Thanks NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing for an ARC to review.
Phoebe's life was destroyed three years ago after losing everything in a car accident.
Her doppelganger ends up at the funeral home where she works as a mortuary cosmetologist pushing her towards a maddening journey.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, A.J. Banner and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Psychological thriller In Another Light, is the story of Phoebe, 43, a mortuary cosmetologist, who lost her husband and young daughter in a car accident three years before. She is consumed by grief and has been simply going through the motions of living ever since. She's brought out of her current state of existence when the body of a young woman is brought into the mortuary where she works. Phoebe is shocked because the woman looks exactly like her and has a tattoo that is eerily familiar. Though everyone keeps telling her it's nothing and to let it go, Phoebe can't help but dig into the mystery of who she is and what their connection might be. As she looks into it further she comes across the unimaginable.

If you love unreliable narrators you will love this one. Phoebe tells us what she knows and believes, but everyone around her tells her she's wrong. Who do you believe? The book is about 250 pages, which makes for a really quick, one-sitting read. There are quite a few twists and turns, but some are fairly predictable. The ending surprised me a bit, because I saw only two ways the book could end, yet the author found a third way (sort of). The book gives you a good look at how grief can affect a person's mental health.

While it has an intriguing premise and I kept turning the pages, the story just didn't draw me in. I didn't connect with the main character and everything just kind of felt a bit formulaic.

3½ stars
Recommended for fans of: thrillers, suspense, family dramas, general fiction, and women's fiction.

FYI: Possible trigger warning for anyone suffering from the loss of a spouse or child.

Whenever I need something to get me reading again, or to make me feel like I’ve made progress in a book, I pick up a thriller. A.J. Banner’s In Another Light fit the bill and did not disappoint. I read the entire book in one day. The story kept me turning pages and kept me up late to finish.

This book tells the story of Phoebe, a mortuary cosmetologist. The reader is introduced to her gradually—her past unfolding one step at a time. This fits well with Phoebe’s character. She seems reserved and private. She has few friends. We eventually discover the events that have led her to her current state of depression and hopelessness.

Then the mystery really sets in when a familiar face shows up at the mortuary. Phoebe’s search for answers about the mystery woman leads her on a winding path. She attempts to unravel her past and present in somewhat ill-conceived ways. Let’s be clear: she makes some awful choices.

I felt like this was a pretty solid mystery with a great premise. It’s about secrets people keep, even from those they are closest to. It’s about family. It’s about love and trust—and forgiveness. Ultimately, it’s about Phoebe learning to move on (or not) from the tragic events of her past.

I did find some portions of the plot and characterization to be a bit far-fetched. Some of the coincidences were too convenient for me to believe.

In the end, this is a book I would recommend as a quick read for fans of the genre. I found Phoebe to be a believable character and I enjoyed following her story for the most part. The premise of the story was intriguing, though it possibly could have been better executed

I found this to be an interesting read. I like Phoebe was very curious to solve the mystery of her doppelganger. What we discovered was very shocking. Which did keep me reading as I did like this book.

When it came to Phoebe, she was someone that at times I emphasized with and other times I felt like an outside looking in. I never fully connected with her or the other characters in this story. When this happens, I find myself at times going through the motions of reading the words on the pages but they don't stick in my head. Thus if you would ask me what happened during those moments, I would not have been able to tell you. Overall, I did like this book.

This was my first book by A.J. Banner and it won't be my last. "In Another Light" was a fast paced, psychological thriller. Phoebe is grieving the loss of her husband and daughter but three years later, some situations occur that make her wonder what is real? I enjoyed the flashbacks scattered throughout the story and felt they added dimension. A.J. Banner wrote such a relatable character with Phoebe that I was connected and full of emotions throughout my whole read; which was less than a day because I had to know what was going to happen!

Thank you to A.J. Banner for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Atmospheric, heart-rendering, gripping!

LOVE THIS AUTHOR AND BOOK! Talented storyteller and favorite author, A. J. Banner returns following The Poison Garden with her latest compelling hit; a raw, visceral, and emotional multi-layered spellbinding tale of suspense, IN ANOTHER LIGHT.

A grieving woman takes a mysterious psychological journey as she uncovers secrets, lies, and betrayal in her quest for the truth about her past.

A massive fan of the author for many years, I am always in awe of her talent and mesmerizing writing. When you start an A.J. Banner book, you are assured to be immersed, pulling you into the setting with vivid descriptions and characters that come alive on the page. Unputdownable.

Set in a fictional coastal town (Bayport, WA) —we meet Phoebe Glassman. She has not been herself for some time. At one point, she was a carefree wife and mother. However, now she resides in isolation. A recluse and buried in her grief and guilt.

After a car accident three years earlier, she is grieving her two-year-old daughter, Ava, and her husband, Logan.

Phoebe is a mortuary cosmetologist at Fair Winds funeral home, her husband’s business with his partner. For the patients on Phoebe’s table, there will be no recovery, no waking up which feels like her own grief weighing her down.

Her husband had many secrets, and he was always restless. However, she had no clue just how many secrets and lies, until her lookalike- a younger version of herself, in the form of a corpse, shows up on her mortuary table with shocking evidence.

A butterfly tattoo. The same one Phoebe recalled seeing on her husband’s phone. In addition, she also finds a small photo in her purse, of herself taken years earlier.

In her intense quest for answers, Phoebe begins an extensive emotional search for the truth. She learns the woman’s name was Pauline Steele, and there was a suicide drug overdose. The woman was in her early thirties, younger than Phoebe, who is forty-three.

What was she doing in this town? Was she looking for her or something more sinister?

What happens next is an intricate web of lies and deceit that takes Phobe down a deep rabbit hole. She is not sure she will like the answers, but she is obsessed with this mystery. She must learn the truth.

What is reality and what is the truth? Who can she trust?

Does anyone believe her or will everyone think she is crazy? She must step out of her comfort zone to find the truth. Was her husband living another secret life? Is her family really dead, or is this some sort of conspiracy? What else was her husband hiding and what does this woman have to do with her life?

In her sleuthing, she uncovers a girl that looks like her Ava with a nanny. Could it be her daughter? If so, what has her husband done, and what does Pauline have to do with their life?

Sharply written and psychologically rich, Banner skillfully keeps readers on edge, gripped to the pages with her twisty plot, keeping you guessing- what is factual or speculation? Trust me, you will not see this twist coming.

I am a big fan of the author, having read all her books -this is one of my favorites. A tantalizing mystery and a protagonist you will root for from beginning to end.

Anything revolving around a mortuary is always eerie, creepy, and mysterious. However, the secret behind the corpse, the husband’s weird behavior, his disappearances, and the mysterious pull of the little girl added to the intensity and intrigue.

IN ANOTHER LIGHT will captivate, surprise, and satisfy you with its action-packed suspense. Rich in character and plot, fans of Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series Before She Disappeared will devour this one. Highly recommend and top books of 2021. I really enjoyed the ending and the character, Mike.

A.J: I think you should open an antique store, but you must never stop writing! I anxiously await the next.

Stay tuned for my upcoming #AuthorElevatorSeries with A.J. Banner, (10/5) where we will go behind the scenes of the book and the author. Plus all the fun updates about her love of vintage typewriters, and more!

Blog Review:
#JDCMustReadBooks
@JudithDCollins
Pub Day: 10/05/2021
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A special thank you to #LakeUnion and #Netgalley for an advanced reading copy and this beautiful autographed paperback!

Phoebe Glassman lives with the dead. Her work as a mortuary cosmetician brings her face to face with them each day. She has to watch her mother slowly die of dementia. And she absolutely cannot get past the deaths of her husband and daughter three years ago. So when the body of a young woman comes into the funeral home wearing her own face, Phoebe feels her tenuous grip on reality slipping. Now she’s questioning everything she thought was real.

A strong psychological drama that asks all the right thriller questions. Lots of intrigue and doubt and a mile a minute plot that never slows.

However, I didn’t find the answers to the questions as compelling as I wanted them to be-too flat for me, missing the twisty suspense resolution I wanted. I also found Phoebe’s voice inconsistent and hard to pin down. Her dialogue was all over and I couldn’t tell where she was coming from a lot of the time.

Still enjoyable and heart wrenching. A solid, quick read! Thank you to Netgalley and Get Red PR for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

Phoebe Glassman is a mortuary cosmetologist, helping people grieve their loved ones while barely surviving her own grief. Three years ago, she lost her husband and daughter in a car accident and had to be admitted to a mental hospital. Because of this, her coworkers are afraid to tell her when the body of a woman comes into the mortuary that looks like Phoebe, only ten years younger. And she has a strangely familiar tattoo...
I loved this twisty thriller! I felt bad for Phoebe and wondered how much more she could take as she investigated deeper into her doppelganger's past and found more secrets and lies that connected to her own life. Grab a box of tissue for this story though!
I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

Main character Phoebe works at a mortuary, sculpting individuals faces so their families can view them with some comfort when saying goodbye. She does exemplary work because of her training as a sculptor and work as an artist before she joined the mortuary, which used to be co-owned by her now dead husband Logan.
Phoebe goes through her days being very careful with her emotions, for fear of triggering an emotional collapse. It’s been three years since Logan’s death, but it’s clear she is not coping, or rebuilding her life. She’s barely living, and it seems this will remain her status quo, until everything changes one day when a she sees a dead woman in the mortuary who resembles her strongly. The resemblance is eerie, and the tattoo design on the dead woman’s arm lead Phoebe to revisit memories of her marriage to Logan, and to start investigating both the dead woman’s and Logan’s lives. It calls up so many terrible memories, and Phoebe begins emotionally spiralling badly out of control when she sees someone else from her past.

The plot moves so well that I finished this book in one day. A.J. Banner writes Phoebe’s grief and diminishing hold on her rationality so well; even while Phoebe did ever more seemingly questionable and irrational things to learn more about Logan, I could almost understand. The author kept a nice balance of possible and surprising throughout the book, whether in some of Phoebe’s actions or thoughts, and in the situations and family secrets she brought to light. The tension between these two kept me turning the pages and entertained.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

In another light tells the story of Phoebe an artist turned cosmetologist, she is mourning the lost of her daughter and husband in an accident.

I liked and hated the way this book is so convincing, how we are so involved with her story that we feel her pain, her loss, her rage and we become a close supporter. But nothing it's what it seems.

Phoebe is a mess. Understandably so. She’s a widow that is having a hard time getting over her husband He had everything going for him. He was handsome, charismatic and was Pheobe’s world. She even got licensed to work with him restoring bodies at the funeral home, rather than work on her art. It was a practical move, but she also did it for love.

Even after her husband dies, she stays on at the funeral home, either out of obligation or the inability to do anything to move past her previous life. And when a body that looks eerily similar to her shows up on her slab one day, things don’t seem right. The experience opens a can of worms that Phoebe follows down a foxhole.

I really appreciated In Another Light for how unique the plot was. Banner also did an amazing job switching things up just enough to keep the reader guessing the whole time. Ultimately, it’s more of a domestic thriller. One that’s might be a little far fetched for real life, but I could totally see it happening.

I would recommend In Another Light to fans of Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena. Special thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

It was like reading a lifetime movie in my honest opinion. Went a little too quick and almost seemed to skip along at points. The dialogue also seemed a little off. Overall a good plot and kept my interest throughout.

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on Oct. 5th

In Another Light by AJ Banner is the type of book that keeps you turning the pages until the very end. It was a quick read that was action packed and have life changing implications for the characters in the storyline. Grief can affect you in so many ways, and most aren't in a good way. Phoebe Glassman is one of the people, after the accident that claimed the life of her husband and your daughter 3 years before what we see is a woman whom spirals out of control once she comes in contact with a woman that looks like her. I definitely would recommend this book to others.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, in exchange for my fair and honest review.

This is an absolute page-turner. It was hard to put down and the pace rockets along each step of the way. I was flying through these pages. It also starts off so strong. Probably some of the best chapters in this book are the opening chapters. I just wish the rest of the chapters were like the opening. This book takes many twists and turns and does not end up where the story began. Usually this is a good thing, however in this particular case it is a bit disappointing.

While I was thoroughly entertained by this one, it did leave me feeling unsatisfied. The ending is a bit of a stretch. I had to give some grace to go with it, but overall I wish this book had a conclusion that was different. I just do. It is like when you eat something that starts off good, but then has a strong aftertaste. That was this read for me. So overall my feelings are conflicted.

Props to the cover though. You should never judge books by their cover, but I am guilty of this all of the time and often read books because of their cover. I break all the rules, but aesthetics matters to me. You would think as a mostly kindle reader that this would not matter, but here we are. I love a pretty cover. Anyway, while I would not recommend anyone go out of their way to read this one, if you come across I do think it will definitely entertain you.

In Another Light is one of the better psychological thrillers I have read this year. Banner is no stranger to writing such suspenseful stories that will keep you guessing until the very end. This thriller is filled with surprising heartfelt emotions and Banner pulls on each and everyone of them!!! The characters are almost lifelike and will touch your heart with their stories. I was surprised in the amount of emotions brought about by such a tantalizing book that is filled with many twist and turns! I highly recommend this and any other book written by A. J. Banner. You will not displeased.

Thank you NetGalley, A. J. Banner and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy of this fabulous book. My review is unbiased and my own.
#NetGalley #inanotherlight #AJBanner
#lakeunionpublishing #arc

This was a magnificent riveting read!

The prologue had me wondering why Phoebe would be sneaking around a house and peeking into windows. It's creepy.

The story picks up eleven days earlier with Phoebe, who is an artist and sculptor, is employed with Fair Winds Funeral Home where she works her magic to beautify the deceased for viewing. Phoebe has lost interest in living, doesn't give much thought to her own appearance as she merely exists due to an accident that took her husband, Logan, and her two-year-old daughter, Ava, three years ago.

When a co-worker, Mike Rivera, warns her to avoid a body he's bringing in, she laughs it off. She's seen everything, nothing freaks her out.

It's not until Phoebe looks upon a woman's face that indeed, Phoebe is freaked out. This woman, Pauline Steele, is a younger version of Pheobe. She notes the distinguished tattoo that jarringly reminds her of a background picture on her husband's phone.

Phoebe becomes obsessed with finding out who Pauline was, her connection to Logan and why she was in town? Phoebe, although it is forbidden for her to take personal items, discovers a photo in Pauline's belongings. The photo only adds more questions. It is Pauline's friend, Xia Page, who agrees to meet Phoebe comes with a folder filled with evidence of who she believes Logan is.

Reading this it is easy to empathize with Phoebe's losses and her devastation has kept her from moving on. She still hangs on to Logan's belongings. It's not a far stretch to see that Phoebe can't let go and as the twists keep unraveling, Phoebe's hope grows but has Xia lead her down a rabbit hole with her conclusions? Totally riveting read!

I received an ARC from NetGalley via Lake Union Publishing and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.

In Another Light... I devoured this book on vacation. It made me say out loud, "wait, what? No Way!" My family asked me what I was reading and wanted to know what was so shocking! These are the books I love to read, twisty psychological thrillers. A.J. Banner is a master at these kinds of books that have you turning the page to the end to figure out the who, what where and when. Such a great book! Thank you A.J. Banner for a copy of your book and the chance to be one of your early readers.

This book was actually surprisingly good!

Phoebe was a former mortuary cosmetologist and lost both her husband and child in a car accident. Now years later, she comes back to the mortuary and finds the dead corpse a mirror image of her own. The dead woman's name was Pauline and soon Phoebe becomes embroiled in finding deeper secrets as she finds a picture of herself in the dead woman's purse.

This was actually interesting from start to finish. You could totally understand the series of emotions and frustrations the main protagonist, Phoebe is going through and how when each of the secrets are revealed she was determined to find more truth. There was some sort of an air of suspense in the book as well, particularly, the story gets interesting when Phoebe finds a child who looks exactly like a carbon copy of her deceased daughter Ava. She learns some dark secrets about her husband and so as a reader, you are literally hooked into the story, wanting to know what has really happened? Are her husband and daughter still alive? Or is it just Phoebe is imagining this whole scenario? What is Pauline doing with her picture in her purse? So in other words, the author did a good job keeping the reader at the edge of the seat.

The characters are somewhat likable--as I mentioned earlier, I could feel Phoebe wanting to know the answers. The writing was really great and this is my first time reading a book from this author and I am looking forward to read more books form this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

I'm afraid all this book has done for me is confirm that I'm not a fan of A.J. Banner unfortunately.

Found it incredibly difficult to get through, and ended up skimming most of it just so I could find out how it ends.

Ending seemed very obvious too.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the arc of this book. The book started out great, even though I found the prologue unnecessary. The morgue reconstruction details were fascinating and made me glad I'm not one of those readers that can picture scenes! I was loving the book so much, then life got in the way and I had to take a break. When I came back, for some reason I couldn't get into the book again. I kept on and eventually started loving the book again, but every once in a while I would lose focus again.
When Phoebe started investigating what was going on I got really wrapped up in the story until the end. I had no idea that what was going to happen was where the book was going!
I'm not sure if I thought the epilogue was good or if was too easy...
Trigger warning for anyone who suffered the loss of a child or spouse -this might be a rough read. 3.5 stars rounded up