{"id":30134,"date":"2023-04-12T09:54:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T13:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=30134"},"modified":"2023-04-12T09:54:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T13:54:35","slug":"review-before-we-were-innocent-by-ella-berman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/12\/review-before-we-were-innocent-by-ella-berman\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83d\udd25 Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-30134\" data-postid=\"30134\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-30134 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_us3x18 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_am8m18 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_8gc718 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"331\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman.jpg?resize=331%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-30136\" title=\"before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman\" alt=\"before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman.jpg?w=331&amp;ssl=1 331w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman.jpg?resize=400%2C604&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_2a9519 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline\u2019s death. But that didn\u2019t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn\u2019t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what if she doesn\u2019t like what she finds?<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_226519 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_yj2819  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25881 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png?resize=296%2C72\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Apr 4, 2023<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $14.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Bess Winter<\/strong> leads a fairly solitary life, living away from her family and friends and working from home as a moderator for a dating site. Her quiet life is upended when she receives an unexpected visit from a former friend she hasn\u2019t seen in ten years. Joni Le Bon is now a successful motivational speaker and self-help guru and has come to ask Bess a favor. Seeing Joni again brings back painful memories for Bess of the trip to Greece she, Joni, and their friend Evangeline took almost a decade before. The trip ended in tragedy, and although their lives went in completely different directions, neither Bess nor Joni was ever the same again.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Before We Were Innocent <\/strong>is an entertaining, literary suspense novel told in two different timelines, all from Bess\u2019s point-of-view. Who each woman is and was in the past is key to the novel. I enjoyed getting to know Bess and both her positive and negative qualities. I never quite got a handle on Bess\u2019s relationship with her family, but I liked her brother and his fianc\u00e9e. Joni was harder to read, and I never felt like I was seeing the real Joni. This was part of her character, though, since she was all about appearances for her online fans and followers. Sometimes I felt like Joni was trying to be a good friend to Bess, and other times I felt she was lying to protect herself at Bess\u2019s expense. When the timeline switches to the past, we also get to know Evangeline, who was the victim of a tragic event in Greece. Although she had the reputation of being sweet and impressionable, I found her to be manipulative and not always sympathetic. She loved her brother, Theo, but I feel she took advantage of his instinct to keep her happy.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">Much of the book shows how people can be judged based on outward appearances and hearsay by people who don\u2019t know them or the situations they\u2019re in. Bess reacts to the unwanted attention and judgment by trying to hide from the world, but Joni lives her life boldly, refusing to be defined by her past or what other people think. Ironically, each woman judges the others for the way she\u2019s chosen to live her life after the death of their friend in Greece. I was very engaged in the story even when I didn\u2019t care for the choices the main characters made. There is a lot of drama and some ambiguity in this entertaining novel, but for the most part, I liked how everything wrapped up at the end.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_c4tm19 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zQr640\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/413gVVF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman\/1141726891?ean=9780593099568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/before-we-were-innocent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Ella_Berman_Before_We_Were_Innocent?id=Dwp5EAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,89,128,48],"tags":[151,152,216,539,404,405,516],"class_list":["post-30134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berkley","category-christine","category-penguin-group","category-reviews","tag-4-star","tag-4-stars","tag-contemporary","tag-psychological-fiction","tag-recommend","tag-recommended-reads","tag-womens-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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But that didn\u2019t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.<br \/><br \/>While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn\u2019t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .<br \/><br \/>Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.<br \/><br \/>Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what if she doesn\u2019t like what she finds?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Apr 4, 2023<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Penguin Group<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Berkley\u00a0<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $14.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Bess Winter<\/strong> leads a fairly solitary life, living away from her family and friends and working from home as a moderator for a dating site. Her quiet life is upended when she receives an unexpected visit from a former friend she hasn\u2019t seen in ten years. Joni Le Bon is now a successful motivational speaker and self-help guru and has come to ask Bess a favor. Seeing Joni again brings back painful memories for Bess of the trip to Greece she, Joni, and their friend Evangeline took almost a decade before. The trip ended in tragedy, and although their lives went in completely different directions, neither Bess nor Joni was ever the same again.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Before We Were Innocent <\/strong>is an entertaining, literary suspense novel told in two different timelines, all from Bess\u2019s point-of-view. Who each woman is and was in the past is key to the novel. I enjoyed getting to know Bess and both her positive and negative qualities. I never quite got a handle on Bess\u2019s relationship with her family, but I liked her brother and his fianc\u00e9e. Joni was harder to read, and I never felt like I was seeing the real Joni. This was part of her character, though, since she was all about appearances for her online fans and followers. Sometimes I felt like Joni was trying to be a good friend to Bess, and other times I felt she was lying to protect herself at Bess\u2019s expense. When the timeline switches to the past, we also get to know Evangeline, who was the victim of a tragic event in Greece. Although she had the reputation of being sweet and impressionable, I found her to be manipulative and not always sympathetic. She loved her brother, Theo, but I feel she took advantage of his instinct to keep her happy.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">Much of the book shows how people can be judged based on outward appearances and hearsay by people who don\u2019t know them or the situations they\u2019re in. Bess reacts to the unwanted attention and judgment by trying to hide from the world, but Joni lives her life boldly, refusing to be defined by her past or what other people think. Ironically, each woman judges the others for the way she\u2019s chosen to live her life after the death of their friend in Greece. I was very engaged in the story even when I didn\u2019t care for the choices the main characters made. There is a lot of drama and some ambiguity in this entertaining novel, but for the most part, I liked how everything wrapped up at the end.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zQr640\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/413gVVF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/before-we-were-innocent-ella-berman\/1141726891?ean=9780593099568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/before-we-were-innocent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Ella_Berman_Before_We_Were_Innocent?id=Dwp5EAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30134"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30141,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions\/30141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}