A well written novel that intrigued me from start to finish. Jo wakes up in hospital and doesn't know what happened or how she got there. Her husband and children won't give her any answers and she is desperate to try an find the year she lost. This sets the tone of the book and the reader is just as frustrated as Jo at what is happening.

"She can't remember the last year. Her husband wants to keep it that way.

Dramatic psychological suspense for fans of Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret, Clare Mackintosh's I Let You Go, and Linda Green's While My Eyes Were Closed.

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in hospital with partial amnesia - she's lost a whole year of memories.

A lot can happen in a year. Was Jo having an affair? Lying to her family? Starting a new life?

She can't remember what she did - or what happened the night she fell.

But she's beginning to realise she might not be as good a wife and mother as she thought."

I had such high hopes for this book from the reviews and blurb, but I was so underwhelmed by it. I felt it dragged on and on and by the end I just wanted the book to hurry up and finish so that I could find out what memories she lost and could not remember. I understand it is to be a tv series, let's hope it is better than the book at keeping the momentum and enthusiasm for the story going.

Close to me by Amanda Reynolds.
This was an ok read. Good story. I just read it. Couldn't really get into it. 3*.

I really wanted to like Close To Me. The premise was good and I liked the fact it went between the past and present day however I found the book to lack pace. I would give the book 2.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Headline and the author for the chance to review.

Close to Me by Amanda Reynolds is a twisty novel which was intriguing and quite a page turner. Not particularly original but written well and engages the readers.

Agghhhh, one of those ‘what if ‘books that I love! A fall down the stairs and a year of your life wiped out just like that. Of course with the support of your loving hubby and family you’ll get through it right? Hang on, what if all is not as it seems, what if hubby is hiding something, what if you didn’t fall? Then again, what if it’s just your imagination running away with you, what if the fall is causing your brain to play tricks on you? Gripping, twisty and right up my street.

A dark and twisted tale about the deception of families and the lies we tell to cover our sins. Close to Me is an addictive novel, which kept me guessing right to the end.

I was completely gripped by this story and thought the quality of writing was of a really high standard. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. Thank you.

A story of lies, screts, betrayals, and families. The chapters alternate between the time before and after Jo's fall down the stairs, where she hits her head and loses her memory of the past year. The story keeps you interested and guessing throughout, until the final chapter.

I really enjoyed this book, the premise of which is quite popular at the moment, but this didn't detract from this story for me.

Really enjoyed Close To Me by Amanda Reynolds, wasn't sure what to expect this being a debut author but I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Close To Me tells the story of Jo Harding after she falls down stairs hitting her head and losing her memory of the past year.
On coming home things feel different and disjointed, Jo feels there is an undercurrent of deceit, secrets being kept from her by her husband and children and as she unravels the mysteries of the past year things escalate to a shocking conclusion.
So this was a great psychological read, it kept my interest and pulled me in, the writing was superb, and the storyline very easy to follow.
Close to me is told in two parts, real-time and snippets of the past year, though it has a slow build this is not a bad thing as you get to understand Jo's life and how she is the person she is.
The characters here felt real and human, some you could sympathise with others not so much.
If I had to pick my least favourite person in this, it would have to be the daughter I found her very self-centred and immature, but she's a product of her overindulged upbringing.
I myself have grown up children there is no way on this planet I would be paying for their accommodation.
what a right spoilt brat Sash is.
Close to me delves into the dynamics of family and the resulting aftermath when things ultimately implode.
I did kind of guess where this was going but it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment reading this.
Would I recommend this? Hell Yeah!!!
It was an engaging read.
Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and the author for providing me with an arc of Close to me
This is my own honest unbiased opinion.

Imagine waking up in hospital, not knowing how you got there, and what happened to you? Hubby is of no help, and your kids refuses to tell you anything..... This sets the tone of the book and made it very entertaining! Highly recommended and worth your time.

No wakes up in a hospital after a bad fall down the stairs, and has no recollection of how it happens though her husband Tob is constantly telling her "she fell" and yet the flashbacks she gets tell a different story (but can they be trusted)?!

The book flits from the before and after the fall and whilst it wasn't an issue it was sometimes confusing.

Saying that I really enjoyed the book which was fast paced and had some good characters and twists in it. You were constantly second guessing what was going on not knowing if what Jo saw was real or a figment of her imagination.

There were lots of questions to be answered; Who pushed her? Who was she having an affair with, can she trust rob? The list goes on. I really felt for Jo to have something so awful happen and have no idea how or be unable to remember a massive chunk of your life must be terrifying.

The book was a really good read and I enjoyed it a lot as I do all of her books! A must read for fans of domestic thrillers and mysteries in general ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Close to Me by Amanda Reynolds is a claustrophobic pyschological thriller. After a fall at home and admission to hospital Jo is unable to remember the last year of her life. Her family withhold details of the missing months but slowly she begins to realise she has been leading another life. A slow pace and a slightly boring central character failed to grip me although the story is competent.

Thank you for giving me the chance to read Close to me. I was expecting this book to be a psychological thriller but I would say it was more of a family drama with lots of twists and turns.
I didn't really warm to Jo Harding, the mother, who woke up in hospital having fallen down the stairs at home. Her bump to the head caused her to lose her memory of the last year of her life. The last thing she remembers is dropping her son off at university, and little bits of memory gradually return as she delves into her past. As I tend to read a chapter or two at night, I kept getting confused with the alternating past and present, and I started to find it a bit annoying. This book didn't have the page turning capacity for me to read more than I intended each night, but enough for me to continue to finish the book. I have to say, although I thought it was a good read, it isn't near the top of my favourites list.

AHHH I was so excited to read this book and it didn’t disappoint.
Jo Harding wakes up in hospital after falling down the stairs with no recollection of the last year. As she struggles to find out who she has become and what has happened only her family stand in the way of her answers, but why? What don’t they want her to know?
Told in alternating chapters from before and after the accident and told entirely from Jo’s POV the author did an amazing job of conveying Jo’s thoughts and feelings; confusion, terror, suspect and doubt, made all the more realistic by Jo being a truly dislikeable human being.
I loved the fact that the story kept me guessing from beginning to end. If you have read any of my previous reviews you will know I am a huge fan of family drama thrillers, I just love watching the dysfunction play out.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and knew from the first chapter that I would read it all in one sitting. It had great pacing and enough intrigue to keep my attention.
A great read for any BA Paris or Alice Feeny fans.

An Intriguing plot:
What if you had the chance to erase your partner's memory of the events leading up to a crisis in your relationship? Would you take it? Well in Amanda Reynolds's Close to Me that notion is explored. Jo Harding suspects her husband of being complicit in her fall down a flight of stairs to achieve that end. But is Jo's memory playing tricks on her?
Jo gains consciousness after a serious fall to find that the last year of her life has been tippexed out. Her doting husband, Rob at her side, the neurologist delivers the bad news that her memory might never return and urges her to join a therapy group. Very gradually, in flashes, Jo's memory returns, but she finds her recollections at odds with those around her. Seriously at odds. Can she trust Rob? Can Nick be trusted? Can any man be trusted? Or is her memory at fault?
I found the novel slow paced and the narrative style not of my liking. The book has a good ending, just a pity it took so long to get there. I thought that more could have been made of what, on the face of it, is an intriguing idea: what if, at a crisis point in your life you had an accident and the causes of your crisis were erased from your memory. And everyone around you, each for their own ends, did not help you fill in the blanks.
The novel touches on the value of relationships but paints a bleak picture of males. The male characters in the novel take a bashing, even Fin not escaping unscathed. The only good guys are Ryan and the Neurologist and they make but fleeting appearances.
This is a light read, very suitable for holiday reading but unfortunately unchallenging and ultimately disappointing. Well to me at least.

Shelter is an interesting take on a typical WW2 novel, in that it doesn’t focus on life in London or any of England’s big cities during the war. It’s almost entirely based in the countryside, and follows two people brought together by the work that needs doing in the forest: one is Connie, who is seemingly running from something and is starting afresh in training in the Women’s Timber Corps (again, an organisation during the war that isn’t generally given much attention in novels), and the other is Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war.

Both characters are interesting and well-developed, but as the novel went on I found myself going from hating to liking then hating Connie again – she seemed really selfish and unlikable at times, but I’d then swing back to feeling sorry for her/ respecting her again. It’s a mark of Sarah Franklin’s writing that she can make the reader feel such conflicting emotions – much like Connie’s own confusing emotions, I imagine – but still make the reader want to read on regardless. I also liked that Connie isn’t portrayed as the typical ‘feminine’ character and doesn’t follow the normal maternal instincts that is so expected of women – even in today’s society, nevermind back in the 1940’s! Seppe, however, seemed like a lovely character, though not perfect himself. I really enjoyed reading as their relationship with one another develops.

Shelter jumps back and forwards in time, revealing a little more at a time about life for the characters before the war – particularly Connie’s. Sarah Frankling really made me think about how the war effort didn’t just consist of those fighting and those in munitions factories, etc – it was fought all over, with different people contributing and helping out in their own ways. It also highlights the way that a prisoner of war during WW2 would not necessarily have been German, something I to be honest never properly considered until now.

I’d really recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical or is just a real fan of stories set in WW2, as I am. It’s a fairly easy read but it has some serious issues and parts to it which provoke the reader to think a little bit, something which I really enjoyed.

Close to me kept me on the edge of my seat as the story shed more light on what had happened and a few red herrings to keep it interesting.
Jo Harding has woken up in hospital she has had a fall on the stairs of her home and has had a bump in the head among other injuries causing her to loose her memory of the last year of her life. The last thing Jo remembers is dropping her son off at university, the rest is a blank until little bits start to be remembered making her question her life in the last year. Her husband is overly attentive and with snatches of memory coming back did she trip or was she pushed?
I really enjoyed this book, I enjoyed the layout of the alternating chapters that were the year before the fall and the days after the fall, this made everything start to fall into place but with a few twists that throw you off for a bit. I think the characters could have been developed more as I really wanted to like Jo but didn't really get to know her well by the end. The story flowed well but did at times towards the end have to keep an eye on wether I was reading before or after as the time span is very close.
I would like to thank netgalley and headline, wildfire for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me on the edge of my seat. A huge 5 stars.
I would highly recommend this.