Die for You

I enjoy Unger's stories, and this one was good -- but not my favorite. You'll need to park your common sense at the door. Also, the egotistical "heroine" never missed an opportunity to point out how vastly superior she is to us mere mortals ... because she's a writer. Huh? Too many "facts" were changed or ignored for the sake of plot; that's lazy execution. For example, a person with a "severe concussion" is incapable of racing around New York City and Prague; I know from experience that one can barely sit upright without passing out. (Spoiler alert. She's also shot point-blank in the gut -- and continues running around. Puhlease.) Bottom line: Lots of potential, but this baby needed major surgery.

DIE FOR YOU was published in 2009, and at first it reminded me of the more recent GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn. GONE GIRL is on many best-of lists for 2012, and it is a good book. But DIE FOR YOU is better. GONE GIRL has a wife who has gone missing. DIE FOR YOU has a husband who has gone missing. Unlike the husband who has been left behind in GONE GIRL, the left-behind wife in DIE FOR YOU doesn't depend on the police investigation. Unger does a fabulous job of presenting the various characters' views. She shows that no one person is all good or all bad. And the heroine, whose viewpoints are the only first-person chapters, may take unnecessary chances; but that's more satisfying and interesting than a do-nothing husband. A good book can be five star or four. That depends on whether it is unputdownable. DIE FOR YOU is.

I just discovered Lisa Unger's books over the holidays and have devoured two and am salivating over the third . I don't want to read that one too quickly, because it is just so good and I don't want it to end ! A lot of people have already discussed the plot of the book and true, there are some parts that are a bit improbable . Would a woman scorned really risk life and limb to go off on a wild goose chase to search for the man she had devoted her life to only to discover that her entire life had been a lie ? Maybe not in real life , but hey , this IS fiction , and makes for an exciting read . The heroine is tenacious, captivating and vulnerable all at the same time and you want to cheer her on in her quest to seek answers and maybe get some well-deserved revenge to boot . Lisa Unger is a real star and is now high on my favorite author's list. Her descriptions of the characters , the way she delves into their hearts and minds , is uncanny and really makes you feel as if you are intimate friends . I love her style of writing - I found myself reading some of the sentences over again ,marveling at her metaphors that created such imagery . All I really can say is that , my test of a good read , is to hungrily seek out the next novel by the same author because you are hooked . Each book I have read by Lisa Unger is a winner and if you like suspense novels, these are top shelf .

what a fantastic read! From the early pages till the very last, this book grabs you and just doesn't let go. Izzy Raine has a seemingly perfect life. Great husband, great immediate family, successful job as a novelist, wonderful apartment, excellent love life. Everything seems to be perfect. At first and on the surface. Then one day, her husband doesn't return from work. What she gets involved in next will change not only her life, but the lives of those closest to her as well. What I really enjoyed about this book was how even though all the main characters seem perfect on the surface, we see how flawed and imperfect they are as Unger digs deeper and deeper into each one. There's actually four stories that are going on, all tied into the main plot of Isabell's husband's disappearance: 1) Izzy's inability to just let her husband go. She has a tenacity that will NOT allow her to leave all the events dangling, all her questions unanswered. She's a novelist so that's part of the reason why she has to know, but she also has deeper reasons, reasons from her past which make it impossible to let her drop what's happened to her. 2) Izzy's older sister Lisa. A perfect wife and mother on the surface, once again, but we find that even though she's good at heart, she's far from perfect. Not only do the actions of Marcus take their own horrible toll on Lisa and her family's security, but she's embroiled in something that could ruin her life irreparably. She's also dealing with demons from her past, a past event that she has in common with her younger sister Izzy. 3) Detective Crowe. Unger fleshes out his own personal story and motivations for being who and how he is. I found this very refereshing because often times in this type of story the supporting police type character is rarely looked at in depth. 4) Marcus's own history and life's experiences. Although mysterious his past is like a separate story in itself. I found each story engaging on its own, but tied together in the main plot it just makes for a seamless reading experience and a very addicting and compulsive read. This is a book about betrayal, regret, exorcising the demons of ones past and redemption and forgiveness. Very powerful, engaging and a flat out blast to read. Top notch! I'll be reading more of Lisa Unger's works in the very near future.

The book flap didn't make this book sound as unique and interesting as i found it to be. I couldn't hardly put it down after the first couple of chapters.

Isabel Raine would probably be the first to admit that her five-year marriage to Marcus has been anything but idyllic. Marcus is driven, ambitious, sometimes secretive; he's a passionate lover but can be emotionally distant, even --- if Isabel's sister is to be believed --- cold. But Isabel, a novelist, loves Marcus deeply. She believes that, in him, she has found the perfect antidote to her own over-emotional, over-analytical nature. When Marcus fails to come home after a long day at work, Isabel initially fumes more than she panics; Marcus's tendency to get caught up in work and forget his domestic responsibilities has been a pattern throughout their relationship. But when Isabel gets a truncated, panicky phone call consisting of little more than a man's scream, she fears the worst. When Isabel arrives at Marcus's office, the FBI is hot on her heels and soon beats her into oblivion. When Isabel wakes up, she learns that Marcus is still missing, the FBI agents are really just thugs, Marcus's entire office staff has been murdered, and the office and Isabel and Marcus's own apartment have been ransacked. Soon, though, with the cooperation of two gung-ho police officers, Isabel learns even more troubling details. Marcus Raine was apparently not her husband's real name, but the name of another Czech national who disappeared a decade earlier. She also discovers that all her personal and joint bank accounts have vanished into thin air. Who was this man Isabel slept next to for years? Did she really know him at all? Isabel's quest --- guided initially by only a few key names and a cryptic, frantic text message --- will take her to the most remote regions of Marcus's past and into stranger mysteries than even her novelist's creativity could have imagined. It will also take her straight into the path of a dangerous conspiracy that could end her quest once and for all. The basic plot of DIE FOR YOU --- a woman learns that her husband is not who she trusted him to be --- probably sounds like nothing new. In Lisa Unger's capable hands, however, this plot line goes far beyond mere thriller territory and into somewhere excitingly different. Unger facilely handles the novel's suspense, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as new and surprising twists are constantly uncovered. At the same time, she relates the primary theme to the lives of all her characters, from Isabel's own life to that of her sister and her brother-in-law, to her mother, even to the detectives investigating the case. People are not always who they seem, Unger's novel resolutely declares, and with rich characterization and suspenseful plotting, readers will be swept up in her world --- and in this unsettling idea --- from start to finish. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

From the streets and neighborhoods of Manhattan to the cobbled pathways of Prague, the author skillfully leads the reader--sometimes along circuitous routes--until finally, as the story comes to a close, the pieces fall into place. Alternating between the third-person narrative of several key characters, as they are spotlighted, and the first-person voice of Isabel Raine, the tale is woven together in a back-and-forth fashion, beginning at the end of the story with a brief prologue. We meet Isabel and Marcus Raine--she is a best-selling author, he is an entrepreneur--who live in an upscale apartment and seemingly have the world at their feet. Then Marcus disappears. At first, Isabel thinks he is just preoccupied at work; but when he has not come home by the second day, she goes to his office building. And there all hell breaks loose, as the office is stormed by people who identify themselves as FBI. But nothing is ever as it seems in this tale, and of course, the intruders--who also ransack the apartment later on--have a much more sordid agenda. And then, as Isabel scrambles to make sense of what has happened to her husband, she must also face the truth that he is not who he appears to be either. Will Isabel find the answers she seeks, and if she does, will she be able to pinpoint the unique vulnerability that made her a target? Will she be able to heal and finally trust again? A page turner that kept me up at night, Die for You: A Novel yields a captivating story--one that delivers completely, just as Unger's other novels have done. Laurel-Rain Snow Author of: Web of Tyranny, etc.