What He Doesn't Know

What He Doesn't Know Duet, Book 1

De: Kandi Steiner

Narrado por: Erin Mallon, Jason Clarke, Sebastian York

On the northeast side of town, there is a house.

The house was once magical, filled with love and joy and plans for the future. Inside its walls are many things that belong to me - my books, the china from my mother on my wedding day, the beautiful cage once home to two birds, now empty, just like me.

And a man. A man who also belongs to me. A man I no longer wish to keep. A man who, no doubt, has not slept, though the sun is rising. Because the house where he waits is where I laid my head to rest every night for eight years. Until last night.

No one who knows me would believe Charlie Pierce, the quiet, bookish girl who never made waves, is pulling out of the driveway of a man who isn’t her husband. But they don’t know me at all. I don’t even know me. Not anymore.

They say there are two sides to every story, and I suppose in most cases, that’s true. But the one I live inside of? It has three.

On the northeast side of town, there is a house. But there is no longer a home.

©2018 Kandi Steiner (P)2018 audiOMG!

Wow!

Just a fair warning I wouldn’t recommend listening to this in public. I cried throughout this book. This story just completely broke my heart. I know the cheating aspect may turn readers off but there is just so much more to the story, so I recommend giving it a chance. You truly feel and can understand everyone’s side of the story. It is not black and white story.

Your heart will break for all of these characters who are all going through something and trying to find peace.

The narration was superb! Honestly probably elevated the story with all the emotion.

I can not recommend this book enough. I am ready for book two!

I LOVED IT, I HATED IT!!!

I really don't know what to think about this book. I enjoyed it at times but then I hated it at times.

Heart-wrenching story.

I adored this story. Kandi Steiner broke my heart a million times in this book.
The male narrators were fantastic but I wasn’t a fan of the female narrator’s. Her voice was very breathy, and she adds an -uh to the end of so many words, usually at the end of a sentence. “I wasn’t sure what to doooo-uh.” “She flew away-uh.” It was very distracting.

So much heartbreak

There is so much heartbreak and turmoil in this book. I can’t say I like the cheating aspect of it and I dint agree with it, but I do understand it. I cannot imagine the pain that any of these characters are going through and I feel for each of them.

Well written

FIRST OF ALL, if you haven't read/listened this book yet, DO NOT, I repeat, DO FREAKING NOT look at the blurb for the spin off (book 3) that is included in the series list with this DUET. That's right, DU-freaking-ET, meaning two. The blurb gives the entire ending away for this duet and although it is still good to see how they got to the ending, knowing ahead of time which of the men she will choose is not cool.

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book. I liked how well written it was and that even though there was cheating and such, it was done in a heart wrenching way. I really felt for Charlie in her situation. When I finished, I was almost not wanting to continue to book two to find out how everything turns out....Almost.

Audible: I added the whispersync audible narration to this kindle book. There were three narrators. One for each POV. The male narrators were totally fine. They had nice voices and were easy to listen to. The female narrator was...unique. I had to restart the book multiple times because I had a hard time getting used to her voice and I was a bit dumbfounded. She was very breathy and almost moan-y sounding. She legit sounded like an adult actress. Once I got used to her voice, I was able to listen to her just fine, save my smirks each time her POV chapters started again. Especially since it was the most prominent when she was saying "Charlie" at the beginning of each of her chapters. All that aside, I enjoyed the audio well enough.

Re-Read-One of my Favs

Re-Read (2019) The third book in the series was being released, so I wanted to re-read the first two books. I NEVER re-read, but I previously received an ARC of both books one and two. For certain authors/publicities there is a very short turnaround for reviews. Sometimes I feel like I am rushing through a story to get it up in time. Also, being a mood reader, I am not always in the mood to read a book that quickly. That seems to be the case for this one as I loved this more than I remember. I feel like I missed so much that happened, so I was happy to jump back into these characters. This was so much more heartbreaking than I remember. Kandi Steiner did a great job pulling you into the emotions of the characters. This deals with so much more than cheating. This deals with love, loss, fertility, and more. I am excited to re-read the second book and the new book release now!

Good story. Female narrator…meh

Good story. Not crazy about the dramatic breathlessness of the female narrator but loved that male narrator.

captivating

I loved it. I can't wait to see where this story goes. excuse me while I start book 2

Love triangle, marriage in trouble, messy, emotional!

What He Doesn’t Know is the first book in the Best Kept Secrets duet. This was a reread of this messy, angsty, love triangle duet and it’s interesting how some of my thoughts on this first book have changed in the 7 years since I first read it (especially knowing how it ends). This is a duet that definitely needs to be read in order.

“They say there are two sides to every story, and I suppose in most cases, that’s true. But the one I lived inside of? It had three.”

Charlie is a kindergarten teacher at a prep school, has been married for 8 years to Cameron, and is struggling. Charlie and Cameron dealt with a horrible loss five years ago and their relationship has not been the same since. They’re both dealing with a lot of grief and loss and their marriage has fractured because of that, both very alone in their feelings. One day Reese shows back up in Charlie’s life. They grew up as neighbors, he was her first crush but they never acted on it growing up because he was 5 years older and the timing was never right. He and his family moved away 14 years ago but now he’s back in town after a huge loss of his own and the new piano teacher at the school she works at. He is determined to bring joy and happiness back to Charlie’s life, he wants to just make her happy again and sees that her husband is not giving her the attention she deserves.

This duet is messssssy, but you just can’t look away at the same time. Filled with so much grief and loss and emotionally-charged interactions. The audiobook for this reread was amazing, such great performances!

Heart wrenching! 😩spoiler alert halfway through my review.

I have to agree with the reviews about this book being worth it. I debated for a while about getting this book. It took me reading two reviews about it to convince me to take a chance on it. Now I will say that I love this book and I know I have part two to get through, but I have to admit I am pissed at how this book ended. Spoiler alert******* stop reading now...
I was pissed off that Cameron came in at the very end of this book and basically “buys” her affections back. I was proud at first when she got mad 😡 I thought nice, stick up for yourself and call a spade a spade, tell him you can’t be bought.. and then she fucking caved! Wtf! This book could have played out for maybe another hour or two and been done. Now I’m gonna have to sit through another 8 hours or however long it’s gonna take to find out what she decides to do. My heart breaks for Reese. Now on another note, wtf with this bullshit about his “ex roommate/girlfriend? That was just unnecessary. Grr so mad at that too. Well part two here I come... I can’t not find out what happened but I’m PISSED!