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S. M. Thayer
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I Will Never Leave You Kindle Edition

by S. M. Thayer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 12,590 ratings
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All they want is a baby—and they’ll do anything to have one.

Banking heiress Trish and her husband, James, seem to have it all, from a lavish lifestyle to a historic mansion in the nation’s capital. All that’s missing from their privileged life is a baby.

So when Trish sees Anne Elise for the first time, it’s no surprise that she falls deeply in love. There’s just one problem: Trish isn’t the mother. The baby belongs to Laurel, James’s young mistress. And James and Laurel want the wife out of the picture.

When Trish becomes perversely obsessed with making Laurel’s baby her own, the lovers come up with a wicked plan to end James’s marriage that quickly goes awry. As the love triangle becomes more and more dangerous, how far is each of them willing to go to get what they want?

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  1. Print length
    351 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Thomas & Mercer
  5. Publication date
    September 1, 2018
  6. File size
    3633 KB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fast-paced story of toxic love and shocking deceptions that will have readers huffing and puffing until the final page.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Engrossing…The twists and turns of the plot make this a fascinating psychological thriller.” —Publishers Weekly

“I Will Never Leave You by S. M. Thayer builds the story like a set of stairs until the reader reaches the top and sits down exhausted, but fulfilled.” —The Daily Press

“Menacing and utterly thrilling…” —Bustle

“This is a tense story that will have readers breathlessly awaiting the conclusion.” —The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“I Will Never Leave You is a cleverly plotted, easy-to-read thriller…Superb.” —Gumshoe Review

“Two women, one choice…A thrilling mystery to keep you guessing.” —Fresh Fiction

“When a novel starts the way this one does, you just know things are going to get worse. In this fast-paced, chilling novel, S. M. Thayer invokes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters from The Great Gatsby as both a nod to the age-old compulsion to choose money over everything, and a cautionary tale to its ruinous powers. I Will Never Leave You is a dark and addictive read.” —Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author

“This sly and sinister novel explores just how wrong a love triangle can go. Chilling.” —Peter Swanson, author of Her Every Fear

From the Publisher

What if you could never live the happily-ever-after you always dreamed of? Would you steal someone else’s? Trish and James want for nothing—except a child of their own. For years they tried everything, but the empty crib eventually created a schism in their marriage. Trish never stopped dreaming of the angelic child she couldn’t have…and now she’s faced with the reality that her husband has a baby with his mistress.

But her husband’s infidelity doesn’t matter to Trish. For the first time, she feels a twisted sense of hope and hatches a plan bolder than her husband’s. She has to have that baby. No matter what the cost.

This novel hooked me from page one. I would never do anything these characters do, but I loved reading about their dark choices and stormy pasts. Secrets were uncovered and lives hung in the balance as I tore through the pages, trying to decide just whom to trust. Hope and betrayal propel the three main characters in S. M. Thayer’s debut psychological thriller, as each angles to outwit the other, while a vulnerable child’s future hangs in the balance.

- Megha Parekh, Editor

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B079P4H229
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas & Mercer (September 1, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3633 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 351 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1503901181
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 12,590 ratings

About the author

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S. M. Thayer

S. M. Thayer

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S. M. Thayer is a pseudonym for an award-winning fiction writer and McDowell Fellow whose work has appeared in numerous publications and received several Pushcart Prize nominations. A native of New York, Thayer lived for decades in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region before moving to rural Virginia and earning an MFA from Virginia Tech. I Will Never Leave You is Thayer’s debut novel.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
12,590 global ratings
Wasn't what I had hoped
3 Stars
Wasn't what I had hoped
The premise sounded amazing (who doesn’t love a messy love triangle), but it wasn’t the thriller I expected it to be. It was too predictable, had characters that I couldn’t connect with (although I loved how dysfunctional they all were), and maybe it’s because I just had a baby, but the details regarding the newborn made me laugh. Not at all how my two day old behaved. Overall it wasn’t bad, but I don’t think this one was for me. It unfolded slowly, left little to guess, and the ending didn’t leave me satisfied. The drama runs aplenty though so if you’re searching for characters you love to hate, drama, and more drama this is for you!
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Top reviews from the United States

Marie
5.0 out of 5 stars Great page turner
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018
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I love psychological thrillers, so I early grabbed this book as soon as it became available this month and devoured it within hours! I loved every part of this book, and felt it had a satisfying ending. Personally I hate books where the ending is ambiguous to multiple interpretations or comes too far out of nowhere, but this one felt solid. The characters all feel different and well-thought out and the multiple viewpoints helped the story move along quickly. This is the first story I’ve ever read where I absolutely hate every character (their bad choices make it hard to feel sorry for anyone) but also desperately want to find out what happens to them. 5 stars - would definitely recommend this book to a friend or other readers who enjoy thrillers.

Content warning: PG-13. There may be few, brief mentions of abuse or sex but nothing explicit. Frequent themes of alcohol/prescription drug abuse. One violent scene but non-graphic.
10 people found this helpful
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Cynthia
4.0 out of 5 stars Found another great series
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2023
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Okay, let me try to explain the mixed reviews on this book.

The storyline itself is phenomenal. I read as quickly as I could with bated breath, eager to learn how this love triangle would resolve itself.

The problem everyone is having (and the reason for the 4 star review vs. 5 star) is the character development.

Day old babies do not smile, giggle, get spun around the hospital by their father or have their eye color determined minutes upon arrival.

Husbands, do not drive their wives to the maternity suite of their mistress and say, "Surprise, honey, I had a baby!" Wives, do not sit patiently in said waiting room, playing with the new baby.

The reactions of each and every character is completely unbelievable. But it doesn't mean my interest in the story was lost. I still wanted to see if Jim would chose his wife or his mistress, I wanted to uncover Trisha's fathers big secret, I wanted to see if Laurel might smarten up and leave Jimmy.

There were so many fast moving parts, that despite of the ridiculous character's actions, I still enjoyed the book. With the help of an editor, this book could easily be revised to become a best seller.
One person found this helpful
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BF
3.0 out of 5 stars Implausible.
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2018
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I Will Never Leave You falls somewhere in between a soap opera and a reality TV show about spoiled housewives with an extra dash of crazy for good measure. I was hooked from the beginning when affluent, barren Trish, who has tried for years to become pregnant, is lavishing attention on the new baby… her husband fathered with his mistress!

Enter Laurel. Trish’s opposite in about every way imaginable, this social climbing waitress grabbed on to Trish’s husband, Jimmy, and gave him the one thing Trish couldn’t, a daughter—Zerena or Anne Elise, depending on whether you take Jimmy’s baby naming or Laurel’s. It’s a simple squabble that illustrates the vastness between Jimmy and Laurel in age, experience, and circumstance.

Jimmy, of course, isn’t who Laurel thinks and as ultimatums fly, the consequences of all three of the main characters’ choices spiral out of control.

Overall, this was a fun, fast read. There’s a strong hook and the stakes are high as Trish and Laurel negotiate the terms of their futures with Jimmy, BUT the book isn’t without fault. From early on something didn’t sit quite right with me, and when I got to the acknowledgements it became clear that the author is quite likely a man. Men write women differently. Also, this author claims to have come from a more literary background, which might excuse the overly-formal and often ludicrous dialogue. More than once I shook my head, saying, “Who talks like this?” The real issues I took are with the author’s attempt at dipping toes into medical waters. Unfortunately for him, anyone who has worked in a hospital knows how inaccurate he is with everything from HIPAA privacy violations to the actual treatments themselves, and the inaccuracies damage the plot and author’s credibility. I had trouble with the legal and police procedural angles as well. S.M. Thayer writes neither medicine nor the law with authority, and that affects how I feel about I Will Never Leave You overall. A decent, fast and implausible read, I put this one in the category of shameless guilty pleasure. Dialogue excluded, the writing is good. The author is clearly talented and has crafted three-dimensional characters with constantly evolving stakes. Maybe, though, he needs a more experienced fact checker.
3 people found this helpful
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Leona R. Salazar
5.0 out of 5 stars Like Watching a Trainwreck - I LOVED IT!
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
I'm on a cruise ship and reading on my Kindle and my husband says to me, "reading anything good?"
I said, "I started this book a couple of weeks ago and couldn't stand the first few chapters but kept it on my carousel. After reading two other books, I decided to revisit this one and the characters are so despicable that I feel like I'm watching a train wreck. I can't stop reading." Well, a day later, I'm finished with the book and, yes, the premise is unbelievable but for some reason I loved it. I can't believe any wife would react the way Trish did, however, she is either narcissistic, delusional, obsessive or all three combined, if that's possible. Laurel is a 24-year old who sees a presumably successful married man in the restaurant in which she works and is determined to bed him. Her $250,000 college degree in women's studies provided no insight into birth control. I am absolutely positive that if Jimmy worked at the corner Jiffy-Lube, she wouldn't have given him a second look. She is as despicable a character as Trish. Jimmy/Jim/James, the husband of Trish, is equally as unlikable as the two women, having been married to Trish for a decade or so and decided to break his vows for a piece of anything that's easy. Again, all the smarts in the world didn't translate into knowledge of condom usage for him either. But, having a baby is the end game for everyone.
I've read some of the other harsher reviews on Goodreads and, although, I agree that the story is quite impossible, I still think the author did a great job. I would swear that he has a background in psychology because all of his characters are absolutely nuts/crazy/without any redeeming qualities/amoral.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

viveca29
4.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing story about some deeply flawed and ultimately sad people
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2018
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Firstly, I would like to observe that all the naysayers who comment this book is badly written, are wrong in that respect. The story might be a little far-fetched (although not beyond the realms of possibility), but the author can evidently write well. I have read a few badly written books in my time, and this quite clearly is not one of them. Just because the style or story is not to your liking doesn’t mean it’s badly written!

This is quite a disturbing book. All of the main characters have issues and flaws, and there is the sense of this undercurrent rumbling away beneath the story. Some of what takes place may initially seem far-fetched, but the story here is of deep emotional longing for what one cannot have, and the subsequent pain involved, and I feel that this can lead people to act in ways that are quite irrational, and often not very kind or honourable.

The book is well paced, and I personally enjoy reading the different perspectives of the three main protagonists. This is definitely a page turner of a book, with every new twist and turn I was compelled to carry on reading to find out how the increasingly dire situation could possibly be resolved.

This book is not perfect, but it is eminently readable, and I would urge anyone considering reading it not to be put off by the negative one star reviews. Forget them, and read with an open mind as I did.
2 people found this helpful
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Fancyface M
4.0 out of 5 stars good read
Reviewed in Canada on April 15, 2019
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So far so good will be able to give a better review when am done reading.
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Rebecca Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping.....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2018
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I chose this book as my amazon first for the book. The plot sounded good and the book was free so I decided to give a try and I am glad I did.
From the first few pages I was hooked.
Trish and James tried for a baby for many years and as she held baby Anne Elise in her arms Trish realised her wish for a baby had come true. There was just one problem. She wasn't the babies mother her husbands mistress Laurel was the one who had given birth to the baby.
Laurel wants James to leave Trish and start over with her and their baby girl.
Trish wants James and the baby and James wants the security and wealth that being with Trish offers but to also finally have the family he dreamed of which he can only have with Laurel.
This was an amazing book which had me hooked from start to finish and I cannot wait to read more by this author.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Psychological Thriller
Reviewed in Australia on August 12, 2018
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This book was good, an easy read and I love psychological thrillers. But it just didn't flow well. None of the characters were likeable, and so I just didn't get into it, and didn't want anyone to be happy or triumph over the other.
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars 🤔
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2021
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Wealthy Trish wants nothing more than to have a baby with her husband James, unfortunately no matter what they try she just can't conceive. Although being married, she sees everything as hers. Her husband wants a tesla, he currently drives a battered volvo. She congratulates him on his impeccable taste but then laughs at him and says no she won't buy it for him as he has a car already. After all the money is hers not his. James is bad with money though and Trish is constantly bailing him out. James has a secret though, he has gotten another woman pregnant and he is about to introduce Trish to his newborn baby and his mistress.
Such a promising synopsis and it started off strong but the more I read the more I thought wtaf? The writing itself was good but the story just got more and more ridiculous sounding. In the 3nd I just didn't know what to think if am honest.
One person found this helpful
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