Review: After Nightfall by AJ Banner

After Nightfall

by AJ Banner

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 251

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Beware of friends with secrets…

Imagine your closest friend utterly betraying you. Years later, when she seeks forgiveness, you invite her to your engagement party as a gesture of reconciliation. But seething hostilities rise to the surface, ruining everyone’s evening. After an awful night, your friend’s battered, lifeless body is found at the bottom of a rocky cliff.

Newly engaged Marissa Parlette is living this nightmare. She should be celebrating her upcoming wedding, but she can’t shake the image of her friend lying dead on the beach. Did she fall? Was she pushed? Or did she take a purposeful step into darkness? Desperate for answers, Marissa digs deep into the events of the party. But what she remembers happening after nightfall now carries sinister implications: the ugly sniping, the clandestine meetings, the drunken flirtations. The more she investigates, the more she questions everything she thought she knew about her friends, the man she once trusted, and even herself.

Kritters Thoughts:  From the synopsis, I was ready for a page turner that would be hard to put it down, so I specifically picked it to take on a beach weekend.  There was a bit of drama, but for me this one wasn't the page turner I was hoping for and there was just too much drama that was separate from the main story.  

So the main focus is a woman who is found dead at the bottom of a cliff and trying to find out how she ended up down there after a dinner party.  This is definitely a big chunk of the book - the search to find out if anyone is responsible for her death and I was satisfied with the final culprit.  BUT there was so much extra drama that just didn't feel like it fit with the rest of the story.  

All of this being said, I liked her writing and her characters.  I was definitely interested in finding out which character had the biggest reason to be involved in the possible murder.  I would read another book by AJ Banner, but I would want to be completely in love with the synopsis before I did so.  

I have read The Good Neighbor, but haven't read The Twilight Wife, should I pick that one up?


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.