When She Returned

Michelle

Rating: really liked it
I should have done my research before requesting this as I never would have if I had know it would involve a cult. Argh.

Seemingly intelligent woman, happily married mother of one, a reporter, out to investigate possible cult, meets leader and immediately agrees with whatever he says because what he says just makes sense.

You, my dear, are a moron.

Setting this one aside. No rating.

Linda

Rating: really liked it
Things have come undone.....

Lucinda Berry presents a storyline that has the feel of shifting sand under your feet. Can't quite get the balance of it all. Can't quite get a handle on those ships that set sail in these choppy waters.

Kate Bennett is a stay-at-home mother of five year old Abbi in Northern California. The "stay-at-home" portion seems to be driven by her husband, Scott. Kate longs to be back in her journalism lane free from what she perceives are deadend walls all day.

Her former boss calls with an assignment that gets the juices flowing once again. Kate is to interview the head of Love International which is based out of Pierce College. The organization focuses on helping college students who are battling opioid addiction. The interview with Ray Fischer seems to go well along with her boss' approval. It appears that Kate has her foot in the door once again.

But a few weeks later, Kate's car is found in a Target's parking lot. Her keys are in the ignition, handbag on the seat, and shopping bags in the trunk. Absolutely no sign of Kate.

Lucinda Berry fast forwards to eleven years later entitled "Now". Abbi is sixteen and Scott is remarried to a widow named Meredith who has two college aged sons. The quiet suburbia setting is in for a nightmare though. Kate shows up terrified at a gas station in Montana with a baby in tow. The upcoming weeks will find this disjointed family living under one roof trying to piece together Kate's missing years. Traumatized and anxious, Kate refuses to give much information under the scrutiny of the FBI and stress counseling. The chapters will revert to "Then" in which Kate's story slowly takes on a face.

One would think that we have a blockbuster here. Not so fast. What starts out as a high-interest storyline begins to sink under the weight of the "Then" aspect. Without giving away anything more, we have a grown woman acting like a teenage runaway. Everything is built on this premise with the end result falling apart like a Jenga game. So much unnecessary dialogue and elaborate explanations while in "Thenville". A shot of energy at the end was not enough to save this one for me. You may have an entirely different experience from mine. Check it out and see.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Lucinda Berry for the opportunity.

Bren fall in love with the sea.

Rating: really liked it
“The problem with having a fairy-tale relationship story was how much other people were invested in keeping the fairy tale alive. It wasn’t just our story—it was everyone’s.”
― Lucinda Berry, When She Returned


I have to go with the crowd here. I have read many reviews for this and most people did not seem to love it nor hate it and that is exactly how I feel.

So this book is about Kate who vanished without a trace 12 years ago from a target parking lot. Now, all these years later, Hubs has remarried and has mourned the loss of his former wife.

But guess what? She's back! And apparently she had been with a cult all these years. Kate has escaped, with a new baby in tow, seemingly lost and in emotional chaos. Her return triggers quite a reaction from all her family members from her daughter Abbi who is thrilled to Husband Scott to new wife Meredith.

This book goes back and forth from the here and now to the events leading up to, and beyond, Kate's vanishing.

On one hand, Kate seems to have been a prisoner all these years as her body shows terrible abuse. But Kate is robotic and clearly not able to speak in detail about what happened. She is also full of secrets and her return may not be the happy event her family thought it would be.

I enjoyed this book but only mildly. Part of the issue was the backstory. Again..will agree with ALL the skimmers. There seem to be a large number of GR reviewers who skimmed the backstory and I am one of them. I found it painful, gloomy and besides I wanted to know about the NOW, not the then.

This issue has popped up in so many reviews and I get it. If the whole book had been majority in the here and now, I'd most likely be rating this a five. It was fascinating. But I lost interest whenever it went back to the cult. I've read enough cult stories and it was just to much. I'd have liked more focus on the Kate here with us TODAY. Because I found that Kate fascinating.

I am mixed about Meredith. I get she felt thrown aside but honestly? She was acting jealous from the start and for crying out loud, the woman(Kate) was brutalized. I did not buy Meredith's reasons for acting the way she did. Just because she did not love her first husband is no reason to assume Scott would not welcome back Kate.

I disliked Kate because of just about everything but I also do not think she was mentally sound. Part of the issue is we don't know WHY Kate chose to leave. (Not a spoiler..you find out pretty early that Kate left voluntarily.) But I would have liked to know more about Kate to gain a better understanding of WHY. Not unrealistic though. I have heard that these stories have and do occur..and occur alot.

SPOILERS:

Loved Abbie. She was my favorite character. Loathed Kate at the end. Not surprised by the end either. Sad though. This book was very realistic. I have read about cults, seen films on them and come from a family of Therapists who have worked with them. Kate had severe Stockholm Syndrome but I really would have liked to know about her childhood, her early days with Scott and her current circumstances. I found the subject fascinating, the characters fascinating but the backstory just did not do it for me so I am giving this 3.5 stars.

Tahera

Rating: really liked it
Kate Bennett seems to have it all. A happy marriage, a loving husband (and childhood sweetheart) Scott, a five year old healthy and happy daughter Abbie and a career as an investigative journalist which she is excited to get back to. But one day Kate just disappears from a supermarket's parking lot without a trace.

Eleven years later, Scott and Abbie have finally moved on with their lives when Kate suddenly reappears with a 7 month old baby. Abbie is now 16 years old with a very vague memory of her mother and Scott has remarried another woman Meredith. Kate does not seem even a slight shadow of her former self; she is severely malnourished and looks psychologically traumatised. While Scott, Abbie and Meredith try to figure out how to re-integrate Kate back into their lives, the police investigate and find out that Kate might have left her family and life on her own free will to join the cult she was investigating and whose leader she had interviewed 11 years ago. Meredith seems to have doubts about Kate and as the police continue with their investigation, it seems like Kate's return could be far more dangerous than anyone expected.

This book shows the extent of the devious power and influence a cult can hold and have, even on seemingly educated and intelligent people, to make them give up the sanity of their lives to embrace the insanity of a cult.

My thanks to Netgally, the publisher Thomas and Mercer and the author Lucinda Berry for the e-Arc of the book. I apologise for putting up the review late.

Rating: 3.5*

Mark

Rating: really liked it

Fast and Furious!
Kate disappears from a parking lot 11 years ago
Her hubby and daughter are devastated
Eventually Scott remarries and him, his new wife Meredith and his daughter Abbi have a new life but they never forget Kate
And then, one day, she appears, with a baby
Where has she been? Who took her and why?
I’m not going to say the answer to any of the questions but its a fascinating and very dark story and extremely well researched, thought out, presented and written and scarily believable
The adjustment to all their lives is massive and things start to spin out of control
But then, the ultimate blindside, had me gasping out loud and ok will use the word ‘twist’ happens and its a raw, evil and shocking one
Its brilliant
At times brutal, other times gentle this book is dramatic and sinister and above all else very very readable
10/10
5 Stars

Kimberly

Rating: really liked it
I know there are a lot of mixed reviews for this one but I couldn't put it down. I liked the multiple points of view and while the characters weren't likable at all times, I did find them interesting. The story itself ended a bit abruptly, but after reading a few of Lucinda Berry's books I was kind of expecting it. I think if I could have changed anything I would have liked to have known what happened to the other cult members, but as it is, I was satisfied with the overall story.

Shelby

Rating: really liked it
11-years ago wife and mother, Kate Bennett disappeared in California without a trace. After months turned into years, her husband, Scott and her daughter, Abbi were forced to move on with their lives. Abbi is now 16 and barely remembers her mom. Scott has since remarried another widow named Meredith, brought together by their shared grief.

Now unexpectedly, Kate is found at a gas station in Montana, a 7-week old baby on her hip. Severely malnourished, clearly beaten and psychologically traumatized, Kate is baffling both doctors and police. Scott never expected to see his first wife again and when she reappears out of the blue, their life is thrown completely upside down.

The police start investigating what happened to Kate. And when they start to look into her disappearance, they learn she left her family of her own volition and joined a cult. Scott thought he knew his childhood sweetheart, but it becomes clear that he never really knew his wife after all.

When She Returned by Lucinda Berry kept me hooked from the very start. Not only do I love stories about missing people, but I’m very intrigued by cults. So when this story delved into what it was like to be in a cult, I found myself unable to put this book down. Previously I read The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry and I’m happy to say I loved this book just as much. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and Lucinda Berry for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kat

Rating: really liked it
Kate Bennett was abducted from a parking lot eleven years ago. She is found in Montana holding a baby, refusing to say where she’s been. The FBI believes she was taken by a cult. After eleven years, her husband has remarried. The five-year-old she left behind is now sixteen. Abbi is eager to reconnect with her mom. Meredith, Scott’s new wife, is trying to be understanding, up unto a point. But there’s something odd about Kate’s behavior…

I found the relationship angles of this interesting. The cult stuff was interesting to a point, although I found myself skimming the “then” sections after a while. There were aspects to the police investigation that felt really improbable. (view spoiler)[ Kate up and disappears and no one thinks to question the looney tunes cult she’s being brainwashed by? Wouldn’t that be the first place you would look? (hide spoiler)] This was a quick read that I would call more of a family drama than a psychological thriller as there really aren’t any twists.

Bridgett

Rating: really liked it
Well, this definitely wasn't what I was expecting after reading The Perfect Child, a far superior novel by Lucinda Berry .

I loved that book. When She Returned...not so much. Don't get me wrong. This is very well-written, and if you're looking for a character study examining the effects of losing a loved one to a cult (or how incredibly smart people fall into such a destructive trap), this is definitely a story you'll love. I just couldn't really connect with any of the characters, and both books I've read by this author included incredibly annoying, totally duh-headed males protagonists. Beyond that, I think I was simply expecting something a little more grisly. I needed something more grisly. What I got was flat, and not even remotely shocking.

The timeline was wonky. For example, Kate, a journalist, used the internet to research Ray for her story...but later, upon her return, acts as though she's never heard of it before. And she was supposedly gone for 11 years, but the sections of the story told from her POV most definitely did not cover 11 years. The whole story was anti-climatic...and predictable. I won't say more for fear of spoilers, but from the moment Kate arrived home, I suspected how things would play out, and I was correct...which sucks.

Overall...I'm feeling pretty "meh" about this novel.

**Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for my candid review.

myo (myonna reads)

Rating: really liked it
i was literally reading this book like “how could this book make me shocked” and then i got to the “twist” and was GAGGED

Jennifer Kyle

Rating: really liked it
3.75 Stars

Christina

Rating: really liked it
I listened to the audiobook version of this story and it was very well-performed. It’s a very different kind of “missing woman” story where the woman comes back years later and had to re-integrate with her family, including her husband’s new wife. I don’t want to spoil too much why she went missing but you can find it in some of the other reviews. It was a very compelling, creepy story in ways I didn’t expect. You got to hear the story through the voices of the missing woman, her daughter, and the new wife of the husband she disappeared from years before. The subject matter of the reason for her disappearance is something of a surprise and not something I usually choose to read about, but I thought it was well-done here. A solid and entertaining audiobook choice for your commute, chores or relaxing at home.

Chantal

Rating: really liked it
This book has a refreshing intense storyline you don't see everyday. At first I didn't know if it was something I would like because it was out of the ordinary, but I really loved this book. When I was half way through I could not put it down, I had to know the end and wonder what I would do in that situation? The story is told out of the eyes of the missing female, the daughter and the new wife and it will hold you tight.

This is a ARC from the publisher, which I got for a honest review.

Lyn❤Loves❤Listening #AUDIOBOOKADDICT

Rating: really liked it
Audio 5 Stars
Story 3.75 Stars

MissBecka Gee

Rating: really liked it
Holy crap!
Gotta say that was highly entertaining!!!

Much love to the crew at NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my DRC.