The Lost Girls of Devon

Written by Barbara O'Neal

Narrated by Helen Lloyd, Esther Wane, Sarah Naughton and Pearl Hewitt

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781713505884

Barbara O'Neal

Barbara O’Neal is the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of more than a dozen novels of women’s fiction, including the #1 Amazon Charts bestseller When We Believed in Mermaids as well as The Starfish Sisters, This Place of Wonder, The Lost Girls of Devon, Write My Name Across the Sky, and The Art of Inheriting Secrets. Her award-winning books have been published in over two dozen countries. She lives on the Oregon coast with her husband, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent. For more information, visit barbaraoneal.com.

Reviews for The Lost Girls of Devon

[desiree_reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like any good tale, this novel is a lot of things. It's about family. About healing. About second chance romance.

It feels a bit dichotomous: Not quite British, not fully American. Which makes sense, I guess, as the characters are a mix of both, as is the author's family.

Enjoyable. Good. Not especially memorable, however. But still worth a read, especially for those who enjoy stories about family.

[whybehave2002 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amidst family and friends from her childhood, Zoe insists on solving a mystery that the police have put to bed. Excellent!

[bookanonjeff · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Solid Tale Of Intergenerational Drama. This is my third book from O'Neal, after 2018's The Art of Inheriting Secrets and 2019's When We Believed In Mermaids, and she continues to show her strength as a storyteller in continuing to spin new tales with new emphases on different things, all while being solidly centered on a woman's (or a few womens', in this case) perspective. Here we don't see quite the wistful what-could-have-been of Secrets, nor do we get anywhere *near* the waterworks and trauma of Mermaids, but we do get a solid tale of four generations of women who have each had their own issues with the others of their line, and who each have to work to resolve those issues. It touches on so many different issues, some in the zeitgeist of the last few years, others more muted in discussions but felt internally nonetheless, and it does all of them a fair degree of justice in its explorations from several angles. For example, the third generation has decades of resentment for the second, after the second abandoned her to the first while she went off to a far away land. We get the tales of both the third and the second, but we also see perspectives from the first and fourth on how they see the drama between second and third having played out in both of their lives, and how it has impacted the lives of first and fourth themselves. And that is just one of the many issues we see, all of them featuring similar complexities in storytelling. The bit of action near the end does feel a bit out of place, but adds another less explored bit of zeitgeist commentary into the book even as it feels a touch tacked on. All in all, a truly solid effort and very much recommended.

[squirrelhead_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This setting for this novel is Devon England and focuses on four generations of Fairchild women. Lillian is a famed mystery author living in an amazing old mansion which overlooks the sea. She is the mother of Poppy, grandmother to Poppy's daughter Zoe and great grandmother to Isabel. The story is told from all four women's point of view.It's interesting to read their chapters and see their perspectives, unique from one another based on different experiences. Lillian reveals she wanted to travel and have adventure in her youth but having a child (Poppy) kept her on the homefront. Their relationship is explained throughout from both women and how they view one another. Lillian is in her 80's and starting to have a slow mental decline. Poppy is 60 something.Poppy's story starts out from her daughter Zoe's observations. She left 7 year old Zoe with Lillian for a month long visit and didn't return. This obviously hurt Zoe and shaped her upbringing. Could you ever forgive your mother if she disappeared from your life, sending only letters and occassionally calling?Zoe is now 39 and has returned to England from her home in New Mexico. Her best friend Diana has been missing for 2 weeks and she came back to help, also to assist her grandmother Lillian. An added benefit is a change of scene for her 15 year old daughter Isabel as she is working through a traumatic event. Isabel is an amazing young woman who was subjected to serious bullying and more. It's the "more" that she doesn't share with her mother or counselor until near the end of the book and I tell you, your heart will go out to her. As a mother I would be out for blood if anyone damaged my child this way but....no spoilers here. It's lovely to see Isabel blossom as she explores Devon and lets her guard down. She loves her mother and great grandmother very much and finally meets her grandmother Poppy. Awkward situations ensue.There is love, reflection and redemption in this book. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

[samantha71020 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[susan0316 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed many of the previous books from this author and was excited to get a chance to read her new book. It was as good or better than her previous books and she has now been added to my favorite authors' list.The Lost Girls of Devon is about 4 generations of women and the bitterness and pain between several of them. When Zoe was seven years old, her mother, Poppy, left her with her grandmother, Lillian, and never returned. When she grew up, Zoe escaped England and the memories of her mother and moved to Santa Fe. She lives there with her 15 year old daughter, Isabel. When Zoe finds out that her best friend, Diana, has disappeared from the village they grew up in, she and Isabel head home to see if they can help find her. When she arrives she isn't happy to find out that her mother has also returned to the same village and Zoe refuses to see her or talk to her. She also finds out that Sage is living in the village. She has lots of growing up memories about the times that she spent with Diana and Sage. So here she is back in England with a mother she doesn't want to speak to, a grandmother who is getting senile, a typical teenage daughter with lots of attitude, an old boyfriend (Sage) and a missing best friend. Not only are they all trying to find Diana, but they all have personal issues with each other that need to be solved.The chapters alternate between the four women so we are able to find out what secrets they are hiding and how they feel about each other. The women are all well written and the story flows nicely as the secrets are revealed. Will they be able to improve their relationships with each other as they struggle to learn how to deal with the past?This book has a little mystery, a little romance and lots of family dynamics between the four women. Along with that it has beautiful descriptions of the Devon coast line. I really enjoyed this one!

[bookscookslooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Girls of Devon is the story of four generations of women, all of whom are suffering in one way or another. Zoe lives with her daughter Isabel in the States. Zoe’s mother Poppy and her grandmother Lillian live in Devon, England. Zoe grew up in Devon and her best friend is still there but she has gone missing and Zoe heads to England to see if she can find out what is going on. Also, her grandmother is getting frail and is showing signs of dementia. There are a lot of ghosts for her in Devon, including her old boyfriend.Zoe is hoping that the change of scenery will help Isabel who has experienced a trauma but she refuses to discuss it. She hopes that getting her away from her everyday environment will help her.There is a lot going on in this book; from the broken family relationships, dementia, the missing friend, Isabel’s cyber bullying, missing girls and mysterious boyfriends. To me, there is not enough book to fully develop all of the subplots. They are all given their due on the lead in but some are not fully resolved. I had a few questions at the end and it was just a titch frustrating.I was frustrated by many of the characters in this book, mostly Zoe. I particulary liked Poppy and wished her character had been better developed. Her reasons for leaving didn’t make sense to me but I don’t have anything to compare to in my life experience. I guess I think the book was trying to cover too many topics.

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The four women who inhabit this novel are exquisitely drawn in great emotional and psychological detail. The story speaks to dedication, control, love, abandonment, betrayal, loss, all the aspects that can pull a family apart and knit it back together, sometimes. Lillian is mother to Poppy who is mother to Zoe who is mother to Isabel. We hear each of their stories, bit by bit, in their words, remembrances and actions. Some relationships seem broken beyond belief, making you wonder why you keep going when you know you are going to face nothing but loss. The disappearance of a close friend serves to bring these women together to confront their past mistakes and face the realities that have been ploughed under. The mystery was an interesting contrivance that never gained traction other than to move the emotional discourse forward. As a story maybe not so earth shaking but as descriptive literature – Oh Wow!Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy