Review: Tell Me My Name by Erin Ruddy

Print Length: 342 pages

Publisher: Dundurn Publishing (October 27, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  Ellie and Neil Patterson are eager to settle in to some quality time at their new cottage. It’s the first time in ten years they’ve been alone … or are they?

When a friendly encounter with their new neighbor leads to their violent kidnapping, they awake to a living nightmare. Insisting he is Ellie’s soulmate, the stranger gives her three chances to say his name. If she guesses wrong, it’s Neil who will suffer the consequences. This propels Ellie on a desperate trip down memory lane to dredge up the dubious men of her past.

Only after discovering the man's true identity and sacrificing her own safety to save Neil does Ellie learn the truth — that everything she thought she knew about her husband and their decade-long love story was a lie.

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

This was the book that didn't seem to want to end. Sadly, had it been a better book this might not have been a bad thing. However, there was just too much going on for me to be able to fully immerse myself in this world. 

I was down for the synopsis, I just wish it had been better executed (and that it made more sense). Not only do we switch between the present and the past, but in later chapters, we even switch which character is telling the story. It winds up being a confusing mess (especially when so many different characters are running around by that point). 

I think part of the problem is that we know very little about these characters (and what we do know isn't enough to make us care about them or even like them all that much).  The secondary characters are exactly the same - except maybe the Detective who is probably the most annoying of the bunch. Seriously, what kind of detective ends calls (or face to face meetings) by saying "toodle-loo"? And if that isn't bad enough, despite Neil repeatedly doing the opposite of what she tells him, she never follows through on any of her threats to stop him.

And then there is our bad guy.  The "George Clooney lookalike" expects a forty-year old woman to know who he is even though its been years since she last saw him, they had little interaction with one another AND he's had his entire face reconstructed to look like the one celebrity she liked? Not to mention the fact that the entire scene in the woods is just down right implausible. 

I think with a little work, this story could be better. The author had a great idea, and I would read more from them in the future to see how they grow.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                                                   Tell Me My Name is available from Amazon.com