About the Book
She has the whole world fooled. But the one man who just may see through her holds not only the key to her success, but also her heart…
Rachel Somers is America’s #1 relationship coach—America just doesn’t know it. Rachel writes the books, but her Aunt Donna plays the face of the operation. Living in fear of their secret being exposed, Rachel has no choice but to keep up the charade or lose the big money required to care for her father. With the deadline for their next book closing in, Rachel finds herself out of inspiration and running out of time. The last thing she needs is her aunt and publicist concocting a harebrained scheme to join forces with some radio star in the hope it will help deliver the elusive next book idea.
Lucas Grant is a star of late night radio—though it’s come with an unexpected price of hordes of women who keep calling his sports show to ask him for relationship advice. They make his ratings look great, but they also mean he has to waste hours talking to people like Dr. Donna Somerville about feelings instead of his first love: football. When a big-time producer calls, it looks like his hard work is about to pay off. But the offer comes with a catch—the producer is convinced Dr. Donna is not what she seems and he wants Lucas to discover her secret. To do that, he needs to win over her tight-lipped assistant who holds the key to his success and—he begins to suspect—his heart. Can love find a way through the lies that force them apart?
Excerpt
“You have to tell him. He fought hard to get us such a great offer. It’s not fair.”
“Tell me about it.” Fairness. Now that was something her life knew nothing about. “It’s not like there’s not time. We’ve still got one book to go.”
“Speaking of which . . .”
“Nada.” Not a bean, not a blip.
“Nothing?” Donna flipped open a silver compact.
“Sorry.” And she was. There was nothing more she would like to give her aunt to take to their publisher than the premise of her next book. But given that in three months she’d come up with three possible book ideas and abandoned them all less than five thousand words in, she didn’t put much hope in the next few days being any different.
Her aunt shrugged. “It’ll happen. You didn’t think you could write one book and yet here we are.”
Yes, here they were, still in the same dingy one-bedroom condo the whole charade had started in. “Indeed.”
“You okay?” Her aunt snapped her mirror shut and peered Rachel’s way.
“I just . . .” Rachel struggled to put her thoughts into words. “Do you ever . . .”
“Of course.” A sigh escaped Donna’s lips as she slipped the compact back into her oversized purse. “Rach, you’re a brilliant writer. And what you write is good, and true, and it helps people live better lives. Do I feel bad that people believe those words come from me? Of course I do. But we made the best decision we could at the time. No one could have ever guessed it would have turned into this.”
“I guess.” They were the ones who’d suggested the charade. Yet the most noble of reasons in the world didn’t make it right.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Her aunt dug around in her purse until a white envelope appeared.
Rachel slipped the crisp monogrammed sheet out of its pocket. The certification from their accountants was standard. It was the check appended on the top that mattered. A twitch of a smile. $88,657.23. The Christmas season had been good to them. Only half a million to go before she would be free. Finally.
All that stood between the two of them was one more book. Well, one more book and another year of living a lie.An extended excerpt can be found at
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/One-Thing-I-Know/Kara-Isaac/9781982103347
Review
Readers who are already familiar with Kara Isaac’s writing will find this story has a slightly more serious tone than her previous novels, although it’s definitely not without the humour and wit that I love in her writing. Case in point: “There were some things that were sacred, and walking into Barnes & Noble without running into a cardboard version of yourself was one of them.” It’s also different in that the main characters aren’t believers; the spiritual input in this novel comes via secondary characters. Nevertheless, the themes of honesty, integrity, reconciliation, and forgiveness resound throughout the story as Rachel and Grant work through past pain and present choices.
Stories involving this kind of secret aren’t my favourite, simply because I’m always braced, waiting for the axe to fall—which is why I avoid similar situations in real life! That said, this story avoided the kind of contrivance that’s often employed to keep the story going. I could understand how the situation had arisen, and I could understand why Rachel felt backed into a corner. It wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if Rachel were only ghost-writing, but she also “appears” live on radio via phone as Donna—on Lucas’s show no less. And for a man who’s never forgiven his father for living a double life, that’s kind of going to be a big deal.
Where this novel really sparkled for me, though, was the banter and flirting between Rachel and Lucas. Kara Isaac knows exactly how to play her main characters’ personalities off each other, and she creates fantastic romantic tension (and swoony moments) without resorting to innuendo and clichés. And beneath it all, there’s a genuine emotional connection between her characters. It certainly helped me forget about my “I hate secrets” tension at times!
For those who are looking for something to tug at the heartstrings, you’ll get that here, too, with some of the secondary plots in the story. So while I can’t say this is my favourite of Kara Isaac’s novels, it has plenty to recommend it to contemporary romance readers—especially if you get less uptight about “secrets” plots than I do!
I received a copy of this novel from the author. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
Kara Isaac writes contemporary romance in beautiful Wellington, New Zealand. She is the author of four novels including the RWA RITA award-winning Then There Was You (https://www.rwa.org/page/2018-winners), Close to You, a RITA Award Double Finalist, and Can’t Help Falling, an RT Review Top Pick. When she’s not chasing three small people, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand.
Wonderful review!!!
Thank you!