she sees the waitress and a man who resembles her husband go to the beach and disappear in a secluded grotto. Imogen returns to the ship and confronts Lev after the ship sails. She loses her temper and pushes him off their balcony railing.

Fortunately for Lev (and readers who don’t want the book to end after 30 pages), he’s rescued by a passing boat several days later. However, he now has amnesia and can’t remember the last few months of his life since before the wedding. Lev is even nicer than before, winning over Imogen’s friends and relatives. Imogen, however, is even more convinced that Lev is a bad guy, especially when she learns that the Greek waitress hasn’t been seen since the day the cruise ship docked. Imogen investigates further, discovering other troubling aspects of Lev’s earlier life.

At this point, I was growing increasingly fascinated by the storyline of I Become Her. The author drops hints along the way (not the least of which is the fact that readers know about Imogen’s possibly homicidal temper from the balcony incident). The author briefly mentions Imogen’s ex-boyfriend and hints that her violent temperament may have led to his departure. Readers thus have a perfect example of the potentially unreliable narrator, one who really may be the villain while suggesting it’s the actually innocent husband.

I Become Her did not turn out to be the twisted thriller I had momentarily envisioned while reading the early chapters of the book. Instead, it proved to be exactly the same type of thriller as dozens of others out there. The author did stage the various set pieces well, including an exciting climactic showdown. However, before that, the book was excessively wordy. Imogen and Lev hosted several parties, all of which dragged on with interminable small talk. Imogen also discussed her suspicions about Lev with friends, relatives, and the Greek police. A skillful editor could have cut about 50 pages of these dialogues, and the result would have been a more streamlined, suspenseful novel.

The author also employs several flashbacks during the novel, some of which are a bit confusing. Imogen serves as the narrator for most of the book, but a few one-page chapters are written from the perspective of another woman, Sierra. Later, readers learn that Sierra was Lex’s ex-girlfriend, and the author gradually reveals her relation to the present-day story. The author uses these point-of-view tricks and flashbacks to Imogen’s college days to generate suspense and set up a couple of narrative twists. However, the end result is confusion more than genuine suspense or surprise.

Joe Hart is a talented writer, and I Become Her is skillfully written and exciting in places. Unfortunately, his talent can’t overcome a plot that’s overly dependent on ridiculous implausibilities and coincidences and lengthy stretches of dialogue in which Imogen repeatedly rehashes her suspicions about Lev. The result is a book that should have been much better than it was. I wish I could give this book a 2½-star rating, but I’ll have to round it up to three stars based on the author’s overall skill. However, I really can’t recommend this novel for romantic suspense fans. Other authors have done what Hart does in a more direct, less confusing manner. I Become Her becomes a chore to read.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.