Interesting but not really my cup of tea. Well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5 stars rounded down. It would have been better if there had two more distinct voices/authors for Ruth and Isobel. The first half was very slow, and the second half was a bit predictable and/or absurd. A mother who goes to great lengths to protect her beloved school? Ruth is ruthless, and Isobel is a little naive. I cared enough to finish this book, but it didn’t really grab me.

Why She Left is about a daughter who returns home after a twenty year absence with a teenage son in tow. Her mother never knew why she disappeared and what happened to her. The book is told in alternating chapters by Ruth, the mother, and her daughter Isobel. Isobel's story is told in third person, but Ruth's is told in first person, which makes it much more immediate, and made her the main character in my eyes.

There is an inanimate character in the book, and it is called The School. Ruth's family started London's most prestigious school for children a generation ago, and it is everything to her. All of the drama and the storylines flow around happenings at The School. I did like The School as a character. It added a bit of that dark academia vibe.

After finishing this book I am left a bit confounded. It is not that I didn't enjoy it. I did, mostly. Let me add that I listened to the audio, and I would say that this greatly added to my liking the story. The narrator did an excellent job with Ruth, making her every bit as horrendous of a person as she was! I'm not sure I would have kept on reading in some parts, but with the narrator, I was happy to chug along through slower parts of the story. What was really confusing was that this book was listed in NetGalley as a mystery or thriller, and it was really more of a domestic drama with a slight mystery thrown in. So it was not the story I was expecting. Despite this, the writing was good and the characters were interesting. I would try another book by this author.

At the end of the day I cared enough to finish listening, but the story didn't really grab me. Maybe if I had gone in knowing it was more of a family drama, my feelings would have been different.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture Audio, and the author for allowing me to listen to this ARC for an honest opinion.

Lots of family drama here. Secrets from the past come to light along with consequences. While not my favorite recent read, it dies have some suspense and drama as we learn Why She Left.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Why She Left is a tragic domestic thriller. Ruth is the successful matriarch of her family. She owns and runs an upscale private school. The school (‘the square”) was passed down to Ruth by her father. Ruth has made the school the major priority in her life.

This gripping story chronicles the lives of Ruth and her two daughters, Cecily and Isobel. Over the years, the family ties have been strained. Now, it seems clear everything is about to come to a head.


Why She Left is a moving and emotional page-turner. The familial secrets held by the family members are reflective of not just selfishness, but of serious secrets with the power to humiliate and destroy lives.

Why She Left drew me in right from the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed this unique mystery-thriller! I can’t wait to read more from Leah Mercer.

Isobel returns to her mom Ruth’s house after 15yrs, and her mom doesn’t know why Isabel left abruptly all those years ago. After seeing her grandson, she even thinks it might have been because Isobel might have been pregnant.

Ruth has just started working on saving the Burlington Square School – she is thinking of getting some investors and getting the school to go international. She is very delighted to enroll her grandson Isaac in the school, while Isobel is dealing with a lot of issues like running away from a bad relationship, she is also hiding a secret from the past. While everything is going well, Isaac is found bruised and unconscious in the school. While Isobel suspects that someone attacked him, Isaac continues to refuse that and says that he just slipped and fell.
This was not a great read and this was mostly a family drama with a bit of mystery - it’s all about what might have happened to Isobel, who attacked Isaac and Ruth really day dreaming (a lot) about making her school better. The story unfolds from the POV of Isobel and Ruth.
Towards the last few chapters everything falls into place.

Thank you Bookouture Audio & Netgalley for the ARC, this is my unbiased review.

a domestic thriller full of family secrets some of which were predictable, but satisfyingly revealed. For me the ending was shocking and this pushes it up from a 3 star to a 4 as i love a shock

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to listen to this book. This audiobook is wonderfully narrated. However, the story is a bit drawn out, It's women's fiction with a bit of a mystery. It touches on secrets, family life, interfamily relationships, and how our lives can change if we keep secrets.

This is a love story. A mother and daughter love story. And it was told by both of them's pov.

Isobel run away when she was sixteen, and her mother Ruth spent the next fivteen years wondering why her daughter cut her and left when she thought they were close. Ruth was the headmistress of the family owned prestigeous school that one day was going to be run by Isobel.
Fivteen years later, Isobel come back home with her teenage son on tow running again from a violent relationship.

Lies, distrust, betrayal and a lot of family drama. But the love Isobel had for her mother that made her leave when she was merely a teenager and love Ruth had for daughter that was misinterepted and misdirected that made her give up the most important to her but not as presious as family.

I found this domestic drama to be fairly predictable.

It's the story of Isobel, who left home fifteen years before, and has now returned to her mother Ruth's doorstep with her teen son Isaac in tow, having escaped from an abusive relationship. Ruth, whose lifetime loyalty has been to the school she runs that has been passed through the generations, is thrilled that Isobel has returned and can't wait to bring her back into the fold and get to know her grandson. Ruth has always wondered why Isobel left, and hopes that she will eventually find out. Isobel, on the other hand, went through some awful experiences and isn't ready to deal with them even all of these years later. Told from the alternating perspectives of Ruth and Isobel, we learn what each one is hiding.

It was fairly easy for me to figure out what had happened to Isobel, and while I started off disliking Ruth I pretty much hated her throughout the entire book. There's an attempt to redeem her at the end, but I didn't buy it. There are some twists in the book, a couple that were satisfying that I didn't predict, but taken as a whole the book is just an okay read for me. There wasn't anything very unique or original and there were a couple of days when I set it aside and didn't spend much time listening.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did a decent job with voicing Ruth and Isobel. I didn't find that two narrators were necessary because their voices weren't that distinct from each other. Once the book got going I was drawn to listen to it more to find out what was going to happen, but the book is a bit of a slow starter and it took a bit for the action to begin.

Overall, this is a decent read as a domestic drama with a bit of suspense.

I really enjoyed listening to this book of Isobel, a woman drawn home after a trauma. I was expecting a mystery, but the book was more of character study of a woman and her two daughters, one of whom left home after a horrifying event.

The family owns an amazing school, which quickly becomes almost a secondary character.

This was an enthralling book.

I really enjoyed the accent of the narrator and her pace of the story.

This book deals with a difficult topic that comes out slowly towards the end although you know that there’s something along these lines going on.
Whilst I quite enjoyed the book I hated the characters. Even those you were supposed to feel sorry for were pretty unlikeable.

Nice cover!

A good suspense novel on par with Sally Hepworth and holding some of the undercurrents of Little Fires Everywhere (but with less foreshadowing), I enjoyed Why She Left, by Leah Mercer.

Isobel left her mother and sister when she became pregnant in school. Now she has returned with her teenage son, Isaac, to the surprise of her mother, Ruth, who did not know she had a grandson. Ruth owns and runs a high end private school and for Ruth, reputation is everything. She never knew why her daughter left and as the story unfolds and secrets are revealed, Ruth has choices to make about what matters most to her.

This is the first Mercer book I have read but won't be my last! It's fun to find a new author...well, new to me!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance copy of the audio version of this book!

2.5 stars for me

Isobel shows up at her mom's door after she was gone for over 10 years with her son. She is in a bad spot and needs help. Although she doesn't want to turn to Ruth, her mom, she has limited to no options left. They settle in nicely but Isobel is haunted by past memories. She lives in a constant fear that her ex partner will find her. The surprising part is that her mom and her son are bonding quite fast and they start building a solid relationship.

The story is told from Isobel and Ruth's perspective. Ruth is equally puzzled by her departure and by her return.
The story is interesting at first. At times it gets a bit repetitive and the some parts are a predictable.
The ending has a few interesting twists.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for the opportunity to read this book!

Triggers:Sexual assault, abuse and trauma, sinister, twisted unhealthy family dynamics

So I write these disclaimers as I felt them necessary. "Why She Left" is a well crafted story that sadly mimics so many peoples real life experience. A mother, who believes she is the best mom in the world, runs the best school in the world and s a shining example to everyone around her. She also tends to withhold love, care more deeply about how she is perceived than any reality, has no idea what love truly is and even though she personally has never laid a hand on her children nor any under her tutelage, she is as guilty as can be. Ruth has absolutely no idea why Isobel has left. There must have been something wrong with Isobel for she and her beloved school were absolute perfection. Just ask anyone. Look at her and what she has created. it is perfect. Only, it isn’t and she is just too much of a narcissist and egomaniac to think she is anything other than what everyone would aspire to be. Many years later Isobel, who truly and literally has no where else to go shows up on her mothers doorstep with her beloved sweet son in need of a safe place to hide so she can regroup. She is also ever so slightly hopeful to be able to reconnect with her mother. Surprisingly her sister is now working at the school, the FAMILY LEGACY. She seems normal and happy to see her sister. Shges a good actress and a total psychopath. The school is having some financial issues so enter Alex, an education specialist to help. Or is he? With the exception of Isobel and her son, there is not a single decent human being in this story. And even when they attempt to redeem themselves, it is all done out of selfishness and revenge. I found most everyone truly repugnant. It was a well written story that only kept me listening because I wanted one person, just one to be there for Isobel without any agenda of their own. For her to be heard and acknowledged. Sadly that did not happen Things did change, but for me there was zero truth in the outcome so was disappointing to me. And yes I know this was a novel and we all want a happy ending with a nice tidy bow on top, but thats what the romance category is for. For me, had the ending been a bit more empowering for Isobel I might have liked it more.

3.5 star 🎧 Audiobook. A great family suspense. Set against a background of an elite private school; a school that has each of the protagonists in its grasp. The school, the protagonists, the past and the present all come colliding together creating seismic reactions that will blow everything and everyone apart.

The narrative perspectives come from Ruth, the current Headteacher and Isobel her daughter, who had fled the school and her family 15years previously and now returns anxiously and only through sheer desperation to escape an abusive relationship. She returns with her son Isaac, harbouring a dark secret - one that will affect her family and the school.

The school is crumbling physically, but dark secrets also threaten to destroy it. Isobel and Isaac are catalysts to a plethora of unveiled secrets that disrupt all in their wake; some predictable, but satisfying; many twists I didn't see coming. A great listen. With thanks to #leahmercer #netgalley and #bookouture.

I might be the outlier on this one but this book just wasn't for me. It was listed under the mystery & thriller category, but it was more like a family drama with a bit of mystery.

I struggled with the pacing, the characters, the plot, and the narration in the audio book. It was difficult to connect with any of the characters, especially Ruth. I detested everything about her (and the narrator's portray of her). I struggled to get through her chapters and I was very tired of hearing about "the school" over and over again.
The mystery wasn't that mysterious and it was extremely slow moving until about 30-40%.

Fans of this genre may enjoy this book more than I did, but for me this was a 2 star read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a free digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Family Secrets

An emotional book about a family wracked by secrets and family members that put their business and their reputation before their family. Twists and turns and so many secrets. This book will keep you guessing and keep you reading.

Isobel and her teenage son are running from an abusive relationship. They have nowhere to go so she goes home to her mother's home that she left fifteen years ago. Now her mother is surprised to open her door and find her missing daughter with a grandson in tow.

It is not until Isobel see's her son Isaac in a school uniform that she is horrified. She hates the school , it is the reason she left. She relents and allows her son to attend the school, but someone isn't happy with that and will do anything to destroy everything. Her very secret threatens her and her son as well.

She thought she would be safe here, but is she? Has her abusive boyfriend found her? Is someone else plotting against her? She will do anything to protect her son and someone else will do anything to protect their legacy.

The story was riveting, the narrator was very good, and I enjoyed the book. I would recommend it.

Thanks to Leah Mercer for writing a good book, for Mira Dovreni for narrating it and for Bookouture and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a copy of the audio book for my review.

Audiobook🎧

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This started out really strong I initially was really interested in the plot. Isobel returns home to her mother Ruth, 15 years after she ran way. No one knows why Isobel left but it appears she is hiding a dark secret

This was a great pretence for a thriller but unfortunately it quickly became predictable. It felt like more of a family drama novel rather then the thriller/suspense it was described as.

The narrators voice was great very easy to listen to and in no way grating like some narrators can be. However despite this the narrator had a very limited range, her tone of voice remained the same throughout. Because of this I found it very difficult to distinguish the characters leaving me really confused about individual story lines.

The story was really interesting up until about 25% then I quickly lost interest not a terrible book just not to my taste 2 stars.

Why She Left by Leah Mercer

Ruth has spent every day for the last 15 years wondering why her daughter, Isobel, left. She's extremely surprised to open her front door one day to find her daughter and teenage grandson!

Isobel has spent her life running away from a painful secret. A secret that could destroy her family. Returning to her childhood home after a bad relationship, in her mind, is her only option.

Ruth enrolls her grandson at their family run school, hoping they will stay for good. But once Isobel sees her son in the uniform, the reason she left all those years ago come flooding back to mind yet again!! Can they stay?

I enjoyed listening to this book!! My attention was held the entire time!!

Thank you Leah Mercer, Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the audio to listen to this book in return for my honest review!