Who do you trust when everyone is lying?

My name is Tess Parker.

Two days ago, I was in a car accident with my sister-in-law, Torrie. Before she slipped into a coma, she asked my husband and me to care for her four-month-old son, Levi.

Yesterday, a woman claiming to be Torrie’s estranged sister knocked on our door. But Torrie has no siblings . . . or so she said. She and my brother were only together a short time before he left, and Torrie has clearly been keeping secrets.

Today, another of Torrie’s “sisters” has come to town. Both say the other is lying about who they are.

Neither of them is telling the truth.

Both of them want Levi.

If She Wakes is the sequel to If She Dies which I reviewed last year. I was ecstatic to hear that a sequel had been written as If She Dies was one of my top five books of 2021. I was also delighted to find that Tess Parker hadn’t changed one bit. She’s still the most wonderful character who has been through the most tragic of circumstances following the death of her 5-year-old daughter, Lily, who was killed in a road traffic accident whereupon the driver of the vehicle was sentenced to just 2 years in prison.

First and foremost, I was glad to see that Tess and her husband Josh are still together, however on top of the grief for Lily, Tess’s twin Colin has died from cancer leaving behind widow Torrie and their four-month-old baby Levi. Tess has done all that she can to be there for Torrie to try and forge a relationship with her and help out with Levi. However, tragedy strikes once more when the pair suffer a car accident. Torrie is badly injured and is in a coma and together with the guilt Tess is feeling, she and Josh have the responsibility of looking after Levi in the hope that Torrie will survive.

If She Wakes is another brilliantly written, compelling thriller that hooks you from the start, and what is even more powerful is that the author has written the sequel so that there are no spoilers if you read this book before the first. Tess is such a beautiful character, heart-warming and deeply flawed, she over-thinks everything and is in the main part, too desperately hard on herself.

As Tess tries to adapt to the changes that come with looking after Levi and the wounds that this opens, she meets Jessie who has come looking for her sister Torrie, revealing a murky past and family dynamics that will blow the reader away.

The twists and turns were completely unexpected and I did not see the ending coming in any way shape or form, which is the kind of thriller that I love. Without ruining the ending, all I will say is bravo, it means there’s a third book coming along, and honestly, I cannot wait.

Another superb thriller that reeled me in and kept me turning the pages until the end and one I would highly recommend.

Erik Therme has thrashed in garage bands, inadvertently harbored runaways, and met Darth Vader. When he’s not at his computer, he can be found cheering on his youngest daughter’s volleyball team, or watching horror movies with his oldest.

He currently resides in Iowa City, Iowa—one of only twenty-eight places in the world that UNESCO has certified as a City of Literature.