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.

When Christine was a little girl, she witnessed something horrifying but couldn't remember what it was. Years later, Christine is working in a company when Jessica Newman enters into her life. Through Christine's hazy memory, she couldn't place Jessica but feel suspicious of her. Jessica slowly enters into her life and slowly breaks Christine's marriage and slowly take over the company. Then Christine undergoes a hypnotherapy session and soon she slowly regains her memory in which Jessica may be involved...

The plot was good, the writing was great. But unfortunately, this wasn't as interesting as I thought it should be. Maybe it was just me but it wasn't as fast paced thriller as I thought it should be. Not much of twists and turns you would normally expect in a thriller and there were some parts where it was boring. However, I have to send, the ending was good--not great but good. Overall, in my opinion, this was an OK thriller, not a thing to die for.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

I nearly put this down and gave up. The first 40% or so is slow, disjointed, and frustrating because it doesn't seem o be going anywhere, nothing's happening. But after 40% this story really ramps up; twists and gasps at every corner.

Good book! This book had a lot of twists and turns! It also had suspense, intrigue, action, and great regular people detective work! It had a great surprise twist at the end! I definitely enjoyed reading this one! I definitely recommend reading this book! Its well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This book starts off slow, but stick with it because you will not be disappointed. I wasn't sure where this book was headed because of the disconnect between the prologue and Part 1, but when you finally see why it matters you're so drawn in and can't put the book down. There are so many twists and turns and just when you think you have it all figured out....

Really interesting book. Christine had a traumatic experience as a child. She wandered away from the festivities at her aunt's wedding and almost drowned. She can't recall the details of how she fell into the water, but the details play into her life years later. Christine has odd vibes about one of her employees, Christine's husband doesn't share her concerns about Jessica. Jessica seems to want what Christine has and pretty much ends up with her company and husband., but that is not the ultimate issue here. The details run deep with this. I was pretty amazed at the conclusion. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys mysteries.

This book is an intriguing read and I wasn’t sure from the beginning what could possibly had happened at the wedding. I did feel really sorry for Christine though as her trauma was just treated as a joke by her husband and at no time did he seem to care or even consider her feelings on the whole thing. I loved how this book kept turning and sending you off in a different direction and I loved the conclusion

I’ll admit that I struggled with the first portion of this book. The storyline dominated by Christine’s anxiety with no real evidence in other aspects went on for a bit and I was beginning to feel Richard’s early frustrations. However I’m pleased to say that the story picked up pace near the middle and I found myself in a mad dash to find out how all of the characters related to one another in the grand scheme of things. I enjoyed the change in perspectives at this point as well. When Christine and Ryan were able to draw together conclusions that brought them peace in their past, I was glad that Jessica was also brought closure in this as well. I was shocked and satisfied with the ending.

I was given an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This was not exactly what I was expecting after reading the synopsis. The author does supply some interesting twists and turns in this story, but the characters seem a bit one dimensional to me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the plot for this book, I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. The book is told from past perspective as well as current day, which I always think adds a fun element and dimension to a book. The book starts with a bang, describing the traumatic childhood event the main character, Christine experiences. It then jumps to present day with Christine and her husband navigating keeping their advertising business afloat, while managing new business relationships (➡️enter Jessica who brings her own set of issues and drama) , all while Christine tries to learn more about her past and what truly happened on that traumatic day.

This book is marketed as a psychological thriller, however I didn’t get super *psych* vibes from it. The author developed a great plot, that overall presented a very interesting story, however a lot of the in between just fell kinda flat for me and did make it hard to keep turning pages. There are some surprising developments and twists in the book, however the storyline throughout felt a little choppy and hard to keep straight. Overall, the ending was solid and I was satisfied by the outcome.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and @bookouture for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture, and Laura Elliot for this ARC via Netgalley.

I enjoyed this book for the first book I’ve ever read from this author. Christine witnessed something traumatic at a wedding when she was five years old and has had repressed memories of it ever since. Now, an adult, her husband, Richard and herself own a successful business together, but their new employee, Jessica, is causing all of Christine’s panic and suspicion rise to the surface. She can’t put her finger on what about Jessica makes her so uneasy, but the book soon intertwines these two women and the events from the past.

This book kept me on my toes, and guessing up until the end. It was well written, but I agree with the other reviews, I wouldn’t consider it a psychological thriller.

Thank you again to Netgalley for this ARC, I would be interested in reading more by Laura Elliot!

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. I was a little disappointed in this book. I expected a lot more back story on the wedding and life as a child. The adult lives of Christine and Jessica intertwine in more ways than one. I felt the outcome of these two girls and Christine's husband was way too predictable. The plot overall was different that I thought and it fell short for me.

I received this arc through netgalley and the publishers.

We follow a power couple who set up their own advertising agency after a chance meeting on a train.Fast foward a few years and they employ Jessica.

Catherine has an odd feeling about Jessica but doesnt know why. We follow the journey Cathering goes on to get to the bottom of her feelings and finally find out what happened after that wedding when she was five.

I would love to read more by this author

I love when you read a book and it is SO different then anything you have read in awhile. This book has so many twists and turns and you can't help but not stay up all night reading. This is the story of Christine and Jessica how their lives intertwine from the past to the present. Lots of suspense and mystery!! Loved this book and recommend to anyone looking for a book to read with many twists.

When Christine was 5, she suffered a traumatic experience. Now, 30 years later, memories of that day are turning Christine’s life upside down. When she finally unearths what happened to her all those years ago, it will put her life in jeopardy.

Fast paced and compelling with twists and turns along the way, this is well worth a read.

Rating: 1.9/5

"After the Wedding" appears to be marketed as a psychological thriller, but I would suggest that this is a misleading description. It certainly sits within the broader thriller genre, but attaching the additional "psychological" tag is tenuous, to say the least. The "thriller" element essentially relates to organised crime, which is at the heart of this story. There is a psychological aspect, but this relates to the way in which the human brain can sometimes suppress memories of harrowing experiences.

The early sections of this novel were quite encouraging. The writing was fluent, engaging and augured well for what was yet to come. Unfortunately, these early signs of promise did not develop as I would have hoped. Instead of being fluent and engaging, the narrative became increasingly clunky and disjointed and reading more than a chapter at a time became something of a chore.

The plot certainly had the potential to make for enthralling reading and the sub-plot regarding memory suppression offered the prospect of another intriguing thread that could be developed and provide food for thought. Unfortunately, I don't think the author made the most of the opportunities. The characterisation was too often clichéd and superficial and events were all too frequently described in a melodramatic fashion. In the end this was not a book that is likely to live long in the memory.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

can't believe it to me this long to do but wow , the story itself is tense, atmosphric and fast paced and while it feels like it goes in different directions it also has a way of keeping you from guessing what is going to happen next. The characters themselves will make you feel like you want to shake them or scream at them for the decisions they make and will have you asking yourself ,what just happened.But somehow the author makes it all come together before the very end of the book. And that what I liked about , how it kept me on my toes ,made me second guess myself on what I thought I knew about the characters and what was going to happen next.