I borrowed this from the library on another of my whims, mostly because I’ve had some good luck with Reese’s Book Club picks in the past, and this was another one. It’s a combo of psychological thriller/mystery and friendship drama. It straddles two time periods, both including two of the main characters – Joni and Bess. In the present day Bess is living in a small and remote cabin in the desert, working as a moderator for an online dating service and nursing a somewhat bruised heart post-breakup. Joni, on the other hand, has taken everything life threw at her and turned it into a very high profile and lucrative career as a motivational speaker and celebrity – furthering this persona by living an expensive and exclusive lifestyle with her gorgeous social media influencer fiancée.
As we flash back into the past, we learn about the past friendship these two women shared as teens, and what happened the summer they went to Greece with their third best friend, Evangeline. We know from early on that something happened on that trip, something that catapulted the girls into the public eye as tabloid fodder and the subjects of much public speculation. But we don’t know exactly what happened from the outset, we must spend time following the group through from the beginning of their friendship to that summer trip.
As we are flashing back to that story, the present-day story is simultaneously unfolding. Bess and Joni had parted ways after their teenaged trauma, and were no longer in touch. That is, until one night Joni knocks on Bess’s door, and all of a sudden the two are embroiled in a modern-day mystery that is eerily reminiscent of some of what they’d been through before. Bess, the more vulnerable of the two, must figure out how to navigate this difficult turn of events, and also what it brings up of her past memories and what was actually true.
I won’t say more about this as I don’t want to give anything away. I will say there are some twists, turns and surprises along the way. But not too twisty, as some of it I figured out before the reveal. It’s hard for me to really figure out what to say about this book. It was fairly evenly paced, but that pace was a slower one than I like for this kind of book. The characters do develop over the course of the book, especially when juxtaposed against their younger selves. But somehow I didn’t really feel a lot of emotional involvement with any of them. It didn’t help that the three girls come from a wealthy and privileged community, one of them being very rich indeed. Their attitudes and concerns are similarly boringly concerned with things I don’t care much about, like parties and social standing. I wanted to connect with them despite this, but I found it hard to really get a handle on who any of them were, and even when I got close, I didn’t really want to hold on.
It didn’t help that there are echoes of Andrea Bartz’s We Were Never Here (another Reese’s Book Club book I read earlier this year). The stories are not the same, but there are some common elements – young female friendships, travel, traumatic events that are shrouded in secrecy ,and modern-day parts that are deeply impacted by those earlier events. Though the stories were different, there was enough overlap that I couldn’t help but compare the two while reading, and this one came off the worse for that comparison.
So this is a tricky one for me. I don’t think it was a bad book. But it also didn’t really grab me. This isn’t the type of character I look for, nor did the story grab me by the throat and refuse to let me go. I sort of wanted to know what happened, but then when I got to the end my overwhelming feeling was one of, “that’s it?” and then a quick switching of gears to my next read without much thought spared for this since. I’d say if you’re interested in the lives of the privileged and the tricky relationships that come with being a young woman in that social strata, this might be one for you. It just wasn’t one for me, unfortunately.
A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman. . . .
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’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.
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’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .
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.
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 happens if she doesn’t like what she finds? – Goodreads
Book Title: Before We Were Innocent
Author: Ella Berman
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook (Libby)
Published By: Penguin Audio/ Berkley
Released: April 4, 2023
Genre: Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Rich Kids, Tragedy, Privilege, Trauma
Pages: 384
Date Read: March 1-2, 2025
Rating: 4/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.41/5 (71,165 ratings)