I liked the unique take on a missing girl story with the estranged mother who has investigative skills but became frustrated when I was halfway and very little had happened; the plot wasn’t moving at all and I wasn’t getting much new info to stay interested

I’ve read Sarah Foster’s work before and really enjoyed her writing. This book had that same easy style with an exciting plot line and mysteries that kept me guessing.

I found myself invested in the characters and wanting to know what would happen next. There was one particular reveal at the end that caught me by surprise.

The narration of this book was also great and helped bring the words to life in an engaging way.

Overall, this is a solid mystery but it didn’t necessarily stand out from many others I’ve read and I don’t know that it will really stay in my memory for a long time. My rating is a 3.5 out of 5.

This was an incredibly fast-paced read. I thought she did a great job bringing not only the narrator but all of the characters to life. I liked that this story was a bit different in that it’s about a mother whose young adult daughter goes missing, but they have been estranged the daughter’s whole life and have no relationship.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. The audiobook narration was well done and kept me hooked throughout, definitely one of those listens that’s easy to get lost in during a long run.

Rose, a former London police officer, has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for over a decade. When Lou suddenly disappears from a beach in Australia, along with the two children she’s been nannying, Rose is pulled back into her daughter’s life.
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I really enjoyed the family drama and buried secrets. The ending was definitely a big shocker.

Thank you to the Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! She Was Gone by Sara Foster hit shelves on April 1, 2025.

I enjoyed the story in When She Was Gone, I was invested fairly early into the story. Lou and the two young children she nanny’s for have disappeared. In a bit of a twist, Lou’s estranged former cop mother is heading out to Australia in the hope of helping find them.

The children come from a wealthy family with a chequered history that makes the investigation all the harder.

Triggers warnings apply for domestic violence, but the author has clearly put a lot of work into researching the subject and it was dealt with very well.

For me, unfortunately, the narration let this down a little bit, it’s a bug bear for me. I really wish narrators would just stick to one accent instead of attempting others when they can’t carry it, I couldn’t tell where the characters were from a lot of the time. They were supposed to be English, Irish, Australian and French, I appreciate it’s not an easy task.

My thanks to Blackstone Audiobooks via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook 🎧

When She Was Gone by Sara Foster was a great surprise for me. I’ve never read anything by her before and really, really enjoyed this book. The narrator was great, the plot was engaging, and I liked how the setting was built up as the story progressed rather than spending a lot of time world building. I am excited to read more by this author in the future.

I read this book by audiobook.
I really enjoyed the actual story. Though, for me, it had a smidge too much police procedural in it. The characters were likeable and the story wrapped up well.
The narrator for the audiobook did a good job. I do prefer when the narrators differentiate between the character voices a bit more as it does make it a tad hard to follow when the characters sound too much alike.
I love the cover art. 10/10 the cover art sells the book.
Overall I'd rate this book as a 3.7 but will round up to a 4 star.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC

As a young police officer and mother with a young child, Rose is involved in a work related incident involving domestic violence that leaves her profoundly affected. Her husband Henry loses patience with her trauma recovery process, and has an affair. He then leaves, taking their daughter with him and actively contributing to the subsequent estrangement between Rose and her daughter Lou.

So, Rose is shocked when Henry contacts her years later to inform her that Lou has gone missing after taking a nanny job with a wealthy and powerful family in Western Australia. The two children she was looking after are also missing, raising suspicions over whether Lou has abducted them or whether all three have been taken by some other, possibly unknown person or persons.

To Rose's amazement, Henry expects her to fly out and help in the search for you because he is preoccupied with his third wife and newborn twins! Nevertheless, Rose leaves immediately and an intense Australian manhunt ensues with all kinds of skeletons coming out of the closet regarding her employer's family and the nanny network catering to rich families, and revelations about Lou's own love life.

This is a gripping story, well narrated and peopled with believable characters and situations likely to hold the reader's attention spellbound. I highly recommend it.

💔 Book Review: When She Was Gone by Sara Foster

Wow. This book snuck up on me in the best—and most chilling—way. When She Was Gone is the kind of slow-burn psychological thriller that grips your heart and refuses to let go. Twisty, emotional, and layered with secrets that unravel like a thread you didn’t know was loose.

Sara Foster dives deep into the ache of loss and the complexity of relationships, all while building this quiet tension that had me holding my breath. I felt for these characters—the grief, the uncertainty, the haunting question of what really happened—it all felt so real and raw.

This isn’t just a mystery; it’s an emotional journey. If you’re a fan of stories where the truth hides in the silences and every character feels like they could break at any second, When She Was Gone is for you. Haunting, heartbreaking, and beautifully written.

When she was gone was a very interesting story!
A nanny and two kids go missing, a wealthy family with secrets that are coming to light. How far will a family go to keep their secrets hidden and who took Lou and the children?
I really enjoyed this book! It had me intrigued and captivated from the beginning and the narrator was brilliant! I found the characters really interesting and each chapter kept me hooked! I especially liked Roses’ storyline and was very happy by the end! I will definitely be reading more by this author! Thanks to netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the audiobook arc!

It took me a while to get into this book as there were a lot of characters introduced all at once. It took me a while to realize how Rose’s prologue story fitted in. However, about 20% into the book I was invested. What a vile family the Fishers were (and thanks for ruining the name Bronte for me!!! 🤪). In the end I really enjoyed this book - there were some really well written characters, even if they were grim! - and I liked the Australian accent!

I really enjoyed how this story wrapped around in the end! It took a little bit of getting into, even with a great recommendation, but I think that was partially due to the audiobook narrator. I found myself having a difficult time connecting to the characters and even differentiating between them as a result. I did enjoy the suspense that followed when the nanny and children suddenly went missing on the beach- it grabbed my attention and made me want to demand answers! Overall it was a good book, the ending pulled it all together, but maybe skip the audio and read the physical copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing - Audiobooks for this ALC!

I was lured in by the pretty cover—as happens often. Unfortunately, that’s where the intrigue ended for me, on this one.

This read had potential to be suspenseful and fun, however between the writing style (rife with ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’) and the robotic delivery, it just dragged.

Not for me.

What I did like: the alternative POV. If this were used in conjunction with stronger writing, it could’ve been great.

2 stars.


🎧 Audio:
The audio side was okay—great overall sound quality. The narration was a bit robotic for my tastes–emotionless, more dictation than voice-acting. 3 stars.

Told from multiple perspectives over several timelines, When She Was Gone follows former London police officer Rose as she is sent by her ex-husband to Australia when her estranged daughter Lou goes missing, along with the two children she was nannying. But the children are the heirs to Fisher property empire, and so there is a lot at stake in getting them back. DSS Blackwood and his team are in charge of the investigation, but he's stymied by the Fisher magistrate who undercuts every attempt by Blackwood to keep things under wraps, and by Rose, who seems intent on carrying out the investigation her own way. Yes, there is a lot going on here, though surprisingly it isn't too hard to follow. And the last few chapters in particular are quite engaging, with a suspenseful climax and a touching denouement.

What keeps this book from earning a full five stars is the opening. The book starts with a prologue showing Rose trying to rescue a woman and her daughter from her abusive husband and failing. It serves to set up a better understanding of Rose's background and thought processes, and she refers to the incident several times throughout the book, but it has no direct relation to the current plot and probably could have been better worked in as flashbacks in later chapters. And then the next chapter shows Lou's POV, which sets up some good tension. Except this chapter makes it clear that Lou is a victim in this story. So when for the first half of the book Lou becomes the primary suspect, it feels like the reader has to wait for the police to catch up to what the reader already knows. There is also a lot of police procedural for most of the first half, so if that's not your thing you may want to skip through it to the good parts, of which there are many, especially in the second half of the book.

The Australian accent by narrator Sophie Loughran is a bit thick and may have affected my ability to take a few characters seriously, but overall she does a very good job. Thank you to Blackstone, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this book and provide an unbiased review.

This was my first Sara Foster novel. I listened to the audio book and the narrator did a great job! The storyline was interesting, as were the characters, but this moved a little slow for my liking. There was something that pushed me to know the ending, but I unfortunately found it underwhelming.

Interesting, twisted book involving a nanny, a very wealthy family, and all the secrets that can become exposed when a tragedy happens to them!

Lou has been taking care of the two toddlers, and actually adores them. The parents though… not so much. They are more into partying than being parents… and did I mention they have a lot of money?

As the story unfolds, we learn of Lou’s background (the nanny), and all the crazy things that happened in her lifetime…

And then we learn of the family of the kids she watches…

Lots of nefarious things going on…

And then they disappear. Right off the beach. And the police reach out to Lou’s Mom, Rose… a former cop… who has also been estranged from Lou for years….

And then the story is told in dual timelines: That of Rose, and that of Detective Blackstone. Now, what would you do as a mother to get your daughter back safely???

This one will have you on the edge of your seat for pretty much the WHOLE BOOK! And, biting your nails too!

4 solid 🌟🌟🌟🌟 for me!

#WhenSheWasGone by #SaraFoster and narrated nicely by #SophieLoughran.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #BlackstonePublishing for an ARC of the audiobook.
*** It was released on 4/01/25, so look 👀 for it on shelves now!! ***

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Great twisty thriller that kept me guessing the whole time! A lot of unlikeable characters is some crazy situations!

Narration was perfect for this book!

Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ALC of When She Was Gone by Sara Foster. I’ll start off first by saying the narrator was fantastic! I love an Australian accent in general but because ths story takes place in Australia it made it THAT much better. The story was intriguing from the very beginning and I couldn’t stop listening. I’m a sucker for a good mystery and this one didn’t disappoint. If you like books involving missing people, the rich behaving badly, lots of secrets then check this out.

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 Australia— and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children (from a very rich, powerful, influential family) in her care— Rose is asked to help bring Lou home. Were they kidnapped or did she run and take the kids with her— and why?
I really enjoyed this book! The narrator has a unique Australian accent and did an excellent job providing an engaging and immersive listening experience. I will say it is a bit slow to start and felt like it took a while before any developments or breakthroughs in the case were made, I think some of this could have been trimmed a bit. I was still very intrigued about what happened and how events would develop. I liked both Lou and Rose as characters and I was rooting for them to survive and reconnect somehow. There are a lot of characters and a lot of moving parts so it was interesting to see how everything played out. Based on how the story is told, the twist is not too shocking but still packs a powerful punch. The final scenes are quite action-packed and satisfying after the slow build-up throughout the book. Overall, it is an excellent police procedural drama/suspenseful thriller and I would recommend it to others, especially for someone who likes this genre! Thank you to NetGalley, Sara Foster, and Blackstone Publishing for the gifted ARC. This is a voluntary and honest review.

3.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Audio, and Blackstone Publishing for the advanced listening copy of When She Was Gone. The audio production was fantastic—high-quality and immersive—and I really appreciated the opportunity to experience the book in this format.

I really enjoyed When She Was Gone. One of the parts I loved most was the relationship between Rose and Charlie. I appreciated how their connection was developed slowly and thoughtfully, and how the author waited until after Louisa and the children were found to explore their budding relationship. That pacing felt intentional and respectful, keeping the focus on the urgency of the situation before shifting to the more personal aspects.

I also admired Rose’s determination to find her daughter, even after years of estrangement. It showed so much heart and added emotional layers to the story.

Another thing that stood out was how the story was told from multiple perspectives. Normally, I find that hard to follow, but this time it was done so clearly and smoothly. Each character’s perspective was distinct, making it easy to stay engaged.

Overall, When She Was Gone is a compelling, emotional, and well-written book. I’d definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy family-driven suspense with rich character development.