Kiss by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy

After a brief set up chapter, the story’s heroine, Shauna McAllister, is involved in a car accident that leaves her in a coma for months. Why is this relevant? Because Shauna’s father is one of the leading Presidential candidates and, prior to her accident, Shauna came upon information which, if true, would destroy everything her father has worked to create and derail his campaign.

However, after coming out of her coma Shauna finds herself suffering from amnesia; she doesn’t remember any of the potentially damaging information she was planning to confront her father with. Yet, during the course of trying to reconstruct her memories she has to deal with various shady characters who think she knows / remembers more than she does and who have a decided interest in her never regaining those memories. From the boyfriend she doesn’t remember, to the doctors who treated her with experimental drugs during her coma, to the uncle who seems to be a bit more than just her father’s business partner and advisor, Shauna’s every move is shadowed and she doesn’t know who to trust.

The “catch” of the story is that, as a result of her accident, Shauna discovers that she has acquired the ability to read and steal people’s memories. She first discovers this while kissing her alleged boyfriend (hence the book’s title), but later comes to learn she has to do little more than touch someone to utilize her new talent. Unfortunately this potentially interesting plot device is never fully utilized. The story twists and turns around on itself in an attempt to seem complicated, but really just spins its wheels with a main character who, even having a recent coma as an “excuse”, engages in far too many questionable – if not downright ill advised – activities.

I had heard such great things about Ted Dekker, but I was tremendously disappointed with this offering. Maybe co-author Healy had more influence on the overall tone of the book than he did and I should give one of his solo efforts another try, but this was not what I had expected.