I Have People Paperback – September 20, 2012

I have people deals with the very difficult subject of spousal abuse.Holly wakes up after an 8 month coma, and how only one memory, her husband Gabriel. She wants to have his child, but he wants her to heal up from her traumatic experience, and regain her memory.The whole book is like an onion, full of layers, being peeled back and revealing more and more of the story.Taylor tackles the raw truth of the matter in a delicate but realistic way. Holly has to face the demons she is living, and grows immensely in the process. She makes the RIGHT decision.This whole book makes you stop, and consider how someone would ever deal with this kind of issue without ‘their people’. Holly is lucky to have found her people. Gabriel is a sweet, kind and loving guy, and Angela is the best kind of friend a girl could ever want.This book made me laugh, cry, hurt, and sigh. It was a real Taylor Dean classic, and I enjoyed reading this book several times. Just writing about it, makes me want to go back and reread it again.

I loved this book! It starts out as a nice, sweet love story, even though you know there's something that's being kept from Holly. After Holly wakes up from an 8 month coma, Gabe is so careful with her and works hard to re-create their life before she went into a coma. Her best friend, Angela, is also there to help her out but neither of them will tell Holly how the accident happened or jog her memory--they tell her she needs to recover her memories on her own. She is happy and life is perfect and then HE comes into the story and there's a different tone. His name is Cal and he's likable enough, at first, and then reveals his true self after they get married. I really felt for Holly as she was humiliated by Cal over and over yet hung in there and acted like nothing was wrong. She tried to convince everyone she was clumsy and it got harder to make up stories as time went on. As she learns more about his dark secrets, though, she realizes that she needs to leave asap. I was frustrated that she didn't just leave but understand why she wanted to wait. At times it was hard to read how Cal treated Holly and I thought Taylor Dean did a great job of describing the abuse, where you could feel Holly's pain, without being too graphic. I'm so grateful that I have never personally had to deal with domestic abuse and I know that there are worse stories out there than Holly's and hers was hard enough for me to read.Taylor Dean has addressed the fact that the cover looks so happy and cheery but the book deals with the sensitive issue of domestic abuse, and the overall message of the book is a great one. I also love the title and it's a bit of a roller coaster for Holly as she realizes she has people that care about her to wonder if they really have her best interests at heart after all.Once Holly's memory returns, she has a hard time believing that someone as wonderful as Gabe would give her the time of day, and one of my favorite conversations is when he says, "...You were the victim of a very sick man. Listen to me, you can take a precious jewel worth millions, dip it in mud, leave it dirty and stained, its beauty spoiled, and underneath it all it will still be worth millions. Cal took advantage of you, but it doesn't change your worth." I loved Gabe from the beginning and he gets even more wonderful once you learn the entire story.This book kept my interest from the first page and didn't slow down. I highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys reading about second chances and finding real and lasting love.Content: I personally consider this a clean romance but will alert you that there is some passion involved (but no details)! And there's some swearing (but not much).

Now, that's unusual, you might be saying. Dar is giving a romance novel five stars. Yep. I am. That is because this is a cautionary tale of what all those romantic ideals can hand those who are blind in their love for the romantic partner. Notice, I said partner. Notice I didn't just identify this as a fem issue. I realize that there are relationships of all kinds where one partner uses the other for a punching ball physically and or mentally. That is NOT love, folks.Let me take a moment out to warn those with PTSD who have been in bad relationships, this book does have triggers. Even so, if you can live past them there are lessons to be learned here. Granted the outcome is much better than most real life situations might have. It is fiction after all.BUT climb into the mind of the intelligent yet emotionally unstable young woman, Holly Sinclair. That is what Taylor Dean, the author, did quite well. I, personally, recognized many of Holly's thoughts. These are the thoughts romanticized in many young adult/romance novels. They are angsty. At least Ms. Dean gave Holly a narrative of conflicting thoughts that rationalize both the healthy thoughts and the not so healthy ones. That gives the person who may be going through this additional thoughts to play out in their own minds. Remember, survival is more important than dead or maiming done in the name of 'love'.The most important lesson of this book is in the title: I Have People. The most important thing a person who is being abused needs to know is that they have people. To go find help. Pride be damned. Safety is more important. And though the women's shelter was an option in the book that was tossed aside, I have known friends that gained a lot by going to the shelter and learning new ways to live their lives.Meanwhile, for the rest of us who have relative safety around us, BE THE PEOPLE. As those around Holly notice and gracefully befriended her and drew her into safety. We need to be that kind of friends. Don't hide from this situation. Do what you can to help make the abused person safe.What I didn't like was the lack of help for the abuser. I know he chose his own way, but we need as a society to find ways to recognize these people and bring them to re-education in places that keep others safe from them while they get the help they need, nonnegotiable help.This is a social issue. The book should bring up discussion. Even so, it was a very good book that I couldn't stop reading. It was well after 5 AM when I was finally able to go to sleep. The other caution. Smile. From about 50% in make sure to give yourself a chance to take care of yourself. It gets heavy!Oh, I won this book initially in a contest held by the author. I picked it up on Smashwords then promptly forgot I had it. Sorry. Then I saw it as a freebie on Kindle. Picked it up. And to show how mixed up I really am, I read this on my MoonReader Pro because I could use its text-to-speech on my tablet in the dark. Soon I will be able to read these on my new Fire which has that feature. Can't wait for that to get here! Anyway, the book is $2.99 on Smashwords and $3.99 on Amazon. Well worth the price! Sorry, Ms. Dean, for getting to it so late.

I wish we had half stars as this story was easily 5 stars-I loved it. It was only let down by silly editing mistakes not picked up.I was surprised Holly Noel was spelt this way as the feminine version is usually Noele/Noelle and that kept annoying me.There were some superfluous commas in places which made for different meanings to a sentence and confused me a bit...like in the countertops, granite or ...didn't mean to hurt, Cara, you know.The odd sentence lost speechmarks or fullstops or hyphens where they were needed which should have been spotted. Then were was used instead of we're. There were misused apostrophes as well thrown into the mix. World was also used when worldly should have been. I was confused by the word shuttered too.......I think shuddered was meant.There were some very funny lines in it, I must say, and as I said at the start the story was a terrific one. I loved how the title worked in the story as well. I also really liked a couple of the characters in it. Just my type of book for sure. I'll definitely try another by this author and hope I can give that one that extra half a star !!

Iv got to be honest, at first I really disliked this book. I disliked the writing style and the soppy lovey Dovey descriptions of holly and her husband.I almost gave up but in the second part it suddenly changed.I thought I knew what was going on but I really didn't and about three quarters Through I did guess what was going on but was glad everything was coming together. I Have People turned out to be an eye opening, lovely tale where you really felt for the characters of mr Sinclair and holly. Highly recommended and loved the twists, so glad I kept reading!

this book could win a prize for repetition. the same dialogue over and over, the same descriptions of how much Holly loves her husband...the similar scenes repeated endlessly...i despaired that anything was ever going to happen. the plot would perhaps have made a good short story or even novella. there isn't very much depth to any of the characters and by the time you reach the flashback, you've already worked out what's happened, so there isn't much suspense. in the end i just gave up and deleted it. don't waste your time with this one.

Wow another brilliant read from taylor dean. Loved this story of holly and gabe.. full of emotion that really tugs at the heartstrings. How holly deals with a terrifying situation and finds people who help and support her. Well worth a read, cannot praise the author enough!!

I can't quite put my finger on why this book is only average. The story concept is good as is the writing in the middle. The beginning is strange and only one character - Holly - feels real. I won't be rushing to find another book by this author I'm afraid.