This is obviously long LONG overdue feedback, but when I picked this up in 2018 I was in the midst of my own fertility battles and it was just too hard to read.
I thought the women's stories were so beautifully woven together, and there were so many themes sensitively dealt with. I did still all this time later find it quite moving and heavier than I expected. I'm looking forward to picking up some of Johns' lighter reads!

A beautiful novel, heartwarming, lots of laughs, moments that make you emotional. Fabulous story...

Lost Without You by Rachael Johns is a roller coaster ride of family, friendship, a secret, loss, guilt and love.

Rebecca is a mother to Paige and wife of Hugh. Early on she is faced with a serious health issue that throws her family into some stress. Evaluating her life Rebecca decides to look back and open a door in her life she has hidden away.  Her daughter is about to go down the marriage path and has a really lovely partner Sol. So Paige decides she wants to find her mother's wedding dress and be married in it.

This search leads her to Josie and Nic - married and Josie is not coping with the miscarriages she has had to endure. However the two girls become friends and everything there seems to be good.

Clara is another person in the mix - she nurses Rebecca when she is in hospital and also helps Josie out with her grief.

When Rebecca's secret is revealed everyone is thrown out of their comfort zones. Some become judgemental and angry and rifts occur. And it also turns out that all the women's lives are more intertwined than first thought.

I felt for them all but most of all for Rebecca because of the way others turned on her. I understand that we can get hurt and angry with family members so I could see where they were coming from, but all the way through I was on her side!

It was a very good read,  possibly some links were a little too coincidental, however it was story with challenging issues that were well explored.

I thoroughly enjoy Rachael John's style of writing.

I sometimes find her outlook quite a challenge to my own, she after all 30 something, I'm 70 - our opinion are bound to be coloured by our own times. Rachael, however, is never strident and so I am inclined to listen to, rather than reject, her view out of hand.

I faced this dilemma when I read this latest book, Lost Without you. I thought the treatment of Rebecca, who gave up a child for adoption, unnecessarily harsh and coloured by the 2018 view of having a baby without benefit of marriage.

Nonetheless, this is another good book from a talented author whose work I enjoy.

WOW MS Johns what a story you blew me away, you just have the best voice I felt so close to the four woman in this story, they were like friends I shared their heartache and their joy, there were tears and smiles, I recommend clearing the day when you pick this one up and you should because you won’t want to put it down once you start it.

This story brings together four woman and a wedding dress, Paige is filled with joy at the launch of her book, her loving boyfriend Solomon is there as are her very loved Mum and Dad, but when her mother Rebecca collapses and is diagnosed with a serious illness, Rebecca thinks more about the secret she has kept for thirty five years, should she open up or not? Paige and Solomon get engaged and Paige sets out on a mission to find her mother’s wedding dress so as she can wear it.

The search for the dress brings Paige in contact with Josie a beautiful thirty five year old who has been through a lot with her fabulous husband Nik and is having a few problems but her and Paige hit it off instantly, meanwhile Josie meets a man at a bar who she opens up to about her problems and he gives her a card to seek help from his ex-wife Clara, and again the friendship between these two is instant.

Clara is a nurse a very caring person who goes out of her way to help anyone she can she has been through a lot in her life and now she is divorced from Robert Jones a singer from the eighties it is time to move on, but meeting Josie is about to really change her life.

Rebecca, Paige, Clara and Josie are all connected in some way and I don’t want to say too much other than pick this one up and read it, it really is a beautiful story, lots of emotions happy and sad, it is moving and there were tears and smiles, thank you MS Johns you know how to make a reader happy with your words another for the keeper shelf.

Unfortunately Lost Without You by author Rachael Johns did not meet this reader’s expectations.
Review copy received from Harlequin MIRA via Netgalley

Rachael Johns is the queen of characters. She nails the characters in her novels brilliantly: they are real, they are flawed, they are likeable and by the end of the story they become our friends. In this novel there are four - Rebecca and her daughter, Paige and Clara and Josie who are all linked by a wedding dress and a secret. I loved the way she drew them all in together and revealed the secret and the consequences of that long-held secret. This is a story about love and relationships, loss and families. A fantastic read that I recommend highly.

With Lost Without You, Rachael Johns demonstrates her brilliance as a writer yet again. The story has a tangled, convoluted plot with some less than nice emotions displayed by the characters but she makes it all a pleasure to read. There are moments of anger and heartbreak but overall the book offers hope and love.

The story is primarily about the MacRitchie women, Rebecca and Paige. Rebecca collapses just as Paige’s boyfriend is about to propose but it’s not something simple. It’s a life changing – and potentially limiting – illness. Rebecca has got a lot to face in the coming months and she starts thinking about her deepest secret that not even her husband knows. Meanwhile, Paige said yes and is thinking about how great it would be to get married in her mother’s wedding dress. Unfortunately, her mother donated it to charity but Paige manages to track it to Josie. Josie’s life is in a bit of a mess after turning to drinking and smoking after multiple miscarriages. Paige is just the friend she needs, but it’s a chance meeting with a stranger that leads Josie to Clara. Clara is a volunteer counsellor and nurse and they help each other through the bumps in their lives. Then things become even more complex than any of them thought…

Lost Without You does contain some absolutely amazing coincidences and that’s one of the reasons I read and enjoy fiction. It would be mundane if there weren’t any links between the women and the coincidences were nice and twisty so I didn’t guess most of them! I think the links between the main characters helped to make the story more cohesive and easier for the reader to enjoy. Knowing the links between the women also made their reactions to various events more realistic. Some of the revelations were pretty deep – particularly one involving Paige – and I think her spectacular reaction was great. Not great for Rebecca, who had to deal with the fallout, but great for making her character flawed and vulnerable. Likewise, some characters have difficulty with forgiveness and/or acceptance but that’s life. You can’t forgive everything and expect it all to be sunshine and roses. I respected the characters a lot more for their hissy hits and honest, if unpopular, emotions. These are all strong, independent women and they can make their own choices without having to pander to anyone else. I think Rebecca was a great example of that. Her secret once revealed put her on the outer with many other people, but she stuck to her guns to satisfy what she wanted. She was also pragmatic about everyone not forgiving her straightaway, knowing there was a process to go through.

This novel is also officially a chunkster, but don’t let that put you off. The pages fly by because both the plot and characters are fascinating. Rachael Johns states that she writes life lit, but Lost Without You is not the five-day grind, but the unexpected in book form. This novel allows the reader to learn about several serious issues, but also have some fun. (If you’re an eighties enthusiast, there is plenty here for you!) The dialogue is convincing as it reads how people actually speak and overall, it’s just a winner. Expect Lost Without You to be on many beach towels this summer!

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com

Reading a Rachael John’s novel is like curling up with a good friend.....and sometimes there is something that you don’t agree with but all is well in the end.
In ‘Lost Without You’ there is definitely a case of six degrees of separation.
The main characters of Rebecca, Paige, Josie and Clara are all seemly unrelated/unconnected until the tale is told.
With themes of loss, miscarriage, adoption, alcoholism, loneliness to friendship and feeling needed, there seems a lot going on but it is all explored very well.
A very enjoyable story which I think would lend it self well to a book club discussion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

An interesting book about 3 women who are connect in a way none of them could imagine.

A teenage pregnancy, an ex-wife and an unknown daughter, their lives are brought together by love, loss and retribution. Rebecca lost the love of her teenage life Robbie, when she becomes pregnant but her Father threatens Robbie with a jail sentence if he does not leave.

Clara is Robbie's nurse and later becomes his wife but because of his loss of Rebecca and his unborn child, his regrets steer him to alcohol and he eventually loses Clara as well.

Josie is the child who was given up for adoption and through her meeting with Clara who also volunteers as a Grief Counsellor, builds a wonderful bond and friendship with another woman who knows the loss of miscarriage.

This was a very intense read and it did take me quite a way into the book to finally work out how all these people connected with each other.

I did sympathise mostly with Rebecca who unfortunately seemed to have everyone turn against her when they found out about her tightly kept secret, especially when she was battling a life threatening illness. I found I was leaning towards disliking her daughter Paige and husband Hugh and the lack of understanding of the situation that a 15 year old child finds themselves in.

A well written book that will certainly leave you thinking about it after finished.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia, HQ (Fiction, Non Fiction, YA) & MIRA for the opportunity to read and review.

I must say that this is the first time I have read a book by this Author even though I have met and had a book signed by her over a year ago. I was very delighted to get the chance to read and review this new book of her’s that I was given an ARC from NetGalley. This story was an intertwined story about four women and a Wedding Dress, they will all learn the world is a small place. The book does hit some difficult issues like adoption, organ transplant, illnesses, infidelity, lies within a marriage, death and depression. A story of secrets, relationships, friendships and love all bundled together to give us hours of enjoyment.
Rebecca, Hugh, Paige, Soloman, Clara, Josie, Nick, Rob and Brenda will all find out just how secrets can affect your lives now, in the past and what the future might bring because of them. The search for one wedding dress will change so many lives some will be good and some will have new issues to overcome.
I did find the start a bit difficult to get my head around with four different characters point of view but soon found these characters interesting and the story flowed much better for me. I love reading a book set in Australia and this one did not disappoint at all with great reference to our way of living I could almost feel I was at a few of there places along the way. I must now go and read the book that Rachael Johns signed for me so I can review that book as well.
If you are looking for a great Australian author please check out Rachael Johns many books as I highly recommend this book and her writing style.

With the devastating diagnosis of Paige MacRitchie’s mother, Rebecca’s diagnosis of kidney failure, life changed for them all. But it also gave Rebecca a severe jolt – the secret she’d hidden since she was fifteen years old was eating at her. It had never let her go, but she hadn’t even told her beloved husband Hugh, and certainly not her daughter. So, should she tell them now? Or should it remain a secret forever?

Paige with her boyfriend Sol – who was days away from being her fiancé – had discussed their wedding. And Paige was overcome with the need to find her mother’s wedding dress and get married in it herself. Tracking down the dress would be a monumental effort with results that would blow Paige away…

Josie and Nik were relatively new friends of Paige and Sol, but the four of them had clicked and become close friends. Clara was Rebecca’s nurse who also volunteered in a care role. Her recent divorce had left her alone, but her extended family of sisters and brothers-in-law kept her sane. What would bring these four very different women together?

Lost Without You by Aussie author Rachael Johns is a poignant story of secrets, relationships, friendships and love. Of the hurt that one person can cause another, especially a loved one, by the secrets they keep. And of forgiveness and reconciliation. Lost Without You is a gentle story centred around a beautiful dress which I enjoyed very much. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I was given this book as an ARC from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I DNFd this at 67 percent. I really wanted to do the author the courtesy of finishing, but when I found myself highlighting passages to use in this review, just to show how the writing annoyed me, I realised it was time to call it.
There are 4 main characters in this book and 4 main issues with this book:
1) The characters had no interiority. Despite the various viewpoints, the voice of the book is a very surface level third person narration, which more than once, jarringly, judges the protagonists actions. Related to this, all emotions are felt through the body. For example “she grew so anxious she made herself physically ill”. Other symptoms of feelings include headaches, shaking and nausea. I was given no reason to like any of the characters. They are all petulant, selfish and boring. Once reason I could stop 2/3 of the way through was that I didn’t care what happened at all.
2) There is a lot of detail that is completely irrelevant, like what the assistant in the op shop is wearing, what kind of fish was ordered. So much discussion about driving and parking, and descriptions of making tea and coffee. A good editor should have sorted all that out.
3) This book contains weird slightly offensive statements. One of the pointless asides is about a woman who is knitting “She was not just knitting pointlessly. She was making fiddlemitts”. I’m glad Rachel Johns read a column somewhere about fiddlemitts, but if she’s been knitting baby bootees, or a shawl, or a swatch, would that have been pointless? That’s not nearly as weird as later in the book where she drops this gem “Old people had a lot of wisdom to offer if you bothered to pay attention.”
4) The entire plot is driven by a series of unlikely coincidences. This might have worked in the hands of a more subtle writer, but here it just falls flat. Except for one twist, the mystery is obvious from the beginning, and the not caring overwhelmed any desire to find out if they stop sulking and sort it out of not.

A really good read, enjoyed it very much, and look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Read in one sitting.

What a fabulous read, it took me a bit to really get into the story, but then I was hooked. The characters were great, there was one of the women I liked less than the other three but by the end I felt I warmed to her. This has so many important issues threaded through the story, marriage, secrets, adoption, depression, alcoholism, suicide, organ donation and I'm sure I've missed a few others. It's a story of a wedding dress, but more importantly a secret that effects a vast amount of people in many different ways. It's a story of six degrees of separation and how one decision can have a flow on effect. I think Josie was my favourite character for most of the book, though Solomon and Nik were both great characters too. Whereas we usually hear about how adoption affects the woman giving up her child, this story lets us look at how men are affected by losing the child to adoption. This story had many twists and emotions that we get to experience and many characters we get to meet and care about. I definitely recommend that you make time to read this great novel, don't expect to get much else done once you pick it up, I know I didn't.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for a copy in return for an honest review.

There's something really warm and familiar about Rachael Johns' writing and characters. I've not read any of her rural romance novels, but I've enjoyed her recent contemporary novels and each time I turn the first page I settle into a comfortable reverie of sorts. I could be reading about people I know. Friends, family. They're authentic and - even if not always completely likeable - they're relatable.

I've met Rachael Johns a few times in person and she's exactly as you'd imagine from her writing. Warm and friendly. I enjoy her plots and can appreciate underlying themes of her novels - often about love, relationships, secrets, trust and so forth, but all of that emanates from the characters she grows and I think it's the interplay between them that make her books so enjoyable.

I loved the women we meet in this book. Rebecca and Clara are of a similar age to me (slightly older... ahem, of course!). And though I've not been married or had kids - I could relate to much of their lives, including Clara's devastation over her lack of children - as well as Josie's of course. Initially both Clara and Josie feel kinda displaced, as if they don't fit in with those around them. In Clara's case she SHOULD have a partner and grown children by now, and in Josie's: children (and playing happy families).

I appreciated that, when we first meet her, Josie's grappling with her demons and I actually thought the story was going to go in a different direction for a while, but think Johns gives both Josie and Paige AMAZING partners - and I'm insanely jealous of both of them for that reason. (As an aside, I also liked the sound of Gregg, Clara's love interest!)

All four women (and the men we meet incidentally) are complex and felt very real. As I said, I could appreciate Josie's issues when we first meet her, I LOVED the sound of Paige's passion and her picture book. Clara came across like a truly decent person and I was keen for her to get on with her life, and Rebecca just seemed lovely - albeit with her long-kept secret.

I did get somewhat frustrated with the attitude of the other three women towards Rebecca when her secret is uncovered. I think Clara's reaction in particular annoyed the crap out of me, though in fairness her character does confess to a certain amount of jealousy or envy... so it's not as if she's hiding anything from us. But a bit more sympathy wouldn't have gone astray. And I particularly liked the inclusion of Paige's partner (Solomon) and his role in playing 'foil' to her black / white thinking at that point.

Johns again touches on (and skirts around) fraught and sensitive issues - about families and relationships and love and loss. Very specifically also again (as in her last book) about miscarriage, fertility and a woman's ability (or not) to carry a child / give birth... the ease with which some take it all for granted and extent to which it burdens another's life. And of course there's a reminder that loving and parenting a child doesn't necessarily mean they're biologically your own.

I was also interested in the reflections on romantic love here. I've mentioned the love interests of Paige, Josie (and even Clara) but Rebecca eventually surprised me as there's initially a sense that she's 'settled' for less than she wanted.

This would make a great bookclub book. There's an obvious discussion around the coincidence of all of these women meeting in the first place and I think it's important to get past that and realise there'd be no book otherwise. I can imagine discussions around Rebecca's motivations for digging into her past - because I was initially cynical about her justification; Clara's involvement with Josie and her own ex-husband (despite previously being adamant about getting him out of her life); Rebecca's husband's and daughter's reactions to her secret; and Josie's response.

There's also a strong sense of (perceptions of) blame and blamelessness and I think it'd be interesting to have that discussion.

All in all, a lot to think about and a wonderful read.