This book proved to be a quick read, tying up some loose ends from the previous installment, but ultimately offering little beyond that. Unfortunately, it lacked the eerie and unsettling atmosphere that captivated me in the first book. The characters felt like caricatures of themselves, and the dialogue seemed unrealistic, while the second half felt rushed, hindering the natural flow of the story. Personally, I expected more from this sequel; it didn't feel entirely necessary, as the first book could have been left to stand on its own. Nevertheless, it did offer a pleasant return to a familiar tale.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!

I blew through this in about an hour (we love short stories). I had no idea that this was a sequel to Berry's book, but it certainly didn't read like one either. I got all the background information of what happened without feeling lost at all, and to be able to go that in under 75 pages is a feat.

But this was so good! The ending was a tiny bit rushed and sudden but it was certainly a ride! Do I want to know what happens next? Absolutely! But I also don't feel like I'm missing anything either. Do I want to go back and read the original novel? Not really, I know how to story ends now (and how it began) so I'm happy to leave it at that. Would this be a good TV series? Heck yeah!!

Thank you for this ARC! 3.5 stars.

Did you ever wonder what happened to Janie from The Perfect Child? Well here you go lol I freaking loved this short story! It was just as disturbing and had me screaming at the book 😂

I really enjoyed that Lucinda put in small details from The Perfect Child so we could remember what happened. It's been a little bit since I've read that book, so I appreciated that aspect a lot! Even with this one I still felt bad for Hannah, one of the MCs. She has always looked like the villain. But I was very happy with the ending, although I felt like it was a little rushed. I wanted more! I was invested lol

Such a great one! If you have read The Perfect Child then you HAVE to read this! Thank you so much NetGalley and AmazonOriginalStories for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

For fans of The Perfect Child, you will love this short story following up with troubled child Janie, now an adult and continuing her terrible ways. This was an almost perfect conclusion to the story, bringing back the villain herself as well as the family who adopted her, and the social worker involved in the original case. Now an adult, Janie has escalated her horrific deeds while claiming she is changed. This was a quick read while still capturing as much emotion and suspense as the first. The only thing keeping me from rating it the perfect five stars is that I think just one more chapter could of closed this up a bit more. That said, I highly recommend this one, just read the first book beforehand if you haven't already. Four solid stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for this ARC.

A Welcome Reunion by Lucinda Berry is the follow-up to The Perfect Child (a 5 star for me) and reads like an extended epilogue on one of the most unnerving characters I’ve read about, Janie. Definitely do not read this unless you have read the first book – but do read them both if you like psychological thrillers that veer into disturbing waters.

Bottom line – this was super bingeable at 82 pages – and it was great to read with friends who were just as excited it came out. We each felt a little differently about it which made the group chat even more fun. For me, I was sucked back into the characters so quickly and loved that. The ending was not my favorite, and I could have used about 50 more pages to develop a few things, but that wasn’t the vibe. It was a quick and dirty conclusion to the story that left me on edge last year. If you read this DM me so we can chat!

Content warnings: death, emotional abuse, physical abuse

Book: A Welcome Reunion
Author: Lucinda Berry
Publisher:
Pub Date: August 15, 2023

I adore these short Amazon original stories. They may be short but they will evoke just as much as emotion as any other book. This one will make you angry and quick. I loved to hate Janie. We all know manipulative people but I am pretty sure I don’t know anyone quite like Janie. Hannah and Christopher Bauer adopted Janie after she was brought into the ER where Christopher worked. Janie was a tortured as a child and endured a tragic childhood leading up to being adopted. But Janie destroyed their lives in ways no one could imagine and now she is out of juvenile detention and telling “her” story. She has written a book and she has turned into a beautiful confident young adult. The Bauer’s want nothing to do with her at all but she’s making it hard to avoid her. What happens next will shock your socks off! Again this is a short story so you can sit and start and finish it within an hour. It’s a great little read. My only complaint is I wish it had been longer. This would have been a great novel. It would have been an easy story to develop more. I also didn’t know this was a sequel to The Perfect Child which I own but haven’t read. I can’t wait to read it now and wish I had read it first. I’ve read you didn’t have to read it first to understand but I’m sure you could have understand better what the Bauer’s and Janie had been through. If you are a member of NetGalley this book is a “read now” so go check it out.

Thank you Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is August 15, 2023.

I loved this! This ended the story up very nicely. I was shook by some of the horrific situations described in the book, and my anxiety was definitely high! Really good sequel to one of my favorite books, thank you NetGalley for this copy!

I gobbled this story up as fast as I saw it available! This story had me on the edge of my seat worrying about Cole, Hannah, Piper, and Christopher. Will they survive Janie's (Hope) return? Did "Hope" change? Is she still manipulative and a psychopath? Over all I was super happy with this story aside from the ending. It ended like it needed to.....but something about it just didn't satisfy me. Maybe it is because of Cole, Hannah, and Christopher's relationships.....or because Christopher just annoys me in general. How much does a person need to do for you to support your wife and open your eye? Overall solid 4 stars!

My only complaint is that I wanted this story to be longer. This grips you from page one and I wanted it to go on a lot longer than it did. But I do appreciate that we have closer on this crazy story that started in The Perfect Child.

A Welcome Reunion : A Short Story Lucinda Berry 4⭐️

It is very much a short story, I wouldn’t normally bother reading short stories, I like something that’s going to keep me entertained for much longer. Having said that, I couldn’t pass up the chance to find out what happened next as I loved Perfect Child the FOMO is real.

Bullet points for A Welcome Reunion
📕you need to have read Perfect Child first as this is a follow up
📕it’s only about 2hrs reading

The characters are the Bauers, Piper (the social worker) and Janie the grown up antagonist.

So my thoughts, yes I enjoyed it, no major surprises, is it worth reading, yes, is it worth buying, probably not. The sort of extra I would like to see provided by an author on their author page as a feeebie to subscribers.

After being recommended Lucinda Berry‘s books over and over again, I jumped at the chance to read this short story.

I love short stories, but sometimes I struggle with them because you just don't get to know the characters as well as you would in a longer book.
Luckily that wasn't a problem with this book.

Hannah and Cristopher's worst nightmare comes true - Janie, the girl they adopted when she was 5 and who destroyed her lives, has been released from juvenile detention. The now 18-year-old murderer and psychopath has just published her memoir and is Instagram famous. And while she's pretending to be a new, better person, both Hannah and Janie's former social worker, Piper, think that she's only gotten better at hiding her horrid side. And they‘re right, Janie hasn’t changed at all.

I really enjoyed this fast paced psychological thriller. I was hooked from start to finish and I really loved the writing and the characters.

I wish the story had been at least a little bit longer. Especially the ending felt very rushed and was missing something.

What I didn't know is that this is basically the sequel to one of Berry‘s other books (The Perfect Child). It can definitely be read as a standalone though. But to be honest I can't wait to read The Perfect Child now.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review this book.

Janie is the last person Hannah and her husband Christopher wants to see but she is back in town after 11 years in juvenile detention.

This is a short story connected to The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry. I haven’t read The Perfect Child and did not know they were connected when I was reading so I’m thinking it would have been even better if I had started with that.

I enjoyed this book. The characters were making me angry and annoyed which I like when reading a book like this. I’m a bit disappointed with the way it ended and would have wanted more, but like I mentioned earlier, it is only a short story.

I rated this book 3.75 stars.

I was so so excited to finally read more about creepy Janie. I love that we got to see her as an adult and that she was just as psychotic as she was when she was a kid. I loved the gaslighting and the manipulation. I just wish this was a full length book!

I needed a little more from the very end- I liked how it ended but I think the story would benefit from maybe one more chapter for closure. Although…. Maybe there will be more to come…

I always love Lucinda’s books and I was glad to get some closure on Janie but I wish this had been a full length novel and that we could have gotten more details about Cole/Janie’s relationship. I enjoyed this but just wish it had been longer.

It has been a long time since I read The Perfect Child, so I don't really remember the story with Christopher, Hannah, and Janie. Nonetheless, this short story with just 10 chapters, had lots of suspense and thrill. I wish there was more so I would know how it ended. Will there be a sequel? If so, I'm ready to read it!

I was excited to see this short story follow up to The Perfect Child, which starred one of the crepiest child characters I’ve ever read about. Janie is a true child sociopath, and now we get a chance to peek in and see what has happened in her life ten years later.

The story is quick but delivers plenty of tension, creepy Janie moments, and clever plot lines. The tone is perfect, it is fast paced, and it delivers a knockout of an ending. My only complaint is the very end felt a bit rushed, I fully expected to flip to the next page and keep reading and it just sort of abruptly ended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5⭐️

Hannah and Christopher adopted a young girl who had been a victim of extreme abuse and neglect. Whether because of her violent past, or her inherent nature, Janie began to show psychopathic tendencies, with things eventually spiraling out of control, and her being sent to a juvenile detention center for the nearly dozen years until she turned 18. At 18, she’s released and begins to terrorized their family anew.

This was a short but haunting read, disturbing right up to its abrupt conclusion.

Thank you Lucinda Berry, Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Janie is one of the most memorable characters from any book I’ve read and I was so excited to read more of her story! I instantly paused what I was doing to read this sequel. It started off extremely strong and instantly grabbed my attention. The last few chapters lost me. It just didn’t have the same strong writing that I’ve come to know from Lucinda Berry. It felt very rushed and anticlimactic. I feel like it could have been a full novel with more detail. Some POVs with Janie would have made it even better. Overall it was good but not great.

I have had the best week EVER!

I celebrated my birthday Sunday and spent the week with my entire family and best friends. I have never felt so loved in my life.

We don’t exchange gifts on birthdays just handwritten cards and this is what makes birthdays so special. However, gifts also came in the shape of approval emails and my oh my, did I hit the lottery!!!!

Lucinda Berry, truly is “it” for me. This spicy little lady delivers time and time again.

I was coming off of a massive book hangover and it wasn’t pedialyte I was reaching for, but a Lucinda Berry book! Berry is the cure for all!!!!

But

And there is a big butttt

Berry didn’t cure my hangover she just extended it.

This book took me less than an hour to finish. I had the bath ready and I was prepared to prune my skin. I zipped through this one so fast that my bath water stayed warm.

That’s the thing about Berry, once you start, you can’t help but zoom through the pages. Her books are thrilling, exciting and just darn right addicting.

The writing style is all her own, it will suck you in on page one and hold your attention until the very last sentence . My god, do I love this author.

Don’t believe me, find out for yourself, here’s a teaser :

From the bestselling author of The Perfect Child comes a short thriller about a couple faced with the terrifying return of a girl they once called their own who threatens everything they hold dear.

Janie is the last person Hannah and Christopher Bauer want to see again.

But Janie’s moved back to Clarksville. She’s no longer the frail child Hannah and Christopher adopted over eleven years ago. The child who destroyed their lives. Now Janie is out of juvenile detention—a beautiful, confident young adult—and publicly promoting her new tell-all memoir.
At just eighteen, Janie has a violent and tragic story to share, brimming with grisly details. Details the public can’t get enough of…and that the Bauers can’t bear to relive. Janie has taken a new name and claims to have reformed her sociopathic ways. She’s ready to make amends. But when the Bauers refuse to meet with her, she takes matters into her own hands.

After the social worker formerly assigned to the case makes disturbing revelations about Janie’s calculated behavior, the Bauers brace for Janie’s next move, determined to protect their family—at any cost

Berry has crafted a really great, suspenseful short story as a follow-up to her maybe most popular novel, The Perfect Child. I haven’t read that book yet (and didn’t realize this was a sequel) but this story made it shoot up to the top of my tbr. I can’t say much about this one without giving things away but it was a wild ride