One second of distraction while Mackenzie was driving was all it took to destroy her world. Now she is fighting for a second chance, in a small town where no one knows her. She has changed her name, looks, and profession. No one knows the darkness she struggles to hide. The nights when she wakes up struggling to breathe.
The town's people have opened their hearts and arms. She is slowly getting her life in order.
This is an interesting story. The characters are strong. The are developed very well. The characters all mesh well and the storyline gives credence to the title of the book.
5 Stars

Before and Again is the story of a mother who loses her most cherished possession...her child...when she momentarily takes her eyes from the road and is in a horrific car accident. She flees her life and takes up a new identity and career in a small Vermont town and everything is going well for her, when a friend's son is suddenly thrust in the spotlight by hacking into federal computers. But, was her life really all that good or was she just hiding from reality? As she supports her friend, her past catches up with her and the revelations from family and friends propel her to make changes she never thought possible. I truly enjoyed this book, Delinsky has done it again!

Loved the characters in this book - at times a little too melodramatic and the love story is somewhat predictable - but I really felt Maggie/Mackenzie's pain and understood her life choices.

Before and Again is a emotionally evoking read about the power of grief and second chances. One second of distraction costs Mackenzie Cooper a.k.a. Maggie Reid everything- her daughter, her marriage, her family, her friends, and her privacy. On probation and hiding from the publicity caused by the car accident that took her daughter's life, Maggie Reid has started over in Conneticut with a new name and a new lease on life. Bottling up her grief and not dealing with her past, Maggie is content working as a makeup artist at the local spa. Ned Cooper and her brother Liam show up reminding Maggie of what she lost. Ned wants a second chance at their marriage that was destroyed by grief. When a close friend's son gets accused of a crime, Maggie finally is forced to deal with her past. The story is an emotional roller coaster full of grief, loneliness, friendship, and forgiveness that brought tears to my eyes. The pain of grief is expressed expertly and feels like a stab to the heart. Maggie's journey to forgiveness and happiness is all encompassing to become essential to the reader. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

3.0-3.5, an intriguing story of a young wife and mother who looks away from the road for a second while driving and tragedy ensues. Her daughter loses her life in the accident. The tragedy is ruled an accident, but the judge makes an example of her. The woman loses her family and friends in the process all the same. She changes her name to Maggie Reid and tries to live a quiet simple life, starting over in a small town in Vermont, visiting her parole officer monthly and trying to be a good citizen. When Maggie's best friend in the new town ends up with a spotlight shown on her after her teenage son gets accused of hacking into the school's community, Maggie must make a decision about coming out of her self imposed hiding. Folks from Maggie's past and her friend's past turn up to shake things up even further. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the pages turning. I felt the only weak part of the story was that involving Maggie and her ex-husband. I found it a bit unlikely. Overall, a solid read. All opinions are my own.

A unique storyline: a mother gets distracted while driving and runs a stop sign, killing 2 people, one her young daughter. I thought all the problems got solved too easily, Maggie's mother, her ex-husband, her probation issues. I did get invested in Grace's story but only found out what happened to her and her son in the epilogue. A disappointing Delinsky.

What a great read! If you want to read something that grabs you and takes you for a ride, with many ups and downs, then read “Before and Again “ by Barbara Delinsky. It’s a story with tremendous pain yet tremendous joy. The characters will stay with you long after you finish reading it. It begins in a beautiful peaceful town in Vermont. The setting was exquisite; I felt like I was actually there. The people living in this town were also beautiful and they’d all moved there to start over. If there is in fact a town like this somewhere I wish the author would to tell me where it was because I want to move there!
Mackenzie aka Maggie is the main protagonist and I found myself wanting to be her friend. She experiences horror that most people only have nightmares about and the author has the reader so captivated they’ll find themselves feeling everything Maggie feels. Her resilience is astonishing. Barbara Delinsky developed this character to be someone so deeply good and pure- that I , as the reader, just wanted to give her a hug. There were many different conflicts going on throughout the story yet it was written so perfectly it was never anything but fluid.
This story shows how your entire life can be turned upside down, practically nonexistent, in just ONE second and it might take a long time but there is ALWAYS hope. You’ll be so engrossed, so engaged, you may find yourself speaking aloud to Maggie, Grace or perhaps Ned because of their authenticity.
Barbara Delinsky has always been a talented author but I’d say she’s outdone herself with “Before and Again”. Hated it to end! I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a compelling novel with very real, often flawed characters trying to get by in a world that doesn’t always play nice

I love this book! I have not read Barbara Delinsky books in a couple of years but I cannot put this book down. It has kept me up the last. 2 nights reading it. It is very relevant with the computer hacking issues and the divorce issues. Also great thoughts on woman starting over after a divorce . Maggie has changed her life and moved on after a traumatic event has changed her life. She moves to a new state and tries to start over. Life interferes and ex husbands show up, out of touch brothers come visit, and her best friend has in surmountable problems! I would recommend this book to all!

Very much a standard Delinsky women's novel beach (or fireside) read about a woman escaping from herself and finding herself again The inciting incident is an unthinkable tragedy and Maggie's life thereafter is all about trying to survive. Her new career as a makeup artist (once a sculptor) is interesting; a metaphor for her own cover up of the person she was and the new woman she is hiding behind. A light read (however it sounds!) and it did drag rather, unlike the best of Delinsky's novels.

I haven't read Delinsky for about ten years now, and I was stunned at how good Before and Again was. She has always been a good writer, but this book was so tightly written it felt like a thriller. I was invested from the heartbreaking prologue, and as the surprises unfolded, I was at the edge of my seat.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher/author for a copy of BEFORE AND AGAIN in exchange or an honest review.

Everyone has heard the phrase your life can change in the blink of an eye. Well, that is what happened to Mackenzie. She took her eyes off the road for a split second and the repercussions were deadly. She moves to a small, quiet town and tries to rebuild her life, but when a friend's son ends up in the spotlight for hacking into a high profile Twitter account, Mackenzie, who now goes by Maggie, must make some tough decisions.

This was a highly emotional read. Every parent's worst nightmare is to lose a child, and nothing pulls at a parent's heartstrings more than suffering through the guilt and feeling as though you were the cause. To learn to live again and find a happy life in the sorrow and grief is what this book is about. Hope was a common link throughout the book and I wanted to walk alongside Maggie as she did her best to rebuild a life in the solitude of a small town. She ends up torn between friendship and keeping her secrets hidden and has to make a tough decision. Which will she choose?

Grab a box of tissues for this poignant and beautifully written story of loss, grief, hope and love.

Barbara writes wonderful books. Her passion for her characters shine though.

I have always enjoyed books by Barbara Delinsky. This was definitely one of her best. There were two separate stories in the book that overlapped. The way the characters reacted to life-changing events and how they moved on after the events was so realistic. It was very hard to put this book down. I have already recommended this book to my friends. Thank you Net Galley for this opportunity.

Barbara Delinsky’s books are the epitome of “women’s fiction,” and Before and Again is the literary equivalent of watching the Lifetime Movie Network on a Saturday afternoon. At 500-ish pages, plodding through this is a task, and while I thought Mackenzie/Maggie was a well-developed, fine main character for whom I wanted to survive and succeed (unlike so many chick lit subjects, who are self-possessed and self-obsessed for the most inane of reasons), it seemed as if it was going to take a waterboarding scene at the Devon Inn and Spa to figure out just what exactly had happened to Mackenzie/Maggie to cause all this guilt and hiding. Yes, her deed and punishment are implied, but the details spill out over far too many pages. The end of the book has enough twists and turns to tie the story up nicely, but speaking as a professional, a majority of the legal stuff (The deals that are made? Um, no.) that happens near the end is as realistic as the legal stuff that happens on Law and Order.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a story about recovering from tragedy. I was pleasantly surprised. This was an extremely meaningful and very well written story. I was fully invested in the characters and completely submerged in their lives. Fantastic story!

I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book begins with a horrible tragedy that no one should ever have to endure. After the tragedy, we see how lives have been affected and changed.

I enjoyed the characters in this book and the town where the majority of the story was set. A great read about family and friends.

I could not get into this book. After the accident, you get endless pages of clay, makeup and scones and blah, blah blah...and I don't know or care where it was heading.

Another hit for Barbara Delinsky. I find her books to be written in such a way that I am immediately pulled into the story. This book is no exception. This is the story of Maggie who while driving, glanced at her navigation system for a second, overlooking a stop sign, and ultimately caused the death of her young daughter and another person. As the story opens she has made a new life for herself, all alone in a picturesque Vermont village where no one knows about her past. When her ex-husband purchases the local inn where Maggie works her life gets interesting all over again.

Before and Again is a beautiful story of forgiveness and self-worth. The book tells thr story of Edward and Mackenzie, a married couple with a beautiful little girl. Tragedy strikes and it takes the book in a whole new direction. Barbara Delinsky writes an amazing, touching story - I loved it.

This book was amazing. I loved all the twists and turns it took. I loved that it showed that we can live again after a terrible tragedy. But we have to be able to forgive ourselves which I think is the hardest thing. I would recommend this book to anyone.