This book wasn’t for me. Instead of posting a negative review, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or label it as DNF (did not finish) on Goodreads/Amazon.

I struggled a lot with this novel. It started out very slow for my liking and held true for 3/4 of the book. As a reader, I am not one to quit a book and I have to say I was interested to find out what exactly happened to Jo and her family. The book picked up speed within the last 100-150 pages. I'm usually not one to dislike characters very much either. In each and every book I read or have read, I've always attached to a character or two. In this novel I unfortunately did not have that take on any character within these pages. I could not find the sympathy for any of the Harding family. All of the lies and betrayal each member hid from Jo and vise versa I was almost hoping myself her memory stayed gone so everyone could just move on.

Knowing that this is Reynolds debut novel, it is a very good start. I cannot wait to see what she has coming next. I will definitely be picking it up to read. Unfortunately this book was just not a favorite. If any of you bloggers/readers enjoy a more slow read, I thoroughly think you will enjoy it.

This domestic thriller captured my attention from the very first page. I pretty much read this book in one evening. I thought I knew how the ending would be, kind of ambiguous and leaving a lot of questions, but NOOOO. A very satisfying and chilling finish. I didn't particularly care for any of the characters because all of them seemed like they could be deceptive, and overall the book was not strong on character development. However, it made up for it in the dialogue and plot. I would love to see this become a movie and pick up a little more hype than it has.

I definitely did not sleep well for a few days after finishing this book. Thank you NetGalley for another awesome read I may have otherwise overlooked. Also, thank you Quercus and Amanda Reynolds.

Jo Harding fell down some stairs, and lost the memory of the past year. Her husband would prefer she not remember the last year, but Jo feels she needs to find out what has happened in her life and family.

An interesting psychological thriller. The book flipped between "before the fall" and "after the fall" chapters. The story was told from Jo's point of view, and I enjoyed discovering what had happened over the year along with Jo.

Jo was relatable. She and her husband had been married for over twenty years, their kids had left home and started their own lives, and Jo and her husband were adjusting to their new lives. Jo started to suspect that things were not as perfect as she was led to believe, and she started to followup on her suspicions.

A quick and easy read. Good for fans of domestic thrillers.

As much as I love domestic thrillers, this one failed to pull me in. Obviously something bad must have happened during Jo's missing year, otherwise there wouldn't be a book. But when the truth is revealed it's kind of boring....and the journey to get there wasn't intriguing enough to keep me turning pages.

This book had an interesting plot line, and was well written for a debut author. It made me a bit nervous at times, because I was able to put myself in the situation Jo found herself in, which would be beyond terrifying. The twist at the end was not something that I had predicted, which is always a bonus.

Jo Harding fell down the stairs a year ago, but to her, it was just minutes ago. She's lost memories of the whole last year of her life, and it actually seems her family might be happy about that fact. As Jo works to recover her memory, she comes to realize some hard truths about herself and the life she thought she had.

I'm always interested in a book with secrets from the past coming to light, and this read definitely had plenty of those. When a whole year is gone, there is so much to uncover, and Reynolds does a good job of making those secrets come to light in a suspenseful way. Readers learn things right along with Jo, which makes her an even more crucial and realistic narrator.

This book felt really slow at parts. Despite its intriguing premise, I had trouble sticking with it at times. It wasn't bad by any means, but I think some editing to tighten it up and take away some of the repetitious nature would have been a positive.

This is a fine book, good even, but not a great one. There are a lot of other books in this genre I would recommend you pick up first.

Jo Harding, age 55, is regaining consciousness as her husband, Rob, tells her she fell down the stairs at home. As she is being transported to the hospital, Rob is beside her but she just wants him away from her. All she remembers is Rob’s angry face at the top of the stairs and wonders why and what happened. There is some confusion about what she can remember which is her children, Sash and Fin. Her last memory is dropping Fin at university and that was a year ago. So, she has lost the last year of her life.

As she sorts through the past year, she finds that she had begun volunteering at a center for people looking for help with different things in their lives such as domestic violence. Rose, a woman she had worked with contacts her and says Jo had planned to leave Rob just before her fall down the stairs. Could he have pushed her?

The story switches back and to life before and after Jo’s fall as she tries to regain her memory. She “meets” people that she had known in the last year and tries to recall where they fit in her life. Even her children seem different to her as if they are hiding secrets from her.

This is an intense book that tends to be depressing. Jo has lived a cloistered life centered around Rob and her two grown children. Both of her children, in my opinion, are spoiled brats. I equate this to a jigsaw puzzle as the pieces slowly come together to form a picture of what happened.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3 1/2 Stars

Reynolds does a very nice job of feeding us just enough information to keep us turning pages. The full story isn’t revealed until close to the end. While some parts we have a pretty good idea of what happened, others will be a surprise. It was a bit hard to connect with the cast of unlikeable characters, but a decent debut. Looking forward to reading more from Amanda Reynolds.

Jo and Rob Harding are a middle aged couple adjusting to life as empty nesters. The book begins as Jo falls down the stairs. She has vague recollections of the seconds immediately before the fall, and immediately after the fall she remembers her husband whispering something to her. When she wakes up in the hospital she discovers that she has no memory of the last year of her life but she has a sense of unease with her husband. Her children don't seem to want to help her remember and her husband thinks it would be best if she didn't remember. She has a sense of unease with her husband. Why don't they want her to remember? Did she do something terrible? Did they?The book jumps around from the time after the accident to the year before the accident. I found this very effective. We see what happened as Jo remembers it. The family dynamics seem believable as Rob had always spoiled their daughter and Jo always found excuses for their son, and neither wanted to let go of control of their children even as they grew into adults. The psychological suspense kept me reading to discover with Jo what had happened. I felt the pain of her uncertainty as she struggled to remember. The ending was rather tragic but not totally what I was expecting. I enjoyed this first novel and look forward to more from Amanda Reynolds. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review it.

The first half of this book moved quickly for me as I anticipated Jo learning about the missing year of her life. The writing is good - I could feel Jo's confusion and frustration and I was wondering all along - - exactly what DID happen? For me, the second half of the book dragged a bit. I found Rose to be too needy and cloying while Nick didn't seem realistic to me at all. Poor Jo - her main accomplishment in life has been raising her kids and now Sash is behaving in a way totally unlike what her mother wants and Fin resents her.

All the questions received answers by the end of the book and I guess they were satisfying; but somehow I expected something different. I'm not sure what I expected, but just - more - somehow. Still, this is a good, fast read and an excellent debut.

Jo and Rob have been married for twenty-four years and have two adult children. Jo doesn’t remember the last year of her life and the text goes back and forth between the past and the present, before and after Jo’s accident.

This was an okay read, but it didn’t fully hold my interest and my mind wandered a lot while reading this book. The suspense built to a climax that had me rolling my eyes, as it was reminiscent of other stories I’d already read this year.

You know those characters whose thoughts you don’t mind fishing around in? Well, I was kind of bored with Jo’s and didn’t connect with her. Her thoughts were on a loop that I couldn’t wait to exit from and the conclusion was unsurprising.

► This book is perfect for domestic thriller lovers and fans of unlikable characters.

It's hard to believe that this is the author's first book. It is so well written and excellently plotted, that you'd think she's been doing this for decades. After a fall down the stairs, Jo wakes up in the hospital without remembering the last year of her life. Her husband and children don't seem inclined to help her get her memories back. In order to rebuild her life, she will have to piece together what happened from the day her son left for university and the day she fell. The chapters alternate between this time after her fall, and the year before it. All that Jo doesn't remember, we get to see first hand, and the way that the story keeps fitting together is fantastic. The reader gets to figure out who's lying and what about, but poor Jo is still in the dark. Her husband says that he just wants her to forget the worst year of their lives, so maybe he is right? The characters, as is the case with real people, have different sides and can be seen as good or evil depending on the perspective provided by the missing memories. Even "old Jo" is different from "after the fall Jo." The turns really surprised me and my opinion of the characters kept changing depending on what Jo kept finding out about them. Not an easy feat. Five stars!

Tired of the memory loss plot device. It is tiresome and boring. Maybe I've just read too many thrillers using this same methodical formula and need something fresh and surprising.

CLOSE TO ME by Amanda Reynolds, is this a domestic psychological thriller with PLENTY of drama . Jo Harding, wife to beloved husband, Rob, and mom to Fin and Sash, takes a nasty fall down a flight of stairs in their home. When Jo wakes up from her fall in a hospital bed, she suffers from partial memory loss - unable to remember the last year of her life. Jo feels completely alone as she tries piecing together her memories one by one. Was her fall an accident or was she pushed? Is her family as close as she thinks they are? What secrets will she uncovered on her way to the truth?

I really enjoyed this novel. It was an easy read and held my attention from the very first page. The chapters begin with the DAY OF the fall then rotate back and forth - from months PRIOR to the fall to days AFTER the fall. CLOSE TO ME had the feel of a juicy soap opera with plenty of drama behind each memory uncovered.

2.5 STARS

Jo Harding has amnesia. She has been told by her husband Rob that she has fallen down the stairs. He keeps repeating this to her! As snippets of memory begin to come back, she questions the circumstances of her fall.

She is having flashbacks of a certain bedroom scene! Rob and her two adult children don't seem to want to fill in the blanks for her, but why?

Who is the man with the featureless face in her flashback? Was she having an affair? Why does she feel afraid of Rob?

While the story line is good/intriguing, I was confused by the timeline that switched between Before the fall (with different increments of the months) and After the fall. I felt like I was reading different versions of the same events over and over. I also felt the story was being told by Jo, but I wasn't experiencing it. I was never pulled in or interested in finding out the truth.

Fans of domestic dysfunctional families will probably really enjoy this one! It just lacked the "gripping" factor for me!

Great first novel by this author. I truly enjoyed the way this was written, the past and present coming together in a climactic ending. Full of suspense and turns that keep you guessing until the end. I look forward to more books in the future.

2.5*
After a fall down a flight of stairs, Jo is slowly regaining consciousness in a local hospital. Battered and bruised, she tries desperately to recall why she fell. Could her husband be to blame? She quickly realizes she has virtually no recollection of the fall itself or the entire year leading up to the fall. To make matters worse, her husband Rob and her two children are less than eager to fill in the blanks either. Why not? What don't they want her to remember?
The storyline is told from Jo’s POV from before and after the fall as she tries to regain her memories from the last year. As the 2 timelines converge, the facts surrounding what occurred before vs after the fall became very confusing.
I had a great difficulty connecting with Jo. She wasn't a likable character at all. Truth is, I had a hard time finding any likable character in the book. I found the dialogue frustrating at times. Everyone talking but with no urgency to fill in the gaps of her memory! With this same behavior repeated over and over with very little progress, the book seemed to slow to a crawl.

This one just wasn't for me. There are many great reviews out there so please judge for yourself, this is just my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Quercus (US) And Amanda Reynolds for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I've never read a book like this. I could not out of down.
It pulled me in from the first page and took me on Jo's journey as she tries to recovery her year.

2.5. Close to me is a suspenseful psychological thriller. The premise is intriguing: a woman (Jo) who has brain trauma after a fall down the stairs, loses her memory of the previous year prior to the fall. The structure of the novel is also intriguing: each just chapter alternating between days after The Fall and the months prior to the fall, as Jo seeks to reclaim her memory. It is a story of a terribly dysfunctional family, riddled with lies, fabrications, and betrayal, to others and oneself. Reynold's writing delves into these issues in a deft manner. The ending is absolutely stunning!
This is Amanda Reynold's first novel, and a good one. The lower rating is due to the execution: the litany of the lost memories become drawn out and their reveal too wordy; the pieces of the puzzle revealed too slowly;too many descriptive details of non essential scenes, that a added nothing to the storyline, all of which caused the plot faltered and the pace became sluggish. Deleting 50+ pages would have helped to propel the plot along.
I would be interested in reading more of Reynold's works, however.