#REVIEW – When She Returned by Lucinda Berry

One woman’s reappearance throws her family into turmoil, exposing dark secrets and the hidden, often devastating truth of family relationships.
Kate Bennett vanished from a parking lot eleven years ago, leaving behind her husband and young daughter. When she shows up at a Montana gas station, clutching an infant and screaming for help, investigators believe she may have been abducted by a cult.
Kate’s return flips her family’s world upside down—her husband is remarried, and her daughter barely remembers her. Kate herself doesn’t look or act like she did before.
While the family tries to help Kate reintegrate into society, they discover truths they’ve been hiding from each other about their own relationships. But they aren’t the only ones with secrets. As the family unravels what happened to Kate, a series of shocking revelations shows that Kate’s return is more sinister than any of them could have imagined.

So this is actually my first book ever by Lucinda and it definitely won’t be my last. I’ve become obsessed with this genre only just recently and am happy to have given it a chance.

We meet Kate. She’s happily married to an amazing man and they share a daughter together. She’s a journalist and ends up interviewing a local “cult” called “Love International”. Unfortunately for her, she ends up getting sucked into their cause and all they stand for.

We find out that Kate had actually been missing for eleven years. Of course Scott, her husband, moved on. His life with his new wife, quickly unravels when Kate suddenly shows back up after being gone for so many years.

While reading this book, I tried guessing what the why and how but I definitely never predicted the ending.

I find cults fascinating and terrifying both at the same time. Kate never stood a chance with Ray and his charismatic ways. You learn what she went through while being with them. What they all went through.

I think I would have loved to have seen some parts in Ray’s point of view but am happy none the less with how this book ended.

I felt for all of the characters in this book and how they deal with a woman who had been gone for so long and suddenly was back. There was something odd about Kate that I never trusted. But you’ll have to read this book to find out if my hunch was right or not.

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