REVIEW: After All I've Done by Mina Hardy

Title: After All I’ve Done
Author: Mina Hardy
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: November 2020
Genre: Suspense / Thriller
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN |

Description: Writing as Mina Hardy, New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart delivers a thrilling new psychological suspense for fans of The Woman in the Window and When the Lights Go Out.

She's lost her best friend, her husband--and possibly, her mind.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone.

She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become, the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night--and how Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be involved, too.

Who was with her that night? What really happened? As her life unravels thread by thread and the dreams become too real to ignore, Diana will have to face the unthinkable--and do the unforgivable.

My Thoughts: This was a real page turner of a suspense novel that centers on a woman recovering from a horrific car accident suffering from amnesia and nightmares that leaves her wondering just who she can trust. Her mother in law appears at first glance as a loving and caring nurturing type who only wants to help, which is necessary because when both of your collarbones are broken, even the simplest tasks like washing your hair is nearly impossible. The nurturing, caring façade quickly starts to feel clingy and obsessive. The husband and the best friend are sleeping together and not everything is as it appears. I even began to wonder who in this story I could trust.

As Diana begins to regain her memories and learns some shocking truths about her mother, best friend and husband, survival becomes her priority. This story shocked me on so many levels beginning with the revelation that Diana knows her husband and her best friend are having an affair and when the layers start getting peeled back, more surprises and shock ensues.

I thought Diana and Cole were good characters, easy to relate to but not sure about their relationship and whether Cole could be trusted at first. The story moves at a very good pace, keeping me engaged in the plot without getting too mired in irrelevant details.

My Final Verdict: I highly recommend this story to fans of the suspense or domestic thriller genres and also to readers who like to be surprised by unexpected twists in the plot that leave the reader’s pulse pounding.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of After All I’ve Done from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli

 Title: Unfaithful
 Author: Natalie Barelli
 Publisher: Bookouture
 Publication Date: November 2020
 Genre: Mystery / Thriller
 Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

 Description: “Thank you,” I say sweetly when she tells me I’m lucky to have  such a beautiful family. But I want to tell her it’s not just luck. A family is like a fortress you have to defend all the time. You can’t relax because there’s always someone looking for a breach, always someone trying to get in. Someone just like her…

When I arrive unannounced at my husband’s studio in need of a shoulder to cry on after hearing that my best student, Alex, has died, I see a pair of wineglasses drying by the sink and my deepest fear is confirmed: my husband is having an affair.

Most women would fall to their knees in tears and throw him out of the house—but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

Instead, I go home and cook a healthy dinner for our children, walk the dog and unload the dishwasher without complaint. I will make him see that I’m still the woman he married; attractive, successful, the glue that holds our perfect family together. I need this marriage to work to protect a terrible secret of my own, something that would destroy everything I’ve already sacrificed so much for.

But when the police arrive at my door asking questions about Alex’s death that I can’t answer, and threatening text messages start appearing on my phone, I know that someone close has been watching me very carefully.

The truth is, there are three people in my marriage, but only one of them is deadly…

My Thoughts: On the surface, this story appears to be another typical marriage on the rocks cheating spouse story. The main character is Anna, a university professor who is working with one of her students on a paper to solve a complex math problem that will award a substantial prize to the winner. Unfortunately, things go horribly wrong for Anna when the student dies and her life starts to unravel in nearly every area. She learns her husband is having an affair and instead of confronting him and dealing with it, she buries her head in the sand.

Without giving away the extent her bizarre behavior affects her and the road she ends up on, I will say that she compounds her problems by making so many bad decisions and choices. The lines between right and wrong became so blurry, I had a difficult time keeping it straight. Several moments in this book had me wondering if she were the actual villain of the story or just a participant in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because of that, I didn’t feel a lot of empathy for this character and several times felt she was a few sandwiches short of a picnic and we all would do well to run in the opposite direction.

Anna has many secrets of her own and her marriage appears to be the only good thing in her life. This story had me wondering how far she would go to hold on to it. Most people would argue that if your spouse is cheating on you, it’s not a good marriage and you should cut your losses and run but Anna is determined, almost obsessed, with keeping her marriage intact.

My Final Verdict: In spite of not liking the character or agreeing with her choices and decisions, this story was riveting and hard to put down. I had to know what was going to happen next. Who would come out on top? This story kept me on the edge of my seat totally unprepared for the outcome, which blew me away. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy complex characters that don’t have to be likable or stories that captivate the reader so much, the reader forgets what a train wreck the characters are.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Unfaithful from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.