October Discussion

October 15, 2019

In October, Fixed on Fiction met to discuss After Anna by Lisa Scottoline-

Dr Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, is finally content after marrying Maggie. And they're both thrilled when Maggie gets an unexpected chance to be a mother to Anna, the daughter she once thought she'd lost forever. But when seventeen-year-old Anna arrives, everything changes - and the darkest turn of events will shatter their lives in ways no one could have imagined.

-Summary courtesy of Goodreads.

We had a lively discussion as After Anna received two thumbs-up votes, five so-so, and six thumbs down votes. Here are some of the initial comments readers made while explaining their votes-

I enjoyed it. I love Lisa Scottoline and I love this genre. It was hard to believe Maggie wouldn’t recognize that “Anna” wasn’t really her daughter.
I was incredulous. Too far-fetched for me. Unbelievable that Maggie would completely turn on her husband. The ending was hard to believe. I’m also not super into court dramas so perhaps this just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Tedious. I read 100 pages and then the last page to see what happened.
I like that each chapter alternated narrators. But the ending felt like a cop out.
Too far-fetched. The bit about sex trafficking at the end over complicated the story. A little too Danielle Steel for me.
If just felt like a bad Lifetime movie. Not enough character development.
Not very well written…expected better from Lisa Scottoline! I found that a lot of the court room details were inaccurate and that was distracting.
I do enjoy an easy read but the twist felt so forced it soured the whole book for me.
I wanted to know who Anna was and how she died- that kept me reading. I liked Noah’s narration but Maggie’s was annoying. I could see how Maggie was so desperate for her daughter she wouldn’t realize that it wasn’t really Anna.
I was excited because I love mysteries but the ending just fell apart for me, everything was thrown together and rushed.
Easy read a la Danielle Steel. The daughter was off from the start. The happy ending was just too much.
I liked it until the end. It was a good read. I had a hard time accepting that Noah would leave Caleb when Maggie kicked him out. The prison story was totally unnecessary. Maggie could have easily seen that she was being manipulated.