Loved It. This book has me completely hooked from the very first page to the very last one. I absolutely loved it. It was gripping, thrilling and edge of your seat drama. A great physiological thriller.

I usually love this author's books but this one left a lot to be desired. It started off great and really grabbed my attention. Then it lost the plot in my opinion. I didn't like any of the characters. The deal with Richard was expected and disappointing. I liked Christine more in the middle of the book and started rooting for her. Then it took a turn towards the end and left me frustrated. I didn't feel like anyone got what they deserved. It was just too convoluted.

What a brilliant thriller! Really drew me in from page one, and did not let go to the final chapter.

Brilliant plot and believable characters. 5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

Unfortunately I DNF'd this book around 16%. It read like another domestic thriller with "rich white people" problems. A jealous wife, a successful husband, a rich and complicated ingenue "assistant" with an even richer and more complicated family, etc. I don't think there was enough character development to make me care about the characters, no matter what was going on.

Saying that "After the Wedding" is a psichologycal thriller is a mislead to what really is this book about. At first, it was kind of hard for me to pick up the pace: the first half of the book was hard, but then, the second half paced up quickly. I honestly thought this was more of a family drama, but it turned out to be organised crime, which was okay, but it wasn't for me. Some characters were flat, one dimensional and didn't feel like they had something to do here, but okay.

Review on my blog will be posted soon!

This is the kind of book that makes me wish I didn't have a job (so I could stay home and read it cover-to-cover in one sitting)! The story gripped me from the first chapter, a flashback to Christine Lewis's childhood when she wandered away from her aunt's wedding and ended up almost drowning in a nearby river. Christine can't remember how she ended up in the water, or the events immediately before. Thirty years later, married and successful, Christine still has nightmares about that day. Her feelings of dread and foreboding worsen after she and her husband hire Jessica Newman to work at their advertising agency, and Christine turns to hypnotherapy in an effort to come to grips with her past, not realizing that it is tied to Jessica and threatening her future. Christine is intelligent and strong, and her choices and actions are appropriately smart. This is more of a suspense novel than psychological thriller. The story unfolds slowly but is well plotted & well written with interesting characters.

This book was a struggle for me. I got into it immediately but then lost interest a few chapters in. I did finish it but didn’t love it, there were some interesting twists and turns but I kept waiting for something more. I’m sure others will love this one but it just wasn’t the right book for me.

A young flower girl is rescued and while this incident seems isolated, it will ripple and come back up and after a trip with a therapist, the memories will come back and Christine's life will be upended.

This was such a fun read - it felt like two mysteries for the price as one as the clues from Christine's childhood are being revealed while the mystery of her and husband's advertising agency's demise. Of course, since this has all sorts of clues and things in this book, I don't want to share too much and give anything away, but I have to say the way that this book unfolded was just genius.

The characters in this book were built so well. I both trusted them and questioned them at the same time! I loved following Christine's pursuit for the truth and her wanting to find out the details as to what happened to her when she was young and to find out what all was going on around her that at a young age she would have never known.

I was surprised to find out after finishing this book that I have a lot of Laura Elliot's books on my TBR, but this was the first one I have read. With her pacing being on point and her characters having such depth, I am even more excited to read Laura Elliot's other books.

From the premise of After the Wedding, this book sounded like the perfect read. Billed as a breathtaking, emotional and suspenseful page turner that will have you hooked what more could I ask for? Sadly this wasn’t what I got. Part one went on forever and nothing seemed to happen. I almost dnf’d but decided to keep going in the hope it would improve but for me it was a lacklustre plot line with too slow of a pace and predictable in some places. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

I didn't end up getting that far in this book. I originally thought I would like this mystery but it ended up being just a bit too much, well I don't think gaslighting is exactly right, but I don't enjoy reading stories where someone has a "feeling" and everyone else thinks they're crazy. It might have improved farther on but there were just too many scenes where Christine was being ignored. left to drink alone, and her company was being taken from under her that it was too uncomfortable for me to finish. I would definitely read more by Elliot, but this was not the book for me.

Snap cakes! 😳😯

I went back and forth on whether this was a true psychological thriller, but I will say it had some of those elements. The synopsis sounded so good and really peaked my interest, but sadly as the book unfolded I lost my curiosity slowly.
Christine and her husband Richard are owners and founders of a posh advertising agency. They recently hired a newcomer, Jessica. Christine has felt fear, anxiety and anger towards her for reasons she can't explain. The advertising agency has hit a tumultuous time and Jessica's father has offered to rescue them in exchange for letting Jessica become the finance advisor of it. Christine constantly feels threatened by Jessica, & little does she know they have more in common with traumatic pasts. When Christine was five, she was part of a traumatic event with suppressed memories that contribute to her anxiety, she works on with a hypnotherapist. How is all of this connected and intwined between her and Jessica? Is what she feeling paranoia or a real warning?
I found this novel was too long and too much information at times that had a hard time keeping my interest. While the ending satisfied me, the journey to get there felt cumbersome and I lost my enjoyment after the halfway mark, unfortunately. The premise had major potential and I feel if it had been refined more & shortened it would've been a much higher star rating for me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bookouture for this ARC.
Release date: March 24, 2022

I give this 2.5 / 5 Bouquets! 💐

Great thriller, memories, supressed? Are they real, what do they mean? Who are some of these people and how to they connect?

Christine thinks she as it all, but then out of the blue, things begin to fall apart. Who is behind the rumor mill that threatens her company and her marriage? Who is the supposed savior with an ulterior motive? What keeps coming up in her memory that will not. go away?

This is a fun book, set in a cold location with lots of secrets to reveal. Midway through there is an allusion to an ending that you may think you see- careful, its not.
Definite recommend.

After the Wedding
by Laura Elliot

Thank you NetGalley and bookouture for the preview of this book!
The book had many pros and cons. A Pretty good read, yet there were just far too many characters to try to keep up with. I did finish it, a bit confused.

Thank you NetGalley and bookouture for the preview of this book! After the wedding is a suspense filled wild ride that is full of deceit, drama, and violence. The story follows Christine as she awakens her past trauma from childhood. She stops at no lengths to uncover her past, though faces grave danger the further she digs. This book is long and told from many points of view, but still entertains the whole way through. It is a great long read, but bear in mind you have to be thoroughly into it to manage the many characters and storylines.

While this book started out with a LOT of promise I quickly was very bored and when the POV changed I skipped to skimming the remainder of the book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Start this book when you have plenty of time, because you won't want to put it down! After the Wedding by Laura Elliot immediately drew me in and kept me turning pages late into the night. Unanticipated twists and turns were very engaging. Cleverly timed revelations shifted my entire perspective more than once. I found myself reflecting on the story well after I finished reading it. If you enjoy fast-paced page-turners you won't be disappointed!

After The Wedding
Laura Elliot

This book just didn’t capture me at all for some reason. I felt like it just had way to much going on and to many characters. I do believe it had the potential to be a great book but I feel like it got sidetracked by someone.

This book is hard for me to review, I actually finished it a few days ago and wanted to sit in how I felt to come up with an honest rating. The book started off strong, I was invested in the story until about the halfway point and all of a sudden it felt like the book was just dragging on. It honestly felt like time just stopped and every page I was turning was almost adding pages to the book. While the ending tied things together nicely I just did not enjoy this book for some reason and am having a hard time really being able to explain why. I would like to thank Laura Elliot, Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Synopsis per Amazon:

Everyone said she was the prettiest flower girl. But now her dress lies on the floor. It’s wet and torn, her shoes are lost. ‘Tell us what happened to you?’ her daddy sobs. Christine shakes her head. All she can remember are the red rose petals scattering like drops of blood spilling to the ground.

When Christine Lewis was a little girl, she witnessed something terrible at a wedding and buried it so deep in her memory, she managed to forget it ever happened.

Years later, Jessica Newman walks into the successful advertising agency Christine runs with her husband. Jessica is beautiful and excellent at her job but her presence triggers disturbing memories for Christine. Fragments of the wedding are starting to flicker in her mind and an unexplainable ball of dread begins to form in Christine’s stomach. Jessica is slowly beginning to destroy Christine’s marriage and her business. Why can’t anyone else see it?

Memories Of The Past…
What happened at the wedding all those years ago? Christine suppresses memories that she doesn’t want to surface. The appearance of Jessica at her advertising agency prompts a pull on fragments of the past that begin a disturbing and ominous path. It seems, to Christine, that Jessica is intent on destroying her. What is the connection and is she the key to the mystery of past events? A slow burn tense thriller, emotional and menacing in equal parts.

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I think the plot was an excellent one, and the characterization was well done, the the third person point of view slowed things down and really didn't give the story the edginess it could have had. I would have preferred alternating first person point of views for at least the three main characters: Christine, Richard and Jessica.

The settings were also well done with detailed descriptions of places. With so much going for it, I still think the book deserves at least 3 to 4 stars.