Triggers: Loss, Mental health
In Another Light is an intriguing suspense novel where the main character Phoebe is dealing with major loss in her life. Phoebe is thrown in a spiral when she sees a dead body who looks like her in the mortuary where she works. What she finds and the secrets people in her life are hiding from her form an interesting mystery.
I found this novel more of a suspense/mystery than a psychological drama or a thriller. It is definitely a very interesting story and keeps you flipping pages to know what happens next. The only issue I had is that some of the parts of the story are a little too hard to believe. I liked the way the author has handled mental health issues in the story. An atmospheric and intriguing mystery which keeps you guessing till the end.

This psychological thriller was so fantastic!

Phoebe is a mortuary cosmetologist. (There is a scene at the beginning describing her working on an eye and I have an eye thing so I almost threw this book down!) But it was small scene and quickly moved on.

A woman has died and though her coworkers try to keep Phoebe away, she sees the woman and she looks exactly like her! She also recognizes a tattoo on the woman that's she seen before.... On her dead husband's phone before he died.

This sets her on a quest that sends her to some dangerous places in life and in her mind. This book was so fast paced and I loved how it ended!

This one was just okay for me. It took awhile for it to get interesting and even then, it was kind of easy to assume where the book was heading. Just when it started to get juicy, and you thought you could be wrong about the plot, the ending is disappointing. I did like the idea of the story, though.

“The death of a look-alike stranger leads a grieving woman down a troubling path…”

What would you do if you worked in a funeral home and one day your doppelganger is brought in? This idea is what is explored in this novel as the main character Phoebe looks into her own life and also that of her deceased husband. It is easy to be sympathetic toward Phoebe, there has been a lot of tragedy in her life. This novel is easy to read and I also found it to be a quick read because I didn’t really want to put it down as more things were discovered. However, I did feel that it could have ended sooner than it did. There were some items that were tied up neatly by the end (maybe too neatly sometimes?) and others that felt like loose strings. If I had any complaint it would be that.

There’s not a whole lot of meat to the novel, not that it is bad, it just comes across as maybe a novel that you would suggest to someone that is new to the thriller/psychological thriller genre.

eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

⭐⭐

I wish I had more to say about this one, but I just didn't like it that much. I found it slow. I found Phoebe incredibly unlikable. The twists and turns were just "meh. " Not much else I can say, honestly. Sometimes a book just isn't for you, and that is okay. 🤷🏻‍♀️

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I could not complete this book due to personal reasons. There was too much about death and I could not read further.

It's been three years since Phoebe Glassman, an artist and mortuary cosmetologist, lost her husband and daughter in a car accident and is still trying to come to terms with it. Then a woman's body is brought to the mortuary Phoebe works in and she turns out to be Phoebe's doppelganger. While preparing the victim's body, Phoebe discovers a tattoo on her underarm--the same tattoo she had previously seen in a close up photo of a woman's underarm saved on her husband's phone. As Phoebe begins to investigate the dead woman's identity, she discovers that the physical resemblance to herself and the mystery of the tattoo are just the tip of the iceberg to a reality which can best be described as 'stranger than fiction'.

The pace was fast which kept me reading on and I finished the book in less than a day. The concept of one of the spouse being a cheater/con person in a thriller is not a new one but the twists and turns in the plot ended up taking the story on a different route than what I had originally guessed.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Lake Union Publishing and the author A. J. Banner for the e-Arc of the book.

I liked this book. The phase started well and hooked me up from the start till the end. The characters were okayish I mean, I didn't feel attached to them so-

Overall, this Is one hell of a book.

So it happens. Every now and then I pick up a book of an author which previous book I 
loved only to find that their new book is not for me.
This was the case with "In Another Light" by A.J. Banner. Somehow I just couldn't get into the story.
Maybe it was because a large part of the story is set in a morgue.

It might also have to do with the fact that I didn't feel I really got to know the main character, a grief-stricken woman who tries to overcome the tragic loss of her young daughter and husband.

It's a sad mystery which I found confusing at times but still I struggled my way through it hoping that at some point I would start liking it.
Unfortunately it didn't happen.

Well, can't like them all I guess...😏
Thank you @netgalley and @lakeunion for the arc.

did not hit for me. i'm not a big fan of family melodrama so i have to assume that was the element i didn't connect with. anyway. not without its charm, mainly banner's prose which is readable and expressive.

I was thrilled to get a copy of this one as I really enjoy this author’s books. This one was no exception. I loved the premise of this one and the story was fast over and very twisty. The characters were believable and I was firmly invested.

Phoebe works at a morgue and when a fresh corpse arrives, she is shocked and horrified that Pauline is a mirror image of Phoebe herself! Phoebe feels compelled to investigate her life and death but isn’t ready for what she finds.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this one

In Another Light by A.J. Banner is a family drama, a mystery and a psychological thriller all rolled into one. Phoebe is a mortuary cosmetologist who finds her work to be just what she needs: three years ago, her family was killed in an accident. She is living a quiet life while trying to get through the days. Until a body is brought to her mortuary and the woman looks just like Phoebe. She has a tattoo that she has seen before and she finds a photograph of herself in the deceased’s personal effects. What is going on? The rest you must read for yourself. This is a book with a storyline that cannot be anticipated. Phoebe’s search for explanations will take her to more confusion than answers. And nothing will be as it seems. The plot is like a maze that takes the reader along for quite a ride. There is nothing predictable here and I really enjoyed following the clues even if I was unable to guess the outcome. This mystery will stay with readers for a long time. Well done, Ms. Banner. Highly recommended. Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Phoebe Glassman is a cosmetologist for a mortuary. She never saw herself ending up in this line of work, but she also never saw herself losing her daughter and husband at such a young age. Overtaken by grief, Phoebe has thrown herself into her job ever since, going through the motions of living, all while quietly dying inside.

Then a women’s body turns up at the mortuary that looks exactly like Phoebe. Surely, the similarities can’t just be coincidence. Equal parts spooked and curious, Phoebe begins looking into this woman’s life, but quickly gets far more than she bargained for. Now she’s on a quest to find the truth and maybe, if she’s lucky, a little of what she lost along the way.

In Another Light is an easy to digest page turner with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. Although it’s a short read, I still managed to find a few parts to seem repetitive. It did, however, manage to keep me guessing as well. Regardless, this is the perfect book to cozy up with by the fire as your next fall read.

Being a mortuary cosmetologist is not a job I would ever want. Yet, this is the job that Phoebe Glassman does. Phoebe has had a very difficult time for a number reasons having lost her husband and her young daughter in a horrific car accident. Having the job, she does, where she is reminded of death on a daily basis, she is beyond appalled when a young woman is brought in who looks exactly like herself. Imagine what turmoil erupted in her mind, especially when her boss tried to hide this death from her. It doesn't take much for Phoebe to spin out of control, putting her mental state in a condition from which it might never recover.

The dead girl, Pauline Steele, sparks remembrances in Phoebe's mind especially when she sees a tattoo on Pauline that Phoebe's late husband had on his phone. This sends Phoebe on a hunt to find out exactly what all of this means. Along with this, we learn of Phoebe's mental state which understandably is unstable, and leads her to many conclusions which place her closer to a mental breakdown.

The book was written to keep one guessing, but it had many convoluted scenes and experiences so that it became difficult to follow it all as Phoebe descends down a rabbit hole of sadness, misery, and hard decisions. It was an easy read, but one that the reader needed to suspend judgmental calls on its authenticity.

Thank you to A.J. Banner, Lake Union Press, and Netgalley for a copy of this story.

I love AJ Banner. This book was full of suspense! I love that the main character had a job that isn't used much in books. That made the story all the more interesting.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Fast-paced and a page-turner. But then, the ending was missing the wow, the inevitability, the satisfying closing of the story - it just fell short.

Someone who looks like Phoebe turns up dead on her mortuary table. She’s a mortuary cosmetologist and the books goes through the process of Phoebe linking this dead woman to her dead husband, who died 3 years before in a car accident. It was an interesting concept but I didn’t relate to any of the characters. I finished the book but it didn’t really leave an impression - good or bad.

💫 In Another Light 💫
By AJ Banner
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (Oct 5, 2021)

My first from this author and the first one I’ve read in one sitting in months.

The novel is a psychological thriller that deals with mental health, loss of a family and the clues that what she thought might be true, might not.

Mortuary cosmetician Phoebe is dealing with the tragic loss of her husband and daughter. She finds herself just existing on her daily life with her foot placed firmly in her tragic loss.

Until one day when a new body arrives at the funeral home and is a complete doppelgänger to ….. her. What happens over the next 250 pages has you, as the reader, questioning what is real and not just like Phoebe.

As noted above, I truly couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to know exactly what tangle mess of webs were derived from fiction and where phoebe was going to find peace.

Highly recommend! 4.5 stars

Phoebe Glassman's life has been on hold for three years, ever since her husband Logan died in a car accident. Phoebe continues to work at the funeral home they co-owned, where she restores dead bodies. Then one day a deceased woman comes in who bares a startling resemblance to Phoebe. Her name is Pauline Steele, and she has a tattoo that Phoebe finds familiar: she once saw it on her late husband's phone. As she investigates further, Phoebe finds a photo of herself in Pauline's belongings, and her world stops. Who is this woman--what is her tie to Phoebe, and to Logan?

"She prefers to remain in limbo, to act as if she too, has died. She walks the earth, but she might as well be a phantom flitting through her life unnoticed, disturbing the air but barely registering her presence."

This excellent read is not quite what I expected--at times it's more emotional and character driven than pure thriller, but it does not matter: it's quite good. I tore through it, and I'm quickly realizing that I really enjoy A.J. Banner's books. They are reliable page turners and typically quite mesmerizing.

IN ANOTHER LIGHT kept me guessing from the beginning. Is Phoebe crazy from grief and simply obsessed with this lookalike woman? Or is there more to it--as she delves into Pauline's life, we truly wonder if we can trust Phoebe, yet you cannot help but root for this broken and grief struck woman. While she does not always make the best decisions, she's a fascinating character. The book balances touching moments with mysterious ones, and there are plenty of twists along the way. I appreciated Banner's deft touch and something different from the usual thriller.

In Another Light by A. J. Banner is a psychological thriller about Phoebe, a mortuary cosmetologist. She lost her husband in a car accident a few years ago and is still grieving. One day, the body of a woman named Pauline arrives in the mortuary, and she looks shockingly similar to Phoebe. This finding spurs Phoebe into a search for who this woman was; and in the process, Phoebe finds a connection to her dead husband. This story was fast-paced and somewhat unique, and there were a few twists that kept me very intrigued. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.