I received an ARC of After Nightfall in exchange for my honest review. Marissa and Nathan are celebrating their engagement with family and friends. By the end of the evening one of the friends ends up dead at the bottom of a cliff. Did Lauren take her own life or did she die at the hands of another person? A.J's writing flows so smoothly with just enough detail, suspense and clues that you find yourself suspecting many characters and not really knowing until the very end what really happened. I loved the twists, turns, mystery and suspense this book provided and I was sad to see it end. I could not put this book down! I have enjoyed reading all of A.J's books, she is a talented writer and I will be recommending After Nightfall to my friends! This is my honest review of After Nightfall. (less)

First off, thank you to A.J. Banner and Net galley for the exciting opportunity to preview this book and give it an honest review! I am thrilled to do so.

This was a great book – and I was definitely wrong about “who did it” in the end! The only thing that I would change/add, would be the ending which was very abrupt and makes you wonder, “what’s next?” It’s almost like it ended in the middle of a sentence-but maybe that’s just because I loved the book so much that I’m not ready to be done. ❤️ looking forward to more A.J. Banner books in the future!!!

After Nightfall was a suspenseful, thought provoking & kept me up at night. I love A.J. Banner's mind, how she creates characters & suspense is interesting to me. The characters in this book are definitely full of secrets & surprises. Another hit for A.J. Banner & I eagerly await the next book.

I received an advance copy of this book for an honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review. This is a great read, full of suspense and hidden secrets . How well does Marissa really know her friend Lauren, why at the dinner party is Lauren flirting with her new fiancé Nathan.
As Lauren is leaving rather abruptly she tells Marissa she needs to speak with her about her own marriage and about Nathan, she doesn’t get to confide in Marissa though, as the next morning on her early morning walk Marissa finds her friend Lauren dead on the beach. Was it an accident, did Lauren slip, or was she pushed?
Marissa is determined to find out what happened to Lauren, a few of the characters are under suspicion, they each have their own secrets, and this includes her fiancé Nathan. The reader is however kept guessing

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of After Nightfall by A. J. Banner for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Marissa hosts a dinner party with close friends to announce engagement. During the dinner, each person attending seems to be acting strangely. She wakes up the next day to find her childhood best friend, Lauren, dead on the beach. Did Lauren fall or was she murdered? And if murdered by whom? This novel does a great job of keeping the reader guessing and keeping things interesting. The writhing was well done, Characters well developed and plot well thought out. I continued guessing until the end! It is well worth the read. It Was a quick afternoon read. and I recommend it. Going to give this one a 3 star rating.

Super quick read that I read in just a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. I thought that it was pretty tightly written with good characterizations and plot twists that I didn't see coming. I'd write more but I don't want to spoil anything for any other readers! Recommended to fans of domestic thrillers.

Fast paced and quick read. The author did a good job of laying out clues but I really didn’t guess who did it till near the end. Every character had secrets and could have been the killer. Enjoyed the book!

I think the more of these so called thrillers I read, the higher the bar is raised. This was a thinky veiled plot,with much repetition, and to be honest often didn't make much sense. Maybe not enough context given for some of the subsequent actions taken by the characters. Although this book was already relatively short in pages, it could have been even shorter without the repetition, and the going over and over the same details, thoughts and actions by the main character. I was not thrilled, nor chilled, in fact I was bored.

A sisters read and all three of us had the same thoughts and reservations.

ARC from Netgalley.

Unfortunately, I did not much care for this book. The characters seemed so shallow and the circumstances depicted were truly hard to believe. Sorry but this one was just not for me.

Marissa and Nathan host a dinner party with friends and family and the next morning, her friend Lauren's body is found broken at the bottom of the cliff. Tension was thick at the dinner party and mystery surrounds Lauren's death. Was she pushed? Did she jump? After Nightfall is a fun, fast paced, quick read. I did not see the ending coming and found it to be a solid conclusion. This is a lighter suspense read with a fun build up to the surprise ending. Thank you @amazonpublishing for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

After Nightfall by A. J. Banner
Although it took awhile to get into the story with all it's twists and turns, it was a very entertaining read that didn't end as I expected it would. Marissa was a hard person to relate to but in retrospect I could understand why she acted as she did.
Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "After Nightfall"
by A. J. Banner. A fiction novel with just the right amount of suspense! The story centers around a woman named Marissa who hosts a dinner party with close friends to announce her engagement. During the dinner, each person attending seems to be acting different/strange. Marissa hardly gets to celebrate her engagement. Marissa wakes up the next day to find her childhood best friend, Lauren, dead on the beach. Did Lauren fall or was she murdered? This novel does a great job of keeping the reader guessing and keeping things interesting the whole time. I continued guessing until the end! It is well worth the read and I recommend it.

What a page-turner! Marissa throws a small dinner party to celebrate her engagement to Nathan. The dinner turns out tense and not at all celebratory as it should have been. The next morning, Marissa finds her friend's lifeless body at the bottom of a cliff. Lauren was a childhood friend who Marissa was just getting reacquainted with after years of separation. Did she jump or was she pushed? I love books like this where every character is a suspect and has their own reasons/motives for killing Lauren. I recently took this on my cruise and I couldn't stop reading! Highly recommend!

When a book takes so many twists and turns and ends up nowhere close to what you thought it would then it’s a good book. AJ Banner has written that book with After Nightfall. Life will never be the same when the morning after a celebratory dinner brings heartache and tragedy. Secrets, lies, jealousy and deception all blend together for an ending that the reader never saw coming.

After Nightfall is a perfect whodunit! The story moves at a fast pace and kept me guessing til the end with all the twists and turns!

After Nightfall is a mystery with a solid twist. Marissa and Nathan throw a dinner party turned engagement party, and things don't go as planned. Lauren, Marissa's former best friend and now just friend, flirts the entire dinner with Nathan, Marissa's fiance, as her husband Jensen is clearly upset. Also present are Nathan's daughter, Anna, and his brother Keith and his wife Hedra. The party ends, and suddenly it's the next morning where Marissa finds Lauren's body. Several people in the After Nightfall world come under suspicion of murder, and Marissa finds herself needing to answer the question of who killed her former best friend. A.J. Banner did an amazing job fleshing out all of the characters, making you think and rethink who the killer could be. After Nightfall is fast paced and an easy read. Recommend!

3.25 Stars* (rounded down)

Marissa couldn’t be happier - she has finally found the man of her dreams: Nathan, a single dad to Anna, and an EMT. Kind, caring and loving - he is everything she has been looking for. If only Marissa’s former best friend Lauren didn’t ruin their engagement party by all out flirting with her fiancé, it’s so embarrassing! Especially with Lauren’s husband Jasper watching. Lauren has some nerve! When Marissa and Nathan announce their engagement, Lauren panics, dashing out - yet before she leaves she informs Marissa that she must tell her something important .. about Nathan. Later that night however - and before Lauren has the chance to talk to her former bestie, the unthinkable happens, Lauren’s body surfaces on the cliffs outside her beachfront home. Coincidence? Time will tell.

Marissa is devastated by Lauren’s death as they had neglected to heal the rift that tore their friendship apart years prior. Now Marissa feels that it is her mission to find Lauren’s murderer, with or without the Police Department’s help. Little does Marissa know that honesty is not everyone’s best or favorite policy. Once she finds this out, tension mounts.

“After Nightfall” is a fast-paced, enjoyable read that felt a bit more like a YA novel than an adult mystery / suspense to me. It was however, an entertaining book that kept me engrossed up till the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and A.J. Banner for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 8.21.18.

Marissa and Nathan get engaged in front of their dinner guests. He has been married before and has a daughter. Early the next morning, while on a walk, Marissa finds her childhood friend at the bottom of a cliff in front of Nathan’s home. Marissa calls the police. This will not be the only time that she calls the detective. Did Lauren fall or was she pushed? A.J. Banner does an excellent job of keeping the reader guessing. There are so many twists and turns.... I felt the story was fast paced and enjoyable.

This is a short, quick, and engaging story. It reads easily and would make a terrific beach read. The cover is <i>gorgeous.</i>

The premise is good, and it gives us many avenues of guessing to what could've happened to Lauren that night. Was it the husband? The daughter? Nathan? Was it suicide?...so many questions! Marissa is determined to get the answers to find out who killed her friend NO.MATTER.WHAT. She's determined, that one, for sure. I just didn't like her one bit and found myself rolling my eyes at her actions constantly. I won't say why. I will let you make your own decisions about her. Please, don't let my judgment of the character prevent you from reading the story, though. Most likely I am biased and being judgmental.

The book was entertaining and definitely a page-turner.


I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for your approval!

I recieved a free digital copy of this book to supply a fair and honest review.

I really wanted to like this book. I wanted to care about the characters and the twists. But I found it difficult to get into this book.

None of the characters seem genuine, and I struggled to like any of them. Everyone was made a little too perfect so when anything was revealed about them, it wasn't surprising-of course they would have this major issue or darkness because otherwise they would be completely perfect.

In addition, the plot's pacing was off to me, particularly at the beginning. The beginning of the book didn't feel natural or believable-it felt like everything just happened to be able to label everyone as a suspect. It all felt so very forced.

My last issue with this novel was the fact that the author spent a lot of time expecting you to make links between information he supplied without him giving enough for you not to catch on until a little too late. Everything could have been supplied much more fluidly. (For example, very early in the novel, the author suddenly begins referring to two characters by their last name without ever giving their last name, only giving one hint that it took me a moment to connect and felt so odd to me.)

Overall, I can definitely see where some people would enjoy this novel. It's definitely not a BAD novel. I just couldn't get into it because it felt like it was trying so hard.