I recently finished reading an ARC of Forgotten Secrets by S.F. Baumgartner. This book will be published on Jan. 8th. It’s about a lady, Clara, who develops amnesia after a tragic incident. Most of the story takes about about 20 years after she got amnesia. She still can’t remember what happened. She doesn’t even know who she was before losing her memory. In those roughly 20 years, Clara has moved on and started a new life for herself.
What You Should Know
While this is the second book in the series (third, if you count the novella), I was told that it was a standalone novel. I have not read the previous books. I’m not sure if this was just included as part of the ARC that I got or if it will be included in the regular version of the book, but there was a small recap of the previous two stories at the beginning of this book. Through that and some of the clues included in the text, I was able to mostly catch on to what happened in the previous stories. Still, there were parts where I was confused. With that in mind, I definitely feel like the story would have made more sense if I had read the previous books. I would recommend reading them first.
Multiple Viewpoints Warning
This book follows a variety of viewpoints. If you don’t like that type of book, I’d recommend passing on this book. The multiple viewpoints left me confused at times. There are a lot of people to try to connect together. You’ve got Clara. You’ve got her children and her husband. Then you have characters from the previous books. These include family and friends who knew Clara before she got amnesia as well as FBI agents and others connected to the previous stories. Again, I think reading the previous books would have made it easier to make these connections.
For me, there were just a few too many confusing parts where I had go back and reread something or recheck the link between characters. Some of that might be because I hadn’t read the previous stories. Some of it, though, was due to the book not quite being 5-star polished yet.
Clean or Not?
This is a clean novel. There’s no swearing. There’s no sexual content. The violence is behind the scenes. There is some talk of human trafficking, but the author doesn’t go into detail with that. I’m going to say that this book is mildly Christian. That’s about the best way that I can explain it. There is talk of going to church and people praying for their own safety or the safety of others. Overall, though, I feel like the Christian themes are so minor that even someone who doesn’t believe in God could enjoy this book without feeling like someone’s preaching to them.
