If I Say No (Say Something #2) by Brandy Jellum-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 2014

Reid Harder thought his life was seemingly perfect. He had the woman he loved and nothing could go wrong. The only exception comes in the form of his brother—Rhett.

Set on revenge, his brother will stop at nothing to make Reid pay for his past mistakes. Teaming up with the FBI, Reid is determined to put an end to his brother once and for all. But sometimes, fate has other plans in store. His relationship with Liza is falling apart, enemies become friends, and family becomes his worst nightmare. With the future unknown, Reid must figure out a way to make amends with his past if he wants to move forward with his future.

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In book #1 of this series, we followed Liza and her journey to face her demons from her mother’s murder at her father’s hand. In this book, we get to follow the mystery about Reid’s past and inner demons. Guess everyone’s got their inner demons they got to face.

To make a long story short, Reid’s older brother Rhett is a psychopath and he is after revenge on Reid and his wife Lily. Reid and Lily had an affair behind Rhett’s back. So he plans to take something precious from Reid to even the score and who is more precious than the one and only love of his life, Liza. The book starts with a flashback from Reid’s past where he is unable to save Lily and Ollie from the house fire he was convinced was set up by Rhett. Two burnt bodies are wheeled out in stretchers belonging to a woman and an infant. Reid breaks down and cries realizing that the woman and nephew he loves is gone. So for anyone else following the series alongside with me, that’s the history behind the photo of Lily and Ollie that Liza found snooping through Reid’s stuff in book one.

To cut to the chase, this book was a doozy. Liza seriously pissed me off pretty badly in the beginning and middle of the book. I recalled in the first book that Reid was pretty patient with Liza not pushing and prodding for more than she wanted to share. Yes admit that Reid may have pulled a few dick moves on her to get her to see him but that was to get her to see him not share what she didn’t want to share. The fact that Liza acted like a huge immature baby that she kept pushing at every worse time at Reid, storming out of the house to stay at Elias which really messed up because Elias still has feelings for Liza, crying, and going as far as calling off the wedding just shows me that even though Liza left her life of riches and luxury in her past she is still one spoiled brat. Sorry but if I was to open up to someone about a traumatic past, I for one wouldn’t confide in a crybaby person who always gets their way. Also if she just gave Reid his space to deal with the repercussions of his past then maybe he would’ve dealt with it with a clear head and gotten through it faster and perhaps been able to tell her sooner. But no she still continued to push and prod and threaten Reid to the point that he gotten himself in hot water more than once and the issue escalated to the point that people died, got hurt and even captured. I’m not here to fillet and roast Liza as my respect for Reid also fell a little too. His cowardice on coming clean to Liza was also another thing that just made the whole situation complicated. Yes it was a situation where one of them had to give but none of them wanted too.

Liza did redeem herself in the end ten-fold however. Liza was the one who made the first move to let go of the past and move on. She also selflessly moved up to the plate to take on a new role that she didn’t have to but did so from the good of her heart. So I do apologize for what I had said about Liza a while ago. I like and respect her as a character from a book regardless. And yes, there is a wedding at the end. I love this part because there are so many references from the first book when they first started to fall in love comes back to surface and it is so cute and endearing.

I found it so hard to put this book down that I was surprised I was able to finish it as fast as I did. The plot was the big reason why. You are constantly on the edge of your seat fearing for Reid, his life and his relationship with Liza. There are many things that will take you aback like the “dead” coming back to life, the past of the childhoods, the FBI lending a helping hand and even good ol’ mommy Harder comes to visit.

The thing is this book makes me realize that life is never perfect. Rich, famous, powerful, poor, isolated and whatnot everyone is going to have those scary demons of their past that haunt them. It’s a risk to let others in when they can turn around and hurt you or worse use your demon against you. Despite that, no matter what there are always going to be people who care about you and there is no demon worth pushing those who love you away. I’m glad that Liza and Reid learn that in time to not only have that wonderful happily ever after in the end but in the end it’s going to make them a stronger team to get through anything together.

Series Reading Order
1. If I Say Yes
2. If I Say No
3. If I Say Maybe (No release date)
4. If I Say Never (No release date)

Reviewed by Xtina

Copy supplied by the author