Actual rating: 3.75 stars

Super engaging and easy to read. Really liked all our main characters. I felt like it did lag at certain points and wanted a bit more action. Too much talking and not enough doing. There also wasn't a huge amount of suspense for a thriller/mystery, but it almost didn't matter as the dialogue was enough to keep it going. Overall, I thought the author did a great job at setting up the story and getting us invested in the characters and their motivations.

💜𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗡𝗘
𝔰𝔲𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔢𝔣𝔲𝔩 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔯
🗓️𝙿𝚞𝚋: 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟻
🤩𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: 𝟜.𝟚𝟝 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤! ★★★★✫

🤏𝚃𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚍𝚋𝚒𝚝...Was she taken or did she run? A mother who once walked away from her daughter may be the only one to find her now that she is missing…

🌻𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢...This one had the best character development ever! 👌🙂So many things going on, but not confusing either…Rich people behaving badly, estranged parents, a nanny & kids vanished, a smidge of romance & that’s not even it…Lots going on in the best of ways. 🙌No boredom at all while reading this suspenseful thriller! 👏I loved how it wrapped up & I can’t wait to read more by this author ✍️

3.5 stars, rounded up
Although I think the reveal came a bit too soon, I was still gripped by this intriguing novel.

Former London police officer Rose Campbell went through a traumatic incident which left her divorced and estranged from her daughter Lou. Now Lou is a young adult and a nanny for a wealthy family in Australia. Rose gets notified that Lou and the two children she cares for are missing. Rose flies down to Australia to help with the investigation in any way she can, but also so she can show up for her daughter in a way she couldn't in the past. Police detective Mal Blackwood doesn't really want Rose's help, but he wants to find Lou and the children before it's too late.

This book had some deeper family dynamics than I was expecting. I really liked the parts that focused on Rose. I thought the parts with Mal and his wife and their issues drew away from the main storyline, and the fact that they let the rich people essentially run the show while keeping Rose completely out of the loop was very annoying to me.

Overall, I did like how everything turned out, although like I mentioned above, I thought we found out what happened to the missing people much too soon. I think it would have heightened the suspense to keep us in the dark for a longer period of time.

I did like this atmospheric read with complicated family dynamics. I will look for more from this author.

Amazing thrillers with multiple POV, lots of caracters development and full of twists. My first by Sara Foster and it won't be my last.

This was a gritty psychological thriller filled with characters that all had personal issues that crossed with the main investigation of a missing young woman and the two young children she nannied for.

We meet Rose, the estranged mother of the missing young woman who has a background in hostage negotiation and is contacted by her ex-husband to immediately fly from Britain to Australia to assist in their missing daughter's investigation. Then we have the lead detective, Blackwood, who's marriage is on the rocks as he's nearing retirement and this final investigation involves a coterie of failed marriage examples that trample his self esteem in his personal capacity.

Louisa is a wonderful nanny and cares deeply for the children she's responsible for. We don't get too much from her in the beginning but we do get a sense that she does not feel comfortable with the level of tension in the home with the children's parents. Soon after, her and the two young ones disappear off of the family's private beach and the team is called in to investigate.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Louisa and her estranged mother. Her mother, Rose, was in the Met as an officer helping with domestic abuse situations when a bad call got even worse and Rose lost her partner. Ultimately leading Rose into a therapy riddled existence where she struggled to care for Louisa as a child. Her husband left her and took her daughter, for the most part keeping them separated long into Louisa's adulthood. This is the foundation that Rose is working from when she's called in to help find her daughter. Not knowing anything about her really, but determined to help find her safe and have a chance at a relationship with her.

The other half of the story is from Blackwood's perspective as he looking at evidence and trying to figure out exactly how the young woman and two kids so mysteriously disappear off of a private beath. Did Louisa kidnap the kids and try to take them away from their tumultuous home or is something more sinister at work. He's a great detective throughout the entire novel and brings with him a classic investigator feel. Tough, gritty and a no BS kind of guy that wants to figure out the evidence and get everyone home safely.

I really enjoyed this one, but it did have some slow areas to it that felt a little too long. Some of the scenes just get carried out with a lot on introspection that would then lead me to feel estranged from the plot line at times. Overall though, well done and highly enjoyable!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Sara Foster. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australian-and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care-Rose is asked to help bring Lou home. Detective Senior Sargent Mal Blackwood is getting ready to retire when he is called in to head this last case. The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing hard down Blackwood's neck. What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?

This was a fast-moving thriller, made even better with short chapters from many different POV, giving us insight into the characters. There was a lot of emotion in this book and all well-played - not too much, but enough that I was invested into the characters. I loved Mal, trying to do the best job possible while simultaneously trying to save his marriage; Ruth was driven to save domestic abuse victims and was trying so hard to do the right thing for her daughter. I couldn't put this one down and loved it!

A captivating thriller that will take you to the outback of Australia and have you questioning every person of interest along the way. If you ever doubted that money brings privilege, this is a book that will prove just that. Generations of wealth are targeted as a nanny and two kids go missing.

I enjoyed how the story was told from a select few POV, with some flashbacks that gradually tease out more information along the way. An eye-opening look on love of a mother, wealth, and family bonds.

Exciting from start to finish, When She Was Gone is guaranteed to bring to to exhilarating highs along the way, and will have you cheering for the underdog.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this arc in return for my honest review.

Pub Date: 01 April 2025

Lou takes the children she watches to the family’s private beach as she usually does, but this time they never come back; vanished in thin air. Her estranged mother comes to Australia to help the investigation.

This is a solid mystery where you will turn the pages fast to find out what happened! You’ll just have to know. We get to know the missing nanny a bit before she disappears, which helps to grab us into the mystery. There’s some ‘wealthy people behaving badly’ moments in this one. You gain more info slowly as the investigation goes on, but the end is action packed.

When She Was Gone comes out 4/1.

When She Was Gone by Sara Foster

𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗞
British mother and ex-police officer Rose Campbell races to Australia to find her missing daughter Lou - a nanny suspected of abducting two children from a powerful family. Leading the investigation is Detective Mal Blackwood who tries to manage this complex kidnapping as he approaches retirement.

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡
The majority of the book alternates between Rose and Detective Blackwood.

Rose was a force - something she’d grown into after the trauma she’d experienced. Blackwood was pretty decent for a cop - they’re usually portrayed as useless in thrillers, but I respected his desire to improve and change.

I found the book very entertaining and exciting, eager to know what had really happened. When we got the truth, I was relieved it was good; although there’s no shocking twist, the reveals and ending more than made up for it.

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗?
Despite its strong focus on domestic abuse, this isn’t a heavy read. With a balance of character development and plot, I both loved and highly recommend this book.

Thanks to @Netgalley and
@blackstonepublishing for access to this advanced readers copy

4.5 STARS - Sara Foster is a new-to-me author, and I was more than impressed with her upcoming book When She Was Gone. It grabbed me from the get-go with its well-developed characters with interesting pasts and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young nanny and her two young charges from a secluded beach in Australia.

Foster pulls readers into the lifestyles of a mega rich and oh-so-dysfunctional family whose children have gone missing. We also get to know Rose, the mother of the abducted woman and Blackwood, the detective who is assigned to the case who is looking forward to his impending retirement'

I loved Rose's character. She's a former British cop who has faced her own trauma and now with a PhD, she works with domestic violence survivors. She has been estranged from her daughter Lou for years but when Lou and her two young charges go missing, Rose races to Australia and inserts herself into the case - much to the chagrin of local police Detective Blackwood who has his own fair share of emotional demons to deal with.

Told with a few POVs, this story is chilling, dark and has a colourful, flawed and very interesting array of characters - some you'll get behind and a family you'll love to hate. The slow building tension was great, but it was the detailed descriptions of the characters that made this book for me (and I appreciated how it draws readers attention to domestic abuse). There are some nail-biting scenes, but this isn't your standard twisty thriller per se since we find out the baddies' identities, but it IS bingeable and totally addictive. I eagerly look forward to reading more of Sara Foster's backlist!

Disclaimer: Thanks to Blackstone Publishing for the complimentary digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

** This review was posted on March 26, 2025 on my blog, FB, IG, GoodReads, StoryGraph and Indigo.ca.

Well-paced, engaging, satisfying. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from page one. It was well paced, didn't lag and the storyline progressed without getting overly complicated or bogged down. I also appreciated that the author didn't try too hard to throw the reader off. Too often in these types of mystery/suspense/thriller stories you get extra information in attempt to create a big twist and at the end you realize that the extras didn't really need to be there.

Not many of the characters were likable and I think that's a good thing in this case. Without getting into too many details I loved that you could take the information given about the young protagonist at face value and at the end the outcome was what I was hoping it would be. I'm looking forward to trying other books from this author.

This was my first Sara Foster novel and I am pleased to say that I will 100% be back for me. I initially requested this book solely because of the cover. I went into this book completely blind not knowing one thing that this book was about. I was immediately hooked from the beginning. I was honestly on the edge of my seat the entire time reading/listening to this. I thought the character development was executed great and I never felt like anything got lost in this mix. Another one of my favorite things in this book is the short chapters. It always feels like you read much faster when you can fly through chapters. Though there wasn't any major jaw dropping twist, I loved enjoyed the mystery and wanted to know where this was going! This is a really enjoyable crime thriller that you could easily read in a day!

I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and suspenseful. The ending I would have never guessed. Overall, this is a winner and I can highly recommend it. Thank you for my gifted copy.

I was hooked when I read the premise for this, and even more so after the first chapter. The tension was built up from the beginning and I couldn’t wait to learn more about Rose. This one was told through different perspectives, and unfortunately, she ended up being the only POV I really cared about.

Blackwood seemed incompetent, moody, and at times petulant, so it was hard for me to get excited when the chapters shifted to his POV. Granted, I get the story centered around a high-profile case and it was his last one at that, BUT STILL. I almost wished we could’ve gotten Angie’s POV at times because she at least seemed a bit more intriguing 🥹

I also didn’t like how 80% of this book seemed to be literally people just talking; I would’ve loved more backstory and inner thoughts. All in all, this was just an ok read for me, and I really appreciated the Australian setting.

#ad many thanks for my advance copy @blackstonepublishing #partner

Entertaining AF! I couldn’t put this book down. Ahhhh it is just the perfect book, it pulled me in fast and didn’t let me go even after it was over.

In the world of the mega-rich and the nannies they hire to care for their children, life may seem mundane - until one of those nannies, Louisa, along with two babies, Kai Fisher - 11 months, and Honey Fisher, 3, go missing without a trace.

Did the nanny take the kids and run, or did something far more nefarious happen to them?

I loved all the characters, the likable and unlikeable. Rose, the estranged mother who grapples with past trauma and works in a domestic violence shelter - who has also worked in the police force - offers a glimpse of how far a mother will go for the daughter she’s always loved.

Blackwood, the detective who will soon retire, has marriage issues he’s working on trying to fix right as he’s pulled back into work to find Lou - the missing nanny and the two kids.

The Fisher’s are as dysfunctional as they come. Secrets and past scandals pour from the pages.

The suspense is palpable and the plot will keep you on your toes. This is the type of book TV dramas were made for and it begs to be adapted.

A missing persons case exasperated by the wealthy, pulls the media’s attention almost instantly. And while the other detectives are busy trying to figure out what is happening here, it’s Rose who really pushes this investigation forward. Much to the detectives pleas not too; but she will not be contained no matter how hard they might try to contain her.

The twists left my jaw on the floor! You won’t see them coming! And oof that ending! It’s fast-paced and bingeable! Expertly written, once you begin it’s impossible to think of anything else.

Couldn’t recommend more. Lovvvved it!

When Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australia, her estranged policewoman mother Rose, is quick to fly down from London. It is unclear whether Lou was taken or whether she chose to take the two children she was minding with her.

This was an amazing book. Heart stopping in parts because you could feel Rose's pain and full of action in other parts, especially the last 25% of the book. Once the story took shape, it was incredibly hard to put down. Told through multiple POVs, this fast paced novel will have you flipping those pages at rapid speed. Read it and thank me later.

Fast paced and intense!

Louisa is a nanny to the ultra rich Fisher family. Her charges are 3 years old and 11 months old and they are heirs to their family’s property empire. But when Lou and the two kids vanish from a remote Australian beach during a family vacation, everyone wants to know if she and the children were taken or did Lou run with them.

Rose Campbell, former UK law enforcement, is called by her ex husband, Henry, to go to Australia to find Lou. But Rose has been estranged from Lou for most of her young life so where does she start when she hardly knows her own daughter? DSS Mal Blackwood is recently released from medical leave and nurturing a fragile rekindled marriage when he is called in to work this complicated case. But as dark Fisher family secrets are unveiled, it’s a race against time to find Lou and the two babies before it’s too late.

This is a suspenseful read with short chapters and told in multiple POVs. I enjoyed the well constructed plot line and the character development. The side stories made it really interesting; propelling the story to a surprising ending.

Thank you Netgalley, Blackstone Publishing, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on April 1, 2025

The book was an okay read with a cool mystery. Louisa, a nanny, goes missing at the beach along with the kids she watches. The different perspectives and timelines kept things interesting and I found myself hooked trying to figure out what really happened.

There were too many secondary characters and the parts with the police investigation felt slow. The ending wrapped things up, but the big reveal did not quite hit the mark.

Overall, it was engaging without being exceptional.
Thanks Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for allowing me to read the ARC of this book.

Sara Foster's When She Was Gone is a tense thriller about the abduction of a nanny and two young children in a remote vacation area near Perth,
Australia. We get a terrible hint of what is to come in the first pages, as well as a quick view of the nanny's estranged mother, a former BRitish detective and current activist against domestic violence. The parents of the abducted kids are rich and annoying, and the Aussie cop called back from a leave to take on the case is trying to temper his hyper-dedication to the job in order to save his marriage. kkkkThe complex scenario is handled ably by Foster, and the reader is swept along in the palpable tension of both the plot and the interpersonal relations. Highly recommended.

🌀 W H I R L W I N D W E D N E S D A Y review 🌀 featuring “When She Was Gone” by Sara Foster!

MY RATING: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Rose Campbell is a former police officer and has been estranged from her daughter Lou for over a decade. Rose had to walk away from having a relationship with her daughter due to being in a very dark place in her life. She wrote hundreds of letters to Lou over the years and never received a response from her.

Now in current days, Lou is the nanny for 2 children from the prestigious and powerful Fisher family in Western Australia. What started out as a delightful beach picnic with the kids turns into something much more sinister. Lou and the kids DISAPPEAR and now the police are on the hunt to find them and they suspect a kidnapping!

Estranged or not, Rose is asked to fly across the world and help find Lou before it’s too late. She soon finds out that Rose’s father hid all the letters from Lou and Rose has no idea what she is working with: innocence, cruel intentions or being targeted. What really happened to Lou and the kids??

🚨 This is a fast paced police procedural that is high stakes and anxiety ridden! As the clock ticks and evidence and accusations start to collide, dark secrets start to unravel and the ugly truth starts to show its face!

Thank you kindly to @sarafosterauthor @blackstonepublishing @netgalley for my #gifted advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on April 1, 2025!