there are mentions of church and God sprinkled throughout the novel, and it gets a little more heavy-handed towards the end, but I don't think it was overpowering or took away from the rest of the story at all. Truthfully, I am not Christian and don't believe in God but the mentions in this book weren't so overt that it made me feel as if the writer was trying to push her ideals onto me. I had no issues at all reading those sections. Everyone has beliefs, and even though mine don't match the ones in the book, I am openminded enough to not be offended when I read about someone else's issues. If you are concerned about the so-called religious aspect of this particular novel, don't be.

All in all, a relatively cute little murder mystery with a little bit of love thrown in. If you like knights in shining armor or comeback stories, then by all means give this one a try. I don't believe I currently own any of the rest of the series, but I may look for them down the line...the story did end with kind of a cliffhanger...maybe.

[Jenika Ioffreda · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.
If only Amazon kindle would have classified this book as Christian literature I wouldn't have downloaded it and wasting time reading it… Nothing against Christian or any other religion, simply I have ZERO interest in reading about it.
Luckily the religious part wasn't so strong as other books I had the misfortune to read and I managed to read it until the end.
The beginning of the book was very intriguing and all elements very captivating: a funny and witty woman with a painful past buys a house where some sort of paranormal happenings are going on, two handsome neighbours, a town that seems full of mysteries…I ended up getting really engrossed in the story and curious to know more… but sadly from the second half of the book everything went downhill and the story became a "wtf?" story.
The "romance" made me laugh, in a bad way. She meets the two neighbours for a couple of days and the three of them speaks of love. Seriously? I may appreciate the "love at first sight" events if they were well developed… but here they bordered on the hilarious (again in a bad way).
The whole "come to Church, we have cookies" annoyed me, plus a few elements were slightly unbelievable. I am not very knowledgeable of police proceedings in theme of murder, but it sounded a bit too strange the police let her live again in her house without problems after a body was discovered there. The investigation in the area was just for a couple of days? A body was discovered there!
The ending was quite interesting and I liked the writing style (at least in the first half of the book) so I would be happy to try and read more works by this author… if they are not Christian literature and the stories are better developed.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The suspense was not bad, although it was sort of like the girl in the movies going down into the darkness while you scream "don't go down there!". The main character was illogical and showed little good judgement in her evaluation of men. She wasn't even terribly likable. It was OK, but I won't go out of my way to seek out the next in this series. On the good side, it had been sitting on my Kindle for years, so it finished my 25 book challenge to read books I had downloaded years ago and never read.

[Inspector Penny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zero, if I could.
Tish might be the worst female protagonist ever. She's immature, obnoxious, silly...and clumsy. I don't know how many times she falls down, drops things, or ruins her manicure. She meets two guys and immediately thinks of them as potential boyfriends or husband. When one of them touches her hand, she feels electric tingles going up her arm. I hate it when writers do that! When does that ever really happen?
Why do so many writers persist in creating such horrid & incompetent female main characters?

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder ala carte

Who could have thought Tish would get into such a difficult situation when she picked this home to reno? In spite of her past she still gets immersed in a death deception by a man she kind of likes. Her male interests bounce from a local policeman and a guy from the UK who wants to marry a woman to make himself a legal citizen. Unfortunately he is also a suspect in at least murder. Poor Tish sure gets herself in lots of tight spots. The ending was not happily ever after unfortunately.

[john taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This read comprises of 47 bite size chapters,
that I'd class as more of a mystery/suspense than a romance novel.Main character is a good looking,Zany type of a girl,who makes her money as a renovator of old homes,completing one,selling it and moving on to her next project.An event is discovered in her latest 1900 Victorian renovation that also causes her paranoia, as well as causing her trouble.My personal opinion was that it was for me,a bit too drawn out, and as such, could only rate it 3 stars.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an adventurous story about Tish. She came to Rawlings to restore a Victorian home she purchased. The drama starts with a spooky cistern in her basement. She has a run in with Martin as she applies for a permit to remove the cistern. The drama continues from there where her suspicions lean toward a dead body under the cistern. She has two men that fall in love with her. She finally accepts God and forgives herself for her past. Great storyline.

[Helene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story gives new meaning to the challenges of 'bringing new life' to an old home. A lifestyle - no real home, just a temporary project - makes Tish's life very different. Relationships are few and seemingly unimportant since the neighbors are temporary. But the challenges of getting work permits for the renovation are real - but don't usually end in murder. Tish manages to survive but not without issues that remain.

[Nancy Pretty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure where to start.... Christian Fiction is a stretch first of all. No character development, unnecessary character introductions, no follow through... Went from having no relationships to two in a very short time frame.. and pictured herself married with children to both. Struggled to finish.

[Kathryn A. Bernards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying too hard.

This story was mediocre at best. She is trying way too hard to be Nora Roberts and failing miserably. Disjointed and confusing. No plans to read the second installment.

[Juanita Kay McKellar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I enjoyed this book. Had to remember I had chores to do and had a hard time putting it down. I was disappointed that she left Rawlings. Maybe a sequel will do d her and Brad reuniting

[Sarah Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, I was a bit sceptical when I saw it was a Christian Thriller, but I was pleasantly surprised. The book kept my attention throughout, but got really good in the final 20% of it! I’d definitely recommend this one!