I have read and enjoyed previous books by this author, and I was really looking forward to this one. It wasn’t what I expected, but it certainly didn’t disappoint.

This book is very cleverly plotted, in four parts, and it certainly drew me in with its complex and intriguing plot. Christine feels very threatened by Jessica when she meets her, but doesn’t know why. She is haunted by her memories from the past, but there doesn’t seem to be a logical connection.

The story is told from both characters’ points of view, and it’s clear that there’s more to Jessica’s past than meets the eye as the story unfolds.

When all the threads of the story begin to come together, it starts to make sense. It’s hard to know who to trust, and what the outcome will be.

I found myself completely absorbed by this book, and the tightly woven plot kept me riveted. Another excellent, engrossing read from this author.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I finished this book quickly. The plot was a good pace although there were times when it dragged on. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

Something bad happened when Christine Lewis was a young child and a flower girl at someone’s wedding, so bad she couldn’t recall it.
Her mind was aware of certain things but putting pieces together was almost and next to impossible.

It didn’t help in having an unsupportive husband.

I was going around in circles in my head. What? Who?

Then a woman named Jessica appears on the horizon and things happen.

It’s such a great twisty tale it was difficult for me to put the book down.

It was great from the first page to the last.
What a ride!

The plot proved interesting eventually but it was rather bogged down by what seemed to be endless angst from one of the main characters. It’s wasn’t much of a thriller but not a saga either so I’m puzzled what genre I would categorise it as. Just an ok read I was quite glad to get to the end.

This book seems to have a love/hate relationship with its readers and unfortunately I find myself on the side of not enjoying it but that is not to say you will feel the same

A slow start led to family drama mixed with enough surprises to keep suspense lovers happy! It’s a great spring read!

Can’t understand why this book isn’t rated five stars by everyone. Loved the story and the memory flashbacks were so real. I didn’t want to stop reading it. Found it really riveting and would recommend to my friends

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the chance to read After the Wedding. This was a gripping psychological thriller full of suspense and amazing plot twists!

I especially loved how the many layers of the story were peeled off slowly giving the reader more and more details about Christine's and Jessica's pasts. And I also loved that this book took place mostly in Ireland - a country I hope to visit again soon!

A solid four star read for me.

So this was different to what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't a book that I wanted to read in one sitting, I went in and out of the book but wanted to finish and I am glad that I did although I did find it very predictable. I was really interested to see how it played out.

It wasn't really a physiological thriller but more of an unravelling of history and coincidences

This was my first book by this author but based on the reviews it wont be my last.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

What happened when Christine was a flower girl at a wedding over three decades ago? Well, there was an accident at the time and it was so devastating that Christine lost all memories of the time. Now as an adult, snippets are coming back.

Christine is happy as an adult. She met Richard Stone on the train and the two got married and then started what ended up being a successful advertising agency. Although Christine is not quite comfortable with one of their newest employees, Jessica Newman, she seems perfect for the job and this proves helpful when a rumor begins to circulate that could destroy everything Christine and Richard had built. It seems that Jessica’s influential father could help to stop the rumors and help the business to retain its standing. Well, who is Jessica really? Was it a coincidence that she began working for Christine? As the story delves into Jessica’s early life pieces of this what proves to be an intriguing mystery begin to fall into place.

Meanwhile, as Christine’s memories start to evolve in a hazy manner, it is with the help of a hypnotherapist that really opens her eyes about what happened at that wedding. While After the Wedding might have had a slow start, the story definitely comes full circle. Delivered from multiple points of view, the past and present converge in such a way to deliver an exciting story with a satisfying conclusion.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

BOOKWORMS REVIEW:
Described as a psych thriller,but for me it was a family drama..with plenty of twists and revelations. The first half was a slow burner but it definitely picked up in the second half.
Business owners Christine and Richard hire Jessica at their Ad Agency. Christine can't shake a feeling she has about the woman. Christine had a traumatic experience at a wedding as a child,but her memory won't allow her to recall what happened. Now,thanks to hypnotherapy her past is coming back in the form of flashbacks but Christine is struggling to separate what's real or imagined...and why has she such a strong feeling about Jessica?
Read it and find out. Not the last Laura Elliot book I'll be reading.

BOOKWORMS RATING: 📕📕📕📕

Eith thanks to Laura Elliot,Netgalley and Bookouture for an ARC. This is my own honest review.

I couldn't get into it, I tried because I loved the sound of it, but it just wasn't for me.

I'm sure there are plenty of readers out there who will feel differently.

After the wedding by Laura Elliot is a book which I found to be quite a slow paced read. It took me a while to get into this book and I felt it was more of a family drama than a psychological thriller . There were times I felt the chapters based on Christine or Jessica were a little confusing as I wasn’t sure which one of them the chapter was about . All in all not one of my favourite reads by this author. I felt slightly disappointed as I’ve read and loved other books by this author .

Triggers: PTSD, Panic Attacks, Infidelity

After The Wedding takes you into a journey which is hidden in the deep recesses of the mind. Memories are a strange thing. At one point you remember them vividly and the next moment they are only a glimpse.
Christine an advertising executive has painstakingly built her agency with her husband and is top of her game. Suddenly her life changes when Jessica enters into her life. Nothing is the same and how their lives changes is something you need to find out by reading this novel.
The novel is medium paced suspense. There is some back and forth timelines but nothing is confusing to read. I did not connect with any characters but enjoyed the plot of the story. Once I got into the story it was hard to put it down.
Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I really did not like this book.
I found the pacing so slow!

The blurb got me intrigued, but it turns out it was mis-leading. It didn't feel like a thriller at all!

The multiple narratives were not unique enough, and I found a little confusing at times.

The book just didn't do enough to keep me interested. Definitely NOT a page turner.

Not for me!

AFTER THE WEDDING - LAURA ELLIOT

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thank you for @netgallery and Laura Elliot for the ARC of this book.

"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."

Wow, this was such a gripping and fast read for me! The plot was something different and i found it so addictive. I loved how the characters and their histories were so entwined and the jumping between Christine's & Jessica's POV.

This is perfect for suspense and crime / mystery thriller lovers!

#bookreview
#bookrecommendations #books #bookblogger #booking #bookmum #bookish #afterthewedding #lauraelliot #netgalley #arcreview

After the Wedding by Laura Elliott is one of those thrillers that if you know what it’s actually about, it is much more entertaining.
Let me try to explain.
It is promoted as a psych thriller, so the reader goes in expecting that something happens at a wedding and the rest of the book has to do with the immediate aftermath. It is a logical assumption.
However, this is not that book.
Yes, there is something that occurs at a wedding in the opening chapter. But then the action moves forward several years, and the wedding is barely mentioned again (for the most part). I suppose the whole thing is after the wedding, if you want to look at it that way.
The rest of the book is definitely more thriller than anything else. I did not get a psych thriller vibe from it at all. In fact, it is a detailed and complicated plot that involves much more than meets the eye.
I don’t want to give anything away, but if you want to enjoy After the Wedding, you definitely need to have the mindset that it is NOT a quick and entertaining psych thriller. Take it for what it is, and you will enjoy it much more.
The author’s style of writing is sometimes difficult to follow. A scene will be in the present and then within a paragraph of explanation, the action will be days or weeks later. This happens a lot, so the reader does need to pay close attention.
I did not get much of a feel for any of the characters. The reader is supposed to feel for Christine, because of her past, I suppose, but her self-destructiveness gets in the way of her being a truly sympathetic character.
And don’t get me started on Jessica and Richard. The less said about them, the better.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Laura Eliott has a good story in After the Wedding. You just need to understand what you are getting into. But trust me, you will still enjoy it

You know something is wrong. Christine has everything that she needs a loving husband Richard and a successful advertising company. But someone wants to take that all away. Christine knows that there is something about their new employee Jessica that just gets her back up. Lately Christine has been thinking about her past as the nightmares are back but no one believes her memories but she knows that something awful happened.
How does she save her marriage now that the company is gone she knew that Jessica was going to be trouble she just didn't realise how much. She can feel Richard pulling away and she knows that given time he will turn to Jessica if he hasn't already.
The more Christine finds out about her near drowning as a child the clearer things become but she has found out things about Jessica's father and he won't want anyone finding out about his past.
How far would Samuel go protect his secrets? Will he decide that Christine needs to disappear for good?
What happens next will change everyone's life but it will also set them free from the cages that they were kept in.
A good solid read gripping stuff. I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Firstly, the prologue pulled me right in.. 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. In what we see it seems she almost drowned but she remember roses the color of blood. It's all very vague.

We then fast forward like 20+ years later. Christine is married and runs an advertising agency with her husband. She seems incredibly bothered by Jessica, a new woman at her job. This is where it lost me a little because too much of the book was Christine whining about Jessica. It all comes together though.

There are multiple POVs in this book, Jessica being one. She was a baby when she and her father came to live in an isolated cottage on the Irish island of Cullain with Margaret. She was 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.

These two women uncover the dark secrets of their traumatic pasts. One of my issues with this book is it being marketed as a psychological thriller. It's more just a suspense/mystery read. The first half of the book felt pretty slow to me. There were a lot of pieces that had to fall into place. The last half held my attention better. I appreciate the details in the story though some of them got muddy. I feel like it could have been scaled down but I still really enjoyed it. Definitely recommend!

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

Christine Lewis runs an advertising agency with her husband. When she was five years old she was a flower girl at her Aunt Sharon's wedding. Christine witnessed something horrifying there but can't remember what it was. Jessica Newman was a baby when her father arrived to live on the island of Cullain, Ireland along with Margaret, but they left not long after. Jessica is a new employee at the agency and Christine senses there's something off about her. Through hypnotherapy, Christine's memories start returning...

After the Wedding is a riveting family drama with discoveries, twists and revelations. Laura Elliot has delivered an unrestrained story of drama and emotion in this suspenseful concoction of secrets, trauma and concealment. The writing was compelling and tense and I revelled in the story all the way through as the pace slowly gained momentum for a satisfying finale. It brought no disappointments and I would love to read more from this gifted storyteller. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Bookouture via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.