She Treads Softly: Forget What You Know

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Forget What You Know

Forget What You Know by Christina Dodd
3/7/23; 384 pages
Harlequin

Forget What You Know by Christina Dodd is a highly recommended romantic suspense novel and sequel to Point Last Seen (2022).

After an opening introducing readers to the Dragon's Heart, Dodd returns to the setting of Gothic, California. Lowering water levels allows a car to be seen in a lake. Inside are the remains of a man who was shot in the back of the head and in the backseat is the priceless and legendary Dragon's Heart that has inspired greed and murder for centuries. Morgayne Phoenix has some interest in this case because it relates to her past and could harm her remaining daughter, Zoey.

Zoey Phoenix is a flower breeder in Gothic. She is unaware of drama that is headed her direction when she is almost killed in a hit and run accident. Morgayne disappears after making sure Zoey is recovering but contacts Zoey's ex-husband, Luca Damezas, to look after her. Luca, a former professional wrestle, is aware that more threats may be coming. Also, he is still in love with Zoey and hopes for a reconciliation. It is clear that more is going on when Zoey finds her flower farm has been vandalized. Adding to the stress is the upcoming Gothic Garden and Flower Show.

The plot is intricate and complicated with several suspicious incidents, humor, magic realism, romance, and sub-plots going on. Really, the main plot of the novel is the rekindling of the romance between Zoey and Luca, which even overshadows the Dragon's Heart. It might help if you have read the previous novel set in Gothic, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel. The main characters are all portrayed as fully realized individuals and there are several. There are also a whole lot of ancillary characters. The final denouement is exciting, but almost resembles slap-stick comedy in the absurdity of the scene.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Harlequin via Edelweiss.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.