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WORK TITLE: Close to Me
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.amandareynoldsauthor.com/
CITY: Cotswolds
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
Agent: Sarah Williams, sarah@sophiehicksagency.com; married.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Writing mentor. Cotswold Creative Writing, writing teacher, 2011–. Worked formerly as a teaching assistant, sales trainer, entrepreneur, goat milker, and outdoor pool lifeguard.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Amanda Reynolds is a writer and writing teacher and founder at Cotswold Creative Writing, for which she teaches two writing classes per week. The writers that Reynolds has taught have won numerous competitions for their short stories. Reynolds also mentors debut authors. She has worked formerly as a teaching assistant, a sales trainer, an entrepreneur, a goat milker, and at an outdoor pool. Reynolds lives in Cotswolds, England. She is married and has children.
In Close to Me, 55-year-old Joanne Harding is recovering from a head injury. When the former stay-at-home mom comes to after a tumble down the stairs, the last thing she remembers is being sad that her youngest son, Fin, has gone off to college. When Joanne talks to her husband, Rob, about this sadness, he tells her that Fin left a year ago. Joanne quickly realizes that the spill down the stairs has left her with a gap in her memory; the entire previous year is gone.
While Joanne frets about the loss of memory, Rob assures her that nothing of significance has transpired in the past year. Joanne doubts this, however, when it comes to light that Fin has dropped out of college, for unexplained reasons. Further, when Fin and sister Sash come over to dinner soon after the head injury, it is clear to Joanne that Rob has ordered the children to pretend everything is normal.
Joanne begins to grow suspicious of Rob, wondering if he pushed her down the stairs. As the story progresses, her memory begins to come back in small flashbacks. She discovers that she had been planning on leaving her husband the day that she fell, a fact that makes her even more wary of the man. She wonders if he was having an affair, yet as more details come to light, it seems that she herself may have been up to some secretive behavior. The image of a naked man in a bed repeatedly fills her mind, and she wonders if it was she who was committing infidelity. Joanne begins an investigation to uncover who is hiding the truths and why.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews wrote: “Reynolds uses lush, evocative prose and a first-person, present-tense narration to create an immersive tale that’s fueled by anxiety and dread.” A contributor to Crime Review website described the book as “a fresh, exciting and suspenseful take on a relatively well-known concept,” while a contributor to Publishers Weekly defined it as a “mundane debut.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2017, Karen Keefe, review of Close to Me, p. 23.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2017, review of Close to Me.
Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2017, review of Close to Me, p. 117.
ONLINE
Crime Review, https://thecrimereview.com/ (December 6, 2017), review of Close to Me.
I haven't always been an author...I've been a teaching assistant, a sales trainer, a full-time mum, an entrepreneur, and had lots of part-time jobs, including, many years ago, a summer spent milking goats and working at an outdoor pool.
In 2011, I set up Cotswold Creative Writing, teaching two writing classes a week for five years. During that time our writers won many prestigious competitions for their short stories.
When CLOSE TO ME was published, someone asked me why it had taken me so long to write my first novel. It was a combination of a few factors, my children growing up, finding a great group of writers in my area, and deciding that I had a story to tell.
I now write full time.
My next book, LYING TO YOU, is published April 2018.
I also mentor debut authors, in the spirit of paying it forward.
Follow me on Twitter for news of my books, events, signings, & mentoring opportunities.
Close to Me
Karen Keefe
Booklist. 114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p23.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Close to Me. By Amanda Reynolds. Dec. 2017. 384p. Quercus, $26.99 (9781681440316); e-book (9781681440439).
Head injuries are always bad news for domestic-suspense heroines. After a fall down the stairs, Jo Harding can't remember the past year of her life. And she's beginning to become suspicious of her husband's insistence that she needn't bother to remember. As bits and pieces do come back, the newly empty-nested housewife discovers that her husband is leaving out some pretty significant events from the last year--like her son's dropping out of college for mysterious reasons and the fact that Jo was planning to leave her husband the day she fell. Even as the secrets come pouring out, Jo distrusts her foggy recollections and the versions of the truth she's getting from her family. A perfect fit for fans of Judy Mercer and Nicci French.--Karen Keefe
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Keefe, Karen. "Close to Me." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2017, p. 23. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776100/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=18ab1c52. Accessed 20 Feb. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776100
Reynolds, Amanda: CLOSE TO ME
Kirkus Reviews. (Oct. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Reynolds, Amanda CLOSE TO ME Quercus (Adult Fiction) $26.99 12, 5 ISBN: 978-1-68144-031-6
In this domestic thriller debut, a woman with post-traumatic amnesia struggles to regain her memories only to realize that perhaps ignorance was bliss.
After 55-year-old Joanne Harding tumbles down the stairs and strikes her head, she's distraught to discover that she has forgotten the past year. The last thing the former stay-at-home mom remembers is being sad that her youngest child, Fin, has gone off to college, leaving her with an empty nest; according to her husband, Rob, though, that happened a year ago. Rob insists that everything is fine and nothing significant has transpired, but when Fin and his sister, Sash, come over for dinner the next night, it's obvious to Jo that Rob is lying to her and that he's ordered their children to do the same. Jo starts digging to uncover the truth, but the more she learns about her missing months, the more convinced she becomes that her family members aren't the only ones keeping secrets. British author Reynolds uses lush, evocative prose and a first-person, present-tense narration to create an immersive tale that's fueled by anxiety and dread. Chapters set in the present are interspersed with flashbacks, tension mounting as the storylines converge, but while Reynolds' structure is elegant and her plotting is precise, the book's interpersonal conflict feels soapy and manufactured.
What begins as an intriguing twist on a tired trope ultimately falls prey to ill-defined stakes and underdeveloped characters.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Reynolds, Amanda: CLOSE TO ME." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509244093/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7608b164. Accessed 20 Feb. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509244093
Close to Me
Publishers Weekly. 264.40 (Oct. 2, 2017): p117.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Close to Me
Amanda Reynolds. Quercus, $26.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-68144-031-6
Partial amnesia has become an overused gimmick in psychological thrillers, as shown by British author Reynolds's mundane debut. Jo Harding wakes up in the hospital following a fall down the stairs at her home. She can't remember anything that occurred during the past year, and her husband, Rob, seems determined to keep her in the dark. Her grown children, son Fin and daughter Sash, also are vague about the previous year. At home, Jo wonders if her fall happened during an argument with Rob, or if he pushed her, especially since he barely lets her out of his sight. As flashes of memory return, Jo worries whether Rob was having an affair--or whether she was, since she keeps seeing images of a naked man in bed. Jo's search for her memory quickly becomes wearisome. Whiny, self-centered personalities give little reason to care about any of the characters, and the banal denouement is more of a shrug than a surprise. Agent: Sarah Williams, Sophie Hicks Agency (U.K.). (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Close to Me." Publishers Weekly, 2 Oct. 2017, p. 117. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509728421/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=982ac4c2. Accessed 20 Feb. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509728421
REVIEW: Close To Me by Amanda Reynolds
December 6, 2017 thecrimereviewadmin Leave a comment
Series: N/A
Book Number: N/A
Read this book for: domestic thriller, amateur detective, amnesia & missing memories, tight plotting
Quick Review: A taut domestic thriller with more than enough questions and surprising revelations to keep you turning pages — highly recommended!
***
Jo Harding can’t remember the last year of her life. And her husband wants to keep it that way.
When Jo falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in the hospital with partial amnesia. In fact, she finds that she’s lost an entire year of memories. She can’t remember what she did, or anything that happened the night she fell. A lot can happen in a year, and she begins to discover that she may have been leading a double life before the accident.
As she questions the details of the past year and why her family wants her to stay in the dark, she begins to realize she might not be as good a wife and mother as she might have hoped . . .
CLOSE TO ME is a stand-alone novel by Amanda Reynolds that deftly folds together two timelines to keep you guessing about what has occurred in the past. Narrator Jo Harding wakes up from her fall down the stairs in her home unable to remember the preceding year of her life, but immediately plagued with unease about her home life. As her memories return in pieces, she tries to reconstruct the secrets that her family is trying to keep from her.
While the amnesia narrative is not a new one, Reynolds does a refreshingly believable take on it with this novel. Jo’s memory comes back in bits and pieces that are not always reliable or meaningful to her. It’s deftly handled, and she manages to twist the plot on you every time that you think you have Jo’s situation figured out.
Jo herself is also a compelling character, which aids in the believability factor. The doubt and guilt that she feels over mistakes that she may or may not have committed really make her sympathetic and fascinating. Her interactions with her family and the way that they hide things from her (not to mention her lack of notice of their issues) feel intimately real, and actually make those character interactions intensely emotional.
This of course is furthered by the plot, which twists and turns on every page. The fact that Reynolds manages to surprise the reader with a new revelation after every time that you feel like you know the whole story is testament to that fact — but the fact that she manages to hold off revealing everything until the very last page is absolutely masterful.
CLOSE TO ME is something that will keep you awake, turning pages long into the night, needing to know what happens next. Absolutely pick up a copy and be prepared to lose yourself in a fresh, exciting and suspenseful take on a relatively well-known concept.