Tho some have criticized the "before and after " narrative, i rather liked it.
First 10% of book was engaging, but then it dragged until the last 25% of the book.
I have some of the same criticisms others have pointed out--the dialogue seemed juvenile in places, some issues seemed a bit implausible, and the ending seemed a little too cutesy for all that happened to the characters.
Still an ok read on a winter afternoon.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an arc through NetGalley.
I have to admit it took me a little while to get in the flow of this book. But once I did it was really good. I enjoyed the suspense and the many twists and turns. Would definitely recommend this book.

“After Anna” by Lisa Scottoline

Sometimes a mother’s love blinds her from the larger picture, of the red flags, of issues which may seem small but become bigger; sometimes it is too late to notice, to reconcile, to turn life back right side up.

Sometimes a mother’s love is so full of hope and promise that they are unable to see when all hope is gone and if you try to pick up the pieces of your life you are not sure what fits where or what makes sense anymore.

Can a daughter one hasn’t seen for almost 17 years and known for a week, be such a master manipulator that no one is truly able to see and know her true personality? Her end game? Her extreme excitement at finally meeting that parent as if no time has ever gone by with no hesitation?

Can the joy of a mother having her child back in her life after over a decade blind her from seeing the larger picture? At what point do you take her side? Make her the priority? Make excuses so that she will feel loved and supported when what that parent is actually allowing is her teenage daughter to have all the control and yet not have the realization that she does? When does ones marriage take more or less precedence over a child you just met? How often does what we believe we see or think blind us from what we truly should be seeing (the real picture)?

In “After Anna,” the reader gets the multiple views of the life of Noah and Maggie and young Noah before Anna arrived, the meeting Maggie has with Anna that results with her moving in with them, life with her in the house, and life after her death. We get to see how each persons behavior and beliefs change, adapt, enable and view situations from different angles and points of view. We begin to see the bigger picture and question how things could change so drastically with the addition of one child, whose behavior is undermining and manipulative in such a subtle manner that most don’t see it or make excuses for it. We see a marriage that was strong and stable fall apart in a span of a week or so. We see lives ruined and put on the line. We see the ways ones words and behavior can be twisted and turned and used against them and interpreted in so many ways finding the truth is often hard for anyone to discern.

What we do see are the lives each character led before and after Anna moved in with Noah, Maggie and Caleb. Lives that are twisted and turned in so many ways no one knows which way is right side up and moving in the correct direction.

But when Maggie receives astonishing news it will flip their world all over again...

Lisa Scottoline has written another masterpiece. Her characters are always so well portrayed and relatable. Her storyline never leaves the reader with questions at the end...but definitely takes them on a roller coaster ride throughout. Honest, captivating and realistic are just a few descriptive which come to mind when reading her novels. This one is no different and didn’t disappoint.

Rating: 4.8
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed reading this book. The format of each chapter (after Anna or before Anna) was very helpful. The story and the characters were well developed. It is a great thriller. I had a hard time putting the book down because I had to know what happened. The ending was quite a surprise.

This is one of those book that you can't put down. Maggie finally reunites with her only child just have her household turned upside down. The book kept me guessing and the twist at the end was nothing I expected.

Lisa has done it again! What a nailbiter...a rollercoaster, twisting, FANTASTIC read! It kept me in suspense and was full of the usual complex, well developed characters that Lisa creates. I loved this one.

Lisa Scottoline knocks it out of the park again! I got started and couldn’t put this book down. The characters all seem to have some minor flaw, but which one is going to completely shatter while you watch?
Maggie and her husband Noah have managed to build a happy little home out of the broken pieces that are left of each of their previous lives. Noah and his son Caleb are recovering from the loss of their wife and mom who died of cancer. Maggie lives with the regret of losing custody of her daughter 17 years earlier due to a mental psychosis that developed after giving birth to Anna. Maggie’s ex-husband took her far away and never allowed Maggie a glimpse of the daughter Anna became.
This all changes suddenly when Anna contacts Maggie and asks to meet. Maggie also learns that Anna’s father and his new family have all died in a plane crash. In a whirlwind of quick decisions, Maggie offers Anna a home with her and her family, a chance to have the daughter she thought she had lost for life.
Almost immediately tension develops between the once happy members of Maggie and Noah’s household. In almost breakneck speed, Anna and Noah get into a huge legal wrangling and the only solution is for Noah to quickly move out. Its mind boggling for Noah; before Anna everything had been going so smoothly. But after Anna arrived? It’s awful, the false claims, lack of trust, lost confidence. Then it gets even worse. Anna is found dead on Noah’s apartment steps.
Written from the viewpoint of Noah’s current time in the courtroom interspersed with the history of events that got him there, it’s a tangled plot and an increasingly interesting chain of events. Don’t plan to read a short bit and go to bed; it won’t work! It didn’t for me; I HAD to know is Noah all he’s presenting himself to be? And why did Anna have such vengeful ulterior motives?
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for making it available.)

This book was AMAZING! One of the best books I have read in a very long time. It held my attention from the beginning until the end and was extremely well written. I had NO Idea it would end the way it did. I made the mistake of starting to read it before bed.... I didn't get to sleep until 5 and then got up at 6. I was really surprised with the ending. Maggie is newly married with a new step son and couldn't be happier. Not many of her friends know that she has a daughter whom she has not seen since she was a baby. Her ex husband was given full custody after Maggie was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. Her daughter is now 17 years old and her father and his new family have all been killed in a plane accident. Maggie brings Anna back to live with her new family. She can't begin to imagine how the new few months will unfold.
**I was given an advance copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in return I am giving my personal review of the book.**

So stinkin' good! Lisa Scottoline is queen of the twists and turns, and I really didn't see this one coming. Warning: Don't pick up this book unless you have enough time to finish-you won't want to put it down.

This book started out slow to me, glad i stuck with. There were twists i didn't see coming.
Great book overall.

After Anna is an absorbing novel- one I couldn't help but read from cover to cover. It had everything I wanted and needed in a book and I loved reading every second of it.

**Full review to come closer to release day **

After Anna is the latest story by Lisa Scottoline. After Anna takes us back and forth in time from the point of view of two main characters. Fair warning, this book is difficult to put down and about three quarters of the way through it is almost impossible to do so. I was given an early copy to review.

I really enjoyed this book. Good character development and a lot of twists and turns.

It’s been 17 years since Maggie left her daughter Anna with her ex. Now, happily remarried to Noah, she welcomes her teenage daughter back with open arms. It’s not long before tensions in the household reach a boiling point with Anna accusing Noah of molesting her. Maggie refuses to believe Noah when he calls the teen a liar and throws him out of their house. But Anna is not the sweet, innocent girl who Maggie believes she is, and when Anna is murdered, Noah is quickly accused and arrested. Following Noah’s account of the trial and Maggie’s story of the events leading up to it, this is a story that will leave you gasping. I simply couldn’t put it down, one of the most riveting reads of the new year

This book has it all. Just a sweet, family type drama and then BAM, a twist you didn't see coming. This book is not to be missed.

Lisa Scottoline is a very special author and I am a long time fan. I absolutely could not put down this book. Although similar plots have been used in other books, none nearly as twisty and interesting as this one.

What starts as a simple story of a reunion between a mother and her estranged child becomes a story of evil, murder and manipulation. Lots of elements including the trial of the man caught up in the middle of all this, Dr Noah Alderman, keep the reader spellbound. The plot opens during Noah’s murder trial and the author skillfully takes us back through his trial and the events which lead up to it

Though the reader guesses that all is not what it seems, we still anxiously move towards the elegant conclusion which weaves all the loose strands together. I thoroughly enjoyed this! Always looking forward to the next Lisa Scottoline book!

Another blockbuster from the author. I find her stand alone books much better than her series and this book was no exception. The story unfolded in a basic predictable fashion. But....I knew this author would not settle for basic. The intrigue developed toward the end which left me with a few surprises. The only criticism I had of the book was that the ending was too 'cute'.

The story alternates between Maggie's (the mother) experience before Anna's death, and the days from the end of the trial that convicted Noah (the husband) of Anna's death. And the "after trial" sections of the story start at the end of the trial and work their way forward to the beginning of the trial. My initial reactions was that the story was going to be very confusing to read in this manner but it actually worked and helped the reader unravel new details. However, the middle half of the book seemed to drag on forever, and it was at this point that I truly felt that this wasn't the typical Scottoline book that I usually love. I also felt like a few of the conversations/dialogues in the book felt forced or just elementary with random simple statements inserted in the conversation but they felt out of place.

At exactly the 75% mark of the book, the twists started coming and it got a little more intense. The pace picked up, and very quickly the book and story line was resolved. I liked the book, but the overall flow didn't seem typical for this author.

There are a lot of twists and turns. The writing style was not one I was comfortable with. The book dragged a bit for me until the end. There’s a lot of action taking place at the end of the book. The ending was quite good. Received an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review by NetGalley.

Noah Alderman has a thriving medical practice, is married to the lovely, Maggie Ippolitti, who has become a mother to his young son, Caleb. Living the suburban dream, all is close to perfect when Maggie receives a phone call from the daughter she hasn't seen since she was a baby. After Anna's birth, Maggie suffered from postpartum psychosis and her then-husband, highly successful Florian Desroches, took advantage of Maggie's illness to obtain physical custody of Anna. Maggie is overjoyed to hear from Anna that she is unhappy at her boarding school and is willing to come and live with Noah and Maggie. Discovering that Anna is an heiress and not used to rules and being part of a family, is an adjustment for all of them especially Noah. In a very short time, their lives are turned upside down, Noah is accused of murder and Maggie doesn't know who to believe. Maggie and her best friend Kathy are determined to learn the truth about Anna and what happened to Anna's missing friends.
Scottoline never disappoints! I enjoy her fast-paced writing style and in this case having heard her speak at Barned and Noble, I can just imagine Lisa sitting down and breathlessly telling this story. Reading one of her books is like seeing a friend that you haven't seen in awhile and picking up where you left off and time stands still. Told in the alternating voices of Maggie and Noah, I didn't want to stop reading until I discovered what really happened.