If I Can't Have You

Product Information

The writing is crisp and edgy. The characters are anxious, tormented, and flawed. And the plot is a tense, unpredictable tale full of twists, turns, revelations, insecurities, deception, grief, manipulation, lies, and tragedy. Astonishingly, this is Charlotte Levin’s debut novel, except it is so brilliantly crafted you’d be forgiven for thinking it was her tenth! Janet Brown works as a cleaner and she’s a very good one too as she finds gleaming surfaces calming. She’s married to Colin, who seems to punish her for any minor infraction as he sees it. One evening, she’s had as much as she can take and she makes a break for it channelling her inner Thelma or Louise. What follows on has far-reaching consequences she could not have foreseen as things utterly spiral out of control.

On the surface, Samuel is handsome and educated and he’s a doctor too so he must be kind, right? Wrong. He is wilfully blind, making false promises to women, pretending that he wants a relationship with them even though all he wants is casual sex. When those women call him out on his behaviour, he dismisses them as ‘nutters’. As above, I liked Nish. Despite how Janet treated her, she always tried to include, support, and be there for her.

Complete this captcha to connect to Foyles

It’s the story of Constance Little, a tough cookie who appears thoroughly self-centred and unlikeable. When Dr Samuel Stevens joins the surgery where she works she becomes obsessed with him; he’s everything she wants in a man and it looks like he feels the same. Imagine what it’s like dating. I’ve had relationships. I’ve been in love. But I also appreciate it’s difficult for the other person. When talking to potentials online, I dread making the announcement. But then that can create a horrifying lead-up where I declare that there is something so awful about me I need to tell them, that when I do, they’re usually just relieved I’m not a convicted killer. The catch-22 is that being with someone helps. I feel safer with a person I trust and love; someone who would be there for me if I collapsed in M&S, which in turn would reassure me that I wouldn’t collapse in M&S.

I'll be honest. I did not love the ending but at the same time, I felt like it worked for the events that happened prior to it. It was more realistic of real life, not the perfect ending that often in reality doesn't happen. Plus our Janet was brave. Coming out of this, I want to jump into this book and give her a huge hug. She's not a bad person. Essentially this is a tale about damaged people interacting with one another. From the opening line The pandemic has forced us to reassess our lives. I wonder if this will be the turning point for me: an extreme-exposure therapy session. I long for the weight to be lifted. When I imagine it is all over, going places doesn’t seem a scary prospect any more. The simple fact of not potentially contracting a deadly virus would make a jaunt to Manchester city centre a total breeze. For the first time in a long while I am optimistic. If I Can’t Have You is a psychological thriller about a woman who becomes obsessed with her ex-boyfriend after he begins dating someone else. If I Can’t Have You has been translated into seven languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Customer reviews

Working as a receptionist for a doctors surgery in affluent Kensington, Constance falls in love with Dr Samuel Stevens the moment she sets eyes on him. Brought in to fill the gap a deceased doctor has left behind, Samuel arrives with his smiles and self-importance. Despite this Constance sees only attraction and is immediately infatuated with him, finding any excuse she can to be alone with him. Soon her every thought is consumed with him particularly when her advances are reciprocated and Constance believes their stolen moments to be true love. When Janet wakes in hospital with a head injury, she is thought to have been involved in a serious train crash. She can remember little of the evening, but footage emerges of her helping to rescue the daughter of a local celebrity. Before you know it, Janet is being interviewed on national TV and hailed as a hero. She can’t be certain, but Janet is convinced the details aren’t quite right. And how do you tell anyone of your fears when you’re trapped in your situation? If I Let You Go is an unsettling, character-driven novel that introduces us to Janet, a young woman who, after a tragic accident eleven years ago, has spent her life in the shadows, performing her cleaning job to the best of her abilities, keeping house and placating her domineering husband, and visiting her elderly father as often as possible, until one night she decides she’s had enough and by morning her life will be irrevocably changed forever when she wakes to discover she’s a heroine of a train crash she can’t actually remember. When a message from beyond the grave tell’s Janet to be brave, will she come clean and will she finally be able to move on with her life? But John’s death is only the beginning of Constance’s problems. It soon becomes clear that someone close to her knows more about John’s death than they are letting on, and they will stop at nothing to keep Constance from learning the truth.