This was my first time reading anything by this author and I was highly impressed. While scrolling through the Read Nows on NetGalley, I ran across The Lost Girls of Devon by author Barbara O’Neal and the bookcover is what grabbed my attention. I downloaded it and am so very glad I did. She’s a fantastic author! This story has several different things about it that just captivated my full attention. It’s a mystery where there are 2 different women that are missing and you don’t find out exactly what has become of them until the end. The other main part of the story is about 4 generations of a female family who have made bad choices, mistakes in life as we all do, who are trying to make amends and find forgiveness. There’s also a childhood romance that reignites after falling apart from yet another mistake. Everything about this book I found fascinating. It completely held my interest and I didn’t want to leave the characters. They were all wonderful in their own way. It was a pleasant surprise finding a new author to read and I’m looking forward to checking out other books by her. I’d like to thank NetGalley for the arc to read and review. This was definitely a 5 star read for me!

I must say I have always loved stories by this author and was sad to see this one end.

This is a story of four generations of women on the maternal side of the family, who come together after Zoe and her daughter Isabel, fly back to England after Zoe's best friend from childhood Diana goes missing.
Zoe, divorced and Isabel going through some trauma of her own, decide this would be a good time to help search for her friend and to see her grandmother who raised her from age seven, when her mother Poppy, left to travel the world and find herself.
Now decades later, Zoe, her Mother Poppy and her grandmother Lillian, plus her daughter Isabel are all in the same town and years of resentment for her mother are once again coming to the surface for Zoe. Also an old flame of Zoe's, Sage lives there.
Zoe is an artist, her daughter Isabel has gotten into photography Lillian the grandmother is a writer and Zoe's Mother Poppy, is still a free spirit, who delves into spiritual practices.
This is a book with a mystery to it it, as they all delve into the disappearance of Diana, and another girl who was helping her in her business. It is also a book of healing for all of these characters, whatever their issues are from past and present.

I loved the story and the characters. I cannot wait for another of her books, I have read all of them except one, When we Believed in Mermaids, which I luckily have, to read soon.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy of this book.

“Lost girls. I’d found them everywhere, all over the world, all longing for hope, for love, for an answer to their hungers in a world that did not honor them.”

When she was seven, Zoe’s mother Poppy dropped her off at her grandmother’s house and never came back. While they wrote letters and talked on the phone, it wasn’t enough for her, so when she was 12, she cut her mother out of her life forever. Now a mother to a teenage Isabel, Zoe must return home to her grandmother Lillian’s to find her missing best friend. Things get tense when these 4 generations get together. Add in Zoe’s first boyfriend, Sage, and her missing best friend Diana, you have a book filled with possibilities.

I related to one of these women at one time or another during my reading, though I especially related to both Zoe and Isabel, who struggled with PTSD. My heart hurt for Isabel and could relate to her anxiety and panic. There was beauty in the way she walked herself through those episodes. I loved Poppy’s free spirit and enjoyed watching her grow as a character, a grandmother, and a mother. Through tragedy, they all brought something special to each other. All of them, talented artists in their chosen craft, and I adored that their art played such a big role in the book.

I first read O’Neal in December 2019, and I instantly fell in love. When I saw she had a new book coming out, I raced to request it from Lake Union Publishing because I knew I had to have it. I can’t recommend the book enough. The characters and the storyline are fantastic. Between the mystery of Diana’s disappearance, the blossoming love between Zoe and Sage, and the healing among the generations, it touches on so many emotions as you’re reading. A heartwarming and healing journey.

4 generations of one family each telling there own story, building up to them all finding out about themselves ,all tied together to make the perfect read, would recommend this author

Star rating: 4/5

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC! The Lost Girls of Devon will be available to the public on July 14th 2020.

Summary:

Barbara O'Neal's highly-anticipated new novel combines mystery and family drama, telling the story of four generations of women. Zoe was abandoned by her mother, Poppy, at age seven and raised by her grandmother, Lillian, in the small English town of Devon. Zoe now lives in the States, and she returns home to her grandmother with her own daughter, Isabel, after learning that her childhood best friend has gone missing. While attempting to solve the mystery of Diana's disappearance, she is also forced to face her mother and the pain of her past she has tried to leave behind.

Review:
If the above summary is confusing, it's because this story was confusing. This novel is just jam-packed with characters and plot. The story is told in alternating perspectives by Zoe, Isabel, Poppy, and Lillian, and each character is dealing with their own major crisis, all the while trying to solve the mystery of Diana's disappearance. It is, quite honestly, overwhelming. That being said, I did enjoy the story overall, and certain aspects of it are quite lovely. Poppy and Isabel are instantly loveable characters, despite the conflicting feelings we are meant to have about Poppy. O'Neal's writing, as always, is beautiful and descriptive and brought me to tears. That being said, I just don't think mystery is O'Neal's strong suit, and the mystery aspect felt out of place here - just added drama to an already dramatic tale. It made the novel feel disjointed, like it could have easily been two separate stories.
Overall, if you can get past the overwhelming amount of plot, this is a really enjoyable read. I recommend The Lost Girls of Devon for fans of O'Neal's past work, as well as fans of Lisa Jewell, Kristin Hannah, and Chanel Cleeton.

The Lost Girls of Devon reunites four generations of women. There are many layers to the story, which are revealed for each character. The dialogue is good, interactions are both charming and testy. Old wounds and fee,ings are worked through. I liked the relationship between Zoe and Sage the best.

Barbara O’Neal is a favorite author of mine. Her books always have a little magic in them— just enough to make you believe. This book brings back the enjoyment that I got while reading her books that were set in New Mexico. This isn’t really a mystery—I much more enjoyed it as a family story, with all the ups and downs and tears and joy that are inherent in families. Well done if you’re not really looking for a mystery to solve.

I like reading #netgalley #books on #amazonkindle because I don’t have the back book cover description to influence my reading. I went into this novel with no assumptions and loved the experience. It’s the story of three childhood friends that have lost their connection over the years. When one goes missing, the other two reconnect and search to find her. While mostly a #mysterynovel, it is also the story of a mother’s love and how relationships with daughters can be strained. There is also a wonderful #romancenovel plot line that made the second half of the book hard to put down. A great ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ novel by @barbaraonealauthor that will be published in July. I look forward to reading O’Neal’s other works. 📚📚📚 #booklover #bookrecommendations #netgalleyreview #thelostgirlsofdevon #lakeunionpublishing

reading breeds empathy. Getting the chance to fully glimpse into a character's life and stay there for a little while makes the reading experience that much better. O'Neal creates characters that imprint your heart. this novel has 4 generations of strong women and throughout the novel I felt my heart break and heal. loved every page.

Really enjoyed the multi-generational aspect to this story. Such a fun story!

Many thanks to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Although an actual missing woman is the catalyst for this story, it’s really about three generations of women in a family who are lost in the figurative sense, and how they find their way back to each other. It’s about broken dreams, lost opportunities and second chances. I was moved to tears both by the beauty of the prose and parallels it reflected in my own life. The actual mystery also gets solved in an unexpected way, but the true power in this book lies in its ability to say something different to every reader,

Another great read by the talented Barbara O'Neal, who is fast becoming an auto-read for me.

This is about four generations of women in one family. Lillian (an author) is the eldest and lives in a big house in a small Devon village. Her daughter, Poppy, is a free spirit and has fairly recently returned to the village after travelling the world 'finding herself' in Glastonbury, India, etc. and learning from masters about healing/tarot etc., so a very spiritual person. Unfortunately in 'finding herself' she left her young daughter, Zoe, with her mother and didn't come back for her. So Zoe has a very rocky/non-talking relationship with her mother. And then we have Isabel, 15 year old daughter of Zoe, who has recently gone through a trauma, which she isn't telling anyone about yet, but is seeing a counsellor, and this eventually comes to light as the story progresses.

Zoe and Isabel live in the States, but visit Lillian most years and have come over to visit Lillian this time as one of Zoe's oldest friends, Diana, has gone missing in mysterious circumstances.

This is an emotional book with the different generations trying to forge a way forward without upsetting someone else, with Poppy the main cause of the antagonism because Zoe can't forgive her for abandoning her when she was little, but Isabel really wanting to connect with her grandmother. Dementia is also creeping up on Lillian which is getting worse and she needs more help.

There is also a real sinister feeling running through the background of the story because of the missing Diana, and also another missing/dead girl. Very clever, mixing all the emotions of all the women along with the mystery of the missing girls. I really enjoyed how the different chapters were centred on one character at a time.

A very compelling read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Trying to keep these 4 women’s stories straight was tough. I was wanting to like this more than I did and I found myself struggling through the book. I did enjoy it but I felt like I wasn’t connecting to some of the characters which seemed to make me like it less. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley for a chance to know this author and enjoy this book, which I love , love love. It is a great story, part mystery, part romance and mother’s and daughters and the way women care for each other. I was glued to this book until I finished, Now I will go back and look for all Barbara O’Neal’s other work. You should do the same.

A definite beach read, if the beaches are ever opened again, or when curled up in the corner of the couch on a rainy afternoon. This tale of multigenerational women in a small, coastal town in southern England pulls you into their lives with incredible prose and description. A kaleidoscope of pain and hurt weaves through the story, from the devastating bullying by social media and the heartbreak of dementia. These women, each strong and independent, find themselves interacting and communicating past old hurts and demons.

Rating: 5/5
Genre: Domestic fiction/ Thriller
Plot: 
One of Travel + Leisure’s most anticipated books of summer 2020.
From the Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids comes a story of four generations of women grappling with family betrayals and long-buried secrets.
It’s been years since Zoe Fairchild has been to the small Devon village of her birth, but the wounds she suffered there still ache. When she learns that her old friend and grandmother’s caretaker has gone missing, Zoe and her fifteen-year-old daughter return to England to help.
Zoe dreads seeing her estranged mother, who left when Zoe was seven to travel the world. As the four generations of women reunite, the emotional pain of the past is awakened. And to complicate matters further, Zoe must also confront the ex-boyfriend she betrayed many years before.
Anxieties spike when tragedy befalls another woman in the village. As the mystery turns more sinister, new grief melds with old betrayal. Now the four Fairchild women will be tested in ways they couldn’t imagine as they contend with dangers within and without, desperate to heal themselves and their relationships with each other.
My verdict: First of all thank you to the kind folks at Netgalley who allowed me to read this book prior to its release in July and for introducing me to a new author! I find Ms O’Neale’s writing to be very eloquent almost reminiscent of poetry and even the though plot deals with heavy subjects she strikes the right balance when it comes to gritty realism and emotional impact with a dash of romance and moments of levity for good measure set against the stunning backdrop of the Devonshire coast where her descriptions make me feel as though I am their along side the characters.
This book shows us how bad relationships and good relationships shape us and how it’s natural to become estranged from friends over time but that no bridge is burned beyond repair and how we can turn traumatic experiences into something positive and learn from them.
I particularly enjoyed the Wiccan elements in regards to Poppy’s character and how much we need to remind ourselves to listen to the rhythms of nature and even our own emotions and how they can foreshadow things to come. I particularly enjoyed Isabels rather analogue approach to life aside from her writing and photography especially after what she did experienced and it reminded me that sometimes we need to log off and not be so worried about what others think and instead think of what we want for ourselves. I loved The butterfly analogy used throughout in both Zoe and Isabels art and how it represents the metamorphosis of character, how Zoe went from a happy-go-lucky child to resenting her mother and how Isabel went from a depressed teenager disengaged with life to a brave young woman who managed to find the beauty in anything she saw.
I read this book in a matter of 12 hours and I am so grateful for net galley for introducing me to the wonderful world according to Barbara O’Neale and will most definitely be looking forward to reading and reviewing her next release... this lovely author is one to watch! Fans of Diane Chamberlain, Jodi Picoult and Shalini Boland will love this fabulous family saga.

Click the image to be taken to fantastic fiction so that you may pre-order your copy.

I was not able to access the title. Unfortunately, I seem to have had technical difficulties with the Kindle download.

Another beautiful story by Barbara O’Neal. I am always a fan of multigenerational stories and this one did not disappoint. I would highly recommend it to fans of Barbara O’Neal and I look forward to her next book.

If you're looking for escapism in these dark times, this book will sweep you away to Devon in the South of England, to a fishing village complete with quaint shops, white cliffs, fish and chips and an annual festival. As always, @barbaraonealauthor paints with all the senses, not just the sights, but the smells, sensations, colors, and taste of being there in her story universe, nestled in a village by the sea.
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A compelling, heartfelt tale of four generations of women, seeking to find their path and heal their pain; some of which they caused each other.
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Isabel is fifteen and has been traumatized by an experience with her High School friends that she isn't willing to talk about - even with Zoe, the mother she is so close to. Meanwhile, Zoe's friend in England has disappeared and so the two of them decide to cross the Atlantic to visit Zoe's ailing but proud grandmother in the same town.
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The novel touches on a universal theme of forgiveness, and how the inability to forgive can prevent us from moving forward and being happy in the now. And asks the question of whether forgiveness can really be an option for Zoe, who has never moved on from her own mother abandoning her as a young child?
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Lovers of intergenerational stories and those looking for an escape from today's reality, where you can be immersed in a different place and the lives of others, will particularly appreciate this uplifting exploring the bonds between women

I loved this book! Based on the description I expected a family saga set in a beautiful village on the coast of England. And yes, that is the premise of the novel but it is so very much more. It is a multigenerational look at family dynamics as four generations of women come together to heal and explore their roles and societal expectations. There are also other “lost” women in the story; a local teenage mother, a women on the cusp of finding happiness, refugees looking for a better life. A wonderfully written book.