It’s been awhile since I’ve read anything by AJ Banner and I forgot how addictive these books can be! IN ANOTHER LIGHT follows Phoebe, a mortuary cosmetologist, a job that I don’t think I could handle. She’s still coming to terms with the tragic death of her husband and daughter and she’s losing herself in her work. Until one day she’s warned her next job could freak her out.

Pauline Steele comes across her table and she could be Phoebe’s twin. The resemblance is uncanny and starts Phoebe on her quest to find out everything she can about this woman. I was so anxious to see what she would find out and if she would actually get the answers she was looking for. Plenty of suspense and mystery for a quick and addictive read!

Pauline shows up on Phoebe’s mortuary table and flips her world upside down. Not only is she her doppelgänger, but she recognizes her tattoo, and realizes recent events in her life may not have occurred the way she originally thought. This one picked up right from the start and didn’t stop until it was done. Phoebe is still grieving the loss of her husband and daughter, and the appearance of Pauline throws her further on edge. While I was able to figure most of it out, I did not enjoy it any less. This was my first read of Banner’s and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Thank you to Get Red PR Books and NetGalley for the gifted copy to review.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Though I had a bit of a hard time getting into this story, I am glad I finished it.

Phoebe is a mortuary cosmetologist and is dealing with some very complex feelings and emotions of her having lost her husband and daughter three years prior. Phoebe’s world starts to spiral out of control when a woman is brought in that looks exactly like her and has a tattoo that she’s seen before.

There are several twists and turns that occur during Phoebe’s spiral down the rabbit hole that will keep your attention. Be patient with this one and get to the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and A. J. Banner for allowing me to read this story. I was given this opportunity for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This was a great story, great twists, great character development, but there was something lacking for me. It was like it was ice cream which is my favorite, but it was vanilla, so kind of bland. Thank you Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing and A.J. Banner for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This one started out as a good read for me, but ultimately ended up as just a "meh" read. I kept reading it just to find out the mystery surrounding her husband's death. I've read other books by this author and enjoyed them, so was disappointed with this one.

This is a story that refused to stay on the path that I wanted for a happy ending and instead had me running along the cliff hanging on to each word to the very surprising and satisfying ending! Absolutely love this Five Star beautiful story!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Phoebe is working as a cosmetologist in a morgue when a body arrives looking just like her. After she starts digging in her past, Phoebe finds out that her husband, who had died three years earlier, actually had a relationship with this now dead women. This leaves her with several unanswered questions. This story kept my attention and wanted me to keep reading but I was disappointed with the ending because I thought it fell flat. I think it is still a good read. #InAnotherLight #AJBanner

This book started off strong for me, but quickly faded. It gave off all the eerie feelings since the main character does work in a morgue, and I did keep turning the pages to solve the mystery of her husbands death. When it was revealed on the details surrounding that it was just meh for me.

Although I was not a fan of this one, I would try another book by this author.

My fourth Banner novel and by far my favorite. Her books are quick reads at under 300 pages so it's easy to fly right through them. This novel sheds light on the process of grief and we get to deep dive into Phoebe's ups and downs as she struggles to deal with the loss of her husband and young daughter. I mean, if you worked in a mortuary and a woman shows up on your table looking almost identical to yourself and bearing a tattoo that you've seen on your husband's phone... well, wouldn't that get you spiraling?
Doppelganger books are always fun for me because you just KNOW something weird is happening. Secrets will be unleashed... curiosity doesn't just kill the cat. When Phoebe really loses it in one part of the book, my heart just went out to her. While love can make you do some crazy things, it has absolutely nothing on grief and I believe the author does a great job of showcasing that struggle. I definitely did not figure out certain parts of it and I certainly was unsure as to the credibility of what Phoebe was seeing. I applaud her tenacity but also cringe at some of her actions.. while also still understanding them..

Really the only thing that didn't quite work for me was the ending - and not in the whole ending part but in a teeny, tiny romance part that I felt was just unnecessary. I also felt like there were some plot holes but honestly, it didn't really take away from the read.

Go hug your loved ones.

Three years ago Phoebe lost her husband and child in an accident that has left her reeling ever since. When a body comes into the mortuary where she works with an uncanny resemblance to herself, a familiar tattoo and a photo of herself - she starts looking into the woman's life and ultimately shared history.
Athough good (and a fast read) there were some inconsistencies in the plot that bothered me. Specifically the timeline for Phoebe and her husband's relationship - and the birth of their daughter. It made me question other things along the way.

AJ Banner is a masterful suspense thriller author. Her books have drawn me in and trapped me in the pages with her characters and settings, scenarios that intigue, suspense that makes me hold my breath and gasp with surprise. In Another Light is another fantastic read by an author who will take you in and not let you go from the front cover to the back.

I like an author who can make me have feelings for the characters. Being pulled into the story like I'm a part of it. Ms. Banner does a great job of that in this book. Her writing is so descriptive and had me "living" or experiencing the scenes. The sounds, the sights, the smells, the "feelings", the drama of what is going on. It pulls me into the story and makes me react in ways I don't expect.

The premise of this book is intriguing. A mortuary cosmetologist, a body double doppleganger, a deceased husband, a mysterious tattoo, twists and turns.... it all works in such a suspenseful, thrilling way. It's another great read by this author who knows how to take the reader on an unputdownable thrilling ride.

I am grateful to have the honor of reading and reviewing this book I highly recommend. All opinions and thoughts in this review are my heartfelt own.

As author A.J. Banner's story of Phoebe Glassman, aged forty-three, opens, she is broken. It's the third anniversary of the vehicle accident that claimed her husband, Logan, and beautiful two-year-old daughter, Ava. Logan owned and operated a mortuary in fictional Bayport, Washington, with his partner, Barry. When Logan died, Barry inherited Logan's interest in the business, but kept Phoebe on staff as the cosmetologist. Phoebe was a sculptor when she met Logan, but he talked her into giving up her career and attending mortuary school. She hides in the preparation room, focused on the deceased townspeople whose faces she prepares for viewing. Grief is her constant companion; mourning is her way of life. "She prepares 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." She takes pride in her work, even though she knows that she "creates art from the shell of a person who used to be alive . . . constructing only a vague approximation of life." She maintains the same routine day in and day out, moving through life mechanically, "as if sleepwalking." Because like the patients on the table in front of her each day, she is a shell of the person she used to be when she was the mother of a living child. From the outset, Banner's eloquent, evocative prose draws readers into Phoebe's shattered psyche and her palpable pain over losing her family.

Phoebe sees the mortuary technicians unloading a body they have picked up from the coroner's office, and they ask her to come to the preparation room, but not let anyone see her doing so. She is told, "Barry said not to show you. You should take a look. Brace yourself." The woman on the table is "a younger version of Phoebe, nearly her exact double." The boy of Pauline Steele was discovered in her car in a local park. She died of an opioid overdose. On her right arm is a distinct tattoo that Phoebe recognizes -- a "butterfly in flight. On one side, the wings dissolve "into many tinier butterflies taking off, becoming flower petals as they fly, smaller and smaller, on the cusp of life and death." Phoebe saw the exact design on Logan's cell phone and when she retrieves Pauline's belongings, she finds among them a driver's license listing an Oregon address, as well as half a color picture stuck to the back of a business card. It's a photo of Phoebe, taken seven years ago when she and Logan were visiting Seattle -- he was in the missing half of the photograph. Phoebe rationalizes that Don Westfield, the coroner and a friend of Logan's, may simply have overlooked it when inventorying Pauline's personal effects.

From there, In Another Light moves at a relentless pace as readers learn about Phoebe and Logan's relationship and marriage, and the accident that claimed him and Ava, leaving Phoebe to grieve her only child. Banner's story is tautly crafted, full of surprising twists and unanswered questions to which Phoebe seeks answers in order to understand why Pauline, who looks so much like her, was carrying that photo with her. And why she was found dead in her vehicle, the doors unlocked.

As Phoebe's search for the truth unfolds, the information she discovers threatens to drive her further into despair and hopelessness. She is already carrying guilt about Ava's death, which she has never fully accepted as real or come to terms with -- at least, to the extent that any parent can ever come to terms with the death of a child. She is convinced that Ava's death was her fault. She also engages in magical thinking. Could Logan and Ava still be alive? After all, she was spared the trauma of seeing their bodies by Logan's colleagues. Could they have participated in an elaborate charade masterminded by Logan? Could Logan be hiding Ava in another town, having assumed a new identity, and keeping Phoebe away from her beloved daughter? She discovers a little girl who looks a great deal like Ava, living with her single father. The more Phoebe learns about Logan's past, the more convinced she becomes that Ava is alive and she has found her. Banner skillfully ramps up the story's tension until Phoebe is hovering on a dangerous precipice between reality and delusion, and her actions could have devastating consequences. Of course, by then, readers have taken Phoebe into their hearts, along with Ava, and because Banner "feels at home writing stories with unexpected twists and turns," she keeps readers guessing about the truth and whether Phoebe will survive its revelation.

Banner compassionately details Phoebe's psychological journey through grief and renewal. The story is engrossing not just because of the mystery at its center, but because Phoebe is an empathetic, relatable protagonist. Banner explores the power of grief, and how Phoebe has, as the book opens, given herself over to it. But as the story progresses and Phoebe learns that "[a]ll or part of their family life might not have been real," she must accept how naive she was and how little she actually knew about the man she married, and find out how strong she is . . . if she is to survive.

In Another Light may well be Banner's best writing to date. She has cleverly penned a riveting thriller at the center of which is a beautifully heartbreaking story about a woman who has suffered the most unimaginable loss. Will she be able to navigate through the grief of burying her beautiful daughter, as well as the life she believed she would enjoy with a man who initially seemed too good to be true? Will she be able to find her way back into the light?

In Another Light is thoroughly entertaining, as well as emotionally gripping and poignant.

In Another Light was a fast paced book and hard to put down., a wife and mom, who loses her husband and daughter in a car accident, then to have reason that they still may be alive. I have read other books by A.J. Banner and this book did not disappoint. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I enjoy the occasional thriller, but they're not the first book I pick up. However, I loved the cover and the description of "In Another Light." The premise is great: a widow (who works as a mortician - how great is that?!) sees a dead body show up at the funeral home. The dead woman looks just like her. I was intrigued and the first 10% of the book had me rapidly turning pages. However, that's when the interpersonal dialog picked up (it was lots of internal dialog up until that point, and that moved right along). The conversations between characters were rocky at best., not fluid, and not how people actually talk.

Then Phoebe starts either going completely off the rails or reveals herself as an unreliable narrator. The choices she made and actions she took were just wackadoodle. I started reading faster/skimming to finish and had no investment in the outcome. The outcome? Meh.

My third book from Banner and let me tell you something: God she can write! In less than 300 pages she can pack soo much suspense, that just blows my mind. In another light, once again, was imposible for me to put the book down. Phoebe’s character had my heart shattered because I’m a mom now and those type of things always hit hard! My only question though is the title, I did not see the relationship with the novel, maybe I missed some clues? Overall great read!

Interesting premise for an exciting new thriller by A. J. Banner. I loved the twists and turns in the story. This one will keep you guessing until the very end!

Phoebe Glassman lost her husband and daughter in a terrible accident. Three years later, she is still trying to process her grief.

Phoebe works as a mortuary cosmetologist, restoring the bodies of the deceased. One day at work, the body of a woman named Pauline Steele arrives. This woman is the spitting image of Phoebe! Naturally, this alarms Phoebe, and she sets out to uncover more about the life and death of Pauline. Along the way, Phoebe becomes unhinged as she starts connecting Pauline to her husband. The plot unfolds as Phoebe starts to believe her husband and daughter could still be alive.

This was a super fast and entertaining read. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, something would happen, and I found myself unable to put the book down.

This book has been marketed as a thriller. I would have labeled this as a psychological/domestic drama with thrilling aspects.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and can’t wait to read the author’s future books!

I had never read this author before but I thought the new thriller In Another Light would be a fun way to kick off spooky season. Once I started, it was hard to put down as I wanted to know what would happen!⁣ Unfortunately, the plot of this book relies on the overused theme of questionably reliable narration due to mental health. Much of what is revealed is discovered due to coincidences so some suspension of disbelief is necessary too. It contains references to loss of a child.

Everyone believes she is so grief-stricken that she is no longer able to function, by herself Phoebe knows that she is just surviving, living day-by-day waiting for her turn to meet her beloved ones again. Then, all of sudden, her life becomes unhinged - a woman who very much looks like her is found dead, and she starts to connect the dots between that dead woman and her dead husband. She goes on a searching trip for the leads that maybe could prove that her husband and her daughter were not dead, she gets unhinged and life seems to close upon her again. This story has, however, an unexpected and unforeseen twist that leads to a very gratifying ending for the main character. I loved the way the plot was put together and the way the writer makes the reader start guessing the answers. It's one of those books that we must read!

I really thought I knew where this book was going and then it twisted and then I didn't know where it was going. I flew through this book, I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next. Another great read from AJ Banner!