Jewellann Jordan is stuck in a bad marriage with a young son who’s troubled. She decides to attend her high school reunion, and to make herself feel better, gain the attraction of Christian Campbell. He’s the one she used to love in high school, and he left her high and dry.

Christian can’t help but notice Jewellann and how great she looks now. She decides to get a bit of revenge, but things don’t go as planned. Suddenly Christian is everywhere, and he seems intent on ruining her life. If only she left well enough alone.

This is an entertaining and well written suspense story that was easy to fly through. I was never bored, but I have to say I didn’t find the ending to be that realistic or surprising. It was a bit too much in a story where everything was pretty logical up until that point. Still, not a bad one to fly through if you’re looking for a quick, engaging beach read.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 12/6/22.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of We Knew All Along.

I've read books by the author under her real name but none under her pen name.

This was an odd narrative; it felt like the author was going for domestic drama but realized the premise wasn't strong enough then threw in a couple of red herrings to confuse the reader.

I wasn't so much confused as much as I was stupefied by the 'twists' and reveals.

You're going to need to be able to seriously suspend disbelief when you're reading this.

Jewelann Jordan is a one-dimensional character; a housewife bound to a childhood home and a man she's no longer in love with but needs due to his job and financial security.

A former addict and struggling with a shopping addiction, she meets a former boyfriend at a class reunion, who eventually insinuates himself into her life, and the life of her troubled son.

When Jewelann and her husband's marital discord worsens, she begins to consider a life without him. But, at what cost?

There's a lot going on, and yet there's no urgency or suspense.

Jewelann is a typical main character in these genre novels; she's clueless about her husband, she worries he's cheating but has no idea who or what he really is; she has no life, no job, no ambition and no friends other than protecting her only child.

The men in the novel are scum, minus the son, tropes of stereotypes; demeaning, narcissistic, selfish and arrogant, and lacking depth of character.

I guessed nearly all of the twists, and the final one is hard to swallow.

Did I believe it?

It didn't matter because I was near the end and I was glad I made it to the finish line.

This thriller was excellent from start to finish and I couldn’t fault the twisty storyline that lasted right until the very end!

What did I just read?! Literally at no point in this book did I know what was going to happen next or where it was even going. After a pretty slow first half, the last bit was super fast paced with lots of big reveals.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the early copy!

"I am bright. I am sparkling. I am poised. I am vibrant. I am a vision. I am a mirage."

I'm immediately hooked. By this woman. By her motives. By her suspicious attitude and how it does not at all line up with the life she now has. With the past she's trying to avoid. And then head-over-heels invested once I meet her husband and then her ex boyfriend. Yikes! This woman has a knack for attracting predators--but what kind? Her husband is a cheater, sure, but what else is he up to? And this ex has quite the ego, the audacity, to make his intentions quite clear from the her. But how Dar will he go?

This book had such potential to be so great but it really fell flat. Literally nothing happened until the 85% mark and then a few big twists concluded the story. Most were predictable. Very disappointing.

I could not have guessed what would go down in this book if I tried. I was captured into the story from the first chapter wanting to know more about JewelAnn and Christian’s past but then I’d get hooked on learning about her personal hang ups then the nuances of her marriage and relationship with her son. Around and around it went. I truly enjoyed the entire book. Definitely one to get excited for!

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for the E-ARC copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

This book was incredible!! I enjoyed the build up and then the final outcome. Just a fantastic book all around. I loved it!

Oh. My. God.

I think I’ve found the best book of 2022 (for me, at least) and I’m sure as hell I’ve meet an amazing author to follow.
We knew all along by Mina Hardy tells the story of a classic ‘perfect from the outside’ family.
Jewelann Jordan in her mid-40s, lives with her husband Kent and son Eli in the same house she grew up in as a child.
Kent has a job that takes him on frequent trips. When he’s at home, he’s distant with his wife and son, picky about cleaning and routines, as well as being a germaphobe.
Eli is the weird kid whose childhood friend disappeared under strange circumstances. Nowadays, Eli has no friends in his class or neighborhood, he just spends a lot of time playing online games or reading on internet forums like Reddit.
Jewelann after having Eli stayed home with him and has not worked anymore because of Kent's demands. But she has a little problem with compulsive buying at garage sales or secondhand sales. She always says she's going to buy something, renew it and sell it for a higher price, but she never does.
Yeah, she has an accumulation problem as well, which she hides from her family with a storage unit.
Story begins when Jewelann attends her reunion with her high school classmates where she decides to take some revenge on her old crush Christian Cameron.
She and Christian had a secret relationship where they smoked together, had sex in their carriage house, but Christian never let them be seen together.
Jewelann dresses to kill, gets him to invite her to his room and when she seduces him, she leaves him alone in his bed and leaves.
Then Christian happens to become his tenant in the carriage house. Kent rented it without telling Jewelann and made a deal with Cameron, he would renovate it and the rent would be very cheap.
When you read the book's summary and start reading the first few chapters you think you know all the secrets Jewelann holds, and yes there are some that you may suspect, but in the end, they will be much bigger than you imagine.
It reminds me of the motto of an MTV show "you think you know, but you have no idea".
There are three things I loved about this story:
Present tense narration. It makes for a more streamlined read, enveloping you as if you were part of the actions. With all authors narrating in the past tense, this was a refreshing change.
Short chapters. The chapters were neither excessively short nor tediously long. Just right on point. I read five chapters each day, the time flew by and I was always left wanting to read more.
Unique POV. Another refreshing change, this story is Jewelann's and she is the only point of view we know. With some small transitions, but almost at the end.
My verdict is that this story is interesting, intriguing, well written and someone must be writing the script for Netflix as we speak.
My rating is 6 compulsive stars, but one was bought by Jewelann.

Mina does it again! Another perfect thriller full of intrigue and mystery. This plot is a slow build but it’s incredibly worth it. I really enjoyed the story.

Jewelanne is going through something! She dresses to the nines for her high school reunion with her eyes set on one person--Christian. The boy who played with her feelings and she never got over how badly her made her feel. She was ready to turn the tables on him.

But--this book was so much more than that. Add in a horrible marriage, a wording problem, and a complex childhood trauma to her teenage son.

I feel this book started slow and then rapidly took off making you think what in the actual heck!

I'm honestly not all that sure what I just read. It was entertaining, sure, but certainly not what I was expecting. It was like a stepped-up Lifetime movie, with a twist I definitely didn't see coming. Definitely made me like the book when the trajectory changed gears. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't put the breadcrumbs together, which made the story all the more interesting, surprising and shocking. It took until the very last pages to even see the plot, but the story itself was interesting enough to keep me engaged. There's nothing worse in a slow burn than being bored to tears 90% of the way through before anything interesting happens. A solid read.

This one wasn't my favorite. The story centers on Jewelanne, who attends her HS reunion with the hopes of running into the guy that broke her heart years ago and show him what he had been missing. She succeeds in this effort (though in a really juvenile way) but then he shows up at her home to rent the small house that sits on their property and tries to befriend both her husband and son and Jewelanne can't seem to break free of him. I felt like the story itself really didn't match the synopsis.

I didn't really like Jewelanne- I thought she was immature and shallow. Her back and forth with Christian, the ex-boyfriend, felt kind of romance novel-y; does she like him or not like him? If she hates him so much, why does she keep interacting with him? The story brought in some twists and turns that you couldn't glean from reading about it in advance, which was odd in itself, and I felt like much of what happened was unrealistic followed by a very abrupt ending.

Overall, kind of an odd read to me- it held my interest but the need to suspend my disbelief and the :"almost romance novel" vibe just didn't do it for me. Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for approving this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TW: domestic abuse, child abuse, child murder, drug and alcohol abuse.

This was a gripping thriller that explored gender roles and expectations, and how violent those can be. Jewelann Jordan's suburban life seems perfect - from the outside. In reality, she's spent many years pulling herself apart just to keep it all together and protect her son. Then, she reconnects with her former high-school classmates, including Christian Campbell, her old on-and-off flame, who seems determined to stay in her life. As Jewelann tries to figure out what Christian is hiding from her, the threads of her perfect life finally begin to unravel and expose what lies underneath.

The beginning might feel slow to readers who enjoy more fast-paced stories, but I was okay with it. It was clear something was going on and I enjoyed pulling out the boxes to see what I'd find inside, although I do feel like the revelations came one after another and made the last few chapters of the book intense. There were several twists that I didn't see coming and left me gaping, and wanting to go back for a re-read.

Most of the characters felt real, ugly bits and all. I couldn't help but root for Jewelann. Christian felt a bit like a cartoon villain to me, though.

I would really recommend this to anyone looking for a domestic thriller that incorporates some social commentary, as long as you don't mind the trigger warnings. I enjoyed it a lot!

I've seen a lot of reviews that said it was difficult to connect with the characters, which begs the question: why do characters need to be likable for a reader to connect with them?

Jewelanne Jordan is showing all the signs of a midlife crisis. She's in an unhappy marriage, her teenage son Eli is withdrawn, doesn't have any friends, and is "weird," Jewelanne admits, but she assumes that any boy would be different after experiencing what he did as a young child. A little boy was at their house playing but never made it home, presumed to be kidnapped or having drowned in the nearby river.

Her husband Ken's job takes him on the road frequently, which leaves Jewelanne time to indulge in her favorite activity, shopping and frequenting estate sales. She definitely has a spending problem, but she rationalizes that it's not hurting anyone and it gives her something to do.

Everything changes when she sees her old flame Christian Campbell at their high school reunion. They certainly have history, and she can't wait to make him pay for some unnamed grievances. But Christian turns the tables and insinuates himself in Jewelanne's life, renting their carriage house from her husband, who is growing increasingly hostile and secretive. Christian's presence in her life threatens to bring to life secrets that just can't get out. When that twist came, it was a big one, and all the unrelated pieces quickly fell into place. I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty read. A big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my early read. WE KNEW ALL ALONG publishes December 6, 2022.

We Knew All Along
A Novel
by Mina Hardy
Thank You, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books. OMG, I LOVED this book. It was a wild ride. I of course never saw the reveal coming. It was heart-breaking, evil, and brilliant.

It was great! Got me guessing and second guessing my previous guess haha I knew Jewelann would have done something shady, but that twist! Love the fast pace and "fake" leads. It was an intriguing thriller read!

Jewelann Jordan has one thing on her mind when she attends her class reunion and that’s making sure her old crush Christian Campbell sees exactly what he lost all those years ago so a late night a hotel room and a rekindled flame that burns even hotter than it did back then what could go wrong? Everything the night with Christian isn’t the first secret Jewelann has kept from her husband Ken so one more shouldn’t be much harder except Christian shows up without warning seemingly determined to do his best to mess Jewelanns life in any way he can
I really enjoyed this book totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books
I just reviewed We Knew All Along by Mina Hardy. #WeKnewAllAlong #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.

A decent novel about a family with dark secrets. Some twists that I did not see coming, like literally not at all, so much so that they felt a little abrupt? But definitely kept my interest. 3.5 stars.

After a bit of a shaky start I enjoyed this book, just took a little while to get into it. Jewelann has never gotten over Christian, the boy she was in love with in high school who, in her eyes, let her down. She now plans to get her revenge at their school reunion 20 years later. Her plan goes ahead perfectly, but what will be the ramifications of this? Well... certainly not quite what she thought. You have to remember that when you play with fire you may get burnt.

First text messages begin to arrive, then the phone begins to ring - then to beat all of these shocks Christian becomes her new tenant, all thanks to her husband and a very smug looking ex boyfriend. Life has now become very complicated for Jewelann, especially as there also seems a relationship developing with her son and Christian. This can only lead to heartbreak and worry and Jewelann needs to get matters in hand before everything implodes, I will leave it at that!

Enough twists and turns to pass away an enjoyable afternoon, especially when I was unwell and wanting to take my mind off things. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I loved the description of this book from the blurb-- a hot mess of a middle aged woman goes back to her high school reunion to piss off an ex, only to find that the ex is no longer what she remembers. Except, that is not what happens at all. That opening premise seems like little more than a red herring. The real plot reveals itself too slowly until it all boils over in the last thirty pages or so. It was written well enough but there was something very strange or off for me in the plotting and pacing.