If You Only Knew by Cynthia Clark

If You Only Knew by Cynthia Clark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One night while at university Elizabeth was riding her bike when a truck came upon her and knocked her down. The drive apologized and offered to pay for the damages to her bike and give her a ride back to the school. Not seeing a better option Elizabeth got into his vehicle only to find herself awakening hours later in a windowless shack in the middle of nowhere half dressed which led to Elizabeth’s biggest secret of her life that she’s been tormented from ever since that horrific night.

Now years later Elizabeth is a successful lawyer and loving mother and wife but still lives with the secret that has haunted her all these years. Elizabeth has spent her life trying to make up for that horrific night and now takes on cases of rape and abuse to help other young girls. Her latest pro bono case has her working late hours and hits very close to home for Elizabeth.

First, when picking up If You Only Knew by Cynthia Clark I was expecting this book to be a mystery/thriller read but it really isn’t so that might disappoint some readers. I would best say that this one would fall under more of a suspenseful drama read since we know right from the beginning what happened to Elizabeth that night and what she was forced to do and the book is building up to what happens now, years after the event.

For those that may be bothered I would also warn that this one contains graphic details of rape so some may want to give this a pass if that would bother them. This intense night at the beginning of the story certainly had me cringing but it also put me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen in the rest of the story. I became hooked with getting to know Elizabeth and where the story would end up so despite the lack of twists and turns of a thriller the book still became quite intriguing along the way.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.