When I read highly praised reviews and the plot about short term memory loss (this is another read I’ve finished with the same plot line) I became so eager to start this book. But I realized the author was Megan Hart we knew her from her erotic romance novels and she wrote this book with different pen-name which intrigued my attention because lately most of the romance authors wrote successful thriller novels and I wish they may change their genre choice and keep on writing those suspicious, exciting stories.
But this time I got a little disappointed. Even though our heroine Diana Sparrow’s traumatized memory loss after being badly injured from an accident ( we still have doubts if it is real accident. Could somebody try to kill her?) is an interesting topic, I had real hard time to connect with her. I continue to read for witnessing the struggles she endured during her psychical healing and adapting in her daily life routine. And of course she is already estranged with her husband who acts doubtful and hearing alarm bells that he is a notorious cheater. And we are so right: The scumbag husband is having an affair with best friend Val. Don’t stop! I can hear you boo and I happily join you!
But don’t worry! We have charming newcomer Cole Pelham who may provide the comfort and quality time Diana needs. But what happened at the day of accident? Could she still be in danger? She needs to gather pieces of her memories to find out the truth, right?

My problem about this book is its way too much fast pacing. We are just running to catch the story and that may be the one of the reason we didn’t have enough time to connect with the characters! Okay, I’m taking back. Even though the author wrote some deep level character analysis and tell us a slow burn story, we may still hate the characters: because they’re truly created to hate! And I may admit that we enjoy hating them! It’s natural like hating your neighbors in these days! (I take it back, I was hating them before the Pandemic, too!)
And the ending was too predictable. I didn’t use my spidey senses because this book’s twists are too easy to foresee and I didn’t want to exhaust them for nothing.

Overall: Hateful characters, predictable twists, foreseeable ending, whirlwind story-telling ended with my 3 solid- I didn’t hate the book ( I only want to choke the characters) but I didn’t like it, too so let’s meet in the middle stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this ARC in exchange my honest review.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by Mina Hardy. Completely and utterly speechless . I devoured this book in a few short hours. I loved it. This had all the qualities I want in a psychological thriller from non-stop twists and unreliable characters. Can't wait to read more books by Mina Hardy.

Harriett is the mother and friend I’d always wanted and then I married her son, Jonathan.

After her accident, Diana could not have managed without a lot of assistance from Harriett and the help was appreciated. Diana is now feeling better and wants a day out and a few drinks with her friend, Trina.

Diana has no memory of events around the time of her accident but she is aware that Jonathan is having an affair and always “working late”. Diana is not ready to make any decisions re her marriage or her future. If only the strange nightmares she is having would stop; the meds have not helped.

A dark, intriguing and vividly emotional novel.

There are so many things I want to say about this book but there is so little I can say without giving away huge chunks of the plot. Twists and turns and characters with their own secrets and agendas. Read it, you won't be disappointed.

I was somewhat on board with this book, even though I hated most everything about it, because I wanted to know what happened in those five months of Diana’s missing memory. But it was easily predictable, minus that disgusting, unnecessary twist (seriously, wtf?!), and honestly misleading.

I requested this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher (in exchange for an honest review) based on the cover and book description. However, the cover has nothing to do with the book, and the description is misleading. The author tried to add details and characters to the story that weren’t necessary to give the, otherwise flat, characters some depth, that in the end just made the whole thing messy. Overall, all the characters in this book were selfish, horrible, definitely not likable, and honestly, got what they deserved.

On top of all that, the whole premise of this book is a slap in the face to females, like we only care about sexy red Camaros or walk around as poor pitiful mistresses. I could keep going, but I’ll just say this book was a hard no for me. I’m giving it 3 stars instead of 2 because, like a train wreck, it kept my attention in all its disastrous glory.

WHAT???!!!

OH. MY. GOSH!! NO!

This book was so good! I have never read a book by this author and I went in totally blind. Please do the same! It was so so so good! I loved it! I hated every. single. person. and still I loved it!!

The writing was amazing. So many highlights! Like this one:

"On the counter next to him, his phone buzzes with a text. Neither of us looks at the phone. We look at each other. The phone buzzes again, the sound of an angry wasp, trapped in a glass jar. It would sting me just the same, wouldn't it, if I picked it up?"

OR...

"Every step I take away from him is like walking on broken glass, only the glass is in my heart."

And the story totally kept you hooked and guessing right up to the end! And then that ending!!!!! Completely insane! Sick! Appalling! And so so good. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!!

MY RATING:
Characters: 5
Story: 5
Overall: 5 sickeningly amazing stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!!
Follow me and see more reviews @ www.mamaneedsabook.blogspot.com

Hello Mina. What a read. I was hooked right from the start and kept me up all night. The twists and turns just threw me. This is the type of thriller that I love reading and Mina did a great job with this. I cannot wait to read more.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very twisty, intriguing book with an interesting premise. I did not predict the ending! The characters were well drawn and this is a fast paced read.

Enjoyed the twist within the book, didn’t see it coming! Love how a woman from somewhere else ends up going somewhere else trying to remember what’s happened to her. Look forward to lore by this author.

This was a fast paced thriller with amnesia, abusive family relationships and spousal affairs. It kept me interested in trying to figure out if the main character was really not a good person.

This was a great psychological thriller! I couldn't put it down. It had good characters and the pace was great. It kept me guessing til the very end. I would definitely recommend!

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Diana Sparrow was in a car accident five months ago that left her broken and missing quite a bit of her memory. She's beginning to have nightmares that don't make sense about that night. Nightmares that are so real they make her doubt everything she is told. 

The official story is she hit a deer and totaled her car. She is lucky to be alive. They say she has anesthesia amnesia. Maybe her memory will return and maybe it won't. 

She has so many questions. Why is her best friend, Val, ignoring her? Everyone acts like they know something she doesn't. And they do. Even her husband and his mother.

But Diana is not believing any of it. As fragments of her memory return, she also finds that everyone is lying to her. And she also finds out she isn't a very nice person.
But then not one of them is. Harriet, the mother in law was terrifying to me. You could see crazy written all over her but I had no idea how this would end.  WHAT????


Well Done!

NetGalley/ November 10th, 2020 by Crooked Lane Books

I don’t know why I did this to myself but I DID. I read another book that not only featured point-of-views from the perspectives of THREE characters but there were at least THREE timelines to go along with it. It was all very befuddling and by the time I got to the end, I was like, fuck it, this twist is gross and so are these people. I gave this book two stars and you know what, just say, Olga, you deserved it because you knew what you were getting into.

This book reminded me of “Before I Go to Sleep.” Here, Diana gets into a car accident and comes out of it with amnesia and while she doesn’t remember it, slowly we learn her best friend is sleeping with her husband, her mother-in-law is a stage five clinger that won’t let her live, and there’s some major family drama that is going to come rising to the surface. Not only are the point-of-views and timelines bad, these characters and their actions are ridiculous. Thank you to @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for this advanced copy out on 11/10/2020.

Thanks to netgalley for this arc! I loved this book! Loved it! I’m a domestic thriller junkie and this one definitely delivered. Diana has lost some of her memory following a car accident. Some of it was obvious, definitely thought “how could you not know??” At some things and really was tearing out my hair. That’s what a good book does tho, immerse you in a story so much so that you develop strong feelings about the characters and the story. The twist at the end was mind blowing. 5/5!

This is one of those books that caught my eye solely based on the cover. Delicate and ominous, I requested it after the synopsis held my attention.

Recovering from a car accident that broke both her collarbones and left her with an acute amnesia of what happened, Diana is trying to piece together the events that led her to be in the car that night. Harriet, her mother-in-law, is lonely and desperate to help, and while she can't remember everything, she knows she was on the brink of divorcing her husband after she discovered his affair with her best friend Val. However, the more she remembers about that night, the more she realizes that nothing about her life is as it seems. Digging deeper proves dangerous, and Diana doesn't know who to trust or where to turn for help. What she knows more than anything is that something isn't right, and finding the truth is difficult when the people you rely on lie to you.

Told in alternating perspectives, After All I've Done is an interesting take from page one, not so much the amnesia story line, but the dynamics in the established relationships. Diana and Val's friendship is both toxic yet dependable. The blunt "my marriage is over" attitude that carries through Diana's parts is almost jarring in its candor. Val, too, is conflicted because she loves her friend but is pissed at the way things unraveled and is convinced Diana is faking her amnesia so her husband won't leave her. Harriet is...well, Harriet is every invasive mother-in-law on 100.

Overall, though, I didn't love this book. I liked some of the intrigue, Diana trying to piece back her memories and her troubling relationship with her deceased adoptive mother. The honesty, too, I appreciated. The characters wanted to make adult decisions without drama, but in spite of their very best efforts, drama was everywhere. I didn't care for the amnesia story line and found all but the final climactic moment predictable. And the conclusion, itself, I am torn about. On the one hand, rarely have I seen events turn in such a way. On the other hand, I wasn't invested in any of the characters enough to root for or against them. Diana and Val felt too similar at times, not withstanding their upbringing, but their dialogue and mannerisms were also similar. Cole and Jonathan also had similar notes, even with their separate residents. The most outstanding was Harriet, and I found her actions to be believable in their martyrdom, but also abrupt and erratic.

After All I've Done is a quick, easy read with one giant twist, but if you're looking for likable characters or a deep plot, this might not be the book for you. Thank you to Crooked Land and NetGalley for providing en eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

I loved this book. I read it in one day. Kept me on the edge of my seat. Though I thought I had most of plot figured out there were some surprises at the end that I did not see coming

After All I've Done by Mina Hardy first caught by eye from the cover. I just had to get my hands on this one. My favorite to read are mystery/ thrillers and this one did not disappoint. It's hard to get too much into without giving away book. It had me hooked 1/3 of the way through. Val, at times, was not my most favorite and I feel she could have been nicer to Diana. I give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to a 4. Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and of course to Mina Hardy and Crooked Lane Books.

Compelling tale of a small town woman struggling to remember what details she is missing after a car accident leaves her with memory loss. Unreliable narrators abound in this psychological thriller.

After All I've Done
A Novel
by Mina Hardy
Crooked Lane Books
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 10 Nov 2020 | Archive Date 27 Oct 2020

Loved this psychological thriller!! Loved how the book came together at the end. Will defintely recommend this to our patrons.

One of this year's best!

Diana has amnesia ever since she wrecked her car a few months ago. Yet, she still has trouble remembering what she recently has done, as well. Her best friend, Val, is awful to Diana when she goes out for the first time since the accident with Trina, another friend. This in a chance encounter.

Hating her husband, Jonathan, as well - yet still unable to do much, herself - broken bones that still need to heal - she needs him. Also Diana's mother-in-law, Harriet is a bit cloying but the only person that actually helps Diana out day to day.

Jonathan is having an affair. With Val. Diana knows.

And then things begin to ramp up!!!

A superb read! HIGHLY recommend!

Many Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for a great read.