Wow, loved it! Couldn't put it down once time converged and the twists and turns began. Definitely recommend!!!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

After Anna is about Maggie who lost custody of her daughter years ago. Then one day, her daughter calls her. And within 10 minutes of meeting her daughter opens her home to her. This was my first issue. While I could only imagine a mother’s love, you know nothing about this person. Though she is Maggie’s daughter, Maggie has no idea anything about her and invites her to live in her house— without even consulting her husband.

Then Noah is arrested for Anna’s murder. And after only knowing her for three weeks, Maggie completely ignores the fact she has known her husband for years.

I think this book had wonderful possibility, but Maggie’s constant unawareness made me want to quit. But I needed to know the ending. While others may like this, this was truly just not for me.

After Anna is Lisa Scottoline’s newest book. It comes out the week after next and WOW. The story is a kick! It is an oxymoronic situation for me - I so want to find out what is happening, but I so do not want to read more and hear more of descent into the bad happenings. You know it is coming!!! You start reading just before what you know has to be a climax and then each chapter is back further in time, until you are back to the climax, which really … well enough said. You need to read it!

The book is awesome!!! The story is based on a daughter moving in with her mother, her mother’s new husband and stepson. Somehow in all the hoopla, the family seems to be struggling with the new addition. Anna had been used to making her own decisions for so long and she is not liking the loss of control. She also seems to be acting in such a way as to drive the mother and father apart - which is most curious. Then it gets even weirder.

I loved how the story was told. I love how the twisted pieces work together and are woven into a the story. I loved the creepy feeling I got from the story as more pieces did not line up. I even loved how I had to put the book down to worry about the new husband.

After Anna by Lisa Scottoline is a fabulously twisted read that held me from the beginning to the end!

I have been a huge fan of Lisa Scottoline for a long time. All of her books have plot twist you will never see coming. After Anna was no exception it was so suspenseful the whole way through. I loved all the characters and the growth of them all. I felt for Maggie as a mother myself the things that happened in this book I feel is exactly how a mother should react in all the situations. As soon as I thought I had figured out the plot it took another twist to a way I would have never thought. After Anna was very well written, organized, and so very good. I loved it and will recommend it to everyone I know. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book early.

I received an ARC of After Anna from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I’m not sure that I liked the way the story was told in flashbacks but it worked for this story. The plot kept me in suspense for most of the book. However I was a little disappointed in the end of the book. I don’t want to spoil the ending so I won’t go into detail it just felt like the ending was rushed. I would recommend this book to others.

We don't even know where to start with this book! First, we LOVED it! We especially loved how it was written. The story is told from Noah's POV and Maggie's POV. When Noah's story unravels, it's told backwards from the last day of his trial to the first. Maggie's story unravels in chronological order. The perspective made it so interesting and unique.
Lisa Scottoline managed to to tell a story that hooked you from page one. The characters are very memorable and she manages to keep you guessing until the very end! We wanted to believe Noah was innocent. We really did. But the overwhelming evidence supported his guilt! It was evident that something wasn't right with Anna. She seemed like she was hiding something but we didn't know what! This is what helped us to think that maybe Noah was innocent! The back and forth guessing is what we loved! A really well written suspense thriller is not knowing the "who-done-it" but wanting to know so badly that it keeps you turning pages like crazy to get to the end! 
So, this book was a crazy roller coaster ride of a read and it confirms our love of Lisa Scottoline's writing. We are definitely Forever fans!

I absolutely LOVED this book. From the beginning, I knew this book was going to be different. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives of the story and how one perspective worked backwards and the other forwards. And the twist...perfection. I highly recommend checking out Noah, Maggie, and Anna's story. You will be so glad you did!!!

Who killed Anna? Was it her stepfather Noah? He's the one on trial but what really happened? Maggie has had a tough go if it but things had finally settled down for her- she's remarried to Noah and life is good- but then her 17 year old daughter Anna asks to move in with her. Adjustments are to be expected but a lot more goes on than even Maggie sees. The chapters alternate in time and you might find your sympathies shifting. This is a well written page turner with a murder, a mystery, a trial, and a twist. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. This is a good travel book and perfect for the beach.

I loved this! I haven’t read Lisa Scottoline in the longest time but this will make me go check out some others. If you like a suspenseful, thrilling read with more twists than you can count do yourself a favor and check this out!

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Net-Galley and Lisa Scottoline for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book.

This was a quick read for me. Total reading time was about 3 hours. I enjoyed this story. It's told in Dual POVs. Maggie's and Noah. Before and After Anna. There is a couple twists in the story. One I had partially figured out but not completely. This is a page turner and had me sucked in. I am giving 4 stars because I found the ending to be lacking a bit. Thanks for another great read Lisa Scottoline.

I enjoyed the book. You can't go wrong with Lisa Scottoline! I,like a lot of others,thought the ending felt rushed,but I'm still glad I read it.

AFTER ANNA by Lisa Scottoline
This is a riveting narrative with twists and turns and compelling characters. I kept thinking, “Be careful what you wish for,” and then added layers of cautions about illusions and trust, and then didn’t know WHAT to think. There were some unfathomable aspects to this narrative, but also many lessons that felt real and relevant. If you tell one lie, are you a liar? We all have flaws, but how much should we overlook and accept, and where should we draw the line?
Anna disrupts Noah and Maggie’s life and is determined to get her own way, perhaps a bit manipulative, but her lonely life and abandonment issues make a case for giving her space and many chances to improve and adjust . . . don’t they? Besides, “Mothers had a sacred duty to love, protect, and comfort their children.”
I wonder about boarding schools and those “parked” there, the duty to protect the students vs. the students’ desire for independence and privacy are real problems.
I loved Caleb and found his work on speech issues fascinating. My teacher self applauded his successes.
My heart broke for Noah, “just trying to survive another day, though he wasn’t sure why. . . It was instinct. Every living thing fought to stay alive.”
I can’t say much more without spoiling the surprises, and I do hate spoilers. Be aware that once you start reading, it will take over, nothing else will get done, other entertainments will seem dull.
Have fun . . . don’t forget to breathe.

As usual it is a total delight reading Lisa Scottoline’s books. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy by #NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. I don’t believe I have ever gotten a bad book from this great author and #AfterAnna is no different. I am a little more than halfway through and it has taken me this long to figure out why someone would want to set up Noah for murder. This is a before and after book so some part takes place during the trial of Noah and the other obviously before the murder of his newly found stepdaughter Anna. You wonder from the beginning of the book why Noah would go off the deep end strangle Anna. There just doesn’t seem to be any reason but still you have this foreshadowing that there’s something totally wrong with Anna but can’t believe that she would get anything out of staging her own death. The above was written about 60% through the book and OMG how it changed. It’s like it is written by a totally different writer and not much of it makes any sense. For instance I am willing to bet just about anything that the guards in a high security prison do not call inmates Doctor Alderman (Noah) and this is not just one guard but all of them. When Noah has a hissy fit he demands to speak to his lawyer right then and there and lo and behold he gets a private room with a private phone so his call can’t be monitored. This by the way is his first day in prison. He arrived the night before! I see no reason for the Kathy character other than she talks Noah’s wife into all things stupid. I am not getting into the Anna character because that would ruin the plot but it’s nowhere what you would expect and unfortunately not in a good way. I consider this book a total miss and hope the real Lisa Scottoline will come back. I wouldn’t recommend this book and hated that I wasted time on it. I am giving it two stars because I really liked the first half.

Lisa Scottoline has created another intriguing and exciting book. The story in After Anna goes back and forth between the present and the past which keeps the reader on one’s toes. There is a major twist which was hinted at along the way. So I did have questions as I was reading, but this in no way took away my enjoyment.

After Anna by Lisa Scottoline tells the tale of Maggie, mother of Anna, who hasn't seen her daughter since she was 6 months old. Anna has been away at boarding school but after losing her father she contacts her mother and ends up moving in with her mother and her mother's family. However, it very soon becomes apparent that Anna may not be the sweet daughter Maggie was hoping for. This is truly a riveting read with a very satisfying twisty conclusion that I had no idea was coming. Well done. Read and enjoy!

Dr. Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti, and for the first time in a long time, he and his young son are happy. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn’t seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she’s even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she’d lost forever, her only daughter Anna.

Maggie and Noah know that having Anna around will change their lives, but they would never have guessed that everything would go wrong, and so quickly. Anna turns out to be a gorgeous 17-year-old who balks at living under their rules, though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble brewing in a once-perfect marriage and home.

Events take a heartbreaking turn when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused and tried for the heinous crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her daughter, but the realization that Anna’s murder may have been at the hands of a husband she loves. In the wake of this tragedy, new information drives Maggie to search for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she could have ever imagined.


My Thoughts: Alternating narratives take the reader back and forth in time through the riveting pages of After Anna.

How could their lives have turned upside down so quickly? And how could they have seen any of it coming? Is Maggie in denial about her husband…or about her daughter? Has Noah made some foolish choices that have come back to haunt him?

As I rapidly turned the pages, I came to my own interpretation of events, some of which I took away from years of working with dysfunctional families and with people who have completely opposing versions of the truth. In this case, there are at least two sides to the truth…but then there can also be an unexpected player in this family tragedy.

From the beginning, I did not like Anna, but understood how Maggie could be fooled by her. After all, she was suffering from the guilt of having lost her child in infancy. Now she has to make up for their losses, which means that she has blinders on and misses all the red flags.

Noah did not do himself any favors when he failed to share his own qualms…but then again, a man in this scenario is often unaware of the manipulations going on around him.

Just when we thought all was settled, albeit not very happily, we are thrown off course by some startling revelations that changed everything we thought we knew. As a result, we enjoyed a very satisfactory conclusion. 5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

After Anna

by Lisa Scottoline

St. Martin’s Press

General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 10 Apr 2018

I am reviewing a copy of After Anna through St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley:

Dr Noah Alderman is a widower and a single Father who has remarried a wonderful woman named Maggie Ippolitti and for the first time in a long time he and his young son are happy and despite her longing for the daughter she hasn’t seen since infancy, Maggie top is overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets the chance to be the Mother to the child she thought she had lost forever , Anna!

Maggie and Noah both know having Anna around will change their lives but never could they have imagined everything that would go wrong and go wrong so quickly. Anna is a gorgeous seventeen year old girl who feels the rules do not apply to her. Maggie ignores the red flags as she is so ecstatic to have her daughter back. She is blinded to the trouble brewing in their once perfect marriage and home.

When Anna is murdered and Noah is accused of the murder things take a heartbreaking turn. He suffers through a trial where everyone believes he is guilty, but things are not what they seem. Will they discover the truth and free an innocent man before its to late.

I give After Anna five out of five stars!

Happy Reading

I love Lisa Scottoline and this book did not disappoint!! Once you start reading, make sure you have nothing else planned because you will not want to put this book down until you have turned the last page!!

I received an electronic copy of this book from Netgalley.

Other reviewers have summarized the plot, and I won't repeat their efforts.

The story is told out of chronological order, switching back and forth between the events before and after the murder, and at times it was a bit hard to keep up.

A few early clues indicate that all is not what it seems on the surface, but I did not anticipate the twist that presented itself about three-quarters of the way through the book.

And I am in agreement with some other reviewers that the ending could have been expanded and fleshed out a bit more. I don't want to give anything away, but it felt a bit like a big build-up to a huge Christmas present under the tree, somebody finally unwraps it, and we only catch a tiny glimpse of what's inside the box.

This is a fabulous book! "After Anna" is a prime example of why Lisa Scottoline is one of my favorite authors. Her writing flows easily from beginning to end. The characters are believable and so well developed that I can clearly picture them in my mind.

Noah Alderman and his young son Caleb are happy that Maggie Ippoliti came into their lives. They are once again a happy family. Maggie loved Noah and Caleb but she yearned to be reunited with her daughter Anna who was only 6 months old when she saw her last. Almost 17 years later she thought her prayers had been answered when Anna contacted her after the death of her father and his new family when their private airplane crashed. Maggie was overwhelmed with joy to find out Anna wanted to come live with them.

If this was a fairytale, everyone would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Anna had something else in mind.