Suspenseful plot. Beautiful writing. Mystery not easily guessed.

I enjoyed this book way too much. No complaints here.

This book was very hard to get into with some characters that were difficult to connect to, i really felt like the story was very slow to get rolling, i did not finish this because of it.

One night high school senior Jolene plays a mean prank on her so called friend Elizabeth that goes awry. Elizabeth gets hurt and will never again be the same. Joelene left the scene and never came clean but she has never forgotten what she did. Now over ten years later she has flitted around never committing to anyone or anything. In her latest move she takes an improv class and is introduced to the teachers protege with some very familiar scars. Lets just say that thing start happening to Jolene and that is an understatement. I loved the frenemies aspect of that book and found there to be character development. It was a bit slow in areas and I just wanted to get to the good stuff in others. All in all I think that someone looking for a retribution and story about friends and what happens when things go crazy will enjoy this read.

It was an okay book but I was a little bored with it. It felt like it took forever to get into and that it dragged on. The ending sort of made up for it.

Like It Never Was by Faith Gardner had the potential to be an excellent mystery novel. While it was perfectly fine, it was a little disappointing in the end. The twists and turns just didn't quite do it for me. It's not a bad book by any means, just not what I was looking for.

I thought this one was overall okay! It would be a great book for someone who is starting to read more thrillers. Since I've read a lot of thrillers, I felt like this was okay and didn't feeling different or unique. The protagonist was really unlikable and annoying. This was fast paced, quick & easy but it felt predictable to me.

Thank you NetGalley and Mirror House Press for this book in exchange for an honest review.

So imagine you throw into a blender: the Netflix thriller parody series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, one of those late 90s teen horror movies that rode the wave of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer but weren't as good, an aimless queer Millennial narrator dealing with trauma but in this weirdly Tiktok therapy kinda way, a father/daughter relationship that made me feel deeply envious (why can't a rich parent enable ME to fuck around all the time?!), and the type of female frenemies relationship that pretty much always has me like "should have been gayer tbh". Well, then. You would get this book.

And yet I'm not...necessarily...complaining. Despite the above comparisons this nonetheless did feel different than the usual modern thriller in a way I appreciated. It didn't take itself too seriously, and the characters were, if not overburdened with depth, rendered vividly enough to make this one a snap for Central Casting. Which feels deliberate, as this book feels like it was written in hopes of it getting optioned for a streaming miniseries. (This is somehow, I swear, also not a complaint.)

Overall this was a diverting read, sometimes silly in a self-aware way, with an appropriately bonkers last twenty percent or so. I'm rounding up my 3.5 stars on this one just because I had fun.

My thanks to Mirror House Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Jolene Vero has spent the last ten years consumed by guilt over her role in an accident that left her school friend Elizabeth Smith injured. After spending years moving from place to place, unable to settle down, she moves to Berkley prepared for a fresh start. What she wasn't prepared for was seeing Elizabeth. Elizabeth, still bearing the physical scars of her accident, tells her that she has no recollection of how the accident happened and proceeds to befriend Jolene. Jolene is initially uneasy but wants to believe Elizabeth. Is she being paranoid? Is it her own guilt that's making her suspect Elizabeth's hand in the strange things happening to her, or does Elizabeth know more than she is letting on?

This one just wasn't it for me. The main character was annoying and the story seemed too YA. I did like the shorter chapters and the twist at the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Mirror House Press for the free ARC ebook!

Like It Never Was was a gripping read about friendships, loss, and resilience. The story follows Jolene - someone who has been trying to outrun her guilt and past choices until she no longer can. Faith Gardner's imagination and storytelling made this mystery difficult to put down.

Don't get me wrong I love a good mystery thriller, but this one just wasn't for me unfortunately.
This one just was boring to me.. Maybe next time.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

Prefacing this review with I read a lot of thrillers. That said, this wasn't bad and I would recommend it! It just wasn't anything special or didn't blow my away. The main character was kind of annoying and childlike too which is what takes my review to a 4 more to a 3 stars.

I really enjoyed the idea of this premise, it was unique to anything I have read. Jolene and Elizabeth were friends years prior, when Elizabeth was nearly killed in an accident that was Jolene's fault. Jolene thinks she's the only one that knows the truth about what really happened, until now..

It was really so hard to get through this book because of the lead character. The concept was a lot of fun and I love a thriller but it’s hard to focus when the lead is so childlike.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. It was a quick and entertaining read. It was very easy to get sucked into the story and Jolene's mind. Though it wasn't always a pleasant place to be, it lent a claustrophobic and gaslighting edge to the story which brought it from a 3 to a four star read for me.

First I want to thank NetGalley, Mirror House Press and Faith Gardner for my ARC of Like It Never Was. I was sucked in right from the beginning! I love Faith Gardner’s book and this one was no exception! This one made me feel everything that Jolene was feeling. I found it entertaining and a good read. I was in suspense till the end. Didn’t see the twist coming! Can’t wait to read more from her!

I'm a long-time fan of Faith Gardner's work, especially the Jolvix series so I was excited to sink my teeth into this book.
Unfortunately, this one didn't hit the mark. I struggled to keep up with the book, hence only a 3-star rating.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

2 Stars ~

Honestly, the main POV was just the most unlikeable annoying person to follow throughout the entire story. And it just made me not want to pick this up over anything else I was reading at the time. The book seemed to drag on forever with the same shit being repeated throughout its entirety.

You follow Jolene living a very chaotic and 'teenage' adult life after she struggles with the guilt of something horrible she did to someone as a teen with dire consequences for that person.
Jolene was just unbearable for me to follow.

This one just wasn't it for me.

I was excited to read this one as I was really attracted to the synopis. Unfortunately for me it felt like a YA book and Im not a huge fan of those.

This book grabs you from the beginning. The main character is haunted by her past actions, and the person at the center of those actions returns to her life. The story makes you understand the feelings the main character was feeling. The twist at the end felt rushed but otherwise a great book.

The suspense! The atmosphere! The twist! This was a five star thriller, and had me guessing until the end, I would definitely recommend!