Six Years

This is my first “real” review. Please tell me where I go wrong and how I can improve. Thank you!

Six Years, Mystery/Thriller, Harlan Coben

Six Years kicks off with the main character, Jake Fisher, at a wedding. The problem? The wedding is between the love of his life, Natalie Avery, and her old boyfriend, Todd Sanderson. At the wedding, Natalie convinces Jake to promise her that he will leave her and Todd alone. Fast forward Six Years. Jake stumbles across Todd Sanderson's obituary and the repressed emotions towards Natalie are surfaced. Jake decides to attend the funeral from a distance, unsure whether or not he is ready to reconnect with Natalie or, for that matter, if she is even open to it. At the service, Jake strains to find Natalie in the crowd. Jake finally stumbles on the wife, but she's not Natalie. Confused and torn, Jake begins his search for Natalie except the only clues he has to go on are from their summer vacation fling six years ago. To make matters worse, nobody in the town they vacationed at remembers Natalie and the retreat she stayed at supposedly never existed. Jake encounters gunmen also looking for Natalie, which causes him to race to find her before they do her any harm, while Jake's best friend questions whether Natalie, or the gunmen, even exist outside of Jake's mind.

I understand there are many people disappointed with this book. It's the first Harlan Coben book I've read since middle school. So, maybe I don't know better, or maybe I am just simple minded; I found myself hooked on this book from page one. I found the majority of the characters credible, but I did have a hard time with Natalie. My first problem is that if she was involved with Fresh Start, she probably wasn't keying into the events that happened around Jake's life. That said, she could be like Jake's best friend and keep watch, but, even then, she wouldn't have been able to send him an email from an email address that doesn't exist – especially if she's as computer minded as Jake. Yeah, yeah, there are ways to do it. Putting that aside, the likelihood that she was not only in the same place as Jake (at the cabin), but that she was also an expert marksman is pretty weak.

In the end, I really enjoyed this work. Coben kept me guessing and my guesses were often wrong. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys a lighter mystery.

Although I read “Six Years” in a few days, it definitely was not one of the best books I've ever read. Not as exciting as it could be, we follow Jake's journey as he tries to uncover the truth about his long-lost love and realizes that he doesn't know himself as well as he thinks.

Coben's writing style is very unique in the way his sentences are structured and we get a good sense of what the character is thinking, especially through the dialogue. Although the dialogue wasn't one-hundred percent realistic, there were a few quotes that Jake has which shows us exactly who he is at the core of himself. Some things that he thinks are also eye-opening to him as the main character.

I wasn't a fan of how slow the book started but once it picked up it almost made up for the slow start. Also, it wasn't nearly as suspenseful as the synopsis and the book cover made it out to be and I wasn't hanging onto my seat, dying to find out what will happen next.

With that being said, it was a cute mystery and there were some really good themes and motifs in the story which I could relate to. One of the those was the idea of hope, or rather of not losing hope. Being from Russia, we have a saying, “hope dies last”, and this is a prominent message in the book. Another one is how “things aren't always as they seem.” I think this book had a lot of really good ideas and messages that readers had a chance to take away from it but it lacked in the actual thrill within the story itself. This is not one of those books that will stay with you long after you finish reading it, you are likely to forget it very quickly because the plot isn't a particularly memorable one.

I think I should have started with Coben's bestseller first and then worked my way to this one but I was bored and randomly took this book. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat but it did entertain me somewhat and I had some pleasure in reading it. With that being said, I am willing to give Coben another chance in the future, especially because I did enjoy his writing style immensely.

This book is for anyone who isn't a big fan of extreme suspense but still likes a bit of mystery here and there.