The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O'Neal (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"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 Thoughts:

The Lost Girls of Devon was one of those books that just felt like the perfect book at the perfect time.  I absolutely love when that happens!  I feel like there is a certain kind of magic when a book fits into your reading mood so perfectly without you even realizing that it was what you were in the mood for necessarily.  There was just something about it that really drew me into the book from the very beginning.  There's a lot going on in this book but it never felt like too much.  I was worried about what happened to Zoe's missing friend throughout the book.  I was also equally concerned about Zoe and her mother's relationship, the romance that seemed to be developing between Zoe and Sage, the secrets Zoe's daughter Isabel was hiding, and the health struggles that Zoe's grandmother was facing.  I was just completely absorbed in their lives - there is really no other way to put it.  Another thing that I appreciated about this book was despite the harder topics it covered, I found this book hopeful.  I can't really explain what I mean about that without spoiling anything but I still really wanted to mention it.  The characters are up against many different things but it still left me hopeful by the end without just wrapping those darker threads into a bow.  This book is also told from each of the four women's viewpoints which was the perfect setup in my opinion.  We got to read from Zoe's point of view the most but she was really at the center of everything.  I felt like I understood each of these women more because of the way that the book was written.  Having the opportunity to really see things from their point of view allowed for the author to bring all of these characters to life for me.  I liked the way things ended with this book but I almost wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters.  I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more by this author in the future!

Overall, this book really swept me away in its' pages and was a wonderful reading experience.  These are characters that I came to really care about.  I won't be forgetting their story anytime soon.  I'm so glad that I took the opportunity to read this book because it just fit with my reading mood perfectly.  I love when that happens!  Also, can we please talk about how gorgeous that cover is!  It brings to mind (for me anyways) a summer read but I have to say that this book felt just a bit heavier than that.  It may not have given me the summer vibes that the cover did but it really was a compelling read with characters that came to life for me.  I would recommend this book to fans of women's fiction, those readers who enjoy a lighter mystery, and just fiction in general.  I really think that this book would appeal to a variety of readers - I hope that many other readers find it and love it just as much as I did!  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  This is one of those books that I found myself just entranced by from beginning to end!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book as part of a TLC book tour.  Honest thoughts are my own.

**Please note that Blogger seems to have cut out portions of my thoughts - I didn't realize until afterwards so I went back and edited it with my original thoughts as best as I could.  My apologies!