Thank you to NetGalley for this lyrical, well written story about a woman called Clara Harrington who in 1927 as an 8 year old accidentally set fire to her house.Her mother a famous child author Bronwynn Fordham had failed to protect Clara and disappears on a boat in the night from their house in Bluffton, SC .With her she took the papers to decode her book sequel in a leather satchel but left the sequel behind.Fast forward twenty five years and Clara is a divorced mom to Wynnie who has inherited her grandmother’s ability with words .Clara is contacted by a mysterious stranger Charlie Jameson who claims to have her mother’s satchel.Arriving in London during a time of great smog, Clara has to navigate health scares to Wynnie, betrayal ,theft and forgiveness to find the answer to what happened to her mother.Such a joy to read.You won’t be able to put it down.Highly recommend!

I only just read The Secret Book of Flora Lea, which I really loved so I wasn’t sure if this new one would hold up but it really did! This may be a new favorite author for me! This book tells another tale of family trying to find each other. The setting in the Lake District of Cumbria was very well done and made me feel like I was there (and also want to visit). I appreciated all the characters and felt they were well developed. Overall a 5 star book! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a beautiful story. I enjoy Patti’s writing and ability to build a story that is captivating and immersive. I loved the date jumps and two stories.

I was excited to read Patti Callahan Henry’s newest novel because I loved her last. I was a little disappointed. This story of Clara, the daughter of an infamous author who disappeared when Clara was 8, was slow. It picked up a little speed in the back quarter, but was underwhelming.

A daughter searches for clues for her missing mother and a lost book
Such a beautiful story – both the words and the message. Excellent writing that puts you in the setting whether it was South Carolina, London, or the Lake District. The characters had such depth. I felt the pull of Clara’s quest for answers on her mother’s disappearance. Her daughter, Wynnie was such a delightful character. Charlie was an unexpected surprise. He won my heart by his determination to get Clara & Wynnie out of London away from the smog. He was so good to both of them. The settings are characters in themselves. A wonderful read and highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for eBook ARC.
I also purchased hardback copy via the Brenda Novak Book Box (March)

Reviews will be posted on buying sites and social media on release day
Blog post will appear on release day https://comfychairbooks.com/2025/03/18/book-review-the-story-she-left-behind-by-patti-callahan-henry/

I was given a copy of this book for a review.

I struggled with this one. I almost put it aside until it started picking up for me about halfway through or so and the last half grabbed my attention much more.

Clara's mother left when she was 8. Bronwynn (Clara's mother) was considered a genius and published a book at twelve. Bronwynn has never been seen since she left her family. Bronwynn left behind a sequel to her book but in her made up language which no one can translate. Clara (who is an illustrator and has just won a Caldecott medal) has been on a hunt for the key to her mother's secret language most of her life. When Clara gets a call from London that papers from her mother have been found, she and her daughter (Wynnie) set off on an adventure to pick up the papers. The letter included with the papers gives the impression that if Clara is reading the letter her mother must not be living any more. Pick this book up to find out about Clara and Wynnie's adventures in London and Cumbria, the relationships they develop and a bit about the Great Smog which happened in London in 1952. Available March 2025

I thought The Secret Book of Flora Lea was my favorite book by Patti Callahan Henry, but I've changed my mind. The Story She Left Behind drew me into the English Countryside and right into the world of richly drawn characters whose interwoven stories still linger in my mind.

Inspired by a true literary mystery that I first heard about when Patti Callahan Henry spoke at the Jackson Hole Book Festival in 2024, this is a book I've been waiting for and it did not dissappoint. It's a wonderful gift when a reader finishes reading a book and doesn't want it to be over, but it's a truly special experience when the story persuades us to go out and learn more. In this way, The Story She Left Behind doesn't have to be over, which is great because I didn't want it to end!

On a personal note, I traveled to The Lake District when I was in my early twenties and have always wished I could go back to see it again through the lense of its history. Patti Callahan Henry's lush descriptions were as I remembered, and I was grateful for the opportunity to travel back in time through this beautiful story about people who underneath the surface want what we all long for - a home with people we love and who love us.

I ADORED The Secret Book of Flora Lea by the same author so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of The Story She Left Behind. My verdict is that this is a very sweet book. I enjoyed the mild romance element and the mystery was fine. Overall, though, it was just a little too sweet for me. Clara and all of her hand wringing at a certain point just got on my nerves. Once the mystery of what happened to her mother was unraveled, I was annoyed by that, as well. Meanwhile, the English countryside setting and the family attached to it was just a little too perfect and picturesque. Overall, the ending was fine and I'm glad I read this book. Patti Callahan Henry has a gift for writing beautiful prose and she does historical fiction well. If you like tame historical fiction, this one is for you.

Big thanks to the publisher for giving me an ARC of this one! PS: Whoever designs the covers for this author's books is amazing. I think this cover is gorgeous and I would buy it in print based on the cover alone.

Wow! I’m late to the Patti Callahan Henry party but am sure glad to be here! This was a wonderful journey into the lives of uber creative people. Just a little bit of magic goes a long way. Fabulous characters, a beautiful story and excellent storytelling! Really the perfect storm. Don’t let this gem pass you by!
Thank you NetGalley, Patti Callahan Henry and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Patti Callahan Henry is one of my favorite writers of Southern Fiction. The Story She Left Behind tells of a gifted and misunderstood young girl, Bronwyn, who wrote a bestseller at the early age of 12. This magical and enchanting story was both a blessing and a curse for Bronwyn. Later in life she disappears leaving her daughter Clara and husband behind. We follow Clara on her trek to find her mother and the lost sequel to the original story. This was an enchanting and beautiful story, told with such description, that I felt I was watching a movie rather than just reading. If you’ve never read any of her books before, I encourage you to pick this one, or her others up and get taken away to another world. Thanks so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for my copy of The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry in exchange for an honest review. It publishes March 18, 2025.
As always, I really enjoyed this emotional and inspiring release from Patti Callahan Henry. I loved the time period that this was set in, and it took place both sides of the Atlantic. I appreciated learning a little bit more about the fog in London that was so devastating. I knew it was bad, but didn’t realize how bad! The following settings in this book were incredible, and I’m about to book a ticket!
I thought the character development was top-notch, the mystery was so engrossing. Overall. Just a great book!

I was excited to receive this as an ARC! Thank you to Atria Books. This is one of the most gorgeously written books I have ever read.

"My mother's love was as overwhelming as her abandonment, both with me now."

Wow! Clara's mother was a remarkable woman: created her own language for feelings that no words adequately describe; published author before she was a teenager. Years later, in the wake of a house fire, she leaves her home, her husband, and her young daughter behind.

Throughout the book, we see similarities amongst all three generations of women (mom, daughter, granddaughter) in ages and milestones. Clara is similar to her mother in that she gets lost in her work as an illustrator.

Okay, I am going to say it--we have an ACOTAR moment in the love story. "There you are"!!!

I struggled with being angry at Clara's mom for leaving her family behind. Regardless of what we learn, her actions were difficult to reconcile.

There are many beautiful coincidences in this story that are so lovely.

This review will be posted on my booksta, toomanyfivestarreads, soon.

There were a few things I really liked about the book. The historical detail was superb which I'm sure points to a depth of research. All three settings jumped off the page with vibrancy and engagement: the cozy and humid South Carolina coast, the grim and fear that laced London during the Great Smog of the 1950s, and the achingly beautiful English Lake District. If I wasn't dying to visit the Lake District before, I certainly am now...I loved the inclusion of Beatrix Potter in the story and little details of her life that the characters related to. Especially the emphasis on the importance of stories and the power of imagination.

I am a general fan of PCH's writing, but this particular novel fell short in a couple of areas. It was long and repetitive, and it seemed the plot could have kept up a more succinct pace without loosing the power of the overall story.
For me, the romance storyline detracted from the strength that could have been had from focusing of the three generations of mothers & daughters. The romance seems under-developed and clearly forged in a traumatic setting - which isn't always a recipe for success. The whole of the book led up to a resolution that I personally found weak. At risk of spoilers, I won't say more. Except to say that the end does not always justify the means. The tie-up was a bit too serendipitous, even for a novel cloaked with magical realism.

😇: mostly a secular worldview portrayed, definitely a humanistic mindset
🤐: occasional language, less than 5 occurrences of harsh language
🥰: handful of closed door encounters, veiled in metaphorical language
⛔️: child abandonment, asthma attacks

The Story She Left Behind is a beautiful historical fiction novel written in the post World War 2 Era of the United States and Europe, respectively. Our female main character, Clara, is an art teacher and single mother to Wynnie, her precocious 8 year old daughter. While Clara’s life seems difficult on the outside (raising a daughter on her own in the 1940s was unheard of!), the true story lies within the pages of a children’s novel written by her mother, Bronwyn.

Bronwyn has been missing 25 years, but a single transatlantic phone call from Charlie sets the mystery wheels turning when he finds papers of Bronwyn's in his late father’s study. Clara and her daughter travel to England to retrieve the “lost words” of Bronwyn, in hopes that they can finally translate the sequel to her famous children’s novel.

While the main plot is such a great mystery with many twists I didn’t see coming, there is a beautiful love story (or two!) written within. I truly loved watching Clara and Charlie’s characters develop!


Thank you Patty Callahan Henry, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader copy of this novel out March 18th!

i enjoyed this one so much! highly recommend the audiobook—narrated by the wonderful and amazing Julia Whelan with a dual narration/POV for the FMC and MMC which was such a good experience and really immersed me in the story 🎧🤍

if you like historical fiction that isn’t war focused, this will be for you! also read if you like family drama, dual POVs and genre benders (this one has mystery, romance, historical fiction, and fam drama).

i liked this one more than THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA. the story grabbed me right away. there’s just something about reading books about books ✨✨✨ the lost story + lost mother mystery aspect had me really invested to see how it all ended.

and the SETTING????? various settings actually. chefs kiss! wanted to transport into them. also don’t get me started on this book cover!!!!! 💖💗🌸💕 will easily be a 2025 fave. everything about it just feels like a big hug. i enjoy this author’s writing style a lot!

what i’d change: part of the ending doesn’t make the most sense to me. and i was personally craving/wishing it felt a bit more like historical fiction if that makes sense… i feel like a lot of what happened could have been in any time period and i was craving a bit of the “historical” aspect than we got.

all in all, a very good read! deff recommend adding it to your audiobook TBR when it releases

thanks to Atria Books and Libro FM for gifted early copies!!!

Thank you, Netgalley, the publisher and author, for an advanced copy. This review is entirely my own.

This is my first book by this author and it won't be my last. I was drawn in for the entire story and would recommend it to all historical fiction book lovers.

THE STORY SHE LEFT BEHIND
BY: PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

About 4.5 Stars!

Patty Callahan Henry is a favorite Author of mine and I try to read everything she writes. In her newest Historical fiction novel. called, "THE STORY SHE LEFT BEHIND," is the perfect title for this newest work. This Author grabbed my attention right away with her lyrical and ethereal prose. There's something magical the way Patti Callahan Henry weaves her story and sketches lovable characters. The beginning was beautifully written about a famous child prodigy Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham who in 1927, who is now a mother to her only child, a daughter named Clara Harrington, Bronwyn slips off during the middle of the night, and the mystery begins into what happened to her.
She abandoned and shattered her daughter Clara, who was only eight years old at the time. Clara grows up yearning for her famous author mother, always feeling a void, and missing her mother. It was right after Bronwyn almost burned their house down in South Carolina. There were some issues with injuring a fire fighter, and Clara was burned, and Bronwyn was afraid that she'd be punished by being locked up in a windowless room. Bronwyn had listened to the local gossip who blamed Bronwyn for the incident of the fire in their home. She was also an only daughter whose mother traumatized her by sending her off to a mental institution while she lived with her mother which was where Bronwyn thought awaited her for their home catching on fire. It was a good thing that Clara's father was a loving presence in young Clara's life since he raised her in a loving home (the same one that the fire took place), but he never married again, since Bronwyn left such a lasting, gaping hole of a void in both of their lives. They lived on a river, but it's channels led out to the ocean. The tinkling sounds of the crushed seashells, and the briny smell of the air, in their charming town made for a very atmospheric place to grow up in. After a divorce Clara now lives back at home with her own eight year old daughter named, Wynnie who was a very lovable character who has an imaginary friend, or it could be a magical friend who was a character in her Grandmother's first published novel as a child prodigy. It was sad because Bronwyn taught herself to read at a young age, and that psychiatric stay away from home in a place she definitely didn't belong as a by product of being brilliant left Clara and her father to feel her loss, never knowing what happened to Bronwyn, and the reader doesn't know either. Now it is 1952, and Clara has her own eight year old daughter named, Wynnie who is very aware of her famous Grandmother's character in her first novel. I loved how close Clara was to her.
to her only daughter, Wynnie. How much she shared about her mother, so that Wynnie knew about the magic of storytelling that her grandmother was so famous for. There was a sequel written by Bronwyn that was never published because it was written in a language that Bronwyn made up, and sat unpublished in a safety deposit box. Clara is a children's book illustrator, and I just loved Wynnie and her preoccupation she has throughout this novel to one of her grandmother's characters from her world famous novel. This was like a magical historical fiction novel written for adults. There's a lot of beautiful language that is certainly well known, and it's quoted from famous authors, and how art and books are well loved throughout this charming tale.

It's now 1952, and a man named Charlie who lives in London calls Clara telling her that he found her mother's satchel that contained a letter from Bronwyn to Clara, and the dictionary to her mother's secret language is in his possession found among his father's things. Clara after much hesitation takes the rest of her savings and books tickets for herself, and Wynnie to travel to London to retrieve them. She thinks that she will be able to finally translate her mother's sequel with the dictionary to her mother's secret language that Bronwyn had created with her own made up language. When Clara and Wynnie arrive they are greeted by Charlie, who true to his word hands Clara the letter and she recognizes the secret dictionary as being authentic of her mother's genuine dictionary. Clara's father had rented a nice place for her, and Wynnie to stay at while they plan to do some sightseeing during the remainder of their trip. Only as Clara and Wynnie are trying to make it back to their rental the Great Smog of 1952, London has enveloped the city. They almost don't make it back as it was difficult to see a few feet in front of them. Wynnie has asthma and when they barely make it back to their rental, Wynnie has an attack. With them both covered in soot a doctor is consulted because Clara had left Wynnie's medication at their rental which she feels terrible. Clara is such a great mother to Wynnie, with both of them being lovable characters who keep the plot moving forward.

Charlie stops by and suggests that they get out of the city, and so they drive out to the Lakes region where Charlie's mother Pippa is staying. The magical Lakes region is out in the country and they arrive finally after much of a hardship making it out of London. The Great Smog really happened and claimed many lives in December of 1952. The landscape sounded so beautiful and that is due to Patti Callahan Henry's talented description of it. Once again, this author turns this story into something special with the way the characters are so kind and she creates descriptive, atmospheric landscapes so vivid I felt like I could picture the beautiful landscape as if I was seeing it with them. On the way they had given a woman who appears out of nowhere while they are stopped eating a meal Charlie's maid had packed for them, and that turns their fate around. When they give this woman a ride when she gets out she has stolen Clara's pocket book with their passports, and most of the secret dictionary is lost as they give chase with only a small portion of the secret dictionary of Clara's mother's satchel is left.

They visit Beatrix Potter's home which is nearby. There is a mystery, historical fiction, romance, and found family staying with Charlie's mother Pippa. There are fifteen or sixteen Lakes in this region with mountains and glaciers. Clara who is a children's Illustrator wants to make it back home in time to attend the awards ceremony, but Wynnie doesn't want to leave and begs Clara to stay longer. Clara loves the area and doesn't seem in a hurry to leave either. Her and Charlie have entered into a romance. What happens during their stay is also magical. I felt myself falling in love with the area. This was a beautifully written novel, although, it didn't quite feel historical as it could have taken place at any time period, except for the lack of technology. I did love the way this story ended and when the author made the revelation it was the perfect ending. This was a very enchanting, sweet, ethereal, magic novel, and I love the fantastic cover. I was swept away with Patti Callahan Henry's gorgeous prose, and a much simpler, innocent time period. I'll be recommending this to everyone, and it is so masterfully, well written that it was breathtaking.

Publication Date: March 18, 2025

Thank you to Net Galley, Patty Callahan Henry and Atria Books for generously providing me with my terrific ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheStorySheLeftBehind #PattyCallahanHenry #AtriaBooks #NetGalley

The Story She Left Behind is a fictional book based on the true life of an author who just disappeared. I found that I enjoyed Ms. Henry's beautiful prose and the way she describes the settings. I felt like I was there in England in my mind's eye experiencing all that Clara, Charles, and Wynnie were going through. The mystery of Clara's missing mother kept me turning the pages. However, because I read Once Upon A Wardrobe, and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I was a bit surprised at some of the language and one scene in particular took me off guard. So, I would have enjoyed it much more without that. But, I'm certain others will love it.
*I was given a copy of this book by the publisher, and this is my honest opinion.

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this wonderful story.
This story was magical, lyrical and just wonderful. A book I could not put down. The descriptive writing was so beautiful. I honestly think this is Patti's Best book yet. Love, Love, Loved It!

This was such an interesting story. The imagery and detail that the author used to describe everything really drew me in to what was happening. A young mother’s mom had gone missing when she was 8. She’s in her 30’s and receives information that leads her to England and an adventure she never dreamed of.

This is the first story by this author I’ve read, but I will definitely read more. This was an interesting story.