When I began reading Not Without You, I got pretty excited. It had a good premise and I was up for a romantic suspense story. However, the further into the book I got, the more my enthusiasm waned. While this is an okay read, that’s about the best I can say for it.

Wealthy, ruthless, uber-businessman Jarred Bryant awakens in the hospital with no memory of how he got there. Beside him sits a beautiful – and familiar – woman whom he soon realizes is his estranged wife, Kelsey. Even though his memory begins to return in bits and pieces, something deep within his mind warns him to keep quiet about it. He only reveals to Kelsey that his memory is returning because he somehow feels she is the only one he can truly trust.

For her part, Kelsey is not sure why she has taken up a vigil beside her arrogant, cold-hearted, soon-to-be ex-husband’s bedside. After all, Chance Rowden, her adopted brother, was killed in the plane crash that put Jarred in the hospital. Jarred was the pilot and must somehow be to blame, right? But it’s all so confusing. Chance had visited Kelsey just before the fatal crash and seemed to want to tell her something. Chance had been heavily involved in drugs – was he afraid? Now, it seems, Kelsey will never know.

While he’s still in the hospital, Jarred’s family shows up, and a less-likable group of relatives a person should never be blessed with. Jarrod’s parents are stereotypical and awful, and his illegitimate half-brother, Will, is even less sympathetic. It seems that Jarred is the only person who can sign important documents that will keep The Big Company going (What? No proxy in the event of illness or death?), so he has to recover, and fast, before The Wily Unscrupulous Competitor (for whom Kelsey works) moves in and makes another surprisingly timely outbid. Will tells Jarred he thinks Kelsey’s been out to ruin the company and warns Jarred to keep an eye on her. Only Jarred doesn’t believe for a second that Kelsey is involved and asks for her help to find out who is responsible.

Things sort of go downhill from there. The plot gets more complicated with lots of other characters, including many suspects, none of them likable at all. The romance between Jarrod and Kelsey heats up when she moves back in with him (they’ve been estranged for three years), but their “romance” didn’t work for me. Jarrod’s past has been painted with a broad and rather vile brush, and the excuses he gives for his behavior don’t work. He was a ruthless jerk, and no bump on the head is going to change that. If I had truly believed he’d changed out of love for Kelsey, this might have save the day for me.

As a heroine, Kelsey was borderline okay. Not very strong, especially when is comes to Jarrod, she is thrown into a suspense plot that she does handle admirably, if not too intelligently, but I never really got a feeling for Kelsey as a person.

In spite of everything I’ve said, Not Without You is not a bad book – it’s just not very interesting. The villain is rather obvious; the reader just doesn’t know why until the end, so the suspense part worked fairly well. A grade of C equals an average read, and that just about sums it up.