Georgia’s secret isn’t that big,

yet it could ruin several lives and tear her family apart.

[facebook] [retweet]

---

About the Book

When she gets the call that her daughter Georgia has been involved in an accident, Anya is desperately trying to hold her family together—her daughter has become withdrawn and secretive, her husband is absent even when he’s at home, and her son is lost in video games. Georgia is bruised but otherwise fine. But her cousin Sophie is in an induced coma, and when a young woman is seen loitering in the hospital ward it seems this was no accident. But was Sophie the intended victim or is Georgia in danger, and why? How can Anya protect her family when talking honestly is something they have forgotten?

My Review

All That is Lost Between Us is an interesting study of family dynamics. Though Anya is given the first person point of view it is Georgia who really shines. Georgia runs the fells and this sport was a great way to showcase the landscape of the novel, and just like her earlier book Beneath the Shadows (set on the Yorkshire moors), Foster uses the landscape to great effect, both plot wise and to set the tone. In a way, the fells also contribute to Georgie’s secret: the reason she’s withdrawn and for which she feels a mixture of grief and longing. Foster drips clues about this big secret throughout the novel and builds to the revelation and a nice twist.

Anya, her husband Callum, Georgia and her brother Zac, each have point of view chapters, though Anya’s is the only one in first person. This didn’t help me warm to Anya as perhaps it was supposed to though I certainly felt her fury and pain when Callum revealed his truth. As a psychological suspense I found this novel lacking. The pace is slow in the first half of the book, partly because clues to Georgie’s ‘secret’ are too sparse in these early chapters and partly because there were several scenes with a character revealing backstory as they walked. In the second half the pace picks up and the final few chapters have plenty of punch.

All That is Lost Between Us is a story about a family (and a marriage) in trouble with a teen secret as the catalyst. It’s the kids who hold the story together and it’s the kids who are most impacted by what happens. Foster captures families beautifully, especially the angst, the fear and the longing that teenagers try to hide behind insolence. Though not suspenseful enough for me, as a tense story of family relationships this book delivers. Recommended.

NB: Foster is so good at teenagers I’d love to see what she could do with a Young Adult suspense.

*Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC

[button link=”http://books.simonandschuster.com.au/All-That-Is-Lost-Between-Us/Sara-Foster/9781925184785″ newwindow=”yes”] BUY THE BOOK[/button]

About the Author

Born and raised in the UK, Sara worked for a time in the HarperCollins fiction department in London, before turning her hand to freelance editing, and writing in her spare time.

It wasn’t until 2007 that Sara decided to pursue her dream of getting published, and she took time out from editing to finish her first book. COME BACK TO ME was published in Australia in 2010 and reached the Sydney Morning Herald top ten Australian bestsellers list. Her second book, BENEATH THE SHADOWS, reached No. 4 on the Australian Sunday Telegraph bestsellers list, and was published in the USA and Germany. Her third novel, SHALLOW BREATH, was long listed for the 2013 Davitt Award.

Read more about Sara Foster

See my review of other Sara Foster’s Beneath the Shadows

Stay in touch: Join the Community