The book opens with a young five year old girl Christine, wandering off at a wedding and nearly drowning. Fast forward some years and we find Christine and her husband Richard running a successful advertising agency. They are recruiting new staff and hire a copywriter Jessica. She seems to bring new life into the business but Christine senses there is something amiss with her, Christine is still struggling all these years later with the trauma of the near drowning and decides to embark on hypnotherapy to bring out the memories and uncovers dark secrets that have been buried. The story is told from Christine and Jessica’s points of view and it is clear that there is more to Jessica’s past as the story unfolds. This book is a very gripping read with plenty of twists and turns. An enjoyable book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

After the Wedding by Laura Elliot

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Everyone said she was the prettiest flower girl. But now her dress lies on the floor. It’s wet and torn, her shoes are lost. ‘Where did you go?’ her daddy asks. She shakes her head. All she can remember are the red rose petals scattering like drops of blood spilling to the ground.

When Christine Lewis was a little girl, she witnessed something terrible at a wedding and buried it so deep in her memory, she managed to forget it ever happened.

Jessica Newman was a baby when she and her father came to live in an isolated cottage on the Irish island of Cullain with Margaret – the woman who loved Jessica as if she was her own. Until the day Jessica and her father left, and she never saw Margaret again.

This was a bit disappointing - this has been marketed as a psychological thriller and I think that is misleading. An interesting plot that could have been written much better. The first half was slow, and very easy to walk away from. The pace picks up in the second half but I feel like the book dragged on a little too much.

Rating 3/5

I'll be honest....it took me several chapters to get into this one. It seemed to move kind of slowly for me. However, once I got into it, I really enjoyed it! This was my first book by this author and I'll definitely be watching for more!

A well written story that keeps you reading. The plot was well thought out, it had twists and turns that lead you down a dark road that got more shocking at every turn. The characters were well thought out and well written. The story flowed well. This one is full of suspense and wondering what is going to happen next. There are many depths to this one and you will find yourself reading faster to find out how this all will end. The ending is explosive, this one is worth the read.

This is a psychological thriller that doesn't start at breakneck speed but nicely lays the foundation for an addictive and suspense filled story.
The prologue shows us Christine, a little girl who witnessed something at a wedding that her brain locked away to protect her from. She cannot remember, we see she may have almost drowned and all she remembers is roses, red like blood. This prologue catapults the reader into the book straight away.
The story then fast forwards a couple of decades, Christine is now married and runs an advertising agency with her husband. Their new employee Jessica seems to be bringing things back to Christine. Who is Jessica and what is she here for? These two women are, unknown to them, about to begin to uncover dark secrets from their pasts.
The story is told over multiple points of view, I always enjoy this type of story as you get to know the characters, their states of mind and sometimes, their motivations too.
This is a story that begins slow but as the foundations of the story are in place, the speed does increase. The characters are very well drawn and this does give the story more depth as well. Not that all the characters are likeable but they do all fill their roles very well within the story.
The fact it is Bookouture book did make me want to read this as I have yet to discover a book from Bookouture that I don't like. This proved no exception.
Laura Elliot has written a psychological thriller that brings the suspense and intrigue, along with the twists and turns that kept me reading one more chapter. A psychological thriller I can definitely recommend.
Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Really good book, enjoyed reading this one.

This is a book about an event that happens after Her aunts wedding, when Christine gets lost and ends up in the river. 25 yrs later Christine is married and together they run a marketing business. She is the one handling all the accounting for the business. When they decide to get more help with social media that is when Jessica comes into their lives. Christine does not understand where all the anxiety is coming from. Ask Christine starts counseling and unearths her forgotten past it puts many things in motion. This is a book you will want to read until you get to the end! Fantastic story and very well written.
Thank you netgalley for complimentary copy.

What did Christine see at the wedding in her childhood and how had she managed to forget the whole thing? When the memories returned, her world got shattered. This was a slow paced read with multiple POVs and divided into many parts, some of them really needed concentration. The suspense was good with many twists. A solid thriller.

This was not my favorite. The switching between timelines and different POVs was too confusing to get me enthralled in the story. I personally did not like it but I do believe the story holds promise for others that enjoy various timelines and POVs

First of all, I’d like to say that I appreciate how much thought and planning went into this plot. However, I could not get into this book. I think that I’m just not used to the writing style, maybe. I even took a few weeks break thinking that when I went back to it, I would be able to get into it. And I just couldn’t. I did finish the book because I wanted to know how it ended, and the ending was surprising. I am rating this as 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3, simply because I did not enjoy reading it and was not captivated in any way.

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and Laura Elliot for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher of this novel for the E-Arc copy. I am rating this book based on my own personal opinion and was not given anything in return. I am not leaving a entire review because I read so many at a time that I physically cannot right now.
#AftertheWedding #NetGalley

What a fascinating and dramatic read this was! The lives of two women become intertwined in light of some very traumatic childhood memories floating to the surface.

I read this book in a few days and devoured it! It was a great thriller! It kept me guessing through the whole thing. I am definitely a fan of Laura Elliot and cant wait for her to write more books!

You can never really hide; never really start a new life; never really cover all that you have done - not when it involves family.

This very cleverly written book had me hooked from the beginning until the very last page.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and opinion. The title of this book made me want to read it immediately and I'm so glad that I did. I really enjoyed it so much and was kept on the edge of my seat until the very last page. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, you are surprised with a big twist.

This book felt like a wasted opportunity to me. I was sucked in by the title and the premise but it didn't hold up to its promises.

I enjoyed the parts from Christine's perspective rather than Jessica's which were just really dull. When I found out where the story was headed as opposed to what was pitched in the synopsis it just fell really flat for me.

I feel that the writing was really choppy and all over the place to the point I had to keep flipping back and forwards to work out what was going on, not that I really cared as none of the characters were particularly likeable.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and Laura Elliot for the copy of this book. All views are my own.*

I'm always a sucker for traces of psychology in thrillers that I read. However, After the Wedding didn't quite do it for me. Jessica's character was annoying and unlikable, which was almost enough for me to not want to finish the book.

I got a little bit lost in this book. At times, I was reading it just to finish it without truly understanding what was happening or who was talking.

Christine was 5 years old she was at her Aunt’s wedding in England when she went missing and was found soaking wet and unable to recall how she fell in to the river. When her parents ask what happened to her she says she doesn’t remember. What she didn’t realise is she was a witness to a terrible crime which had traumatised her so much that she had unknowingly buried it in her mind. Jessica lost her mother when she was just a baby, and her father took her to Cullain island to live with a lady called Margaret whom she came to think of as her mother, but one day her father takes her away from the island and leaves Margaret behind but she doesn’t know why,

Years later Christine is running a successful advertising company with her husband Richard. when Jessica applies and accepts a job with them, unbeknownst to the two women, their pasts are about to cross as they both discover secrets from their pasts are tied together and their worlds are about to be turned upside down, but why and who is to blame?

The story line was gripping and was very fast paced which I like, the characters were relatable and the story was realistic. I enjoyed this book, but there wasn’t many twists in the story, and I found it quite easy to predict what was coming next. I did enjoy the book though, and read it in 2 days.

Many thanks for the pre read!

Amazing! Just amazing! Throughout the entire book I was on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next? I found myself actually thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading, and I had to get the book out again! So good!

After the Wedding by Laura Elliot was a book I could not put down and I loved it. I was hooked from the very first few pages till the end and ended up reading this book in two sittings. If you love psychological thriller's this is a book for you.
A beautiful little flower girl, a young girls dream to be one at a wedding. Christine Lewis who is five years old is a flower girl at her aunts Sharon's wedding. Looking all pretty in her special dress wonders off from the wedding. All that has been found is her dress which is lying on the floor. It's all wet and torn. Her shoes are no where to be found.

Where is she?

What happened when Christine was a flower girl at a wedding over three decades ago?

There was an accident, something terrible happened and is buried deep in her memory of the day of her aunt's Sharon's wedding. Christine has lost all memories of the this time and still can't remember what happened on that day. But, she knows something happened But What? .

Now as an adult, snippets what happened are coming back.

Christine is now an adult and is very happy. She's married to someone called Richard Stone who she met on the train. She has a successful career as an advertising agency which they run together. What can go wrong???

Until Christine takes on a new employee, something feels wrong with Jessica Newman, she seems to be perfect for the job and this proves helpful to everyone. Then, a rumour begins to circulate that could destroy everything Christine and Richard had built up together.

What is this rumour and why now?

Who is Jessica really?

How are they both connected? and how!?

Things around Christine starts to change.........WoW, this book is full of brilliant twists and turns that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat! I loved it.

The shocking truth of what happened at her aunt Sharon's wedding all those years ago, start to come out...........WoW!!!!!

I highly recommend this book! Its brilliant!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Laura Elliot, and the publisher Bookouture for the ARC