Quick Synopsis – When Lenna gets a call from her old friend Rhiannon, she is startled; Rhiannon disappeared years ago without a trace. But Lenna is even more startled to learn that Rhiannon has a son and that she lives off the grid with a group of women in a community called Halcyon. Rhiannon invites Lenna, a new mother herself, to join them. Why suffer the sleepless nights by yourself? It takes a village, after all.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Miss Missing You by Fall Out Boy

Publication Date – Feb. 20, 2024

Content Warnings – This book contains scenes of mild violence, discussion of child loss, IVF treatments, kidnapping, murder, and sexual assault.

Rating – 4 out of 5 stars ⭐

Review – If you’re a fan of Sara Shepard’s other novels like Pretty Little Liars, I think you’ll be a fan of this book. It’s got a cast of at least two-sided complex women and a sort of murder mystery at the heart. The other thing I think this book has in common with others Shepard has written is that I don’t find any of the characters very likable. Lenna, the main character with the most POV chapters, is kind of like a wet blanket, and her “best friend” Rhiannon is almost a manic panic pixie dream girl.

Lenna meets Rhiannon in a department store and is drawn to her. Soon they are inseparable; Rhiannon even gets Lenna a job at the gossip magazine she works at. Then just as suddenly as their friendship seems to begin, Rhiannon disappears. There’s a slight time jump, and Rhiannon reaches out to reconnect to Lenna. They’re both mothers now, and wouldn’t it be great if Lenna could come to this mothers-only commune? Of course, she goes off into the desert with a woman she hasn’t seen in years, doesn’t tell her husband she’s leaving with their 5-month-old son for a desert commune.

Small spoiler: Lenna doesn’t die. I genuinely thought she would. The newborn/early baby phase was hard, but leaving in the early morning without telling my husband and essentially kidnapping my own kid? That’s a bit much. The novel is told between multiple POVs and jumps between two years ago and present day. I do think Shepard does a good job of building the characters out and allowing us to understand their motivations. They all have good backstories, but their interactions with each other are so bizarre.

Everything happens in an instant. Like Lenna and Rhiannon are instant BFFs. Lenna then latches onto another woman after Rhiannon disappears. For women in their late 20s and early 30s, they are terrible at making friends. When Lenna and Rhiannon reconnect, Lenna instantly distrusts the commune. Which, honestly, is fair. This is where the story starts to reach a climax, and there is a twist that I didn’t see coming and I enjoyed.

This is a fun mystery, but the characters to me were unlikable. I didn’t really want anyone to be happy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Dutton for the ARC.