This story follows Charlotte, who has agreed to move into her parent’s new summer home and take charge of the renovations. She stumbles across the diary of a young girl, Lark, who had lived in the house previously and had tragically taken her own life.

As she reads the diary and gets more integrated into the town and its people, a mystery reveals itself and draws her in, leading Charlotte to try and untangle the secrets within.

I loved how the perspectives jumped back and forth between both Lark’s diary entries and Charlotte’s perspective. I became so invested in finding out the truth; my heart truly ached for Lark as we read her entries.

I really like sinking into a good mystery/thriller- this was one of the good ones! What She Left Behind delves into Charlotte Boyd's life as she tries to put her life together - when nothing is making sense.
Charlotte has felt things spinning out of control since losing her high school friends in a tragic car accident. She has just lost another dead end job in the city and her parents are getting ready to retire to Florida. They offer to let her oversee the renovations on their new summer retirement home in small town Canadian border town. With no other options, she finds herself in a home that has a tragic past. An abandoned journal draws her into a mystery and she finds herself compelled to find answers.


Thanks to NetGalley, Rising Action Publishing Company & Brianne Sommerville for the opportunity to read this Arc in exchange for an honest review. I will look for more by Sommerville.

Charlotte moves into a house and finds a diary that belonged to a teenage girl, Lark. Lark committed suicide, but the question remained
"WHY?" While reading
Lark's diary. Charlotte does some digging into the Parts brother, Darryl The clues from the diary lead them in many directions. The reason why Lark committed suicide.... you thought you knew, however.....nope! I+ nad a good plot and twist!
I really like Brianne's writing style. It was the first time reading a book by this author. will definitely read more of her books.
Thank you Nethalley, Brianne Sommerville, and Rising Action Publishing Co. for the Advanced Readers Copy for an honest review of the book!

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

1.5 stars, rounded up.

Seems like I’m the odd one out given that the other reviews are so positive, and I feel bad saying so, but this just really did not work for me at all. Would absolutely have DNF’d if it weren’t an ARC.

eARC received courtesy of netgalley (thank you!) in exchange for my honest review.

First, I wanna thank Rising Action Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC!

Another story playing in a house holding a tragic past. It might be obvious at this point this is one of my favourite tropes when it comes to thrillers. Also may I just add that this cover is so damn beautiful? It was what drew me to the book first, together with the title.

Here, we are meeting Charlotte, who finds a hidden diary in the summer home of her parents. The story is told in the POv of both Charlotte, and Lark, the trouble teenager the diary actually belonged to, and who died from suicide at exactly the same house Charlotte is living in now...

It was a good book, a captivating story and easy to read. I got invested with both Lark and Charlotte, and just had to keep reading until I finally knew what has happened, praying Charlotte would not lose herself while finding out more about poor Lark's story. Highly recommended!

“What She Left Behind” is a fictional thriller that I found entertaining and was left a bit of a mess after reading it, in a good way. It had a great storyline, it was easy to read, and was thought provoking. It kept me wondering what was going to happen next! It is about a woman named Charlotte that finds a diary at her parents summer house. The diary she finds is about a teenager named Lark who committed suicide sixteen years ago, in that same house. The book goes back and forth between Charlotte in the present and Lark’s diary entries in the past. It really goes deep inside the mind of Lark, which is frightening to say the least. She begins to start doing her own detective work in finding out more about the boy that killed himself. As the story starts to unravel, she finds hidden truths about the past, while dealing with her own past issues. Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars!


Thank you NetGalley, author Brianne Sommerville and Rising Action Publishing Co. | Rising Acti for this digital advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This book is set to be published on August 12, 2025!

Spoiler alerts: Ugh. So heartbreaking. So avoidable. Someone should have protected her.
Obsessed with all the characters in this book. My heart aches for them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Although the writing was a tad fluffy for my taste, the plot was fine for a fairly solid, quick mystery.