Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: It Might Have Been What He Said
Author: Eden Collinsworth
Publisher: Arcade
ISBN: 1-55970-812-2
Release Date: June 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Current/New York, Europe and LA
Overall Rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: Sexual
Language (Profanity) Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: None
Eden's Website: None Found
Isabelle Simpson Willoughby looked like any other career woman out there. She was polished, well spoken and incredibly talented. Why then had she tried to kill her husband? Dr. Lewis was determined to find that out. The perplexing part of the story was that Isabelle wasn’t sure herself.
As we take a look at her past, Isabelle had wonderful looking parents. Her father is an accomplished business man doing quite well for himself. Her mother is an exotic beauty. However, as Isabelle begins to enter her formative years, she is the one who discovers her mother in such a position that an institution became her mother’s way of life. The way her mother’s mind was taxed was difficult for Isabelle to understand and comprehend. So, she walled it off and became accomplished in her own right.
She discovered the world of books which led her to the world of publishing. Isabelle was one of the youngest promoted to manage a publishing house. Through a friend, she went after a promising article, freelance author-James Willoughby. James would be her Achilles’ heel.
James came from a long line of blue-blood, moneyed people. However, the money had pretty much run out a generation or two back but James hadn’t grasped that fact. While the feelings Isabelle and James shared were incredibly intense they weren’t for the "real" world. Even having a son didn’t bring them to reality. Isabelle tried to keep up with James hoping he would change and become a true father and husband. On occasion James even tried.
Eden Collinsworth has created the tragic story of two people hoping for something beyond their reach. Isabelle married a man she truly loved but with the hope of changing him. James got up each morning with the hope that he would come into money. Each thought they could find that world with the other but in the end that wasn’t to be.
I think Eden has created a female lead that many women can relate to. Often we go into a relationship thinking we can show the other person a new way of living. Much as a mother teaches a child. The biggest flaw in that, however, is that the other person isn’t a child and the woman isn’t their mother. I have to admit it took a chapter or two to get into the flow of the book. It isn’t that it doesn’t flow but it was a bit different than I was used to. It Might Have Been What He Said starts as a conversation between Isabelle and her therapist as he takes her back in her memories. Isabelle is a very organized, disciplined woman so not having the answer to any question at her finger tips is a tough one (again something I can relate to). The way to do that is to go back to the beginning and work your way up. I found the plot line from the doctor’s perspective to be quite logical and well formed. I could also see more than a touch of myself in Isabelle and as for James as a character – he is the one you would love to kick in the butt. 
All in all cheering for Isabelle was a pleasant repast.
Lori
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