Book Review: Come Back to Me by Sara Foster

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Do you have to honour a promise you made in the past if it means losing all that you have now?

When Mark introduces his date, Julia, to Chloe and her husband at a London restaurant, it’s obvious something is very, very wrong. Alex and Julia pretend not to know each other, but the shocked expressions on their faces tell another story.

As the mystery of Julia’s identity unravels, a terrible tragedy from ten years ago gradually comes to light. While Chloe struggles with a secret of her own, Alex has to decide whether he should take Julia back to Australia to try to lay the past to rest, when doing so will risk all he has with the wife he loves.

And Julia must decide whether to finally confront Alex with the whole truth about what happened back then.

Set in London and Perth, Come Back to Me is a taut psychological drama that will keep you enthralled until the very last page.”

Alex and Chloe are happily married, own a lovely home and are both doing well in their chosen careers – her as a family law solicitor, him a designer with his own business run from home.

One fateful introduction by Chloe’s ex-boyfriend and current colleague, Mark, threatens to unravel everything that Alex and Chloe have worked towards in their relationship – her name is Julia.

Immediately on arriving at the restaurant and being introduced to Julia, Chloe realises that something is seriously wrong – the shocked look on Alex and Julia’s faces on seeing each other lead both her and Mark to believe that this is not the first time they have met. Julie hurriedly excuses herself from the table to go to the ladies room and Alex sits in dumbfounded silence.

As the story unravels, taking us from present-day London to 1990’s Australia, we come to learn that Alex has kept a secret from Chloe - him and Julia share a past, one that he has been incapable of speaking about due to the tragic events which took place.

Whilst Chloe keeps a secret of her own close to her heart, she watches as her world appears to crumble around her. Can Julia face the demons of her tragic past thereby enabling her to get on with her life? Is this finally a chance for Mark to win back the woman he gave up years ago? Will Alex lose everything he has with Chloe? Will it be possible for Chloe to finally reveal her secret to Alex?

I found it quite difficult to put this book down. There were so many secrets intermingled in the plot that all I wanted to do was discover every single one of them. Sara Foster has an easy, flowing prose style and has created a tale with likeable, well-formed characters. Whilst injecting a lot of emotion and relationship issues into this book, I found the most prominent to be the importance of communication in a relationship.

If you are looking for a multifaceted psychological thriller and a complicated story of love which combine with multiple twists and turns, then this debut novel by Sara Foster will keep you enthralled right to the last chapter.

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