This women’s fiction novel starts with a tragic accident in which Mackenzie Cooper is fiddling with her GPS and misses a stop sign. The truck that runs into them kills her five-year-old daughter. The DA wants to make an example out of Mackenzie, so as if losing her only child wasn’t enough, her face is splashed over national news. The grief and stress of the spotlight leads to divorce and renders her unable to sculpt with clay.Mackenzie starts going by a derivative of her first name, Maggie, and...

Gotta rest a bit after this one. Review coming up in a few days. Honest.My honest review or rather my opinion. I didn't see this coming. A soap-Opera. I don't watch em on TV. OR Soap-Opera type books The mother ran a stop sign. Crashed - killed her daughter - convicted - divorced and so the Soap-Opera begins. She changes her name to avoid publicity and exposure and moved to a different town. I'd tell you more but that would be a crime and a Spoiler-Alert. Once I started reading it the more it be...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5Before and Again by Barbara Delinsky was a very emotional book to read and I'm not even a mother. I think anyone with kids that reads this book will experience a wide range of emotions and if you've lost a child it may hit you even harder.Mackenzie Cooper is a woman that has lost it all - her child, her marriage, her so-called friends, and the support of her parents all in the time it took to look down at her GPS while driving. She now goes by the name Maggie Reid and works at a spa

A gripping and emotional tale of one woman’s heartbreak, recovery and self-realization. SUMMARYMacKenzie Cooper was using her phone’s GPS, desperately trying to find the home of her five-year-old daughter’s friend. It was a narrow, dark and wooded road. She looked at her phone again for just a second. She didn’t see the stop sign, it blended with the fall foliage. A large van hit her hard. The accident killed her daughter, and the aftermath destroyed her relationship with her husband, family and...

I received a free e-copy of Before and Again by Barbara Delinsky from NetGalley for my honest review.A powerful and heartfelt story of a woman, (Maggie) who has a happy life, wonderful home, a handsome husband (Ned) and beautiful child. In one quick moment, while driving, gets distracted and looses what is most precious to any parent. Maggie's life changed in so many ways after that day. She had to live with the guilt of the loss, her shattered marriage, and the hate and anger of her family and

My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...4.5 Stars!!! I’ve enjoyed quite a few novels written by Barbara Delinsky and as soon as I read the description for “ Before and Again ”, I knew I had to read it. I’m thrilled to say that I really enjoyed this novel.After a very heartbreaking beginning, I was immediately pulled into the story…Mackenzie Cooper has a wonderful life. She is a talented artist, she has many good friends and above all, she has a wonderful husband...

Heartwarming, poignant, and sweet!Before and Again is a heartfelt, entertaining story about accepting the things you can’t change, letting go of the past, forgiving one’s self, surviving, taking chances, and moving on.The writing is fluid and well turned. The characters are flawed, supportive, lovable, and real. And the plot is an emotional, engaging tale with a side of mystery that’s full of heartache, loss, grief, guilt, hope, friendship, relationship dynamics, family drama, romance, and secon...

4.5 Stars* (rounded down)Have you ever read a book that just stays with you? The more you think about it, the better it gets? Such is the case with Barbara Delinsky’s “Before and Again.” It is the story of love, loss and most of all hope and forgiveness.One day Mackenzie Cooper is driving her daughter Lily to a playdate when tragedy strikes. A car accident. Mackenzie survives, Lily does not. Before the accident, Mackenzie was happily married to Edward. Now she is not. Years later, living in a sm...

I was blown away by this book. No really, I was assuming this would be your run-of-the-mill, standard type of women's fiction, but it was so much more. This was a character driven study involving detrimental loss and how to rebuild yourself after making a fatal mistake. I found myself floundering about in a wide variety of emotions, and for a novel that isn't intended to be plot driven, it has multiple twists and turns to keep the 400+ pages feeling like a breeze to flip through. So many importa...

One afternoon Mackenzie Cooper was driving her five year old daughter to a playdate when the unthinkable happened. Mackenzie had been glancing down at the GPS trying to find the home of her daughter's friend when she accidentally runs a stop sign and a truck crashes into them. As if losing her daughter wasn't punishment enough Mackenzie ends up splashed all over the media to be made an example.Now on probation Mackenzie has changed her name to Maggie Reid and moved to Vermont to try to put her l...

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.I've had this book since December, but intended to read it close to its June publication date. During all this time I've read early reviews lamenting that it doesn't measure up to author Barbara Delinsky's previous stellar offerings. I've never read any of Ms. Delinsky's other books, but this was indeed a lukewarm read.Mackenzie Cooper was driving her 5-year old daughter Lily to a playdate when she wa...

Maggie Reid has restarted her life in picturesque Devon, Vermont. She has completely immersed herself in her new life-- doing makeup at the town Spa & Inn. Can she really leave her past behind? Especially when the present threatens to expose her.I liked this book, but didn't love it. The characters have their own flaws (don't we all?) but I found it hard to connect fully with them. Maybe the writing was too heavy, too many words clouding the characters true selves. Maybe it was the predictable p...

FULL REVIEW UP!This is disappointing. Another review where I don't have much to say. There wasn't anything wrong with the story, per se. But like the movie, "I'm Just Not That Into You"..Devon is a place where you can go to escape your past. And that's exactly what Maggie did.. until her ex-husband came knocking on her door.Doesn't that seem like a nice, fat, juicy plot? Well, it does, or did to me! However, it took way too long for the story to get going. When it finally did, I had complete amb...

5 emotional heart breaking stars My reviews can be found here: https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...A split second can change your life. A glance away can be the moment when life does change. A heart refusing to heal can end a marriage. ....and guilt filling every portion of one's body can make life an unending torture. Mackenzie Cooper has lost everything, a beloved daughter, a husband she loved, a mother who blames her, and the ability to forgive herself. For a moment in time she took her e...

Mackenzie Cooper and her husband led a luxurious, charmed life until she took her eyes off the road, which resulted in a vehicle accident that killed both her 5 year old daughter Lily, and the speeding driver of the other vehicle. She lost her marriage, family, and friends and endured non stop media coverage and was sentenced to 5 years probation. Mack then remade herself in the small town of Devon, where she went by the name of Maggie and nobody knew her past. Flash forward 5 years and Maggie i...

These things can't be happening to me can they?Maggie is a good person but still hasn’t healed from the emotional scars from the death of her daughter or the divorce from her husband. Maggie moved away to make herself anonymous after the accident and hadn't seen her husband for four years. He now shows up in the new town she has moved to, but why?Another problem besides her ex-husband then surfaces. Maggie is still on probation because of the automobile accident and is not to associate with oth

This is my 10th Barbara Delinsky read and certainly not one of my favorites. Before and Again showcases what Delinsky does best which is contemporary family drama. In this story, readers are introduced to Mackenzie( Maggie Reid) Cooper trying to live her life anew in a small town that doesn't know her difficult past. What should have been an emotional rollercoaster was just an o.k read in my eyes. Although I realize that the character was in pain, I felt her really difficult to connect to and

Driving her five-year-old daughter to a playdate, Mackenzie Cooper's life changes in a moment when she takes her eyes off the road to check her phone's GPS. In that second, she runs a stop sign, and as a result, the other driver and Lily are dead. In the aftermath, Mackenzie finds herself divorced, estranged from her mother and brother, on probation, and moving away from her friends and former life. She reinvents herself in the town of Devon, Vermont, now known as Maggie Reid. There, she does ma...

A huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. Maggie Reid, a makeup artist at the Devon Inn and Spa is rebuilding her life after a horrifying event changed her life in every way possible five years earlier. Now in Devon she’s moved past the terror of the accident and seems to be living a simple and normal life. Then one day two things happen to her that could cause her new life to completely unravel. Her best friend’s son has been charged by the FBI with hacking and Maggie’s ex husband is...

Before and Again is the first novel of Barbara Delinsky that I've got to read, thanks to the publisher for providing a reading copy of the book. Maggie's traumatic past and on how she tries to handle her new life is an engrossing story, however, there are some parts that I found too slow or a bit boring to read. Perhaps those portions could have been omitted without making a big difference in the flow of the story. Maggie's story will touch readers in some way, and it is also another great n