Six Years

Product Information

As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can't be found, or don't remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake's search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction. It is only at the funeral, will he know that Todd was never married to Natalie, the widow he finds at the funeral was married to Todd for over a decade. Then where is Natalie? Why did she lie to him? And the wedding? And where was she all these years? Was she alive or dead? And the promise she so forced him to make - Leave us alone, what did it suggest? Was there a deadly secret to all of this? Jake Fischer and Natalie Avery meet while both on retreats in Vermont. They fall in love. At the end of the summer, Jake receives a wedding invite from Natalie since she is marrying someone else. She makes Jake promise to leave them alone. He does. For Six Years. Then he sees an obit for her husband. Well, he did promise to leave them alone, but there is no more them. He heads down to go to Todd's funeral and this is when everything gets really weird. Here we’ve got a high concept thriller by a very capable genre writer, and it works well in that context. I particularly enjoyed the early part of the book when a confused Jake can’t even find someone who admits remembering Natalie or confirm a single fact about her. That gave the whole thing a slightly creepy feel. I haven't read anything else by Harlan Coben, so I can't really say if this is consistent with his other work. I found that although this story is fast paced and an easy read, it's also very compartmentalized. Mystery should surprise you and keep you on your toes, but everything from the generic romantic woes to the ending was very linear and mechanized. I think Harlan Coben's writing seems a little outdated sometimes, and it shows his age (but not necessarily in a flattering way).

Six Years by Harlan Coben | Waterstones

worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a pediatrician, and their four children.

So, Six Years is your usual Coben. Jake Fisher is a college professor, who lives very calm and happy life except one little thing: he isn't over his ex girlfriend. Natalie left Jake six years ago to marry another guy and she told him at her wedding never to bother them. Six years later he saw obituary of Natalie's husband and he goes to funeral to...get a glance at love of his life? But the mourning widow isn't Natalie. And that's where mystery part begins and from there we follow Jake as he slowly reveals what's behind Natalie's actions six years ago. There were twists and turns with every chapter, questions that wouldn't go away but would gain momentum. This was incredibly well written and really challenged my sleuthing skills.

Six Years by Harlan Coben Detailed Review Summary of Six Years by Harlan Coben

A lost love... and the secrets and lies at its heart. Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd. But six years haven't come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd's obituary, he can't keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd's wife he's hoping for... but she is not Natalie - and Jake's world is turned completely inside out. As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can't be found or don't remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake's search for the woman who broke his heart - and who lied to him - soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on carefully constructed fiction. I was surprised by how well the first person POV worked for this book. Where sometimes it can come across as a little one-sided and make the book feel superficial, this time I appreciated it. This POV allowed me to get inside the head of the main character and get to know him, which this made me feel almost like I was thinking through his mind as well and trying to solve the mystery right along with him. I realized I actually missed this-reading a plain ole mystery thriller like I used to in the good old days when the only authors I knew were James Patterson, Dan Brown, John Grisham and David Baldacci. Add in Jude Deveraux and Danielle Steel even though these last two are romance writers. Lol. Mr. Coben’s style though is up-to-date. He has certainly kept up with the times because his narrative is relatable, believable (with the exception of that part where the hero dials certain phone numbers by heart-lol!) and hilarious. Take a peek.

Coben has achieved greater suspense in other thrillers, but this ranks among his strangest and most ingenious plots." - Publishers Weekly Jake and Natalie met at while at neighboring artist retreats in Vermont. After three months of bliss, out of the blue, Natalie tells Jake she is marrying an old boyfriend and, if Jake loves her, he will leave her and her new husband–“us”–alone. She made Jake promise; he did so and he does.

Six Years - Harlan Coben

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. The ending lines actually explain the whole thing, and once you know why Natalie has disappeared, it's pretty flaccid. I still couldn't have cared less. By the time we are told why Natalie disappeared, we have been exhausted by events that do NOTHING to advance the Natalie story.The worst thing, and what makes this entire novel unbelievable, is that this guy had a 3-month fling with a woman 6 years ago, and is hell bent on finding her because the man she assumed to be her husband was murdered. He continues in his ridiculous pursuit after running into a corrupt police force, being beaten into unconsciousness and barely escaping with his life, being kidnapped by the mafia, killing a mobster hitman and barely escaping with his life, going after a guy in the mafia, hunting down this woman's sister and mother, finding out that his best friend is involved in the conspiracy and says he will kill him if he goes any further, and on and on and on.

Six Years by Harlan Coben | Goodreads Six Years by Harlan Coben | Goodreads

Do you believe in love at first sight? Neither do I. I do, however, believe in major, more-than-just-physical attraction at first sight. I believe that every once in a while—once, maybe twice in a lifetime—you are drawn to someone so deeply, so primordially, so immediately—a stronger-than-magnetic pull. That was how it was with Natalie. Sometimes that is all there is. Sometimes it grows and gathers heat and turns into a glorious inferno that you know is real and meant to last forever.Mr. Coben is a superb suspense writer. He wastes few words here and though the reader gleans early the overt reason Natalie vanished, the specifics of that remain tantalizingly out of reach. Everyone Jake talks to, indeed every conversation he has, leads inexorably to the novel’s tense climax. This is one of those thrillers that, as soon as I finished it, I read it again just to see all that, though right under my reading glasses, I’d not understood the significance of the first time around. Six Years is not Mr. Coben’s best novel–my favorite is Hold Tight although many love his Myron Bolitar series–but it’s a well-crafted, exciting read. Harlan Coben is an international No.1 bestselling thriller author. He is the winner of the EDGAR, SHAMUS and ANTHONY AWARDs - the first to receive all three. His books are published in 40 languages, with over 47 million copies in print worldwide.