Book Review | The Road She Left Behind by Christine Nolfi

BOOK REVIEW | THE ROAD SHE LEFT BEHIND

TITLE: The Road She Left Behind

AUTHOR: Christine Nolfi

PUBLISHER: Lake Union Publishing

RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2019

GENRE: Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery

PRE-ORDER LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | INDIEBOUND

“Three women. Two families torn apart by secrets.

Crushed by guilt over the car accident that killed her father and sister, and torn apart by her mother’s resentment, Darcy Goodridge fled her family estate eight years ago and hasn’t looked back. Now an unexpected phone call threatens to upend what little serenity she’s found. Her nephew, Emerson, who was just a baby when his mother died, has gone missing. Darcy must return home and face her past in order to save him.

Once back in Ohio, Darcy realizes there’s more to Emerson’s disappearance—and to the sudden retirement of her mother, Rosalind—than meets the eye. As she works to make inroads with Rosalind, Darcy begins to unravel a decades-old secret that devastated her family and forced a wedge between her and Michael Varano, the man she left heartbroken when she vanished after the funeral. After carrying the scars of that fateful night for almost a decade, Darcy is determined to find closure, healing, and maybe even love where she lost them all in the first place—right back home where she belongs.” (Description from Goodreads)

MY THOUGHTS

(Before reading any further, please be aware that this review may contain spoilers)

Sometimes the first few chapters of a book can start slow and it takes some time to get into it, but Nolfi did a great job getting me interested in The Road She Left Behind right from the start. From the first chapter, I was wanting to know what happened and why Darcy was running away from her past.

The story revolves around a very dysfunctional family littered with tragedy and heartache. Without giving away much there’s a lot of broken hearts, guilt, death, and deception throughout. Most of the book left me wondering what would happen next, but as it got toward the end I started figuring out the puzzle and it became predictable. Not to say it wasn’t a good book. I did enjoy it, but I wanted a little more emotion and wanted more of the relationship between Darcy and Michael.

Overall, I would recommend this book for those who like reading women’s fiction. It was an enjoyable story about a family and their family drama which I’m sure everyone can relate to. While some label it as a mystery novel, I didn’t feel that it belonged in that category.

OVERALL RATING