MY REVIEW:
A poignant story set in motion by the death of Haley’s husband Sam, “Somebody Like You” kept me reading far past my bedtime. It could be difficult to believe that a wife would not know that her husband had an identical twin and that she might fall in love with the twin after her husband’s death but in Beth Vogt’s new novel, it makes perfect sense.
“Somebody Like You” is a story about regrets. Stephen regrets that he waited too late to reconcile with his brother Sam but hopes that in some way he can learn more about his brother’s last years by getting to know Sam’s widow. Haley regrets not telling Sam that they were expecting a child before his death. The discovery that Sam had an identical twin caught her off guard and she wanted to have nothing to do with Stephen; however Stephen’s persistence got past her walls and she soon became dependent on him. Frequent readers can see where this tale will end but the journey is filled with obstacles and seeming impossibilities.
I loved this faith filled story of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. I would recommend it to all who enjoy a romance with a message.
This book was provided for review by Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In this beautifully rendered, affecting novel, a young widow’s world is shattered when she meets her late husband’s identical twin—and finds herself caught between honoring her husband’s memory and falling in love with his reflection.
Haley’s whirlwind romance and almost three-year marriage to Sam, an army medic, ends tragically when he is killed in Afghanistan. As she grapples with widowhood and the upcoming birth of her son, her attempts to create a new life for herself are ambushed when she arrives home one evening—and finds her husband waiting for her. Did the military make an unimaginable mistake when they told her that Sam had been killed?
After a twelve-year estrangement, Stephen hopes to make things right with his brother—only to discover Sam died without revealing Stephen’s existence to Haley. As Haley and Stephen struggle to navigate their fragile relationship, they are inexorably drawn to each other. Haley is unnerved by Stephen’s uncanny resemblance to Sam, and Stephen struggles with the issue of Haley loving him as Stephen—and not as some reflection of his twin. How can Haley and Stephen honor the memory of a man whose death brought them together—and whose ghost could drive them apart?
Somebody Like You reminds us that while we can’t change the past, we have the choice—and the power through God—to change the future and start anew.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Beth K. Vogt is a nonfiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an air force physician who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. She’s discovered that God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.”
