Mina Hardy | After All I’ve Done

after all i've done mina hardy

The Book: 

After All I’ve Done by Mina Hardy, 2020

The Characters: 

Diana and her husband Jonathan
Her best friend Val
Her new friend Cole

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Get it on Amazon.


The Plot (from Goodreads):

She’s lost her best friend, her husband, and possibly, her mind.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that’s not enough, she’s started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she’s left questioning: maybe she didn’t just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone.

She can’t turn to her former best friend Val, who’s been sleeping with Diana’s husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become, the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night–and how Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be involved, too.

Click here for book spoilers for After All I've Done
Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read After All I’ve Done, I suggest you turn back now.

The Twist: 

Diana had asked Val to sleep with Jonathan. Their prenup was airtight unless one of them cheated, so Diana and Val were conspiring to catch Jonathan cheating so he would break the terms of the prenup. But then Val fell in love with him. 

Diana had been dating Cole before she lost her memory in the accident.

Harriet is Diana’s biological mother (as well as Jonathan’s). Jonathan’s father cheated on his previous wife with Harriet; Harriet got pregnant with Diana but had to give the baby up. She later killed the previous wife in order to end up with Jonathan’s father.

She killed Diana’s adoptive mother.

The Ending:

Jonathan and Diana confront Harriet and she confesses everything. She kills Jonathan and then stabs herself. She had been dosing Diana’s food with pills she bought online to keep her helpless so she could take care of her.

Harriet had kept a record of all of this, so she easily went to jail. Val moves away. 

As I was listening, I knew Harriet was going to be behind the dosing–it seemed pretty obvious, so much so that it could have been a red herring. I never would have guessed the reason, though!

The Review: 

Welcome to a twisty new take on the classic memory loss plot. This isn’t the first book where the wife has an accident and can’t remember why her life is so different than she thought it was. Off the top of my head, Before I Go To Sleep and Last Summer both fit this theme, but I’m sure I’ve read more!

Diana can’t trust anyone in After All I’ve Done, and neither can the reader. We’re not even sure if we can trust Diana! The wild secrets just keep piling up, and the plot unfolds deliciously as you learn what all the characters are hiding. 

The ending was mind-blowing, but also a bit abrupt. So many twists come out in the last 5% of the book. I liked the ending, although it did happen very quickly. 

For audiobook listeners, it was good but nothing special. I have no complaints with the narrators, but also no particular praises. Many thanks to NetGalley for an advanced listener’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

after all i've done mina hardy

We're trying to grow our mailing list. If you join us and stick around, you will automatically be entered into two giveaways as a token of our thanks. And that's just the start!

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *