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

I’d like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to see this new short story about Janie because I had felt that The Perfect Child just kind of ended and I needed more. We find Janie now at 18 and has written a book about her life, how she sees it anyways and has she been cured? Or is she up to her old tricks and more? An interesting read with a more final conclusion.

An excellent addition to The Perfect Child. A very fast read and just as thrilling to pick up off the original story. Lucinda is my favorite, I’ll read anything she writes. I’d read her grocery list and enjoy every moment.
All that to be said, I just wish this was longer! I would have loved to know more and see it played out in more detail, but Lucinda gave us exactly what we needed in this sequel, so for that I’m grateful! Thank you NetGalley & Lucinda Berry for the ARC! 🫶🏼

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC of Lucinda Berry’s latest, A Welcome Reunion.

Wow, what a sequel! Janie’s back!! I really enjoyed this short story because it was an extension of The Perfect Child. I was on the edge of my seat for the majority of this book, but I felt like the ending was rushed. I wish we could’ve found out just a littleeee bit more!

A Welcome Reunion comes out on August 15, 2023. You have to check it out!

🔪 Book Review 🔪
• Name: A Welcome Reunion
• Author: Lucinda Berry
• Genre: Thriller
• Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
• Pls search up the TW before proceeding!
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🔪 Thoughts 🔪
We got the sequel to The Perfect Child and Janie is back! I was thrilled to read this book because I love the Perfect Child. This book got me angry, stressed, and flabbergasted and I absolutely enjoyed the roller coaster ride this book took me hahahaha. This book follows the Janice's return and the effects she has on Hannah and Christopher and their family and those around Janie. I wish this book was longer because like the ending, I NEED MOREEE. This book is definitely a quick read and you can finish this book in one sitting and this one was definitely a ride!
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🔪 Appreciation 🔪
Thank you Netgalley, Amazon Publishing, and Lucinda Berry for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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🔪 Tags 🔪
#bookreview #lucindaberry #awelcomereunion #amazonpublishing
#thrillerbooks #thrillerbookrecommendations #mysterybook #bookstagram #booktok #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations
#books #mysterybookrecommendations #bookish #booksta #arc #arcreview #booklover

Thanks netgalley for the chance to read this book! I was excited to read this one but very disappointed with the way it played out. The beginning had alot of promise but towards the end it just wouldn’t and couldn’t have played out like that. I’m unsure of how to rate this one because I didn’t enjoy it. The whole story was hard to believe and the book was too short to really get all the details right. I felt eh about it.

Lucinda Berry can absolutely do no wrong! I have been counting down the seconds until I could read this book after the masterpiece that is “The Perfect Child”.
After I read the premise of this book I got chills thinking about the revenge Janie had planned for her former foster parents Hannah and Christopher after all these years being released.
This book was just as twisted, dark, insane, and jaw dropping as the first! I think my jaw was on the floor the entire book.

My ONLY complaint is that is what a short story and I wanted soooooo much more!

So grateful for the ARC!

It’s the moment Lucinda Berry fans have been waiting for: a sequel to The Perfect Child, a super creepy story of a child sociopath. This novella puts the perfect postscript on Janie’s tale of terror. A Welcome Reunion sees Janie all grown up, a social media darling with a blockbuster memoir. Is Chris still under her spell? What will Hannah do to protect her child? You’ll have to read it to find out!

This follow up to Janie’s story is an easy, one-sitting read that’s so satisfying in spite of its short length. The delicious dread that made the first book so terrifying is laced through the plot here, and I would have gladly read a full-length novel about grown-up Janie!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Lucinda does it again!!! I was so excited for this sequel; The Perfect Child was absolutely thrilling in the best way possible - I knew I needed more Janie. I can't wait to see what else Lucinda has up her sleeve this year.

The perfect sequel doesn’t exi..

Y’all. JANIE IS BACK! And she’s grown up, but does that mean she’s changed? This novella was so bingeable, I literally stopped what I was doing and read it immediately. If you loved the Perfect Child and want more Janie, first seek professional help immediately and secondly you’re going to love how this one ends!

📖: A Welcome Reunion by: Lucinda Berry | 📅Pub Day: Tuesday August 15, 2023

Funnily enough, this is the first Lucinda Berry book that I’ve read. At around (a little less than) 100 pages this was just the fast-paced domestic psychological thriller that I needed to break me out of the slight reading slump I’ve been in since having a jam packed July TBR! I didn’t even realize that it was a short story follow up to her novel The Perfect Child (that I will be reading immediately after this book because I’m now hooked) until I finished this one. Which brings me to my next, and favorite thing, the fact that this short story was so well written that it can be read as a stand-alone novella OR as a companion follow up novel to The Perfect Child (as I’ve read and seen in reviews that it ends quite open-endedly





Special thanks to @netgalley @amazonpublishing for this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Lucinda Berry and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HOT DAMN Lucinda Berry! Your writing has this way of crawling under my skin and making my anxiety itchy and this was no exception.

Is anyone as curious as I was on what happened to Janie? Be careful what you wish for.......

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.
"Could a child be born bad? And if so–if there really was such a thing as a bad seed--could you turn them good?"

A Welcome Reunion was such a fun and diabolical short story! Berry certainly knows how to craft a psychological thriller and she also knows exactly how to hook you and keep you hooked from start to finish. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I'm a total sucker for stories centered around psychopaths. And this one did not disappoint.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this arc in exchange for an honest review!
Pub date: 8.15.23.

We finally have a conclusion to The Perfect Child and the life of Janie! While a bit far fetched, this was a fun, fast read that had me on the edge of my seat.

Thank you NetGalley for this book. I love Dr. Lucinda Berry’s writing so much. It I’d never tried short story from her.

There was a lot I liked about it. Still a great set up and made you like the two main characters we were following. But it felt like we were missing a middle section. And that may just be the type of reader I am.

The ending was decent. It was trying to say things about revenge and who you are once you murder someone. Are you as bad as the murderer? It still fell a little bit flat for me.

3.5 "riveting, nailbiting, terrifyingly enjoyable" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Amazon Original Stories. I am providing an honest review. This will be released 15 Aug 2023.

So many of you know that I am very hard to please in the area of thrillers. There are too many really crappy ones out there....but this one I could just not put down....this is a novella more than a short story....

Janie is 18 and released from juvenile detention. She is a brilliant sociopath that has already done so much damage in her young life. She is now a memoir author and Instagram mini star and she wants to continue hurting others and enjoying it. Her adoptive mother, father and former social worker are terrified and what will they do to protect themselves and others from Janie (now known as Hope).

The first 75 percent of this had me at the edge of my seat....I was immersed and scared and grossed out (in a good way)...the ending was not to my liking but somewhat believable...a more nebulous one would have been more effective methinks !

The prose is clear, credible and keeps the story going at a pretty quick clip and the characterizations are fairly well done.

A very good and quick domestic thriller and a warning to keep away from Janie especially if they have the audacity to change their name to Hope !

I would definitely try a full length novel by this author.

Well that was not what I was expecting in a good way. Thank goodness for the closure. Happy to finally have it. It was a great wrap up to the craziness of this family and for Janie.

I was glad for a follow up as this was an amazing book. Far fetched if you ask me....not all of it, but parts. Not sure how I feel about it, but it does give you some closure.